Forget You (30 page)

Her ocean-colored eyes gazed into mine as she
pulled my shirt up over my head, and flung it to the floor.
Lowering myself, I kissed her. It was soft and slow, eager and
loving combined. With that one kiss, I felt as though my entire
bucket of feelings for this girl were pouring into her as they
passed through my lips.

Eva’s warm hands slipped down my bare chest,
and landed on the button of my jeans. She fumbled with the clasp,
but couldn’t get it undone. After a few more tries, her hands fell
against the bed, and she chuckled in defeat that throaty, sexy
laugh of hers I’d missed so much. Grinning from ear-to-ear, I
unbuttoned them for her, and peeled them off. While I did this, she
tugged off her yoga pants beneath me. Her feet moved to kick them
off her ankles, and then she wrapped her legs around my waist
again. The single scraps of fabric between us were enough to drive
me insane, especially when Eva began the torturous move of
thrusting her hips against me.

“I want you so badly right now,” I muttered,
brushing my lips across hers.

Eva’s nails scrapped across my back in a
tantalizing pressure.

“Then take me… After all, don’t you think
you’ve made me wait long enough?” She grinned.

My eyes closed as I replayed this perfect
girl’s words in my mind. Sinking my teeth into her shoulder for a
love bite, I breathed in the scent of her skin. Pulling back to
gaze into her ocean-colored eyes, I smiled down at her.

“Never again, Eva Bennett. You will never
have to wait like that for me again,” I insisted.

My thumbs hooked onto the sides of her
panties, and I pulled them down. She kicked them off her ankles
while I tugged my boxers down, and tossed them to the floor.
Gripping myself, ready to feel her around me, the realization I
didn’t have any protection pierced my mind.

“Damn it,” I muttered.

“What’s wrong?”

Running a hand through my hair, I leaned back
on my knees. “I don’t have a condom.”

A devilish smile twisted at her lips, and she
reached over her head for the handle on the top drawer of her
nightstand. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you
covered.
”

I laughed at her corny little joke like I’d
never laughed before. “Nice one.”

She grabbed a condom, and brought it to her
mouth to tear the corner. This was a move I’d seen on TV, but never
in my life had I ever witnessed a woman do it in person. Normally,
it would have been tossed at me, and I would be the one to handle
it. Not with Eva though. Gripping me in her soft hand, she rolled
it on. I could have finished right then and there if I’d allowed
myself to, because I’d never seen something sexier.

“There, now where were we?” She arched a
brow. “Oh, I remember.” Moving to position me at her entrance, she
didn’t ease me in as I thought she would. Instead, she thrust her
hips up, and I plunged inside her, quick and hard.

The sensation was so good it was nearly
crippling. Leaning over her, so I could get my bearings and take
control of the rhythm, I slowed the pace to where I had wanted it
to be from the start. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, and her
eyes hooded with lush, letting me know I was making her feel
everything I’d hoped. This moment didn’t need to be quick and hot;
it needed to be slow and sensual.

This was my time to worship Eva, and show her
everything I wasn’t sure I could tell her yet.

* * * *

“I’d made up my mind I was going to leave the
next morning, even if she tried to stop me,” I said.

We were lying in bed, eating strawberry
PopTarts as I told my story to Eva. She had this look plastered
across her face of pure concentration as she soaked in every word I
was saying.

“What happened in the morning? Did she try to
stop you?” she asked.

“No.” I shook my head, and took another bite
of the sweet goodness. “She actually had a little basket packed
with food and water, and was at the door waiting when I came out.
She muttered something to me in a language I couldn’t understand,
and motioned for me to come with her. I had no clue where she was
taking me, but I went anyway, thinking if I didn’t like it, I could
always run.”

Eva sat up, and brushed sprinkles and crumbs
from her hands over the side of her bed. “So where did she take
you? Stop being so melodramatic, and spit it out. You’re killing me
with the suspense!”

“Sorry.” I laughed. “She took me to a camp. I
remember how fast my heart was pounding, because I wasn’t sure if
it was one of my people’s camps or hers.”

The emotions from that moment tightened my
chest, and forced my heart to pound at the thought. Eva huffed.

