Chapter Sixteen
Sawyer
We’d cleared the club doors and were out on the street where a line wrapped around the building. Jordan placed his hand on my lower back as we walked, but I took a step to the side to break the connection. “So, earlier when you texted me you were in Flagstaff?”
“Yes, I wanted to see you. Talk things out.”
Things needed to get cleared up between Jordan and me. I wasn’t in a place to date anyone at the moment. And I needed to get my head sorted out. Maybe tonight I could ride in the last bus with the crew. “Listen, Jordan, I—” My phone rang. It was Kurt. “I need to get this.” I pressed Accept. “Hello?”
“Sawyer?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
What in the world does he want? I took a few steps away from Jordan to retain some privacy. “Outside the club on the sidewalk. What’s up?”
“Don’t leave with him.”
My mouth grew dry. “What?” I glanced at Jordan, who watched me intently.
“Don’t leave with him until I have a chance to talk to you. Alone. Before you decide, you need to know what I’m feeling…thinking.”
I swallowed, and my pulse picked up. Feeling and thinking. This sounded deeper than any other conversation we had before. “Okay, give me just a second.” Taking the phone away from my ear, I said to Jordan, “I need to step back inside. Something has come up. We’ll catch up later.”
“I’ll come with you. Then we can have dinner. My hotel is close.”
Is this guy not listening to me? Yes, we’d had sex once upon a time. And yes, I’d felt confused when he first showed back up in my life because of the Kurt situation. But no, I wasn’t interested in rekindling those flames. I wanted to clear the air. “Jordan, I can’t. This may be presumptuous of me, but I’m not interested.”
He took a step toward me and touched my shoulder. “I’ll call you later. Go handle your work. We’ll talk later.”
“O-okay.” Part of me knew I should reiterate what I said, but the need to see what Kurt wanted won.
My nerves were a mess as I ascended the stairs to the club. The bouncer nodded to me and opened the door. Behind me, people groaned.
A throng of people danced around me as I made my way to the staircase leading to the VIP section. Then I saw him coming down. Our eyes met, and everything righted itself. The distant look had vanished, and I saw the Kurt I’d had in LA. The one who’d wanted me with every fiber of his being.
Is this real?
I stopped as people moved around me, needing Kurt to take the final steps toward me. With his sexy stride, he stalked in my direction, sucking all the oxygen from the room. There was a predatory stare about him, as if he was coming to claim me. And I wanted to be claimed—completely.
My lower body pooled with desire. When he reached me, he stopped so close I had to tip my head back to look up into his crystal blue eyes. A stray hair fell forward across his forehead.
“You came back.” His words held disbelief and relief at the same time.
“Always.”
The heat of his skin licked mine. I wanted him to touch me. People continued to dance around us as the music filled the air.
“What did you want?”
“You. I want you.”
Me. He wants me. I was sure I was dreaming. I stared at him, not believing I’d heard him right. “Why now?”
He dipped his head closer. “You’re all I think about. And if I don’t take this chance right here, right now, I’ll regret it. And you can’t ever be a regret, Sawyer. Not you.”
Tears pricked the back of my eyes. Kurt said, “Leave with me. Let me explain.”
I nodded. Without another word, Kurt grabbed my face and pressed his lips to mine. Oh, how I’d missed the taste of him, the feeling of being totally consumed by his mouth alone. Moaning, I opened my mouth to his, and his tongue intertwined with mine. My hands wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer to me. Hoots and catcalls broke through my lust-induced haze and Kurt pulled back. “We need to leave.”
I noticed phones pointed in our direction. Kurt leaned in and smiled against my lips. “Stay close to me until we get help.”
He gave me a sweet kiss before he grabbed my hand to lead me. The people pressed in, wanting to be near Kurt. I moved closer, and he wrapped his arm around my waist. A woman nearly tripped into us, spouting some incoherent nonsense.
Thank goodness, a bouncer appeared to help us through the crowd. People wanted autographs, tickets, pictures. It was a madhouse. We exited through a side door, where a limo waited for us.
Once we were safe and secure in the limo, Kurt ran his hands through his hair nervously. What’s going on? I stayed quiet. Normally I would come in, guns blazing, but this needed to be something Kurt saw through. I bit my lip to refrain.
“I want to try this.”
“This?”
“Us.” He cleared his throat. “I want to try us.”
Cautiously, I asked, “And what does us entail?”
He dragged a hand down his face. “I’d planned to ask you to dance, then on the bus tonight, talk to you about this. That fuck—I mean Jordan—rushed this.”
I laughed. “I wasn’t going to sleep with Jordan. Yes, we have a past. But that’s exactly what it is. The past.”
Some of the tension left Kurt’s eyes. He rolled his neck and wiped his hands on his jeans. Maybe I’d underestimated how nervous he was, so I gave him time to work through it as the car maneuvered through Flagstaff.
“I’ve never had a serious relationship.”
“I know.”
He blew out a breath. “Listen, there’s something about you, about us, that feels right. I want to explore this, I mean us. Shit.”
There was still something off in Kurt’s tone, and in the dim light of the limo, his face was too tense. “Okay. It sounds like there’s going to be a but.”
“But I need to be honest with you. I don’t ever plan on getting married.”
Whoa. Hold the phone. Is he this confused on the dating thing? “Kurt, I don’t need a marriage proposal for us to date.”
“I mean ever. It’s not something I want.”
Never? This was hard to piece together given his delivery. I took a deep breath to sift through the information. “Okay, so what are you saying, Kurt? Relationship versus marriage is a big leap. I mean, you call me back to the club. Kiss me possessively in front of people with cameras. And now you’re letting me know we can’t get married. I’m not pushing. I just don’t understand what you’re offering. Marriage discussions normally don’t come until much later. Knoah and Garrick are not the norm.”
My best friend had married in record time. Even I still had whiplash from how fast it had happened. I’d gone to Colorado to help my mom and went back home to find her engaged.
Kurt blew out a breath and came to sit beside me. He reached up to caress my cheek. “I’m offering…fuck…this is hard.”
“Are you retracting what just happened?”
“No!” Leaning in, he kissed me. It was quick and sweet, as if he needed the touch to ground himself and reassure me. He touched his forehead to mine. “I want you. Want there to be an us.”
It felt like we were talking in circles. “So there’s an us. Why are we discussing marriage now?”
“Because if we last, ten years from now, marriage won’t be on the table. It’s not something I want. And I would never want to mislead you.”
Our noses touched. “Would we be monogamous?”
“Fuck, yes. I won’t share you.”
His possessiveness sent a thrill through me. At that moment, I knew what I wanted. “I don’t want to change you, Kurt. If marriage isn’t on the table, it’s okay.”
“You say that now.”
I leaned in. “I understand that marriage is off the table and will never be an option. What you’re not hearing is that I care about you enough to trust that what we have will find its own way if it’s meant to be.”
The car pulled to a stop in front of the tour bus. Nerves fluttered through me. The first time we slept together, we’d been drinking—a lot. Which turned into not being able to keep our hands off each other for the entire week.
“I do have one question.”
The door opened, and he paused. “What’s that?”
“Will there be lots and lots of makeup sex?”
“Fuck yes.”