Safe (9 page)

“No guys have a shot. None.” She glared at me.

I couldn’t help but smile. She was too damn cute when she was pissed off.

“It’s just a dance. No big deal. Come on.” I knew I was egging her on, but couldn’t stop. I hadn’t had this much fun with a woman in a long time. Women were always too easy, and it drove me nuts. Sadie saying no … well, it was entertaining.

I saw Lauryn lean into Sadie and whisper something in her ear. Sadie glared at her and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. One dance.”

I held out my hand. She slid her delicate hand in mine. Pulling her to the dance floor, I could feel the eyes on us. Every guy there wanted to be me at the moment … tough shit for them.

The music was slow, and I wrapped my arms around Sadie’s waist. Looking in her beautiful blue-grey eyes, I could see some indecision there. I’m not repulsive; I knew that. Sadie wrapped her arms around my neck. I pulled her closer to me, thinking she would resist, but she didn’t.

“I won’t bite. I promise,” I said in her ear.

“I won’t let you.”

Her response made me smile. “Come on. Just have fun.”

It took most of the song before she finally took my advice. Her body pulled closer to mine, and she rested her head on my shoulder. Having her wrapped around me was intoxicating. I inhaled her sweet smell of strawberries and vanilla. I kept inhaling not knowing if I would ever be this close to her again. I wanted this smell etched in my brain. I guess I liked torture.

“You know as soon as we’re done, the guys will be all over you again,” I whispered in her ear.

“No they won’t. I’m getting ready to leave.”

“Why are you leaving so early?” It stunned me. I thought for sure she would stay a while.

“I don’t like all the attention. It’s just best I go.” Her head still resting on my shoulder made each puff of breath she sent out of her mouth send sparks throughout my body.

I needed to turn my body down, but it had a mind of its own.

“I’ll tell you what. You stay. Stay by me, and I’ll keep them away.”

Sadie pulled away from me, looking me in the eye. “Why would you do that?”

Silly girl. “Because you are new, and you deserve to have fun. And I get the most beautiful woman here on my arm for the night. It’s a win all around.”

“Thanks, but it’ll just be better if I go.”

“Please stay.” Okay, yes, I was fucking begging. Damn it, I never beg, and here I was practically on my knees asking her to stay with me. I wish I could read Sadie’s mind. I would love to know the thoughts that were swimming around in there.

She seemed to be thinking it over for a minute. “Only for a little bit, then I gotta go.”

The smile spread across my face, and I felt as if I won a prize. “Great.”

The song unfortunately ended, and Sadie stepped away from me. Sure enough, guys began to make their way toward us on the dance floor. I grabbed Sadie’s hand. “Come to the table with me and don’t let go of my hand.”

“Why?” she asked, but she didn’t let go.

“Why come to the table, or why hold my hand?”

I was learning quickly that she was fun to tease.

She glared at me. “Hold your hand.”

“Because they’ll think you’re with me and stay away. They know better.”

“What does that mean? They know better?”

“They just do. Can we talk about this later before they all try and snatch you away?”

“Ha. Ha. Let’s go.” Sadie kept ahold of my hand as we made our way to our table.

Everyone was staring at us, except for Renzo who was smiling. I wanted to punch that smug look off his face.

“Lauryn, can you move over one?” I asked.

“Why?” Lauryn asked perplexed.

“So I can sit by Sadie.” Duh woman … move it!

Lauryn turned to look at Sadie. “You want him to sit by you?”

“Yeah, for a few minutes then we gotta head out.”

“I’m not leaving yet,” Lauryn growled.

“I didn’t say right this minute.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Lauryn moved down a seat.

The conversation at the table could have been how everyone was abducted by aliens and wanted to take over the world. I had no idea. My eyes were on her. She was a true beauty, and the more she talked the more I wanted to know.

I learned that she loved cheese fries smothered in bacon. She was the same age as Lauryn, and she was waiting for her aunt to get back to start working at the boutique she owned.

I didn’t talk much except for the occasional grunting and shaking my head at the men that had the balls to try to come up to Sadie. They retreated quickly.

She mesmerized me. The more she talked, laughed, joked, and kept pulling me closer to her, the more I needed a break.

“I’ll be right back,” I told Sadie in her ear. She just nodded.

What in the hell had gotten into me? I needed to get away for a few minutes to clear my head. I couldn’t feel this pull toward her. I hadn’t felt this way for a long time, but that ended so badly, and I hadn’t ever been the same since. I came to the realization that I couldn’t give women what they wanted, so that was why I stuck to sex only.

Heading back to the table, I was abruptly stopped by an arm on mine. Looking down, I saw Meg.
Damn
.

“Hey Landon. Great show,” she purred.

“Hey Meg.”

“You wanna head out to your truck for a bit?”

There was a time when I would say, “hell yeah,” but not when the smell of vanilla was pulling me. “No thanks. I gotta go.”

Turning toward our table, my eyes locked with Sadie’s. Her eyes were vacant, like she had disappeared somewhere else. “Hey, you okay?” I asked, sitting next to her. She shook her head. I didn’t know if she was telling me no or shaking herself out of thoughts. I got my answer soon enough.

“I’m fine. About ready to head out.”

“What’s wrong?” Surely she wasn’t pissed about Meg.

“Really nothing. Just ...” She blew out a breath. “Several guys coming up to me … No big deal. I handled all of them. I’m just getting tired. Anyway, you have things to get to. You don’t need to be babysitting me.” Sadie tipped her head in the direction behind me. I knew she was talking about Meg.

