Chapter Seven
The treadmill beeped, indicating Sailor was reaching the peak of her workout.
She pumped her arms and legs faster still, trying to run off the frustration Saxton caused her.
She let out an audible ugh and kept going. She wouldn’t think of him.
She’d woken up this morning feeling better. Her friends had been great as they’d binge watched Outlander and pigged out on Chinese food. No one had mentioned Saxton or anything serious at all. It had been exactly what she’d needed. Just a good
old-fashioned night with the girls, vegging out. Then Saxton had gone and ruined her morning by looking like he did and being so God damn sexy. The gym’s TV was muted, but on a sports channel, Saxton’s face flashed on the screen.
“Ugh!” she screamed just as the gym door opened.
“What did that poor treadmill ever do to you?” Saxton asked with a little laugh.
At the sound of his voice, Sailor lost her footing and slipped, smacking hard into the treadmill before it threw her onto the gym floor. She cursed loudly and stayed there, breathing hard.
Saxton had rushed to her side and lifted her from the ground. As he placed one strong arm behind her back and one under her legs, her arms slipped around his neck on their own accord and she laid her head on his chest. Got Damn Saxton Crawford. He lifted her with ease and carried her to a bench in the corner of the room. Instead of setting her down, he sat with her in his lap. His face pinched in concentration as he examined her for injury.
“Are you okay?”
Feeling mortified, Sailor buried her hot face into his broad chest, breathing in the scent of him. It was like spices and male. All masculine and unique to him. Why did he have to smell so good? She cursed under her breath, and he tensed.
“I’m fine. No physical injuries. Just a tremendously bruised ego.” Her voice sounded muffled. She felt his breaths and heartbeat because, of course, the sexy bastard wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his tanned skin felt smooth.
“You sure about that, beautiful?”
Sailor nodded into his chest, and his arms tightened ever so slightly. Her traitorous body involuntarily relaxed against him. Why did he have this effect on her? Oh, wait, she knew why. Because he was Saxton fucking Crawford. Sexiest man alive.
Momentary silence fell between them, their breaths the only sound in the room until Saxton spoke. “Can I ask you a question?”
What the hell? Why not?
She silently nodded into his chest again. “Why do you hate me so much?”
Sailor unlaced her arms from around his neck and sat up, looking into his turquoise eyes. “I don’t hate you, Saxton.”
He raised one eyebrow as if to say really. “Okay, Sailor. If you don’t hate me, then what’s with all the hostility?”
Sailor pushed at his chest. “I’m not hostile, Sax.” He grinned at her. “You called me Sax.”
She gave him a pointed look. “Are you going to let me finish?”
He pursed his lips in a way that looked as if he were trying to stop grinning.
With a nod, he gave her the go-ahead to keep talking.
Sailor blew out a breath and began again. “You just make me nervous, and I react badly. Also, for the record, until you showed up, I was a perfectly normal, walking- talking human being. No spontaneous and uncontrollable foul mouth or stumbling or dropping stuff.”
Saxton’s expression morphed into a combination of amusement and confusion. “Why do I make you nervous?”
Sailor felt her face flushing, uncomfortable with where this conversation was headed.
“Because you just do, okay?”
Saxton flexed his big biceps, the motion squeezing her in a delicious way. His face softened.
“Why?” he asked, almost in a whisper.
Sailor sighed, closed her eyes for a moment then met his again thinking, Fuck it.
“Because… You saw me when I was an awkward, unkempt, so not a cute girl— who, by the way, had a huge crush on you from the minute she saw you. You made me nervous then, and you make me nervous now. You turn me into that person again, and I’ve worked really hard to let go of those feelings of inadequacy.”
Saxton searched her face, silent. Then he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. The kiss was soft and gentle at first, taking her by surprise, but it quickly turned into something entirely different. She raised her hands to his head and gripped his hair, pulling him deeper into her mouth. Their tongues danced, and Saxton let out a groan of pleasure. When they finally broke apart, her lips felt bruised by their passion.
Saxton pressed his forehead to hers. “You are right. You weren’t cute,” he said through panting breaths. Sailor tried to pull away, and he held her close his forehead still pressed to hers. “You were beautiful. I saw it then, and I see it now. Your blue eyes and our brief encounter have haunted me for ten years. I think fate brought us back together. I finally found my mystery girl.”
His confession stunned her, and a mix of emotions ran through her. She was searching for the right words to say when her cell phone rang from the treadmill.
“Ignore it.” His voice was sexy with a hint of husky, and she tingled in all the right places.
She didn’t know what was happening between them, but she felt as if she could get lost in it, and that scared her. Saxton moved to kiss her again, and her phone resumed ringing. She turned toward the treadmill, and his kiss turned into a soft graze of his lips on her cheek. Her cell was still going off, but Saxton was now running his nose across the column of her neck, the warmth of his lips and tongue sweeping light kisses as he went lower. Sailor tried to focus but found it difficult with each touch of his skilled mouth to her skin.
“Ignore it.” His voice was gruff, and she felt exactly how serious he was from the large bulge growing beneath her butt. She let out a strange little whimper that was a mixture of surprise, pleasure, and frustration. Saxton paused his glorious mouth just at the collar of her sports bra and drew back to look at her.
“Is this okay?”
She was about to tell him it was more than okay, but her damn phone started ringing again. With an ugh, she rose from his lap, and he placed his large hand around her waist as if to pull her back down. She peered at him and tried to give him the most scolding tone she could muster. She pointed one finger at him and squished up her face.
“No, down, boy.”
Saxton let her go, and she rushed to the treadmill to retrieve her cell. It started going off just as she picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Turn on ESPN.” Dalton sounded pissed.
Sailor turned to the TV in the gym. The channel still on the sports network. Her mouth dropped open when she saw Saxton’s face still on the screen. The caption below it read:
BREAKING NEWS!
JB “Tuck” Tucker signs with Tampa Bay Gators. Texas bad boy Saxton Crawford the new Quarterback for the Austin Arrowheads.
Sailor turned to Saxton, her eyes wide as she pointed to the screen. Saxton looked in its direction and immediately let out a string of curses as he jumped up and moved to her side. She was still staring at the screen when she heard Dalton’s voice in her ear.
“I’ll meet you at the office in fifteen,” she said. She hung up and turned to Saxton. “I’ve gotta go meet Dalton.”
“I’m coming to.” His voice sounded strained.
She nodded as they headed from the gym to the elevator. He pressed the UP button.
“I need to grab a shirt.”
Sailor thought that was a shame, and it must have shown on her face because Saxton grinned and moved closer to her. She raised a hand to him.
“No, Sax. Business to deal with first, then we’ll discuss this.” The doors opened to their floor, and she started sprinting toward her door. She stopped and looked back at Saxton standing at his door. “I need to grab my purse and keys. Meet me back here in two minutes.”
Saxton ran over to her, lifted her and planted a kiss on her lips that left her aching for him. Then he set her down and sprinted back to his door. When he stopped to pull out his keys, she hadn’t moved, too stunned.
He grinned. “I kinda like it when you’re bossy.”
His laughter carried down the hall as he entered his loft and shut the door. Sailor stood there, still staring.
What the fuck just happened?