Page 19 of With You

I dropped my head to her chest, her breaths coming as quick as my own. Every part of me felt raw as I waited for her to say something. Sam could destroy me if she wanted to. And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to survive it this time.

8

SAM

Roe’s entire body was beyond tense. I threaded my fingers through his hair and let them drift down his neck to his shoulders, the muscles jumping under my hands.

He was waiting for me to push him away, to claim that what we’d done was a mistake, to hurt him like I’d done before. That wasn’t going to happen. I was tired, really freaking tired of pretending like there wasn’t something between us, like he wasn’t special to me. I resisted the urge to find an excuse and shut myself away so that he couldn’t see how he’d flayed me bare. I’d loved every moment of it.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered and he jolted like my words were shrapnel, tearing at his skin. I held him tightly, not wanting him to escape before I finished what I had to say. “I’m so sorry, Roe, I never should have left the way I did.”

He relaxed and turned us to our sides, taking care not to crush me. Then he searched my face, a mixture of emotions fighting for dominance on his own. “What are you saying, Sam?”

I took a deep breath, “I’m saying that even though we both were leaving that day, it didn’t have to be the end of us. I could have stayed in that motel room and talked it out with you, waited to see if we could’ve made it work.”

“And now?”

That was a good question. What did I want now? I knew that I wanted him, that I enjoyed everything we’d just done and wanted to do it again. I knew that I was jealous every time a woman looked at him with interest. Finally, I knew that we were coworkers and that we both really liked our jobs and homes. If this went badly then either one of us or maybe even both would have to give that up.

“Now, I want to fix the mistake I made years ago. I’m not saying that I want a relationship necessarily, dates and flowers and all that, I just don’t know if I’m that kind of woman. Bud I do want to spend time with you, be with you, touch you.”

The sex we’d just had was cathartic, angry even and it’d been clear that Roe was working through years of frustration. It had been sexy as hell and when I’d come, it’d felt better than all the other orgasms I’ve had in my life combined.

He’d watched me the entire time I’d been talking, listening to every word intently. I hadn’t even thought that he might not want what I was offering. Now the possibility had me holding my breath.

“No one else.” His jaw clenched when he said the words, his hand reaching out and holding my cheek possessively. “You can lead, I’ll follow, whatever you feel comfortable with. My only requirement is that I’m the only one. I won’t share you, Samantha.”

“No one else,” I promised, leaning in and kissing him. It wasn’t a hard request to agree to, I’d only ever wanted him. It should be obvious considering he was the only person in the world I let call me Samantha and liked it when he did.

He pulled back slowly, running his nose alongside mine as he did. “You know what I really want now?” I hummed, opening my eyes. “A juice box,” he gave me a half smile and I rolled my eyes, feeling lighter than I had in a decade.

* * *

“Come on, it’s not that bad.”

I stood over Roe’s unmoving body while he glared at me. His arms lifted slowly and I laughed as he flipped me off with both hands.

“That was horrible. You’re a sexy witch that put a spell on me and convinced me that this would be easy because we work out every day.”

I sat down next to him and spread my legs out, reaching in between them as I stretched my sore body. It had been a grueling work out, not that I was going to admit that to him. “It’s not my fault that we picked the one day they had extreme bootcamp.”

“Here,” a large shadow came over us and two cold water bottles were presented by Baz.

We’d contacted him last night to see if there was an update on whether his friend was going to speak to us. Unfortunately, there hadn’t been an answer. He’d mentioned that it could take another week or more before he even got the message.

Then, he’d invited us to join him at his gym today. Although I felt like the term ‘gym’ was used loosely, more like an old warehouse with massive tractor tires, heavy ropes, sledgehammers and old football sleds. It had been the hardest workout I’d had since actual bootcamp.

Baz was dressed in a black muscle tank that showed off impressive muscles lining his sides and matching black nylon shorts. An old bandana was wrapped around his head and soaked through with sweat. He shifted, easing his weight off his right leg that ended at the knee, a white sleeve covered the skin underneath his prosthetic. It hadn’t taken long for Roe and I to fall behind. Baz was a beast.

“Why do you do this willingly? It’s sixty-nine thousand degrees outside and I just had to beat the shit out of a tire with a sledgehammer. Are you trying to kill us, Baz? I thought we were friends.” Roe opened the water that Baz had given him and dumped the entire contents onto his head.

I tossed my towel to him and he draped it over his face. “It wasn’t all that bad. You don’t want Baz to think we’re a bunch of weaklings, do you? How will we convince him to accept Gray’s job offer?”

If Baz was surprised at my words, his outward appearance didn’t show it. The other half of our assignment was to see if we could recruit him to join our team, both Gray and Kane had been adamant that he was someone whose skills could help take Falls Security to the next level.

“No,” Roe threw the towel to the ground and groaned as he stood. “Nope, no, no, no. He can’t come and work with us. He’ll have all of you stepping up your game and then I’ll never take the number one spot.”

“What’s he talking about?” Baz asked me as I accepted Roe’s hand and stood, tingles shooting up my arm as he brushed his thumb over my wrist.

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