Page 83 of Unravel Me

“I probably started my period. I’m sorry. I’ll go get you some wet paper towels.”

She goes to get up but I press her back down on my desk.

“Like hell you will. And don’t apologize for something like this again. Don’t. Move.” I point at her as I start to walk away to my ensuite bathroom. I wet some paper towels, making a mental note to get some feminine wipes and products to have on hand in my office for her.

“I can do it, Sawyer.” She reaches her hand out to take the paper towel from me. My gaze softens as I look at her and sigh. She’s going to let me in completely someday.

“I know youcan. But Iwantto.” She relents and I wipe her as gently as possible before picking her up and righting her dress. I push her into my chair and walk to my bathroom again to clean myself up.

I get myself tucked away and join her back in my office. She’s right where I left her, looking flushed and so beautiful. I walk up to her and kiss her forehead before shutting my laptop and pulling her to stand.

“Let’s get going.” She gives me a questioning look before making a show of looking at her watch.

“I just fucked you on my desk, and whether you started your period or I fucked you so hard you bled, I’m taking you home, we’re going to watch whatever you want, eat whatever you want, take a bath, and then I’m going to hold you until you fall asleep. Don’t bother arguing. Go get your ass in the truck.”

She shakes her head and sighs before listening to me without argument. It must be an early Christmas miracle.

We get outside the distillery and Ivy heads to her jeep. I should have known better. She may not have verbally protested but she was still going to be difficult.

I walk up behind her before bending and picking her up bridal style and carrying her to my truck, making sure she doesn’t flash her bare ass to anyone around.

“I said truck. Not jeep.”

“Ugh. Whatever. Take me home.”

I stop walking and look down at her.

“That’s the second time you’ve called my place home. The first time it was questionable what you meant, but right now there’s no confusing the context.”

“I said what I said, Sawyer. Let’s go.”

I close my eyes for a brief moment and let happiness run through me.

I just hope she means it.

Chapter 34

IVY

Snuggled in bed, surrounded by everything I could ever crave, I can’t help but feel loved and taken care of. On the way home from the distillery, Sawyer stopped at the grocery store and purchased every snack, treat, and candy he knew I liked or would like, pads, tampons, feminine wipes, ibuprofen, you name it, he made sure I had it. He settled me on the bed with pillows and blankets like a precious gem and then dumped the bags of groceries in front of me. He put the ice cream in the freezer and returned with bottles of water and climbed into bed, tucking me into his side, his arm wrapped around me, rubbing circles on my shoulder.

“Why don’t you eat the rye chips?” he asks after a while, interrupting Jim from imitating Dwight on the screen in front of us. I pause the tv, ’cause this is one of my favorite pranks.

“’Cause they’re gross. And Zoe loves them. It’s kinda our thing. Sometimes I’ll eat the whole bag and leave nothing but the rye chips. She obviously isn’t happy that I didn’t save her any of the other good stuff, but we get a good laugh.”

“That’s pretty awesome. Tell me more about her.”

“Ugh. She’s incredible. I miss her so much even if we talk every day. We met in California. I got a job as a barback while in college and she was waitressing. I kept screwing everything up at first and she took pity on me. We’ve been inseparable ever since. After college, I knew I wanted to be back in Washington and she was down for living in a new place. She’s originally from Maine, a little town a few hours north of Boston.”

“Ahh. That explains the Bruins hat.”

I unplug my phone from the end table and power it on to show him some photos. I hold my breath, nervously anticipating text messages from Brooks to start coming in, but they never do. I sigh in relief. Maybe he finally got the hint and moved on. I knew it would just take a bit before he got bored of the chase and found someone else to play with, the poor thing.

I open my photo album and start to scroll through pictures, showing Sawyer the last few years of my life. He smiles while he looks at all of them with rapt attention.

“I’m glad you found each other, that you’ve had someone in your corner all these years.”

I reach up and run my fingers along his gorgeous face, his stubble tickling my palm.

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