Page 52 of Infinite as They Come (Sinful Trilogy #3)

Holly

I hadn’t been able to see a damn thing for the last one and a half hours.

The low hum of the truck’s engine was in my ears, and if I focused, I was pretty sure I could hear the wheels hitting a few bumps in the road every now and then. I could feel it all, too. That gentle jostle here and there that was oddly comforting.

Sawyer had spent the night at my house last night.

Old house, really. It was bittersweet going back.

It still felt like home: warm, welcoming, safe, and my heart always twisted a little when I had to leave.

Sawyer made it easier, though, because he felt like home too.

Like when I left with him, home was still coming with me.

It was in his arms that I felt the most protected, like it was him and him alone that kept me shielded from all that bad out there in the world.

Even in his truck, even with the soft fabric of something—I was almost certain he had yanked one of my silk scarves out of my closet when we left for the day—wrapped against my eyes, blocking me from seeing even the slightest slither of light, I felt so safe.

“How long do I need to keep this blindfold on?” I asked. My thumbs tugged under the edge of the fabric, tempted to push it up and over my eyes just an inch or two.

“Just a little while longer,” he said, voice low. There was something else there in his tone, though. A hint of nervousness, but he cleared his throat before I could dissect that any longer. “Only a few more minutes left. ”

I nodded, lowering a hand to my thigh. One of Sawyer’s hands was already there, his fingers gentle as they brushed against me. Letting mine rest atop of his, I instantly noticed that his skin felt warm and clammy. “Don’t sweat on me,” I teased.

“Oh, fuck,” he said, his hand jolting away from my leg. “I’m sorry.”

“I was just joking, silly.” Blindly reaching out for his hand, I brought it back to my thigh. “I don’t care if you’re sweaty. It’s a little warm today.”

“Right.”

“So, can I get a clue?”

“It’s a surprise. If I give you a clue, I’ll give the surprise away. You don’t want that, right?”

“I suppose not.”

Slowly, he slid his hand out from under mine and covered mine up.

For just a millisecond, I felt what I assumed was his thumb brush along my ring finger.

The touch was so quick, so soft, that it was almost like the sensation hardly registered, but then he just settled on squeezing at my hand as he drove, the hot wind flying in through the window.

He hadn’t been lying when he said there wasn’t much longer to go, because suddenly, I could feel the car slow down before the engine cut off.

I stayed patient and kept still as something soft brushed against my mouth.

Sawyer’s lips. I’d recognize them even with a blindfold on.

Slowly, he kissed at me, his tongue gently slipping into my mouth.

There was something about kissing him blindfolded that had me leaning into him.

One of my senses was cut off, so it was like feeling him differently, more intensely.

I couldn’t help but reach up and place my hands either side of his face, trying to draw him in some more, because I really couldn’t ever get enough of him.

We kissed slowly, lips pressed together, tongues dancing.

A perfect kiss. Every kiss with him was.

They always left me wanting to crawl into his lap and tug at his hair and feel him closer.

The feeling of his lips lingered there on mine as he pulled away from me. He cupped my cheek, his thumb stroking against my bottom lip so, so slowly. It made my eyes flutter shut behind the blindfold.

“Well, what now?” I asked .

“Keep that blindfold on for me, honey. I’ll help you out. Stay put, okay?”

I followed his instructions and waited for the sound of the door clicking open to hit my ears.

Then his fingers laced with mine as he helped me out of the car, giving me a gentle spin around.

He was behind me before I knew it, hands grasping my waist as he slowly guided me forward.

I could feel that hot wind again on my skin.

All heavy and wild and filled with an addictive sort of heat.

It was carrying the scent of something. Flowers, something fresh and crisp, but besides that, the air was wonderfully fresh.

“Don’t take it off yet,” Sawyer said behind me.

There it was again. That layer of anxiousness there in his voice. Maybe I was just being dramatic, but with one of my senses cut off, it was like I could hear things that little bit more acutely.

