Chapter 10 #2
“Anyone with any sense would recognize that coming in slightly over budget is nothing compared to the toll it would take on a community if it floods,” Sawyer said in a tone so thick with disgust that only an idiot wouldn’t realize just how pissed he was.
Of course, Clay was an idiot, so the icy atmosphere around the table was lost on him.
“Maybe in your line of work,” he said with a guffaw. “But that’s not how we do things in the private sector, buddy.”
“Well, maybe the private sector should change its practices,” Sawyer said.
“Spoken like a state engineer,” Clay said, clapping his hand on Sawyer’s shoulder.
It was obvious that he had no idea Sawyer was ready to pummel him.
For just a second, Paxton was tempted to let them go at it, but she knew it would only cause more problems. She quickly turned the conversation to a fellow coworker who had just won a bid for a nuclear power plant upgrade, the first for Bolt-Myer.
She was so relieved when the bill finally arrived that she nearly cried. She wasn’t sure she could stand another ten minutes of the tension around the table—a tension everyone other than Clay seemed to feel.
He took the bill and made a production of slipping his credit card in the folder, as if he were a big spender taking the crew out for dinner. Paxton knew he’d have his expense report filled out before he got on the plane tomorrow.
When they finally left the restaurant, she walked in step with Sawyer. She could tell by the set of his jaw that he was still fuming.
“Give me ten minutes,” Paxton whispered. “I’ll meet you in your room.”
They’d booked separate rooms so as not to fuel any kind of rumors.
Paxton went into her room and changed out of her favorite travel outfit, a dark brown skirt and matching jacket made of a forgivable fabric that was hard to wrinkle.
She pulled on yoga pants and a roomy T-shirt, then waited another five minutes before grabbing her toiletry case and heading three doors down to Sawyer’s room.
She got a text message from him just as she arrived at his door.
Where R U?
When he answered her knock, she held the phone up to him. “Don’t you think you’re old enough to text like an adult? It’s only four additional characters to actually spell out the words are and you.”
“Would you get in here?” Sawyer said, pulling her into the room.
The first thing he did was kiss her as if it had been twenty years since they’d last seen each other instead of twenty minutes. Once she was breathless and losing feeling in her legs, he finally let go of her lips, but he held on to the rest of her.
With his hands still clamped around her upper arms, he pulled away slightly and said, “That Clay guy is terrible.”
“Like stepfather, like stepson,” Paxton said. “Clay is my supervisor John’s stepson.”
“Oh, you gotta be kidding me.”
“Yes. We call him Clay the Jackass in the office. Rather fitting, don’t you think?”
“That’s an insult to jackasses around the world.” He took her by the hand and led her to bed, sitting up against the headboard and motioning for her to join him.
Paxton crawled onto the bed and into his lap, turning around and fitting herself against him. She pulled his arms around her, resting them just under her breasts, and leaned her head against his solid chest.
“Now do you see why I’m so determined to get the project in Gauthier done on time? Clay is my number one competition when the next project director position opens up. Don’t be fooled by that passive-aggressive crap you saw at dinner tonight. He hates me, and the feeling is mutual.”
“Why does he hate you?”
“Because I’m a better project manager, and John has no choice but to give me my due. There’s nothing he can do to dispute it.”
“So, if you come in over budget and behind schedule on Gauthier’s system, it’s exactly the kind of thing he can use against you.”
“Correct,” Paxton said.
“Why didn’t you say this from the very beginning?”
She looked over her shoulder. “Maybe because I didn’t want to look petty and spiteful?”
“Nothing wrong with pettiness and spite in my book, especially when it comes to showing up a jerk like that,” Sawyer said. “We’re going to get that revised draft of the ICP done on time, even if I don’t get to sleep for a week.”
A smile drew across her lips as she peered up at him. “You’re willing to lose sleep for me?”
