Page 41 of His Reckoning

Footsteps pull me out of my trance as Sawyer walks into the living room. I jump, and the laptop nearly slides off my legs.

Sawyer stands in front of me. His hair is damp, like he just showered.

He freezes when he sees me sitting there with the laptop.

“Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t know you were awake.”

My brain stops working because now that he’s standing there … it suddenly becomes extremely obvious where the inspiration for the scene came from.

I slam the laptop shut way too fast.

Sawyer raises an eyebrow. “Working late?”

“Yes.” The word flies out of my mouth.

He glances toward the laptop. “Thought you were stuck.”

“I was.”

“And now?”

I stand quickly, clutching the laptop against my chest like its evidence in a crime.

“I got unstuck.”

He nods slowly. “That’s good.”

“Yes.”

I take a step toward the hallway toward my room.

Sawyer watches me with mild curiosity. “Where are you going?”

“Bed.”

“Good night, Kayla.”

“Good night, Sawyer,” I reply, halfway down the hallway already.

I close the door behind me, then lean against it. My heart is racing. Now the entire situation feels mortifying.

I walk to the bed and open the laptop. The scene is still on the screen.

He steps closer while I swallow the saliva building up in my mouth. He wipes his forehead with a towel. Sweat?—

I stare at it for five seconds, then drop my head into my hands. “Oh my God.”

I just wrote a steamy gym scene about the man who lives twenty feet down the hallway.

I slam the laptop shut. “Nope.”

I refuse to do this.

I open the laptop again, highlight the entire scene, and delete it.

The screen goes blank. I stare at it as I wait for another idea.

Nothing happens. My brain goes completely silent again.