Chapter 6

Sawyer

Saturday 2.56pm

By the time we finish clearing most of the wreckage from the living room, my stomach is rumbling and I stink to high heaven.

I’ve also learned Marlene can surf, loves dogs, and is limited in the kitchen. None of which help me find out who is stalking her, all of which makes me like her even more than I already do.

With a not so subtle look at me, Marlene opens the cupboard beside the fire and hands me a towel, just like she did on Friday when I arrived.

Only this time, her eyes run over my body as she gives me a suggestive smile. “My shower is big enough for us both.”

With a chuckle, I grab her shirt front and pull her towards me. I kiss her quick then release her. “As much as I want to, I really do need to check in with the office. They keep pretty tight tabs on me—”

I stop before I say anything else. But it’s obvious her curiosity is piqued. “Okay. I’m going to vacuum up the sand.”

I nod as I check my back pocket for my keys, feeling the crunch of the letter I put there on Friday.

She wrinkles her nose and looks in the direction of her kitchen. “Let me know if the store is open. I need to pick up a few things.”

With a promise to let her know if anything in town is open, I leave her and head out of her cottage to check on my truck.

The hurricane was strong enough to scatter everything from the beach up here. Shells, branches, twigs, grass clippings and split timber cover my truck.

I wince at the damage to the hood and give Marlene’s truck a quick once over. Her tires look fine, and her windshield back and front aren’t damaged, so I unlock my truck and jump in the front seat.

I pull the door closed and take out my cell in the hopes I can make contact with the office.

When it’s obvious there’s no access and I’ll have to leave her for a while, I push the key in the ignition and start the engine.

I keep my eyes glued to the road dodging debris blown in. I note a couple smaller sheds missing, but otherwise, the damage along the coastal road is minimal.

The harbor township is quiet, with no vehicles in sight as I roll down the main street. Most of the storefronts have been boarded over, but one hardy soul is putting a sign out on the street.

I squint against the sunlight fighting its way through grey clouds and make out a guy I think I recognize from a pamphlet on my nightstand at the motel.

Kyle. Landers. The guy who Marlene says helped her move in. I have to force the scowl away as I come to a stop outside his store. He gives me a wary glance as I tuck Marlene’s laptop under my arm and step out of my truck.

The salty sea air seems stronger than on the cliffs where the lighthouse is perched, so I inhale deeply and try to clear the fog that’s currently clouding my thoughts.

“Howdy,” he says.

He’s tall. With sandy colored hair cut close. For someone who lives on the coast, he’s oddly pale like he spends a lot of time indoors.

His build is average, not a lot of muscle, a slight paunch, and hair loss at his temples giving his age away.

I step closer and manage a smile as I nod at his store. “I see you have WIFI, mind if I jump on?”

He smiles wider. “Not at all. Hope you weren’t out driving in the hurricane?”

I shake my head as I follow him into his quaint store. The wood squeaks under my feet as I close the door behind me.

Sand is covering the floors, and particles of seaweed have blown through the cracks in his storm shutters, but the store seems reasonably intact.

More so than Marlene’s front room anyway. “No. I found a place to hunker down.”

It’s hard not to smile as I think about the woman waiting for me to return. Kyle nods slowly. “Oh, you know someone around here?”

He’s being way too nosy, but I need his WIFI, so I can’t exactly tell him to fuck off, so I smile as benignly as I can and gesture to the desk and chair he has beside the window. “Sorry, I’m kind of in a hurry.”

His smile falters but he nods. “Free to customers.”

I take the hint and jerk a thumb at the coffee machine. “I’ll get a coffee then.”

He’s walking away with a frown when I wonder if I should take one back to Marlene.

Shit. Are we at that stage? The, ‘will she be pissed I didn’t think about her’ stage?

Not good, Sawyer. Not good.

I slump into the seat and open her laptop and stare out the window as it boots up, watching the waves rock against the moored boats.

It doesn’t take much to see why Marlene settled here. It’s pretty much where I’d choose too.