“Damn right. Of course, the reason we won’t get any sleep tonight has nothing to do with your stupid coworker. In fact,” he said as he caught the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head, “when it comes to what we’re about to do, I don’t want thoughts of Clay the Jackass in your head at all.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I don’t think that will be a problem.”
She returned the favor of divesting him of his shirt before laying him flat on his back and having her way with him.
It was yet another fantasy fulfilled as she took control of their lovemaking, pinning Sawyer’s hands on either side of his head and climbing on top of him.
After getting rid of their pants and underwear, Paxton grabbed the condom he’d set on the bedside table, rolled it over his rock-solid erection, and quickly guided him inside her.
Their twin moans of ecstasy rang throughout the room as she lowered herself onto his lap, taking his full length inside and rocking slowly back and forth.
Sawyer lifted up from the bed and caught her nipples in his mouth, first one, then the other.
He licked and sucked while she pumped up and down; the rhythm of his mouth increased with every thrust of her hips.
Paxton braced her hands over his solid abs, seeking purchase as she dove down and rose up, impaling herself on his hard flesh until she shattered in a swarm of sensations that radiated throughout her body.
An hour later, Paxton pulled Sawyer’s arm across her body and tucked it underneath her side.
The slow and steady beat of his heart against her back was the most soothing feeling she could imagine.
The desire to feel this every day for the rest of her life was so strong it scared her.
She ached to fall asleep each night with him right beside her, to wake up every morning wrapped in his arms. She wanted to share her life with him.
How had she allowed this to happen?
It was so clichéd. The poor girl from the wrong side of Landreaux Creek falling for the richest boy in town. But she couldn’t deny it. She’d fallen for him in every possible way.
“You’re thinking really hard,” he whispered against her ear.
She looked up over her shoulder. “How do you know that?”
“Because you aren’t talking.”
“So if I’m not talking, that means I’m thinking too hard?”
He flipped her onto her back and pinned her hands on either side of her. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing,” Sawyer said as his lips traveled along her collarbone. “But just in case it is, I’ll give you something else to think about.”
He grazed her skin with his tongue, running it along her neck, then down to the valley of her breasts.
Paxton could lose herself in the sensation of that decadent mouth, but it was the solid length of flesh steadily hardening against her stomach that had the power to make her lose her mind.
As he continued to tease her with his lips, teeth, and tongue, Sawyer deftly lifted her right leg over his shoulder and swiftly entered her.
Paxton’s eyes fell shut as she concentrated on the sensation of having him inside her. The slow, deep slide of his thick erection; the heady, addictive feeling of being stretched with each thrust. His teeth skimmed over her nipple before he sucked it into his mouth and tugged hard.
She clutched his head to her chest, her back arching as she gave herself over to him. She needed him to feel how much she wanted to give him. She wanted him to have all of her. Everything.
Sawyer caught her hips and quickened his pace, plunging in and out with rapid thrusts, sending her completely over the edge within seconds.
He rolled off her and collapsed on the bed, his deep breaths rending the stillness surrounding them.
Paxton stared up at the ceiling, pulsing with the delicious aftermath of her soul-shattering climax.
But even as she basked in the afterglow of Sawyer’s lovemaking, she couldn’t help the sense of dread that stole over her.
How would she survive the heartache when her fairytale ended and she returned to her life in Little Rock next week?
Paxton didn’t know what to make of Sawyer’s mood as they toured the purported site of the levee system that was scheduled to begin construction in a few months. She knew he didn’t like Clay, but for once her coworker was not being his obnoxious self. Yet Sawyer still seemed…off.
As they toured the site, the representative from the Army Corps of Engineers told them the story of how the entire town of Cairo, which was located just south of here, where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers met, had been evacuated several years ago.
A levee had been purposely breached in order to save the town from disaster.
As their guide pointed out the specifics of the flood-protection system, Sawyer’s mood continued to darken. She looked at him with a raised brow, but he simply folded his arms over his chest and pouted.
Once they were done and on their way back to the rental car, she asked, “You want to share what has you so pissy?”
