Sage: Take the Risk (F&L Story #3)

Sage: Parts 3 & 4

Part Three

Wednesday, July 28, 2010.

Carey pressed his palm to the wooden barrier between him and Sage.  How in the world was he supposed to keep his hands off her when they weren't out in public?  Her creamy skin and red hair reminded him of strawberries and cream.  She even smelled like the berry concoction.  And when she smiled...a colossal ray of heaven's light shone down on her.

Something inside his chest rattled painfully every time she smiled at him.  Some strange emotion, mixed with a good dollop of protectiveness, flared up and burned him whenever she was close to him.  Then there was the sweet innocence she emitted, as though Sage Honeycutt was the sole source of all things pure and angelic in the world.

Not the type of woman he should be sharing his home with.

We have a plan, he told himself.  She was his girlfriend in public.  But in the privacy of his apartment, she was just a friend. 

A friend he once kissed on a rooftop, and then broke up with when he was given his discharge from the hospital.  Only because he couldn't bear to see the pain in her eyes whenever he went back to visit her.

The pain from her cancer treatments.  The pain of being left alone for most of her days.  The pain of not knowing the trials and blessings of loving a man.

His sister, Eve, finally ripped him a new one for abandoning Sage, and he swallowed his pride and went to talk to her.  Since then, they had come to an agreement, and they constructed a plan to make everyone happy.  Everyone except him.

Sage once told him she didn't want to get involved with anyone because it wasn't fair to love someone, knowing that her time on this earth was limited.  A reality he lived everyday.  Carey's own time was precious.  He endured the pains of cancer, too.  Bone cancer that kept coming back around his shoulders and spine.  But his remission began two months ago, whereas Sage was just starting hers.

They had a lot in common.  However, Sage claimed it wasn't enough to base a relationship she had no hope of seeing through.

He sighed and pushed away from her door.  He wasn't sure of his feelings for her.  Love was an unnatural emotion to him.  He loved his sister and his parents, but with that feeling came guilt, hopelessness, and grief.  With Sage, he felt like a man.  Not a man living the cancer nightmare, but a man who yearned for a woman.

That woman.

The woman who point-blank told him she was a virgin and will stay that way until the day she married.  Something, she claimed, would never happen.  Because her body and her heart were connected, and if she was to give one to a man, she’d better be prepared to impart with the other.  Her words…not his.  Carey Sanborn had never had a problem separating his body and heart from each other.  Sage also said that with marriage came kids and a lifelong commitment.  How could she raise a child when they both knew they wouldn't live to see it grow up?

Carey wasn't sure if he was happy she was untouched, or if he was disgruntled because she wouldn't allow any of that touching.  Besides, when was the last time anyone met a twenty-two year old virgin?  And a beautiful one, to boot.  She should be going out and experiencing life to its fullest, considering how she keeps thinking she'll die any moment.  Why not get laid?  It's not like she needed to worry about a horrible first time.  He would gladly make it memorable and just as exquisite as she was.

After that, she'd never leave his bed.  Which suited him just fine.  Sage was all he wanted anyway.  His family had been pressuring him for years to knock off the bachelor status and quit screwing every woman that crossed his path.  In college, he'd gained a reputation for being a party-hard womanizer with a different chick on his arm every weekend.  Blonde, brunette, red-head...Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic...he didn't care.  But hell, at the age of eighteen, half the reason for even going to college was to join a fraternity and sow his horny oats.