If I were a normal guy, in a normal job, and had found her any other way, maybe I’d stick around and see if this can go anywhere. But I’m not. And daydreaming about a life out here on the coast with an incredible woman won’t find this sicko stalking her.

I have her laptop open and I’ve managed to change her password to one she’ll remember and hopefully get a chuckle out of when my phone buzzes in my pocket. I grab it, relieved to find there’s good coverage so I can call the office.

My enthusiasm wanes when I see the international area code. This isn’t a conversation I want to have in a coffee shop, but with time zones, I may not get another chance to clear up a few things.

I jam the phone to my ear. “Kurt. Can I call you back?”

Static comes down the line, then a curse. “Steele? That you? Bad connection.”

I open Marlene’s control panel and pull up the remote settings again. Liz’s name has clearly been added as a user. And with WIFI, I can finally see if she’s been doing more than her job.

“Yeah, it’s Sawyer. I—"

He cuts me off. “I’ve been calling since Friday. You having any luck finding this jerk off?”

He’s so loud I have to hold the phone away from my ear. Any doubt I had that Kyle didn’t hear from behind the counter vanishes as I glance behind me.

His brow is knotted, cheeks a little red as he bustles about behind the counter, not looking me in the eye. “I can’t talk right now. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

I end the call before he says anything else within earshot of a potential suspect.

I spin the laptop around so Kyle can’t see the screen as he steps to the table and places a cup on the table. His hands are trembling as he fumbles so much coffee spills on to the saucer. “Where’d you say you stayed again?” he asks.

He hovers around, growing increasingly aggravated, his eyes bouncing from Marlene’s laptop to me. I clear my throat and wonder why he’s suddenly so interested. “I didn’t say.”

He swallows and narrows his eyes. “That laptop, where’d you get it?”

Fuck. Of course he’d recognize it. Marlene’s probably in here stealing his WIFI regularly.

I’m not sure this could get any more awkward. I need to call Kurt back. Marlene is waiting for me. I need to check in with the office, and this douche is interfering?

Any response I have is lost when the door opens, and a tinkling bell draws my attention away for a second.

An elderly woman with a wet dog breezes inside and smiles at us both. “Thank the Lord! Thought we were in for a category two at least.”

Kyle’s smile is wooden. “Mrs. Henderson. Nice to see you out and about.”

She smiles, crinkling her weathered face all the more. “Oh! Jenkins was going stir crazy. I had to let him out.”

Kyle stays glued to the floor as she starts talking about a storm a few years back.

I reach for the laptop, ready to shut it and get out of here when the dog decides to say hello to Kyle.

He’s obviously not a dog person, because his face tightens and steps back and knocks into the table, or more precisely, the laptop.

I make a grab for it but it slips from my fingers and slams onto the floor.

I don’t even have to look to know the hard drive is likely fried. I scowl up at Kyle, waiting for an apology but he looks anything but sorry. If anything he looks strangely smug. “Oh, whoops! I hope you have insurance?”

I avoid smacking him by thinking about fixing the new problem his stupidity just caused.

Since I’m fairly certain there isn’t anyone out here skilled enough to fix this, this little jaunt into Lander’s convenience, just cost me more than the coffee I’m not going to drink.

I bend down and pick up the laptop, wincing at the way the mousepad and keys aren’t aligned and mutter a couple curses.

With a glare aimed at Kyle, I pull out a ten-dollar bill and pointedly look at the old woman. “Maybe keep the mutt on a leash.”

The woman looks irked I’d dare insult her pedigree as I push past her out the door.

A few brave souls are braving the main street. Among them, a petite blonde, around forty, with blue eyes, and a pinched expression who is eyeing me from inside her BMW.

Her expression tightens as she climbs out of the car and approaches me. “Hi there. You aren’t Mike Jensen by any chance?”

Something stirs in my memory; she’s the wife of the realtor. I shake my head. “No.”