“I won’t,” I assured him.

“We’re doing this properly,” he said.

“Doing what properly?”

A second later, I was scooped up in his arms, and I couldn’t fight back my giggle as he held me tight to him.

I was safe there in his arms. With him, around him.

Like nothing bad could touch me and that feeling just tripled as I felt him move.

I leaned into his chest, the material of his T-shirt smooth and warm against me.

Sawyer always felt warm, though. He held me close to him, his strong hands keeping me secure through each and every bounce of his step.

I could hear his shoes thumping up against something.

There was a creak. Stairs, maybe? I was pretty sure.

He was going up stairs, keeping me steady the whole time.

Then there was another sound. A creak, a whine. A door being pulled open?

“Alright, work with me here,” Sawyer muttered.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“I was talking to the door,” he said before his fingers suddenly fidgeted against me. “I mean, there’s no door. You’re imagining things. You’re asleep and this is all a dream.”

I laughed. “You’re the silliest boy in the world, you know that?”

I had been right about the door, but I still had no clue what he was up to.

I was more than happy to stay put, his hold on me so secure.

I let the side of my face rest against his chest, my senses once again going into overdrive as I let myself melt into him.

He smelled too good. Woodsy, masculine, that trace of cigarette smoke that always made me want to lean into him more.

There in his arms, I did. I nuzzled my nose into him some more like I could get more of him.

There were more sounds around me. Something padding against the floor, and then a new scent hit me. That deep, earthy scent of old wood surrounded me as Sawyer gently set me down on my feet. Grasping my waist, he spun me around, his hands moving up slowly to my face.

“Can I take it off now?” I asked.

For a little while, it was just silence. Just the sound of a few birds there outside. Then he let out a long breath. “Yeah, princess. I’ll help you.”

I felt his fingers at the back of my head as he undid the blindfold and gently slipped it off me.

My first instinct was to blink again and again.

There was sunlight coming in from all directions and my fingers rubbed at my eyes, trying to fight off the harshness of new light.

It took a little while, but those sharp blotches faded, and I could finally open my eyes back up.

Sawyer was the first thing I saw. He was letting out a trembling breath, one hand pressed to one of the pockets of his jeans.

His long fingers curled against the denim, his eyes looking extra green with all the light pouring in.

My eyes reluctantly moved from his, taking in my surroundings.

A room. A place I had never been to before, but there was something about it that I instantly liked.

The floorboards were a deep brown, coated in that little bit of dust that gave it that old home charm.

White walls surrounded me with big windows that let so much light flow right on in.

When I let my eyes move over to the left, I saw what I assumed was the hallway, where Sawyer had probably carried me through before he set me down.

My head tilted. “Where are we?”

“Where I want us to be forever,” he said.

Forever kept replaying in my head. Forever, forever, forever. I wanted him forever. I wanted every month and day and second with him.

“Wait…” I whirled back around to look at the walls, then back at Sawyer, then over at the sea of trees I could see in the distance in the big windows.

Lu sh and green and about a million of them.

If I squinted, I could see there were wildflowers on either side of the dirt driveway, the pinks and purples all pretty amongst the green.

There were daisies too. So much color around us.

When I squinted that little bit more, I realized I couldn’t even see any other buildings over on that side.

Just a stretch of green grass that seemed to be never-ending.

Me and Sawyer were all alone, and that quietness that filled up the room confirmed that.

Just… stillness. No cars, no voices, no footsteps. Just us. “I’m confused.”

“Do wanna know why I brought you out here?” he asked.

“To kill me?”

He smiled. “No, far from that.”

“What is this place?” I asked. My eyes found the windows again that showed off the front, all that green grass stretched out like the longest of blankets. The blue sky too. It was absolutely cloudless. “It’s so beautiful here. Where are we?”

“Moody.”

“Moody…” My brows pulled together. I had never been there before, but I had heard of it.

“I wanna show you something,” he said quietly.