Chapter Twenty-Two #2
“Amelie—”
“Shall we go?” I beam at him. He shakes his head at me and grabs my workout bag from the bottom of my bed, and my phone from my bedside table.
“If that’s what you want,” he says sadly, crossing to the door as I follow him.
It’s not what I want, I want to yell at him. I want to tumble into bed with him and tell him that I’m done with taking things slow. I want to show him how sorry I am for sleeping with two of his brothers while making him wait. I want...so many things I don’t even know where to begin.
“I’m hungry.” I sigh softly, locking up and passing Sawyer my keys to slip into my bag. There’s no point trying to carry the bag myself, he won’t let me.
“I’m sure you are. I guess you worked up quite an appetite,” he replies with a teasing smirk. I freeze, thinking he’s referring to Onyx, but he gently hip bumps me and wraps his arm around my shoulders.
“Relax. Kalen sent me a video of you dancing last night. If it weren’t for the hilarious horrified look on your dance partner’s face, I might have had to kill someone.” He chuckles. “You have some serious moves, Miss Rossi. When do I get to see them?”
“Well, you’re never at any of the Knox parties,” I point out with a pout. “Even the one in your own home.”
“If I’d known Kalen was going to be throwing a party in my house, and that you’d be there, dressed like that, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
My heart skips at his words and for the first time since waking up, a genuine smile stretches across my face.
“Maybe you should throw another party then?”
“What and invite the whole school?”
“I was thinking something a little more exclusive.”
“Just the family?”
“More. Exclusive.” I bat my eyelashes suggestively. Well, I hope that’s what I’m doing. I feel pretty foolish and I have to stop walking because flirting, walking and talking all at the same time are bound to be a recipe for disaster for my clumsy ass.
“Just the two of us?”
“Now that’s what I’d call a party.” I wink at him and he laughs.
“I don’t know how to party slow,” he tells me.
“Maybe slow is overrated. Maybe I’m ready to party hard, with the right person.”
“And is that person me?”
I’m pretty sure we’re equal distance from my dorm and his car at this point. I could easily drag him back to my room to prove a point. But then I think of Onyx tangled in my sheets and feel dirty.
“Yes. You’re my person,” I say earnestly as I look into his warm, twinkling grey eyes. He kisses me softly on the nose.
“Good. Let’s eat.”
I smile at him and let him lead me to his car. We drive along listening to soft rock playing on the radio in the background. It’s easy and companionable, and eventually we pull up outside the diner I brought Kalen’s drunken ass to. I smile when I see the sign.
“What?” Sawyer asks.
“Nothing. I love this place. Great choice,” I tell him, not wanting to mention his brothers, needing to keep this time ours.
“I know. Kalen mentioned it.”
Oh.
We climb out of the car and head inside the noisy diner that’s bustling and much busier than when I was last here. We grab a booth by the window and Sawyer slides in opposite me, handing me a menu, which I don’t bother to look at. I know what I want.
I study his face as he looks at the menu.
He looks good, like, really good. He seems happier, lighter almost than when he was teaching.
As much as he made my mouth water in a suit and in his workout gear, I love him like this: relaxed in an old band tee, ripped jeans and a backward baseball cap.
He has more stubble on his face too since leaving the academy and I can’t help but think about how it would feel scraping along the inside of my thighs.
Slowly, obviously, as that’s how we’re taking things.
“Do you know what you’re having?”
“Oh. Hmmm. Yeah.”
“Oh good, because you’ve been staring at me for five minutes now.”
“I just don’t understand how it can take anyone that long to choose food,” I deflect.
“I knew what I wanted the moment we pulled up. I was just studying the menu to allow you more gawking time.”
I pout and lightly kick him under the table, causing him to laugh. A waitress comes over – thankfully one more happy than the last who served me – and takes our order. We both opt for a full English fry up with fresh fruit juice and coffee.
Service is quick and the banter is easy, as I enjoy being in Sawyer’s company.
He talks a little about what he’s doing working for his dad outside of the school, but it all sounds pretty vague and boring.
We share notes on where we’d both like to travel, our favourite films, music, tv shows.
It’s a proper date and I love every single minute of it.
Unfortunately, all too soon it’s over and we have to start heading to the obstacle course that’s set up for this afternoon.
Sawyer and the guys had already warned me that this one would be outside, unlike our training route, but unbeknown to them, I’d been putting in extra training outdoors with Jasper and Frost. I’m ready.
As we drive towards the location of today’s event though, nervousness twists my stomach into a pretzel. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten so much before the course. It’ll be bad enough if I embarrass myself by falling over or coming last, without puking everywhere too.
“Hey, you okay?” Sawyer asks gently, reaching over to hold my hand.
“Just nervous.”
“Nerves are good. You’re going to smash it. Besides, you once told me your speciality was running away and hiding.”
“So?” I frown.
“Consider it an almighty game of hide and seek.”
“Okay.” I laugh. “I just...I know there’s something going on,” I say, watching him carefully out of the corner of my eye. “I won’t put you in an awkward position by asking, because I’m pretty sure if you could tell me anything you would have already.”
Sawyer does his best to mask his reaction but a tiny twitch at the corner of his eye gives him away.
“It’s just, whatever it is, I don’t want to let you guys down. I’m feeling a lot of pressure.”
“Amelie, there’s no pressure whatsoever.”
“I’m putting the pressure on myself,” I clarify. “I don’t want to let anyone down, or show anyone up, or embarrass anyone.”
“You have nothing to worry about, believe me. Puking, tripping and embarrassing yourself are kind of par for the course here anyway.” He laughs, and I smile at him. “First year I took part? I puked everywhere and the whole race had to be halted while the course was cleaned down and reset.”
That makes me feel a little better.
“Kalen knocked himself out on the first obstacle. He slipped and broke his nose, but as he fell back he also blacked out and gave himself a concussion. Though of course, he denies the whole thing now.”
I laugh and allow Sawyer to distract me with funny stories of the obstacle course over the years. I find myself relaxing back into my seat and before I know it he’s pulling the car to a stop and parking.
I freeze in my seat, terrified again, but Sawyer rounds the car to open my door and help me exit like a true gentleman. I follow him across the vast car park to an enormous field where an obstacle course twice the size of the one I’ve been practising on is laid out.
There are people absolutely everywhere. All in running gear, all stretching and warming up, chattering and high fiving one another. It seems like every single person here knows each other and I’m the odd one out.
There’s something odd about them all, but it takes me a moment to spot it. My brain whirls as I try to piece things together. I feel sluggish and slow which I totally blame on the combination of alcohol, orgasm deprivation and an overload of carbs. Eventually though the penny drops.
Almost everyone here has that damn knot tattoo.