Her artificial smile grows. “Oh, sorry. I was meeting someone to show them a property. I thought maybe you were him.”

Elaine’s eyes shift to the laptop under my arm and her smile falters. “Visiting a friend?”

I frown at her. She was showing someone a property in a hurricane? I adjust my footing and squint at her. “Just here on business.”

Are all these Landers Islanders so nosy or just the family who founded it?

She nods slowly and exhales. “Well, I won’t keep you from your business.”

I fake a smile to match hers and immediately add her to my mental list of people to do a background check on.

If I could get away with it, I’d ask her a bunch of questions, but I don’t have the time or enough information, so I jump back in my truck and try to rearrange my thoughts.

My head is already pulled in three directions at once as it is so I brace myself for calling Kurt.

I don’t know which I’m dreading more, talking to him, or telling Marlene I destroyed her laptop.

I gingerly open it and cautiously press the power button. When a blue screen comes up, I exhale slowly.

I should be able to find someone to recover all her data for her. That’s if she lets me leave with it. I have no idea how this will impact her job. She’s going to be beyond pissed at me.

I close it again and pick up my cell to dial the office when I decide to get the phone call to Kurt out of the way.

I pull out my phone and dial. He picks up instantly and the reception seems a little clearer. “Hey, I haven’t got long. Got an interview. How’s it going? Marlene being a pain in the ass?”

My face twists into a scowl as I shake my head. “Anything but.”

He scoffs down the line. “She’s let you look at her photos then? She was into some pretty heavy shit over here. Good thing she left when she did, things are heating up—”

Anxiety curls in my gut. “What kind of shit are we talking about? I need specifics.”

“Let’s just say, Marlene has a habit of sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. She never got that we observe and don’t intervene.”

I exhale slowly, trying to keep my frustration from coming across. “What kind of things was she involved in?”

He pauses. “Not sure exactly. But I know she got something juicy a few weeks before she left.”

Shit. This just keeps getting better and better. “Got it. She’s put more than a few noses out of joint over the years.”

Kurt laughs down the line. “Fuck yeah. That’s what I mean. She can be a pain in the ass. Stubborn, and she gets affected by things. Not a good combo for a photographer.”

I don’t agree, giving a shit about the people you are photographing is probably what makes her photos so incredible, but I stay silent and let him pepper me with questions.

When I can’t answer him in more than monosyllabic grunts, he finally catches on. “Is she out there on her own? She didn’t tell me.”

There’s an element of hope evident even across the time difference. “Yeah. She’s on her own.”

“She’s stopped replying to my texts. Thought maybe she’d shacked up with a sailor or a fisherman.”

He barks a laugh but there’s something artificial about it. “Not that I’m aware of.”

I flinch at the next words out of his mouth. “Good to know. She shouldn’t be staying out there on her own, what is it, like twenty miles from town?”

He’s not telling me anything I don’t already know, but the reminder is enough to cause my concern to ramp up again. “Ten. But like you said, she’s damn stubborn. I can’t see her leaving. She’s pretty set up here.”

A lengthy silence follows before his voice drops a decibel. “Something you want to tell me?”

I don’t. I don’t owe him anymore. I don’t even like him. “No. I’ll keep you posted. I’ll be talking to your PA. I might need to talk to you again soon to verify a few things.”

He sounds distracted. “Sure. Sure. Liz is great. Shit. I gotta go, jeep just rolled up outside the hotel. Interviewing a state official.”

The line goes dead. I keep a hold of it as I stare out my dirty windshield.

I tap my finger on my thigh as I try to prioritize and to find a way to justify staying here longer.

With nothing else to do, but face the music, I turn the engine over and buckle up.

The entire drive back, I’m running over what I’m going to say to her. When I reach her cottage, my thoughts are as stretched as my loyalties.

Kurt’s right. It’s not safe out here. She’s putting herself at risk by staying. And I need to do everything in my power to try to convince her to find somewhere else to go.

