Page 35 of Deceiving Grier

Aside from Sawyer’s typing, the rest of the house was quiet. We were the only two home—Jett was working at the campus bookstore until nine.

We’d have at least three hours before he got home. Dull hunger lit inside me at the thought. If there was ever a time I could appreciate Sawyer’s uncanny ability to take me out of my head, it was tonight.

We hadn’t had any time alone since we’d last been together, but I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it, about how amazing his hands felt moving over my body, his mouth on mine, the sweet burn of his cock filling me.

My skin flushed with the memory, dick thickened behind the fly of my jeans. I made my way from the front foyer to Sawyer’s study, shoving my hands in my pockets while I stood in the opening of the room. If Sawyer heard me, he gave no indication, his attention fixed on his laptop’s screen.

“Hey,” I said.

He didn’t look up from what he was working on. “Hey.”

“You working?” I asked, stupidly. After all, I could see him working with my own eyes.

He nodded. “I have an assignment due.”

He’d yet to so much as glance my way, and unease unfurled low in my gut. Still, I pushed on.

“I was just thinking that… um… maybe… if you wanted to… Jett’s working until nine. We have the place to ourselves for a few hours,” I said, my face hot.

Sawyer smirked, not his usual grin that made me warm all over. This one was cooler, humorless. Apprehension slithered up my spine.

“Got an itch to scratch, do you?” Sawyer asked, still without looking away from his computer’s screen.

The excitement humming through me dulled, my insides turning cold. Sawyer had never made fun of me or made me feel inadequate because I didn’t know what I was doing when we had sex. But just then, between his words and his expression, I felt as though he’d come dangerously close, as if he’d come right up to the line.

I didn’t want that to happen. I’d trusted him, believed him when he’d told me I was enough, that my inexperience wasn’t bad, that I still made him hot. When I was with him, I felt as though I could finally just be. I didn’t want him to take that from me.

“No… um… maybe,” I stuttered lamely. “I thought we could, but if you’re busy, I can go.” I took a step back, ready to retreat to my room.

“Fuck,” Sawyer muttered under his breath. He finally looked up and met my gaze, but his expression was oddly blank and difficult to read. “Sorry. I can’t tonight, actually. I really need to get this done and submitted before midnight.”

“Yeah, of course. I get it. I have stuff to do too. I’ll leave you alone then,” I said, taking another step backwards.

“Thanks.” Sawyer turned back to his computer screen, his fingers clicking over the keyboard again.

I turned and jogged up the stairs to my room. My face was so hot I was almost surprised my head hadn’t spontaneously burst into flame.

I’d made a complete fool of myself. I must have looked like some clingy, desperate sap. This was supposed to be just sex. Sawyer had probably sensed that I was starting to feel things for him beyond the physical and wanted to pull back.

We weren’t boyfriends, and Sawyer obviously couldn’t be bothered with me unless we were having sex.

I need to do something, focus on something else apart from making an ass of myself. I crossed the room, sat down at my desk, and opened my laptop. Let’s face it, I had a hell of a lot to do that should have been a priority instead of having sex with my roommate.

I opened my email and saw a message from my sister at the top. But instead of opening it, I opened a search window and typed,starting a small business Saltwater Cove.

Chapter Fourteen

Sawyer

Istaredatthewords on my computer screen, trying my best to focus and failing miserably. Instead, my gaze slid to my phone, though I wasn’t sure what I expected to see there. After how awkward things had been between Grier and me over the past week, I doubted very much he would text me, and I’d sit on my hands before I let myself text him.

I sighed and turned my attention back to the copy on my computer screen. I had a deadline I needed to make if I wanted to be able to pay my share of the rent and household bills for the month, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to focus. It didn’t help that writing web content for financial firms was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

Grier was at an away game overnight in Seattle, and that was probably for the best. Every time I caught him looking at me with those wounded, puppy dog eyes, I wanted to give in, ignore my better judgment and drag him to my room, peel him out of his clothes and bury myself inside him. Of course, that’s not all I wanted to do, and that was the problem. If I just wanted to fuck the guy, I wouldn’t be here nursing a set of blue balls and trying not to think about him.

Hearing him tell Alistair that he and I were just having sex shouldn’t have bothered me the way it did. I’d told him the same thing the first night we were together, and it wasn’t his fault that I’d started to feel… well,somethingfor him, even if I couldn’t quite decide what that something was.

I liked him, especially spending time with him even when we weren’t fucking. He was kind and thoughtful, with a surprisingly good sense of humor beneath all that anxiety wrapped around him. So, I liked Grier, and liking him was currently resulting in me thinking—worrying—about him instead of getting these pages finished.

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