It wasn’t a relief exactly to learn that she’d had been seeing someone. Even with how much Sadie was pissing me off—andsortahurting my feelings—there was no denying that I wanted her in my arms. I wanted her smell on my clothes. I wanted to make her laugh. I kinda wanted to beat the shit out of the guy that had broken her heart. How do you have a woman like Sadie, and fumble? She was fresh air and wit. And she was cute as hell. I literally had her in my phone asCute as Hell Sadie. Some lucky dumb bastard fucked it up.
If I were a more selfish person, I’d want to be with Sadie.
I continued to the elevator and rode it to my floor. When the doors opened, my phone buzzed in my pocket, but it couldn’t draw my attention away from her pausing outside of her room to pull her own phone out of the pocket in her swishy skirt. Her hip jutted out the way it did when she was annoyed, and the hem of her skirt rose a little on one side ending at her mid-thigh. I bit down on my lower lip at the curve of her calf and the shape of her ankle.
What kind of pervert found an ankle sexy?
Not me.
No way.
Maybe I missed her. It had been months since she’d last talked to me, and I didn’t even try to connect with anyone else.
I just kept thinking about Sadie.
She typed out something before my pocket buzzed again. Retrieving my device to see two notifications, one fromMike (Best Brother Evah)—June had updated his name at some point—and the other fromCute as Hell Sadie.
She must have heard me approaching because she looked over her shoulder and then clenched her jaw, causing me to roll my eyes. And that seemed like the exact opposite of “being nice,” but it was annoying to be blamed for someone else being a jackass. And I missed the way her face usually lit up when she saw me—she had a smile that made me feel like we were the only two people on earth.
Leaning her back to the wall framing her door, she waited for me to take a few steps closer. “Are you a good driver?”
I raised my eyebrows in question, not quite trusting myself to reply with a non-shitty comment.
“Like is it generally safe to be in the car with you behind the wheel?”
“Generally speaking, yes.”
“So, I’m not going to spend the entire trip holding the ‘oh shit’ handle?”
“Do you need a signed affidavit from my past passengers?” I leaned back against my closed door.
“No, I’d rather not have legal documentation of who else you’ve given arideto.”
A muscle twitched in my jaw. “Are we talking about cars still?”
For the barest moment, something vulnerable flashed across Sadie’s face—a softening of her eyes, a pout of her lower lip, the deflation of her chest. For just a moment, her anger was gone and underneath it was hurt. It gripped tight around my heart, tugging me to stand straight.
“Sadie.” I took a step toward her, but she backed away, and I froze. Not letting myself pull her to my chest and promise...to what? Find the guy who had hurt her and beat the shit out of him? Duel for her honor?
I felt so disgustingly impotent.
And a little pathetic. She’d spent the past few hours being an absolute asshole to me, and the second she was even a little sad I was ready to forgive her for everything. No forgiveness needed, it was completely forgotten.
She looked down at her painted blue toenails curling in her sandals. “Just don’t hurt me.”
“Never,” I promised, still unsure if we were talking about cars. “Will you just talk to me? If you’re done with the physical aspect of our relationship, that’s fine. But we’re friends. We don’t have to be shitty to each other.”
A humorless laugh left her lips and floated in the quiet of the hallway between us. She touched her key card to the door lock turning the indicator light green with a beep. “Whatever,Gene.”
The culmination of the last twenty-four hours came to a head, from booking a last-minute first-class flight to arrive in time for everyone else, to my brother insinuating how he wished our dad could be there which felt easier to ignore when it was unsaid, to the uncomfortable vulnerability of asking her to clear the air and having it shot down instantly. Every shitty comment Sadie had made. Every sneer. Every time she said my name like it was the butt of a joke. It all boiled to the top, and I lost the battle with my impulses.
Snaking an arm out, I barred the entrance to her room. Our bodies were so close, I could feel the heat coming off the bare skin of her shoulder. So close that if I leaned down even a little I could brush my lips there. She pulled in a breath, pressing her breasts against theVof her neckline. Something primal scratched at the doors of its enclosure, begging to be let out—I wanted her so fucking badly, I had to resist the urge to run my teeth down the slope of her neck.
She glared up at me out of the corner of her eye.
In a near whisper, I forced my voice calm. “I’m going to need you to call me Jamison.”
Tilting her head, she squared her shoulders. “What don’t like”—
