Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Ryder, Eli, and Wren had bid us farewell, heading back to Atlanta along with Kane Black, who’d been on loan from Sinclair Security. Hawk was hanging on to the rest of his team, at least for a while. While Griffen was confident that it was over and we were free to live our lives like normal people—or as normal as a Sawyer could get—Hawk was too paranoid for that. He preferred to downgrade security gradually. He’d said that if anyone was watching and decided to take a shot at the Sawyers, he’d be ready for them.
I appreciated his caution, but I was with Griffen—there wasn’t anyone else out there who wanted to come for the Sawyers. It was finally over.
West had cleared Harvey and sent in a team to process the crime scenes—both the one caused by Cole Haywood’s death and the older scene of my mother and Paul Williams’s murder. Once West was done, Bailey Toms’s concrete company did us a favor and squeezed in the garage floor repair before they closed for the holidays. Fortunately, the weather had cooperated. The days were filled with bright sunshine and blue skies, the chill in the air mostly burned off by midday. We wouldn’t have a white Christmas, but we sure as hell would have a cheerful one.
There were clouds here and there. Paige and I were both adjusting to our new understanding of our parents. There had been a part of me that had hated my mother for leaving me, that had always wondered why I hadn’t been enough to make her stay. I knew Paige felt the same about her father. And now, I couldn’t escape the grief of knowing that Sarah’s life was stolen so young, that she’d been killed by the man who’d vowed to cherish her. It was both better and worse to know she’d been willing to give up love for me, that Paige’s father had planned to turn away from his heart and go home to his daughter.
When I let myself think about it, I liked to imagine that if my mother had lived, maybe when we were a little older, we could have found a way to leave Prentice together. She could have had her freedom—maybe she could have found her way to Paul. But then again—I looked at the woman sleeping in my arms, her lashes dark fans on her cheeks, her long legs tangled with mine. Paige, as my stepsister, would have been a problem, considering I hadn’t managed to keep my hands off her as an adult. As teenagers? Nope, not thinking about that.
All we had was the present. And when it came to Paige, it was hard to regret anything that had come before when it had led me to landing here, with this woman in my arms.
We’d been together such a short time, and yet, it felt like forever. Life before Paige was dull and faded. And finally, with Haywood gone—our parents soon to be properly buried in the Sawyer family plot together—we could have a life.
A future.
And that thought reminded me of what I had planned for the morning.
“It’s going to be okay,” I heard, and a soft fingertip traced a line between my furrowed eyebrows. I rolled my head on the pillow to see Paige smiling at me, her face sleepy and soft. “It’s a great idea. And Griffen’s smart, he’ll see that.”
“I hope so,” I said. I had a plan for what to do with the rest of my life now that I had one. But I couldn’t do it by myself. I needed Griffen’s buy-in. I caught her hand in mine and kissed her fingertips, “Whatever happens, I’ll figure it out.”
“I know you will,” she said, her pale blue eyes so satisfied they seemed to glow with it. “What time is it?” She stretched her arms over her head with a lazy smile.
“Eight-something,” I said, easing down to bury my face in the curve of her neck, drawing in her warm, sweet scent.
She turned to face me, trailing her hands over my back. “We don’t have to get up yet.”
“Not yet,” I agreed, closing my fingers over the curve of her ass and pulling her into my erection.
“Mm, you feel so good,” she said, rolling to her back, one leg coming up to wrap around my hip. She smiled up at me, her eyes still sleepy but now fogged with lust. “This is my favorite way to wake up.”
“Mine too.” I leaned to nudge open her bedside drawer and pulled out a condom. I had them stashed everywhere. Her room, mine, the shower. Anywhere I thought I might get her naked. Now that life was somewhat settled, we’d been putting them to good use, disappearing every night after dinner for an early bedtime. We spent plenty of time in bed, not a lot of it sleeping. I pressed her back into the mattress, pulling her hands over her head and dipping my head to tease the tip of her breast. I was on a mission to taste every inch of Paige, and I wasn’t close to satisfied.