Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
LUKAS
Sawyer wanted me to meet his best friend, Yvette, but we didn’t manage to make it work for another couple of weeks. Sawyer wanted to buckle down and finish the book, and I had several shoots scheduled and a ton of footage to edit. Which was how I found myself at a swimming pool early one morning.
Sawyer had told me about how he and Yvette frequently crossed paths at the pool. He knew I was going to try and come, but he didn’t want to say anything to Yvette in case I couldn’t make it.
The pool was sectioned off into two sides. The left side was further divided into lanes, but the right side was left open for casual swimming. That’s where I landed. Sawyer offered to stay with me, but I told him to go get his laps in.
The past couple of weeks had been crazy, but wonderful.
Sawyer slept over often. Not every night, but maybe one day that would change.
Asher had been by a couple times and though things were still awkward between the two of them, they seemed to be actively working on getting over that.
Now I just had to win the approval of the best friend.
It was tough not to feel like everything was riding on this.
“He’s taken, you know,” a woman said as she swam up beside me and joined me at the edge of the pool.
I turned my head and offered the woman, Yvette, a smile. I recognized her from Sawyer’s pictures. “Oh, I know. I’m the boyfriend.”
She rolled her eyes a little. “Yeah, I know. I was hoping you didn’t know who I was. I wanted to fuck with you a little.”
“Hate to disappoint you, but I’m pretty un-fuck-with-able.”
“Hate to disappoint you, but that’s not a word.”
I could tell Yvette was just trying to break the ice.
I thought of how Sawyer and Asher had united on the idea of me being more open about my dyslexia.
I’d never been comfortable with people knowing about it until Sawyer gave me a safe space.
He wouldn’t be friends with someone who wasn’t a good person, so I decided to take the chance and tell her, even though the thought of it made it hard to breathe for a second.
“Hate to disappoint you, but I’m dyslexic as fuck, so I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t matter if it’s a word or not. I wouldn’t be able to read it anyway.”
Yvette’s expression flickered and she looked unsettled as she processed what I’d said to her. Then her face split into a beaming smile. “Oh, I like you. You’re feisty. Sawyer needs someone like you around.”
“I need someone like him around actually. He’s been… Well, he’s been Sawyer.”
She was about to say something when Sawyer swam up and slotted himself beside me.
“Are you harassing my boyfriend?” He held on to the edge of the pool and drifted closer, dusting a kiss against my cheek.
“He’s harassing me, more like, but it’s okay because I think I like him.”
“You think you like me?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, that’s high praise. Sometimes I’m still unsure about this one.” Yvette pointed at Sawyer. “I’m going to get my laps in. We’ll do lunch after. Don’t stand me up, writer boy.”
She pushed away from the wall and swam off, leaving me to look at Sawyer.
“You stood her up? Isn’t that dangerous?” I had to fight the urge to keep my hands to myself in the pool. A dripping wet Sawyer was almost more than I could resist. I could have watched him swim all day long, and something told me this wouldn’t be the last time I tagged along to the pool.
“As you can see, it’s something I’m still paying for.” He pulled himself closer to the edge of the pool. “I’d gotten wrapped up in my work and when my alarm went off to remind me to go meet her, I might have silenced it, telling myself that I’d just finish that one thing and then I’d leave.”
“Oops.”
“Oops, indeed. She holds a grudge too.”
“I’m glad you don’t.” Under the water, I reached for Sawyer and gripped his hip. “It means a lot that after that bullshit with Asher, you’ve tried to get along with him.”
Sawyer moved a little closer to me. “He’s important to you. And he’s young.”
“Yeah, but I’ve known couples who broke up for a lot less.”
“That’s because they weren’t right for each other.”
Sometimes, I didn’t need him to tell me he loved me because I could see it when he looked at me. He got this kind of soft, sappy-eyed look that gave me butterflies in my stomach when I saw it.
“Is that so?” I managed to say, though the truth was that I wanted to pin him against the side of the pool and kiss him.
I was drowning in him and all the emotions he stirred in me.
