Chapter One #2
Sawyer heard Lorna come through the front door, and his heart started pounding in his chest. Every damn time she entered the room, his body reacted as if he had just run a marathon.
Lorna Sanders was driving him crazy, and he couldn’t figure out what the hell to do about her.
He knew that Piper and Tag were good with him wanting to date Lorna.
He talked to Tag before he asked her to be his date for their wedding.
He wanted to make sure that, as his employers, they were both okay with him dating Lorna.
He didn’t want to cause any waves in his working relationship, especially since he liked his job.
Being Piper’s security detail proved to be far from boring.
Since moving to Colorado, Piper had quite a few reporters sniffing around from New York.
For the most part, the locals just accepted Piper’s inheritance and left her alone.
The reporters from out of state were harmless—they just wanted a story.
But that was the last thing that Piper or Tag needed.
Sawyer made sure that the reporters got the message to leave and not come back before they could disturb the newlyweds.
Tag insisted that they go on their Honeymoon alone, and Sawyer couldn’t blame him.
The last thing he would want on his Honeymoon was another guy hanging around.
He knew that Tag could single-handedly manage Piper’s security, but they kept him around anyway.
He also knew that part of his job description was to amuse Piper while chasing Lorna.
But damn it, he didn’t want to have to chase her.
Lorna put her defenses up as soon as he moved to town, and he wanted to tear every damn one of them down.
She told him that he was too young for her, but his response to that argument was, “Fuck that”.
Lorna had some bizarre notion that she was old.
All he saw when he looked at her was a fucking amazing woman.
She was the hottest, sweetest, sexiest woman that he had ever seen.
Her long dark hair was usually pulled back, but at night, when she wandered around the house in her short shorts and see-through tank, she let her hair fall over her shoulders.
It drove him damn near insane, and he spent most of his time around her hard as a rock.
Lately, she was making him most of his meals while he was out of commission from his stupid shoulder injury.
He caught her singing and dancing in their little kitchen while making him breakfast, and he had to go back to his room to take a cold shower.
He didn’t know how much more of Lorna’s resistance he could take before he would need to move out of Piper’s house.
He could only be pushed so far before he snapped, and he was right on the verge of losing his tightly reined-in control.
Sawyer met Lorna on her way into the kitchen, her arms loaded down with groceries and books.
God, but she loved her books. Her bedroom was full of stacks of them that she had already read, but she insisted on keeping them because she might need to read them again.
Yet, every time she came through the front door, she had her arms full of new books.
He couldn’t help but smile at her as he took one of the bags.
It was about all he could handle being one-handed.
“Hey, you picked up groceries after working all day?” Sawyer put the bag on the counter and grabbed the second one from Lorna’s arms. He didn’t miss the way her eyes flared when he brushed her bare skin with his fingers.
He knew that Lorna wanted him, but she kept up those damn walls that were nearly impossible to break down.
“Yep, and I ran to the library. They had some books on hold for me.” He searched her bag and noted that they were all those romance books that she seemed to love.
Half-naked men and swooning women adorned every cover.
If only she would let him in, he could show her that real life was so much better than a made-up book.
He looked Lorna up and down, noticing how tired she seemed.
She was running herself ragged between the ice-cream shop, volunteering at the library, and now having to practically take care of him.
He couldn’t wait to get out of his sling next week and return to work.
He liked pulling his weight around the house, too.
He was usually the one who ran to the grocery store between his shift, watching Piper, fending off the occasional nosy reporter, and volunteering for the local sheriff.
He found that while his job more than paid the bills, he needed something more to fill his lonely days and especially nights.
He hated that he couldn’t find a way through Lorna’s defenses, and he was about to give up trying.
He met Joel, the small town’s sheriff, and was offered a job on the spot.
Tag got to Joel first and talked Sawyer up.
He barely even shook the sheriff’s hand before he was offered the job—well, if working for free could be called a job.
He took the position, hoping that it would lead to a full-time paid offer.
If he was being completely honest, he took the job because it would give him some much-needed time away from Lorna.
The woman drove him crazy. The more he pushed, the more she shoved back.
Her lame excuse about not wanting to date a younger man was the craziest he had ever heard.
He knew that she was attracted to him—he felt it every time they touched.
He knew she felt it too, the way her breath caught each time they passed too closely in the hall.
It was like an undeniable electric charge between them.
Lorna found a way to refuse them both, and it was wearing him down more and more with each passing day.
He thought about moving back to New York and taking another assignment, but nothing was waiting for him there.
He finally had friends in Colorado, and he respected both Piper and Tag.
In the few short months that he was working for Piper, she became more like the little sister he never had.
He could relate to both her and Tag’s stories of growing up without parents since he never knew either of his parents.
He was raised in the foster system from the age of three, with no memories of his mother or father.
When he tried to find them after turning eighteen and being released into the world by the state, he was told that his mother had died when he was ten.
There was no father listed on his original birth certificate.
So, he gave up his search, joined the Army, and devoted his life to whatever cause Uncle Sam told him was important.
He planned on staying in the military and making a career of it until his unit was hit by an IED.
He was on his second tour when his unit was targeted.
Everyone in his unit was killed except him and one other guy.
He escaped with a few minor scrapes and a broken leg while his buddy lost his eyesight and his left arm.
After he was discharged, he wallowed in pity and self-loathing for surviving while his friends—men who became like brothers to him- came home in caskets.
He allowed himself a year to sulk, and then he pulled himself out of the pit that he had dug.
He found a private detective agency that was recruiting ex-military to protect high-end clients.
He loved his job but hated New York. When Piper asked him to follow her back to Colorado, he jumped at the chance.
Knowing that Piper’s sexy-as-sin aunt would be hanging around seemed like a bonus.
Well, until Lorna started giving him the cold shoulder.
He never worked so hard to get a woman’s attention in his entire life, but she was worth it.
He just needed her to accept that eventually, she was going to end up in his bed.
He and Lorna moved around the cramped kitchen putting away groceries.
He couldn’t help himself when she bent down to put the produce into the fridge; he groaned out loud.
Lorna turned to face him, her expression a cross between amused and turned on.
He spent the last few months hiding the way he felt about her.
Once she told him that she wasn’t interested in him, he decided that he wasn’t going to hide his feelings anymore.
“Are you in pain, Sawyer?” Lorna crossed the kitchen to grab her bag of books.
He knew that it was a risk, but he was tired of sitting on the sidelines waiting for Lorna to come to her senses.
Sawyer pulled her against his body, causing her to drop her bag, her books spilling all over the kitchen floor with a thud.
“Damn it, Lorna, I’m not in pain. Well, I am, but not the way you’re thinking.” Lorna didn’t make a move to escape his hold, and he took that as a good sign.