This was nuts. “Meg is an old friend—”

Sadie cut me off before continuing. “You owe me nothing. Please don’t think you need to justify anything to me. Really, I’m just tired.”

“I wish you’d let me explain.” Damn it, I was doing that begging thing again. If I could, I’d kick my own ass.

“It’s fine.” Sadie nudged Lauryn. “You ready to go?”

“Hell no! It’s just getting started.” Lauryn was always so happy. Put a few beers in her, then times that by ten. I heard Sadie sigh.

“Come on. I’ll take you.” The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.

“No. I’ll stay.” Her response was immediate. I was a bit taken aback by the abruptness, but didn’t say anything. We joined back in the conversation about music we all liked, and the night flew by quicker than I wanted it to.

I also needed to find out why she didn’t want to be alone with me.

The next few days passed quickly, and work was a pain in the ass. Every time I thought I had something figured out, I didn’t, or a wrench was thrown into it. I needed to get away.

Walking into my brother’s office, I asked, “Renzo wanna go get lunch?”

“Yeah, give me five.”

Fifteen minutes later, we pulled into the diner. After all the hand waves to everyone we knew, we finally got to our booth. “You wanna tell me what’s up your ass today?” Renzo eyed me.

“Bad day.”

“Why? Can I help?”

“No. Just everything I touch fucks up, and it’s pissing me off.”

Renzo just stared at me like he wanted me to go on, so I did. “I fucked up the order for the lumber so I had to call and redo it. Then the stupid computer froze when I was doing inventory for the Willis job. Then the kicker was Jameson called again today.”

“What’s his problem now? Thought the rebar thing was handled.”

“Me too. Guess I was wrong.”

“What crawled up his ass? He’s never been this way before.”

“I don’t know. Now he wants proof that the rebar is there.”

“Fuck,” Renzo groaned.

“Yeah, I don’t want to jackhammer that shit out to prove it’s there, just to replace it. You know how much that will cost?”

“Damn. Did Dad do anything yet?”

“I don’t know. What I do know, is this is a pain in my ass.”

“Shit. What do you need me to do?”

“I don’t know yet. You got any ideas?”

“Other than telling him or having the guys who laid it tell him, I don’t know.”

“Shit.”

Rubbing my hands across my face, I sighed; nothing was gonna be fixed in the next five minutes.

“You talk to Sadie at all?” This must have been Renzo’s way of changing the conversation.

“No, why would I?”

“You two were awfully close the other night.”

“Nothing happened. I was just helping her keep the wolves at bay.”

It had been four long days since I’d seen Sadie. That didn’t mean that my thoughts weren’t consumed by her, even my dreams.

And speak of the devil. “Look who’s here.” I pointed toward the door.

In walked Sadie and Lauryn. Sadie was dressed in short shorts and a skin tight t-shirt, her long hair hanging down her back. She was absolutely stunning.

“Sadie,” I called from my seat, waving like an idiot. I needed help. Her eyes turned to my voice and a smirk played on those beautiful lips. Lauryn nudged her, but instead of smiling at her she scowled. It made me laugh. Sadie was a bit feisty. I could see it spark at times.

Slowly they made their way to our booth.

“Hey ladies. Need dates?”

Lauryn spoke before Sadie, “Sure!” She moved in next to Renzo who was giving me the death glare. Sadie slowly moved in by me leaving enough room between us to fit the Grand Canyon. This repulsion she had for me was quite a turn on.

“What are you ladies doing today?” I asked.

“Shopping. Getting ready for the party tomorrow night,” Lauryn said.

“Oh yes, the
Welcome Sadie to Williamsfield Party
. You excited about that?” I asked, glancing at Sadie.

“Thrilled.” I loved her sarcastic tone.

“Sounds like it,” Renzo chimed in. “You have a rough time getting home the other night?”

“Nope, we got home just fine. Actually Sadie drove; I had a few too many.”

Sadie shrugged her shoulders as if it were no big deal. The conversation at lunch was light. We laughed just like the night at the bar.

The entire time I felt all the tension of my morning fall away from me. The more I heard Sadie laugh, the more relaxed I became. Reluctantly, we were finished and needed to get back to the office. “We’d better go. Thanks for eating with us.”

“Thanks for buying.” Lauryn smiled.

“Anytime.”

“You’re coming to the party, right?” Lauryn wasn’t done with me yet.

“Yeah. We’ll all be there,” I said, looking at Renzo. I needed to find out what the hell his problem was when it came to Lauryn.

“‘K bye,” Lauryn said, filing out the door.

“Bye.” Sadie’s quiet voice said before she did the same.

Climbing into the truck, Renzo asked, “Damn dude. Why’d you invite them to stay for lunch?”

“What the hell is your problem? You usually like it when I invite women to join us.”

“Whatever.”

“Tell me what the hell is going on with you and Lauryn.” I really wanted to know.

“Nothing.”

“Seriously, then why the hell are you so pissed? Both Sadie and Lauryn are hot.”

“You don’t think I know that.”

“Then what’s the problem?” My tone was getting angrier.

“Look, I don’t want to talk about it, all right.” Renzo turned his head toward the window.

“Dude, you’ve known Lauryn your whole life. She’s Lainey’s best friend.”

“Maybe that’s the problem,” he grumbled under his breath, the pieces starting fall into place.

“So you like her, but are being a jackass and staying away ‘cause of Lainey.”

“I said, I. Don’t. Want. To. Talk. About. It,” he barked at me.

“Fine, whatever.”

Seeing Landon again brought back all those pesky little butterflies in my stomach that took me four days to get rid of.