But I knew if I kissed him, I wouldn’t want to stop, and this was a family-friendly place.
That didn’t stop my brain from trying to script a whole-ass adult film in my head.
You could take the performer out of the porn, but you couldn’t take the porn out of the performer.
“I think so, yeah.” Sawyer leaned closer and I caught the way his eyes sparkled. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“If you’re thinking that we need a private pool so I can do all kinds of obscene things to you, then yes. I am thinking what you’re thinking.”
“It’s torture, right?” Sawyer laughed and then suddenly dunked his head under the water. A bunch of bubbles burst to the surface, and then he reappeared. Freshly wet, the way water dripped off his eyelashes as he blinked.
“If it wasn’t something that should only happen in an adult film, I’d drag you into that changing room and fuck you silly.
” I’d moved closer so I could lower my voice to a whisper.
I heard the way Sawyer sucked in a breath.
It made me happy to know he was as affected as I was.
“But in real life, if you get caught, you probably catch charges.”
Sawyer snorted out a laugh. “Oh, God. I can only imagine how mortified I’d be.”
As if to prove his point, his cheeks turned a pretty pink that went up to the tips of his ears. “Although, it would be a fun story to tell the next time my parents demand my presence.”
He looked at me with a pained expression. “If you want to meet them, I’ll make it happen. I promise I’m not hiding you, but I don’t actually have a lot to do with them. Yvette is more family to me than they are.”
“I can see how she’d fit nicely into the role of annoying sister.”
Amusement made Sawyer’s eyes twinkle. “I’m so telling her you said that.”
I put a hand to my chest in mock horror. “I thought you liked me.”
“You thought wrong.” Sawyer paused. “Because I love you.”
I’d probably never get tired of hearing Sawyer say that to me. And the more I was around his almost naked body, the harder it was to keep my leering to a level acceptable in public. “Catching charges for public indecency is looking increasingly tempting.”
“How about we save that for a day when I’d look better in my mug shot. I’d look like a drowned rat.”
“Yeah, but you’re a hot drowned rat.” I stole a kiss then heaved myself out of the pool.
“Thanks. I think. Just what every guy wants to hear,” he said as he followed my lead. “I’m going to tell Yvette to meet us at the cafe across the street when she’s done.”
“How long does she usually swim for? I don’t want her to cut her time short for us.”
Sawyer gave me a sappy grin. “You’re sweet, but she swims after her main workout, so she usually does a few laps and calls it quits. She’s probably almost done. You go change, and I’ll be there in two seconds.”
When I arrived in the changing room, it was empty except for a man who was just arriving.
The room had two sides, one with lockers on either side and a bench in the middle so people could sit and change.
And the other side had a few curtained-off changing areas for people who didn’t want to strip down in front of everyone.
I grabbed our stuff out of our locker and slipped into one of the stalls and waited for Sawyer to come looking for me. It didn’t take long for me to hear him to come through the door and call my name.
“Lukas? Where are you?”
“In here. I have your stuff.”
Sawyer found me, his forehead scrunching in confusion when he saw that I was still dripping wet. Without giving him time to think about it, I yanked him into the stall and pulled the curtain shut.
“What are you—”
I cut him off, sealing my mouth over his, and I backed him up into the wall.
Sawyer’s hands came to my hips, and I thought he might stop me or push me off, but instead he pulled me closer and ground against me.
The feeling of his cock pressing against mine made me crazy with want.
If I could’ve, I’d have turned him around and taken him right there.
But I wasn’t about to fuck him surrounded by the stench of chlorine.
“Sawyer,” I breathed as I pulled away. “Behave,” I admonished as he tried to grind against me some more.
“You started it.” He gave me a smirk and grabbed his bag from the bench. “I’ll change in a different stall, or we’ll never get out of here.” He flicked his gaze down to my crotch then swept out of the stall looking very satisfied with himself.
“I’ll get you back for this,” I called out, closing the curtain.
“Promises, promises,” Sawyer answered, his joy ringing clear in his voice.