Page 67 of Scrape the Barrel
Shifting on my feet, I set a hand on her lower back, leading her toward the front door. After I unlocked it and headed inside behind her, I bolted the door again. It didn’t matter that I lived in the middle of nowhere, safety was always a priority. Plus, after tonight, the last thing I needed was that guy coming around for revenge. Speaking of…
“Did you know that guy?” I asked as she studied mykitchen.
She took a moment to respond, like the setup of my appliances and cabinets was all that interesting, then said, “No.”
I cocked a brow. “That doesn’t sound like a very confident ‘no.’”
She looked over her shoulder at me as I set my keys in the dish on the counter and my hat on the hook on the wall. “He was in the cafe a few days ago.”
“Ah, so you knowofhim.”
“Not really.”
“You didn’t speak to him, then?”
She tensed for a split second, but even though it was brief, I didn’t miss it.
“I did.”
I closed the distance so that I was standing directly behind her, her back now lightly pressed to my chest. Reaching a hand up, I brushed the hair away from her neck, then leaned closer to her ear. “Do I have to keep prying things out of you? Because I can.”
“So demanding,” she teased, her voice full of satiny lust that wrapped around my senses, heading south.
“This? This is nothing, Sage.” I brought my lips to her ear, faintly brushing a kiss to the lobe. Goosebumps freckled her neck and I smirked. “What’d you talk about?”
She inhaled deeply, her chest rising with the action, accentuating her breasts in the fitted white tank top she wore. I wanted to clamp down on them, suck on her peaked nipples for hours. I wanted to do a fuck ton of things to her in this moment, butI had no idea what she wanted out of being here. She was the one to ask to come to my house, but that wasn’t an invitation to have sex with her.
“He asked for my last name and if I’d been in town long,” she stated, her voice harder than before.
I stopped, pulling my lips away from her ear. “He did what?”
She turned, our chests now touching. “It wasn’t anything, but then he wanted to buy me a drink at the bar and…” She trailed off.
“And now you don’t think it’s nothing,” I filled in.
She nodded slowly, her eyes shining with worry, though she did her best to mask it. She didn’t have to hide it around me. Whatever her battles were, whatever her insecurities or problems consisted of, I wanted them all. I wouldn’t let her be alone in that beautiful mind of hers.
She went to take a step back, but my arms quickly came around her, holding her to me. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”
She let out a slight scoff. “That’s a lot to ask.”
“Well, I’m asking.”
She pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth, and all I wanted to do was suck it right back out.
Where the fuck was this sudden hunger for her coming from?
“He just gave me the creeps and kept pressing to buy the drink. That’s all.”
If she thought I’d believe that was all, then she must think of me as a fool. But I wouldn’t press. Tonight, Sage was fragile, and I’d handle her with the delicacy she needed.
“If he comes near you again, you call me, okay?” It wasn’t a question, more so a demand.
“Okay.”
“Men like that deserve the worst of what’s coming to them. Don’t feel bad sticking up for yourself, and don’t feel guilty calling me.” Because I knew she would. Sage and I, we were alike in more ways than one. Like calls to like, and my entire being called to Sage like a lighthouse to a ship lost at sea.
I reached down, grabbing her hand in mine. “Come on.”