“You think I’m being pissy?” he asked.
“You refused to even speak to the engineer who was gracious enough to show us around today. Yes, I’d call that being pissy.”
“He fed you a load of bull,” Sawyer said.
Paxton stopped with her hand on the door. “What are you talking about?”
“All this talk of how great this new levee system will be? It’s bull,” he said. “What he didn’t point out is what it will do to the farmland and wildlife just a few miles southwest of here. I’ve seen it before.”
Paxton frowned. She thought for a second, and then her eyes widened with understanding. “Did you work here while you lived in Illinois?”
Sawyer nodded. “On this very site.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
He shook his head. “I try not to even think about this project. It’s not something I’m proud of.”
Paxton walked around to where he stood and leaned against the back driver’s-side door. “Okay,” she said. “Spill.”
“I really don’t want to talk about this.”
“You should have told me before we even got on the plane to fly up here. Tell me what happened,” she prodded.
Sawyer released a sigh and turned around.
“We decided on the levee design because it was more cost-effective. A controlled breach isn’t very hard to fix, if done correctly.
It wasn’t until we were in the construction phase that I recognized the unintended consequences.
Our scope was too narrow. We didn’t take into account that our system would push water into several of the smaller surrounding towns.
” The haunted look on his face sent a chill down Paxton’s spine.
“I think that’s exactly what happened to Gauthier. ”
That chill turned even more frigid. “What do you mean?”
“I think the flood-protection system that was constructed around New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina may have contributed to how the topography in Gauthier has changed. Because of the way the water is being diverted, it’s channeling waters at a more rapid pace and cutting grooves into the landscape where it wasn’t cut before. ”
“Even though Landreaux Creek feeds from the Pearl River?”
“I think it’s a combination of the wind pushing the waters up from Lake Borgne, along with the river flow. Because of the new levee walls, water pushed back into the tributaries and flooded places that had never flooded before.”
Her breath caught in her lungs at the simplicity of his explanation and at how easily it had been missed.
“My goodness. This could change the entire project. Why are you just bringing this up?”
“Because the last time I brought it up it caused another city to lose its flood-protection system altogether. When I pointed out the problems with the levee breach design, the corps halted the project. It was pushed back by more than a year. In that time, there was a flood and several people lost their homes. I took a gamble that they couldn’t have another huge flood event so soon, and the community paid for it. ”
“That’s why you were so adamant about the maps and making sure the people in Gauthier have the flood insurance they need.”
He nodded. “It’s also why I want to make sure we’ve looked at every possibility before this project moves to the next stage.”
“Even if it means that Clay comes out ahead of me,” Paxton said.
“I don’t want—”
She cut him off. “This is about Gauthier. My career is important to me, but there is nothing more important than seeing this project through.” She grabbed the keys to the rental car from his hand and pushed him aside so that she could get behind the wheel.
“Come on,” she called. “We’ve got work to do. ”
Their flight back to New Orleans was scheduled to leave in less than two hours. She drove directly to the airport, and, three and a half hours later, they landed at Louis Armstrong International.
Paxton turned her phone back on as soon as the plane’s tires hit the tarmac. She had a missed call from Belinda, a text message from Shayla with a picture of her new shelf filled with apple butter, and two missed calls from John.
She decided to ignore them all and instead talked strategy with Sawyer for the hour-long drive from the airport to Gauthier. It was after six by the time they arrived. They stopped over in Maplesville for Chinese takeout, which they brought to Sawyer’s house.
While he set up the dining room table so that they could work while eating, Paxton finally returned the missed calls and messages, calling Belinda first, then Shayla. She saved her boss for last, hoping that the call would go straight to his voice mail, but he answered on the second ring.
When she finally disconnected, she just stood there for a minute staring at the phone, her mind reeling.
“What’s up?” Sawyer asked. He walked over to her. “Pax?”
She looked up at him. “John wants to pull me off the project,” she said. “I have to leave Gauthier by Sunday morning.”