“Oh, please,” she said. “If she was just
going to turn you over, she wouldn’t have wasted however many weeks
getting your ass better.”

My lips curved into a smirk. “You’re right.
It was a group of soldiers from another branch of the U.S.
military. Before she turned me over to them, she kissed me on the
forehead and said something I couldn’t understand. I think that
will always bother me—not knowing what those words had been.”

“That was sweet of her.” Eva smiled. “It’s
almost as though she paid it forward with you. You detoured her and
her son from harm’s way the first time you met, and then she healed
you back to reasonable health before depositing you with your own
as a thank you of sorts. I love it.”

I’d never thought about it that way until
now. Eva was right. That was exactly what had happened.

“So, what does it mean now that you’re back?
Are you still an active or what?” She bit her bottom lip without
meeting my eyes. “Doesn’t nearly getting killed, and being the only
survivor of your unit entitle you to be discharged with honor or
whatever the term is?”

Reaching out for her, I wrapped my arms
around her waist, and pulled her into my lap. “Something like that.
I actually have only twenty percent hearing in my right ear now.
I’m sort of no good to the military now that I can’t fully hear
whenever the enemy comes up behind me, so I don’t think I’ll be
deployed for anything else.” I kissed the top of her bare shoulder.
My heart pounded as the words I’d wanted to say to her for so long
shifted through my mind once more, the words she’d whispered to me
before falling asleep the last night I’d spent with her. “You’ve
got me for the rest of ever, if you want me.”

Eva shifted in my lap to look at me. I fought
the urge to meet her stare, nervous of what I would find reflected
in her eyes. Her fingers touched under my chin, and forced my face
up to hers. She didn’t speak when our eyes locked. Instead, she
pressed her lips to mine, and kissed me.

“There,” She pulled back after a few moments,
breathless as I was. “is your answer, Sawyer Keeton.”

A goofy grin sprang onto my face, and I
pushed her back against the mattress. Crushing my lips to hers, I
trailed my hand down the side of her stomach until I met her hip.
Pushing her thighs apart with my knee, I settled between them,
ready for another round. Her phone rang from somewhere in the
living room, but I didn’t let her up to answer it. Whoever it was
would have to wait, because I was determined to show this woman how
happy her words had made me.

As I kissed my way down her throat and
between her breasts, the memory of the first time I’d seen her
flipped through my mind. She’d been sitting on the bench in
Gareth’s Park, with a book in her lap and a pen resting at the
corner of her plump lips. My heart had kick-started at the sight of
her, and I knew right then and there that she was something
special. She was the one I would fight to spend
the rest of my
ever
with.

Smiling, I knew now how right I had been.

EVA

Two weeks after Sawyer appeared on my
doorstep, and patched up all the holes in my then fragile heart,
we’d gone to the courthouse and gotten married. Maybe it was a
naïve, juvenile thing to do, but that was us. One thing I’d learned
while being with Sawyer was that life was too damn short to not
indulge in immature things and accept what you feel when you feel
it.

Once my wish had been granted, and I’d gotten
him back, I never wanted to let him go, regardless of how little
time we’d known each other. As Jason’s mom had said, “
Love knows
no time limits
.”

“You ready for this?” Sawyer asked. His hand
reached out for mine, and he brushed his thumb along my skin.

Twirling the ring Sawyer had given me, I
thought about the words he’d had engraved along the inside, and
smiled. I pulled my hand from his, and took it off to read them
once more. Holding the silver ring up, I read the swirling script,
and felt my heart swell with happiness.

For the rest of ever…

“Yeah, let’s do this.” I nodded.

Climbing out of Sawyer’s Mustang, I slammed
my door shut and started around the front to meet him. We locked
hands, and headed up the steps to Cameron’s house. Everyone was
meeting here tonight for a dinner thing. It had been Paige’s idea.
Now that our reunited lovebird time—as she’d called it—had passed
for Sawyer and me, she wanted to throw a celebratory dinner in
honor of him making it back to me safely. Little did they know,
they would all be learning we’d eloped as well.

Making our way through the front door without
knocking, the scent of something amazing met my nose. We followed
the laughter and sounds of talking to the kitchen, where everyone
seemed to be congregating.

