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Kat set her water on the counter and looked at him with amusement crinkling her eyes. “Did you set all this up to get me to your house?”
“No,” he said, with a dismissive shake of his head. “Lately nothing I plan works out as well as I want it to, so I’ve decided to give that up. Sometimes it’s better to just go with the flow and see what happens. It always works for Finn, so why not me?”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “You’re not Finn. You’re Sawyer.”
He shrugged and finished off his water. “Fat lot of good that does me. Finn is the one who reaps all the rewards. He has all the fun, gets all the girls, lives life to the fullest. He always gets what I want,” Sawyer said, looking pointedly at Kat.
She dismissed his inebriated tirade, stretching out her hand and gently grasping his wrist. “You may look alike, but the world needs only one Finn. And it needs you to be yourself, because there’s only one you.”
Sawyer looked down at her hand and followed the line of her arm until he was gazing into her eyes. “Stay with me tonight.”
Kat froze for a moment before dropping her hand from his wrist. He could tell by the line between her brows that she was conflicted. She wanted to stay. She wanted him. But she kept putting this fantasy of a future with Finn in front of her own needs and desires.
“Just one night. One last time.”
She backed up until she hit the quartz countertop of the island. “You’ve been drinking. You don’t mean it. We both agreed it was a mistake the last time.”
He took a step forward and shook his head. “I know exactly what I’m saying, Kat. I’m not that drunk.”
“I don’t know, Sawyer. I—”
He took another step, but she didn’t move away. “Finn will be home soon. And if you get what you want, everything that happened between us will be a deeply buried secret once you move on with your life. I will become your brother-in-law or the baby’s uncle Sawyer. Nothing more. And I’ll be okay with that, because it’s what you want. But give me one last night to keep with me. A night to remember you by.”
Sawyer reached out to capture the ever-present strand of auburn hair that fell along her cheek, and pushed it behind her ear. He let his knuckles graze her skin and felt her press into his touch.
* * *
“Please, Kat.”
There was something in his voice. In the way he looked at her. Something that told Kat she wasn’t going to be able to walk away from him. Not tonight.
She closed her eyes and leaned into the warm fingers brushing against her face. She longed to have those same warm hands on her body and his lips pressed to hers. These last few days, she’d missed Sawyer. Whether he was aggravating her or making love to her, she missed it. And she knew she would miss it for the days and weeks to come.
Why not indulge one last time? Give them both something to remember?
Opening her eyes, she closed the gap between them, cradled his face in her hands and pulled his mouth to hers. The rough stubble of his evening beard prickled against her hands in sharp contrast to her own soft skin.
The moment he realized she wasn’t just kissing him, but saying yes to his proposition, the intensity increased tenfold. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her tight against him with the hunger of a man who’d long denied himself sustenance. He pressed her back against the island, his hands roaming across her body just as his tongue explored her mouth.
Kat met his intensity. With everything she had, she wanted him. And if it was the last time, she wanted to remember every moment in his arms.
Her breathing quickened when his lips traveled along her jaw and down her throat. He licked and nibbled at her skin, causing Kat to gasp and writhe as the pleasurable tingles vibrated through her nervous system. Her neck was her weakness and Sawyer instinctively se
emed to know it. As her knees softened beneath her from the sensations, he tightened his grip, holding her upright.
And then, when she needed him more than ever, he retreated. She opened her eyes to see him looking down at her with desire blazing in his dark gaze. He seemed pensive, and it scared her. He wasn’t changing his mind, was he? Then he took a step back, helping her regain her footing, and reached for her hand. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I’m taking you upstairs,” he said. “If this is the last time we’ll be together, I’m going to do it properly, not some quick tumble on the closest hard surface.”
She followed him back to the staircase she’d admired earlier, and they went up to the second floor. There, he opened a pair of French doors to the master suite, which took up the majority of that level. In the center of the room was the showpiece—a grand four-poster bed that was carved to look like ivy was wrapped around its massive columns and across the headboard.
Kat couldn’t stop herself from walking up to it and touching one of the columns. It was an old piece. Better than her own work, she had to admit. It was beautiful. Perhaps the most beautiful bed she’d ever seen. She had the sudden burning urge to go to her shop and make a headboard at her first opportunity.
“I found this in the attic when I bought the house,” Sawyer said, as he came up behind her and ran his own hand over the smooth, polished wood. “I had it restored and refinished. I must’ve known you would be here to see it one day.”
Kat turned to face him, looking up at the dark eyes that watched her so carefully. He reached out to brush the hair from her face again and then softly ran his thumb over her bottom lip. Even as he teetered on the edge of being tipsy, he was more thoughtful and loving than any man she’d ever been with.
