Room 452

He walks forward, and I hop off the table and turn around. He yanks on the tie roughly until my hands are free once again. I rub my hands over where it was squeezing against my wrist, but when I turn back around, Sawyer grabs my arms and lifts my wrists to his mouth where he places gentle kisses over where they are red.

My breathing completely stops as I just stare at this man in front of me. The gentleness and the care in his touch is making my mind race, but mostly it is making my heart crack open. I open my mouth to say something, but I can’t think of the right words.

Sawyer lightly grabs my chin, and then he gently presses his lips to mine. His other arm wraps around me, pulling me close, surrounding myself in him. I kiss him back until he pulls away a few moments later.

I still don’t know what to say, and suddenly I feel like I’m suffocating. My body goes into overdrive mode, and I know I am panicking. I try to leave. “I’m going to go.” I say as I turn back around toward the door.

Sawyer places his hand over mine on the door knob, stopping me from leaving. “Blake…” He whispers behind me.

“Yeah?” I ask, but my voice comes out hoarse.

“Why are you running?” He asks harshly.

I don’t turn to look at him. “We can’t stay in this closet all night.” I say.

“But you won’t go out there with me?” He says more as a statement than a question.

I turn around and look at him. “You don’t want that.”

His jaw ticks. “Don’t tell me what I want.”

I focus on anger as my emotion in order to guard my heart. “You want to stop the pretending Sawyer?” My voice raises higher. “Then let’s stop pretending this is something it’s not.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asks back.

I ignore his question. “What is it that you really want? You want me to fall for you so you can feel good about yourself when you move on from this game?”

He narrows his eyes. “Is that what’s happening here? You’re falling for me?”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Of course not!”

His face turns angrier, and he leans in closer. He talks right into my ear. “Then you have nothing to worry about.” His voice lowers even more. “But don’t get me wrong Blake. I will be continuing to fuck you.”

He steps back and looks me right in the eyes as he pushes past me and leaves the closet, leaving me standing there all alone. I take a moment to myself before I leave. I lean back against the door and try to think.

What the fuck am I doing? I can’t be with him, but I already know I won’t be able to stop. I need to get ahead of this. We have to set some ground rules.

I quickly smooth out my dress and make sure my hair is in place. Hopefully my face doesn’t look too flushed, but I can probably blame that on alcohol. Most people are probably too tipsy to notice anything is off anyway. I take a deep breath, and then I head out to find Sawyer again.

He’s standing all alone at the bar, nursing a new drink. I walk up next to him and order my own. “No one can know.” I say without looking at him.

He turns his body to face me, but his face remains neutral. “Oh?” He asks.

“Especially not my dad.” I add on.

He gives me a half smile. “What makes you think you dictate the rules here?”

I lightly trace my fingers over his now exposed forearms. “Because Sawyer, as much as you like to make this seem like I can’t resist you,” I stand on my tip-toes up to his ear, “you can’t seem to resist keeping your hands off of me either.”

I pull back with a smirk, and he stares back at me with fiery eyes. Logan approaches the bar. “Everything figured out? I thought we could pick up where we lef-.”

Sawyer cuts him

off without ever breaking eye contact with me. “Fuck off.”

“Right.” Logan says as he slowly backs away.

Sawyer reaches forward and grabs my hand, and then he leads me out to the dance floor where he pulls me up against himself. He wraps his arms tightly around me from behind, and we sway to the music. After a couple songs, he whispers in my ear. “Let’s go home.”