“Hey, guys.” I smiled.

“I was wondering if you two were going to be
able to get out of bed to make it,” Lauren muttered with a wide
grin. “I feel like we haven’t seen you since he got back. I get
that you’re trying to catch up on all the missed sex, but
dang.”

Shaking my head, I narrowed my eyes at her.
“It had to happen, okay?”

Lauren laughed, and Ian came up behind her.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, and leaned his chin on her
shoulder. “Leave them alone. They deserved to hole up for a while
after all the crap they’ve been through. Be happy for them,” he
said.

“I am happy for them.” Lauren beamed.

“What’s that?” Blaire asked suddenly.

“What’s what?” I countered.

Damn her and her impeccable notice to
detail.

Blaire grinned from ear-to-ear. “The ring on
your left hand finger!”

Sawyer squeezed my hand in his, and I held up
my other for everyone to see. Paige shrieked, and Lauren nearly
died laughing.

“You bitch!” Lauren shouted. “Why didn’t you
tell us? Or hell, why didn’t we get to be there for it?”

I shrugged. “It was a spur of the moment
thing, but we’re telling you now.”

Cameron burst into a fit of laughter. He was
laughing so hard he actually had to wipe away a tear or two from
his eyes. Paige smacked him on the chest.

“I don’t get what’s so funny about this to
you,” she scolded him.

“It’s just.” He gathered himself, and locked
eyes with me. “I’m sorry. I’m just remembering you at Jason and
Blaire’s wedding. You were the one who caught the fucking bouquet!
There must be some truth to that superstition after all!”

I’d nearly forgotten about that. Even though
it was Blaire and Jason’s wedding, that day was stuck in the gray
area of my time without Sawyer that I never wanted to dredge
up.

“That’s right, she did!” Blaire shouted.

“Drinks!” Cam yelled. “Everyone, it’s time
for some celebratory drinks!”

Cameron poured us all a yellow concoction
into some salt-rimmed glasses. Margaritas, my favorite!

Paige opened the oven, and pulled out a few
bags with the logo for Verde Guacamole on the side. My smile
widened. Verde Guacamole was the best Mexican restaurant in all of
Coldcreek. My stomach rumbled as Paige set a stack of plates on the
counter. Releasing Sawyer’s hand, I stepped beside Cameron, and
reached for a plate while listening to everyone congratulate Sawyer
and me on our eloping.

“I’m happy for you, babe,” Cameron said in a
voice so low only I could hear him. “Damn, it’s so good to see you
smile again.”

“Thanks.” I grinned, and scoped up a plate
from the stack.

“I mean it,” he insisted. His tone made me
lift my eyes to his. “I’ve always told you that you deserved better
than the shitheads you always seemed to settle for. I know I tried
to get you for myself a few times in the past, and while I didn’t
get the whole
we’re too much alike and it would never work
thing you’ve repeatedly tossed in my face over the years, it makes
perfect since why we never would have worked out now.” He paused in
what he was doing, and glanced at Paige for the briefest of
moments. The love he felt for her still lingered in his eyes when
he brought his stare back to mine. “I always knew there was someone
out there for you, but as time seemed to drag on, I thought that
person must have gotten hit by a train or some shit.” He
grinned.

I laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. He
had no idea how many times I’d thought that same thing myself. “How
nice of you,” I teased.

Cam sank his teeth into his bottom lip, and
his face grew serious. “But I can see that’s not true now, because
you’ve finally found him. I’m happy for you, sweetheart. Happier
than you will ever know.”

Setting my plate down, I reached out, and
pulled Cam into a hug. “Thank you.”

His head leaned against mine, and we stood
there, staring out at the people who had come into our lives at
random and saved us from ourselves. The people who had forced us to
realize the world wasn’t as bad or hopeless as we’d once thought.
Cam and I had similar stories of heartache and pain, and now we
each had a similar ending of happiness and love.

My eyes locked with Sawyer’s from across the
kitchen, and I refused to drop his stare, just like the first time
I saw him. It took a confident person not to be afraid of eye
contact, and that was the first thing about him that had grabbed my
attention and held it. His mouth twisted into a lopsided grin as he
continued to hold my stare, most likely thinking the same thing I
was.