I grab her laptop, my overnight bag and jump out of my truck, wishing my life wasn’t so complicated and wishing I could just take her home with me.

Unsure of whether to knock and wait, I rap my knuckles against the door, then step inside her cottage.

Considering she’s not bothered to lock the door, and I can hear the shower running, she’s not in the least concerned about her security.

Or maybe she left the door unlocked because she knew I’d be back soon? Either way, she can’t carry on being so lax with her security.

Not until I figure out who is doing this and figure out whether they are dangerous.

I place the laptop down on the sofa, noting how clean the space is again, and make my way back to the bathroom.

The door is open and steam is drifting out into the hallway. Since I don’t want to scare her, I knock on the door. “I’m back.”

I can see her behind the shower curtain in the old clawfoot tub. The curtain screeches as she peeks out from behind the curtain. Water is trickling down her face as she beckons me. “I got you a towel.”

I open my mouth to tell her about her laptop, but she licks her lip and my brain switches off.

She shifts the curtain so I get a good view of the water running down her breasts. “They’re big on conversing water around here,” she says.

I’m already tugging off my shirt when I say through a smile. “Well, if it helps the environment.”

***

Marlene.

Sawyer’s cock is magnificently hard when he steps under the water with me. His arms wrap around me as water cascades over our bodies. His hands run over me, caressing my skin, his lips pressed against mine as he teases me with his tongue.

With a groan, I take a hold of his cock and start to slide my closed fingers up and down until he’s groaning into my mouth.

I reach around and grab the soap and with a smile, start to rub it all over his muscled chest.

Water drips down his hair, and face, as he watches me hungrily. Steam fills the room, water running over our bodies along with soap that makes his skin as slippery as I’m growing.

When his fingers gently part me and he starts to explore my wetness while we kiss with growing intensity, I raise a leg and let him stimulate me until I’m quivering.

My legs are close to collapse, so I drop my leg and slowly start to lick the water from his chest.

Bending over, I lick his nipples; I lick his stomach muscles, droplets of water mingling with the taste of his skin.

Water runs down my body as I drop to my knees and start to suckle his cock. I suck as he watches, water showering over us.

His eyes close as I slide him in and out of my mouth as I hold on to his ass cheeks.

He pulls back a little and gestures to the door. “You have a bed nearby?”

I’m so turned on, I can barely speak, so I just shut the water off and grab a towel and his hand.

I tug him towards the spare bedroom and near shove him towards the bed. He’s soaking wet, body glistening with water droplets as he starts to kiss me deep.

Sawyer grabs me and pushes me back on the bed. He crawls on the mattress and lifts my leg so he can rest my heel against his chest.

He starts to suck my big toe, eyes on me as I writhe on the mattress. Waves of pleasure shoot through me as he switches to the next toe, sucking each one until I wish he’d use his tongue somewhere else.

Shivers are running the length of me as he gently drops my leg then spreads them and shifts so he can lie between them.

I grab his head as he starts to lick me. Ripples of ecstasy shudder through me as I start to climax.

He looks entirely pleased with himself when he slides up so he can lick my stiff nipples. “Best feeling in the world, knowing I can do that to you,” he says between licks.

I swipe his ass, too delirious with lust to take him seriously. “Just get in me.”

All the air leaves my lungs as his cock slides inside me. I wrap my legs around him, pleasure building as he thrusts deep.

But he’s being too sweet, too nice; I want hard and dirty. “Fuck me.”

A growl escapes but he complies and pulls out. “Get on your knees.”

With a whimper, I spin around and almost scream when he pushes back inside and starts to pump hard and fast. “Yeah, oh yeah, harder, fuck me harder.”

I start to come again, pressure building and building until I sound like a banshee as I explode in a monumental orgasm.

He’s not far behind me and comes calling my name, telling me how incredible I am, that he loves fucking me until I’m almost delirious.

When he flips on his back and lies breathing fast, I lie beside him so he can put his arm around me. “Shit. That was…you are…I don’t even know,” I say.

