Chapter 41
Alice
The text from Sawyer comes around eight at night while I’m curled up on my couch with a book.
Sawyer: Are you busy? Want to go for a drive?
Me: Always have time for you. Everything okay?
Sawyer: Better than okay. I’ll explain when I see you
Twenty minutes later, I’m sliding into the passenger seat of his patrol car. He’s still in uniform from his shift, but there’s something different about his energy tonight. Lighter.
“Hey,” I say, buckling my seatbelt. “Did you have a good day?”
“The best day I’ve had in years.” He leans over and kisses me softly. “Chief Martinez got official notification from the state police today. The investigation against me is closed. I'm cleared.”
I adjust my glasses. “Sawyer, that’s amazing!”
“And Tracy Campbell was arrested this afternoon on witness tampering charges.”
I stare at him. My hands start shaking. “She was arrested?”
“Jennifer Walsh’s testimony, plus all the evidence Chris compiled, plus two other women coming forward… it was enough. Tracy’s looking at serious prison time.”
I feel tears starting. My throat gets tight. I push my glasses up my nose. “It’s really over?”
“It’s really over, Alicat.”
I can finally breathe. The relief is so overwhelming I start crying for real.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere private.”
He drives us out past the town limits, beyond even the hill where we had our first real date. The road gets narrower, windier, until he turns onto a dirt path that leads to a secluded clearing surrounded by trees. The stars are incredibly bright out here, away from town lights.
“How did you know about this place?” I ask.
“Patrol routes. Sometimes I come out here when I need to think.” He parks and turns off the engine. “We won’t be disturbed here.”
The silence settles around us, broken only by the sound of wind through the trees. Sawyer turns to face me, and there’s an intensity in his eyes that makes my pulse quicken.
“Alice, we’ve been through hell together these past few months. And now that it’s over, we can finally focus on us.”
“I can hardly believe it.”
“Neither can I.” He reaches over and cups my face in his hands. “But I know what I want now.”
“What do you want?”
“You. All of you.”
He kisses me then, deeper and more urgent than he ever has before. My heart races. I can taste the relief on his lips, the joy, the promise of finally being free to be together without fear.
He gets out of the car and walks around to my side, opening the door and helping me out. The night air is cold, and I shiver.
“Come here,” he says, opening the back door of the patrol car.
The back seat is bigger than I expected, and Sawyer has a blanket from his emergency kit that he spreads across the seat. He sits down and pulls me onto his lap, his hands immediately going to my face.
He kisses me again, his hands sliding under my sweater, his palms warm against my skin. I arch into his touch, months of wanting and waiting finally finding release.
“Alice,” he breathes, his lips moving to my neck. “Are you sure about this?”
My stomach flutters. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
His hands work at the buttons of my blouse while I fumble with his uniform shirt. We’re clumsy in the confined space, laughing breathlessly when his elbow hits the window, when I knock my head against the roof.
And we do. Slowly, carefully, we help each other out of our clothes until we’re skin to skin in the back of his patrol car, the blanket wrapped around us.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he whispers, his hands mapping every inch of me like he’s memorizing the feel of my skin. Like he's memorizing every curve that I've hated about my body. Like he's mesmerized.
“Wait,” he says suddenly, reaching for something in the front seat. “I have an idea.”
“What are you doing?”
He comes back with a small cup from his drink holder, ice cubes rattling inside. “Trust me.”
Before I can ask what he’s planning, he takes an ice cube in his mouth and kisses me, the cold shocking against my warm lips. I gasp, and he grins against my mouth.
“Too cold?”
“No,” I breathe heavily, feeling the chill seep into my skin, making my nipples harden.
He trails the ice cube down my neck, following it with his warm tongue, the contrast making me shiver for entirely different reasons now.
When he reaches my breasts, he takes his time, the cold ice making me arch against him before he soothes the sensation with his mouth, his tongue swirling around my hardened nipples, drawing them into his mouth with a gentle suction.
“Sawyer,” I moan, my body aching with need.
He continues his path downward, alternating between ice and warmth, cold and heat, until I’m trembling beneath him.
When he finally settles between my legs, he uses the ice in ways that make me cry out, the sensation so intense I can barely breathe.
The cold ice against my clit, followed by the warm heat of his tongue, drives me wild, my hips grinding against his face.
“Please,” I whisper, and he drops the ice, using only his mouth now, warm and insistent, his tongue delving deep inside me, his fingers joining in, stretching and filling me until I come apart completely, his name on my lips.
Where did he learn this?
“Sawyer.”
“I love it when you moan my name, Alicat,” he growls, his voice thick with desire.
He moves back up my body, kissing me deeply so I can taste myself on his lips, the musky scent of my arousal mingling with the coolness of the ice.
I push him back against the seat and straddle him, taking him in my hand. He's hard and ready. He quickly rolls on a condom, and when I sink down onto him, we both groan, the sensation of him filling me completely overwhelming.
“Alicat,” he moans in the sexiest way, my nickname on his lips like a prayer, his hands gripping my hips, urging me to move faster.
The angle is perfect, deep and intimate, and I can see everything in his face as I move above him. His dark brown eyes are intense, locked on mine, his jaw clenched, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
We find a rhythm together, slow and intense, our bodies learning each other in the confines of the patrol car. The cold air keeps us pressed close together, seeking warmth in each other, our skin slick with sweat, our bodies glistening under the dim light.
His hands roam my body, squeezing and kneading, his fingers digging into my flesh, marking me as his. I lean down, my breasts pressing against his chest, my nipples hard and aching, the friction between us driving me wild.
“Sawyer,” I cry out, my body tensing, my inner muscles clenching around him as I come undone, my orgasm ripping through me, leaving me breathless and shaking.
He follows soon after, his body tensing beneath me, his breath catching as he finds his release, his body shuddering beneath mine. We collapse together, our bodies entwined, our breaths mingling, our hearts beating as one.
Afterward, we stay wrapped together under the blanket, my head on his chest, his fingers tracing patterns on my bare shoulder. My body still tingles.
“Well,” I say eventually. “That’s one way to celebrate.”
He laughs, the sound rumbling through his chest. “Remind me to solve more cases if this is how we celebrate.”
“Well as long as it’s not my family’s cases you’re solving, we should be fine.”
“Fair point.” He pulls the blanket tighter around us. “Are you warm enough?”
“Perfect.” I trace circles on his chest with my finger.
We stay there until the cold gets too intense to ignore, then help each other get dressed, laughing and stealing kisses as we fumble back into our clothes.
“This is definitely going in my top ten patrol car experiences,” Sawyer says as he starts the engine.
“Please tell me that’s a very short list.”
“Very short. Kinda like you.” He chuckles, playfully nudging my shoulder with his. I'm not short. Sawyer is just extremely tall. Tall enough to tower over me without even trying.
The drive back to town is quiet, comfortable, my hand in his on the center console.
When he walks me to my door, he kisses me goodnight like it’s a promise.
“I had a good time tonight, Alicat. I’m sorry our first time together wasn’t in an actual bed.”
“That’s okay. I never get to be spontaneous.”
I watch him drive away, then go inside and straight to my bathroom for a hot shower. As I stand under the spray, warming up from our outdoor adventure, I can’t stop smiling.
My phone buzzes and see it’s a text from Sawyer.
Sawyer: Ida lincoln ocean victor edward young ocean union
Me: What does that mean?
Sawyer: You’ll see ;)