Page 20 of Surviving You, Scotch and Sammy 1

“Are you cold?” Change the subject. Don’t let her look down at my tented shorts. I walk the last couple feet toward her and kiss her, instantly ruining any progress I’d made with my dick.

“Morning,” she murmurs sweetly. “No, not cold.”

I sit on the dock behind her, holding her against my chest, warmed from running, and kiss her shoulder. “Sleep tight, Sammy?”

She shrugs. “Eh.”

My brows furrow and I stretch my neck around so I can see her eyes. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing really.” Her fingers stroke my forearm as mine stroke her lean thigh. “My dad’s being a bit of a dick.”

Her father is a dick, full stop. “What’d he do?”

“Well first, we had dinner at the club last night and he was a complete jerk to Marcus.”

I smile at her protective tone. She’s like a tiny pussycat trying to protect our tribe. “Marc’s a big boy, Ricci. He’s okay.”

“But my father was so mean.”

“Marc told me you looked pretty.”

“He…” Her body turns stiff. “What?”

I laugh at her flushed face. “He told me he saw you, so I asked what you were wearing. He was crawling into bed at midnight, so his description of your blue dress and long hair made for some nice dreams for me.”

“You really have no poker face, do you, Turner?”

“No.” I laugh and kiss her shoulder. “Not when it comes to you. I’ll never keep anything from you. I won’t let miscommunication or the fear of rejection get between us.”

She sighs and melts further against me. “You’re braver than me, Sam.”

“That’s not true at all, but even if it was, that’s okay. I’m the man and I’m here to provide for you. I’ll protect you for the rest of my life.”

Her head moves to the right and turns so her desperate eyes find mine. “How can you be so sure of what you feel?”

I pull her tighter into my chest and I breathe her in. “I dunno, Ricci. I just feel it. I feel you deep in my gut. If someone else told me this shit, I’d say he’s high, but I just feel it. I know it’s not normal. I know teenage guys shouldn’t be declaring this shit when they’re barely fourteen, and he definitely shouldn’t still be feeling it years later, but I do. You walked into science that day and you became mine. If I brushed this off, this feeling I have inside me, I know with my whole heart I’d be making a mistake.”

“Sam…”

“If we were thirty, no one would even question it. If we were thirty, everyone would think it was the most romantic thing in the whole world, but because we’re so young, we’re hardwired to not believe.”

She nods softly. “You know what you know.”

I brush her hair aside and rest my chin on her shoulder. “I know what I know. We’ll be okay, Sammy. I promise.”

We sit in the silence and dark for a couple minutes, and I let my stroking thumb lull and relax her. Her soft and almost completely naked body rests against my chest. There’s no way in the world I won’t make sure we’re okay. I’ll never give this up. I’ll never give us up.

“Sammy?” I kiss the warm skin just below her ear.

“Hmm?”

“You said ‘well, first’ when you were talking about your dad. What was second?”

“Oh.” She lets out a deep sigh. “Well, he also mentioned something about a new partner coming on at his law firm.”

“Okay…?”

“Some guy named Arthur Montgomery.”

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