He pulls me closer and I snuggle close enough to feel his heart racing. “This has definitely been the best weekend to the coast I’ve ever taken.”

I chuckle and kiss him. “Good to know it wasn’t a waste of your time then.”

He fake growls and kisses me hard. “Nothing about meeting you could ever be a waste of time.”

I kiss him again using his body for warmth until he reluctantly pulls away. “I need to talk to you. And I can’t when your naked.”

I smile widely. “The feeling is mutual. My brain turns to putty.”

He chuckles. “I’ll go find some clean clothes.”

Sawyer kisses me again and leaves me gloriously satisfied and with a craving for a PB & J sandwich.

Since he’s disappeared to find clothes, and I’m almost as sweaty as when I jumped in the shower, I run it again and wash quickly before I dress in my jeans and sweater.

In my bare feet, I can feel sand still left on the carpet as I make my way into the kitchen.

My cottage is cleaner, and with the wind down to a strong breeze, I can go outside and check on the damage.

With the windows gone, the living room and the front of the house are cold and filled with the scent of the sea.

Not entirely unpleasant, but I can’t stay exposed to the elements for long. In his arrival and the ensuing shower antics, I didn’t get a chance to ask him if any stores were open in town.

His hard cock and my own arousal meant I didn’t get to ask him anything.

I’m smirking at my reflection in the microwave when he joins me in the kitchen.

He’s dressed in a clean t-shirt, jeans and boots. A measure of relief fills me that he’s not wearing his jacket.

My laptop is tucked under his arm, and he looks decidedly cagey as he places it on the table. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you. But I dropped your laptop in Kyle’s store. It’s a write-off.”

I suck in a breath as my head tries to process what he’s saying. All that comes out is a strangled noise.

He flinches and manages to appear both unruffled and guilty as he opens my mangled laptop.

“I know someone who should be able to get all the data off it, and I might be able to fix it, but it’ll take time.”

He doesn’t apologize but his posture speaks volumes of how he anticipated I’d react to this.

And maybe I should be madder, but the damage is done, so there’s no point making him feel like shit.

I shrug and take a bite of my sandwich. “Don’t worry about it. It was on the way out; you probably did me a favor.”

His chin drops and he squints at me. “Are you serious?”

I swallow and take a seat. “I won’t be able to do as much editing. But I can’t say that’s a major concern.”

His mouth opens then he leans back in his chair. “You’re something else. You really are.”

I laugh but he looks so serious, so I know I have to explain. “I got used to living without all that sort of stuff. I just used to log in whenever and wherever I got access when I traveled.”

His brow furrows. “That’s a massive security risk.”

I nearly roll my eyes. “I’m not an idiot. I mean I used friends and acquaintance's computers. Kurt and I both did.”

He still looks concerned so I frown back at him. “Anyone ever tell you you’re kind of paranoid?”

Sawyer’s face relaxes then he slouches back in his chair. “You should be more careful. Leaving the door unlocked is a bad idea.”

I pull a face at him, not sure I did leave the door unlocked. But since the minutes are ticking by and every moment that passes is a moment I won’t get with him again, I subtly remind him of his agreement to let me photograph him.

“Good thing I didn’t let you touch my camera. Then you and I’d have one big problem.”

He stares at me then his lip curls up into a roguish grin. “There’s still plenty of time to get my hands on your camera.”

The idea of him staying is as enticing as he is. But I’m not letting him anywhere near my camera. “You’ll be the model, not the photographer.”

His lips twitch and I lean closer. “You owe me for breaking my laptop.”

A low grumble escapes. “Technically it was your pal Kyle who broke it. He got spooked by a dog and knocked it off the table.”

I tilt my head at him, wondering what on earth he’s talking about, but it’s clear his interest lies elsewhere when he grabs my chair and pulls me across the floor to him.

We’re eye to eye, his palms on my thighs when he says the words I wanted to hear. “Where do you want me?”