Star Crossed Hurricane (2 page)

“I’m first in the shower. I’ve got plans.” Dara dumped her bag in the closet. “And I need to sleep by the door. So I can come in without tripping all over the rest of you.”

“We all have boyfriends, Dara. We’ll be out later than you,” Kelly pointed out.

Dara smiled, but it was menacing, not friendly. “Not all of you. I guess Savannah will be tucking herself in tonight, hmm?”

“Not likely. Have you ever seen Savannah without at least two guys worshiping at her feet?” Laura rolled her eyes and fell back on the bed. “Get in the shower already, or I’m going first.”

Dara glared, grabbing her sparkly silver toiletry bag. She flounced off, slamming the bathroom door behind her.

“And on that happy note, I’m changing out of my wet clothes.” Savannah shook her head, shedding, somewhat reluctantly, Sawyer’s sweatshirt. She hung it in the closet to dry, mourning the fact that it smelled like rain now and not Sawyer. She sighed, running her hand over the school crest on the front.

“So I saw you and Sawyer all cuddly,” Kelly drawled, sprawling across the bed, trying to untangle the knots in her shoulder-length, dark brown hair.

Savannah moaned, dropping down next to her. “I
know.
And did you also see Beckett? This sucks.”

“I think you should just tell Beckett that it isn’t gonna happen. Ever. Then go out with Sawyer.”

Laura nodded in agreement.

“There are two problems with that. One, Sawyer thinks of me as his little friend. Not even a normal-sized friend. His little. Friend.” She threw her hands in the air for dramatic purposes. “And two, I can’t hurt Beckett. I hurt him enough when I broke up with him last year.”

“Yeah… but he hurt you again and again while you were together, remember? It’s been over a year, Sav. He’s gotta let you go and move on. And you can’t keep torturing yourself. Plus, have you seen how Sawyer treats you? Not like a little friend.”

Savannah looked up at Laura hopefully. “You really think so?”

“Yep.”

“But what if I tell him — and he’s like, ‘Totally don’t feel that way about you, little Savvy,’” she said, lowering her voice so she was manly, like him. “And it not only ruins our friendship, because — awkward! But it will also hurt Beckett.” She threw herself backward dramatically, her hand across her forehead, staring at the smoke detector on the ceiling.

Disney princesses, eat your hearts out.

“But,” Kelly drawled in her sweet, southern accent. “What if he’s all, ‘Oh Buttercup, I’ve loved you forever! Marry me and have my babies!”

Savannah laughed, snatching the pillow from behind her and chucking it across the room at Kelly. Kelly ducked, and it flopped into the window. Kelly dove for it, threw it back, and started a massive pillow fight that didn’t stop until Dara emerged from the bathroom in a short skirt and sky high leather boots that covered more leg than her skirt did. Savannah tried really hard not to drool over the boots. “I’m going out with some local boys.” She smirked. “Don’t wait up.”

Savannah sat up. “We’ve got an early meet tomorrow. Lights out at nine, sharp. Coach’s orders.”

Dara patted Savannah on the head. “Always such a good little girl. That’s why you don’t have any fun.” She shrugged. “You’re like white bread.”

“That doesn’t even make sense. White bread is inanimate. It can’t ‘have’ anything, one way or the other,” Laura pointed out, leaning back in her chair.

“Plus, everybody likes white bread. So if she’s white bread, that would make you what? A bite size sugar cookie? Give everyone a taste of what will make them sick if they get too much of it?” Kelly raised her hand.

Laura met her halfway. “Nice.”

Dara’s smirk died and she narrowed her eyes. “Whatever. I’m out.” She stalked out of the room.

“How does she even find local boys to hang out with?” Savannah asked.

“I saw her hanging out with them at the meet.” Kelly shrugged, flipping on the TV.

Savannah sighed, crawling under the covers in just her track shorts and her sports bra, too tired and cold to worry about changing. “I like white bread.”

CHAPTER TWO

S
AWYER TUGGED HIS SHIRT DOWN OVER HIS HEAD.
Even after a shower
and
brushing his teeth, Savannah’s smell clung to him — soft lilacs and rain. He contemplated another shower, but there were four guys fighting for one shower, and he’d had his turn. Another wasn’t likely.

Her smell would drive him mad.

“I’m calling to order a pizza. That’ll score us bonus points with the girls,” Caleb said.

Sawyer’s heart stopped and he closed his eyes. “We’ve been with them almost nonstop for forty-eight hours. Don’t you guys need a break?”

Caleb looked up from his phone. “Are you insane? They’re hot. Even if I wasn’t in love with Kelly, I’d be knocking down their door.”

“Yeah, but—”

Aaron shook his head. “If I don’t go down there now, Liam will beat me to it. I’m already on the verge of losing Laura to him.” He didn’t even put his shoes on, just padded out the door in socks.

“But–but Beckett — and the pizza!” Sawyer yelled. Caleb held the phone up to his ear and ran after Liam.

“Well. I’m not going.” Sawyer sank onto the bed, his head in his hands. “I can only take so much.”

So much of her smile. Of her eyes. Of that perfect body. Of her laugh. And her tears. And her hair. Oh good
hell
her hair undid him. It was like silk. It was like… like… there were no words.

I am so pathetic.

Away from her, he could pretend. He could pretend he didn’t think about her every hour of every day. He could pretend that she wasn’t the only girl he’d ever wanted. He could pretend that he’d joined the track team because he liked to run.

He had liked to run.

Once.

Until he’d realized it was just a fantastic excuse to be near her.

“Where’d everybody go?” Beckett asked, toweling his hair dry.

Beckett. The one person in the world who could possibly stand between Sawyer and Savannah. Sawyer loved him like a brother and hated him all at once. If he didn’t know how absolutely head over heels in love with Savannah Beckett still was, if he didn’t know how Beckett still drank himself to sleep when she went out with someone else — someone he didn’t even know—

Well, that changed everything.

Beckett was his best friend. Always had been. Their mothers had been pregnant together. When Sawyer had moved away when he was nine, he’d been lost for two years. Beckett was the whole reason Sawyer even applied to Utah colleges for a scholarship.

And now he was the whole reason for Sawyer’s constant, overwhelming misery.

“Hello?” Beckett dropped the towel, tossing it back into the bathroom floor.

“Ugh, yeah. Sorry. They went to the girls’ room to have pizza.”

“Pizza? On a meet night?”

But Beckett was already looking for his phone and key. He was going, because he didn’t have to pretend not to be in love with Savannah. He didn’t have to tell his hands to stay off her, and he didn’t have to tell his lips not to whisper her name as he kissed her. No, because Beckett did all those things and everyone felt bad for him. Poor Beckett, still in love with his ex.

“You not comin’?” Beckett paused in the doorway, looking back over his shoulder.

He had to know. Didn’t he? Couldn’t everyone see how absolutely, insanely, blindly in love with her Sawyer was?

No. Stay here. Stay here. No.

“No,” Sawyer said, and it was the most difficult word he’d ever uttered. “No, I think I’m gonna head to bed.”

Beckett frowned. “Dude… it’s not even six yet.”

Sawyer closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. But there was no solace there. When he closed his eyes, she was there. “Big day tomorrow,” he muttered through clenched teeth.

“Okay. Do you want me to bring you some pizza?”

Sawyer just shook his head and Beckett, thankfully, finally left.

He dug his homework out of his bag. He might be traveling for track, but he still had a paper due when he got back. Two of them, actually. When he’d realized that he was going to be trapped in Utah, watching the only girl he’d ever,
ever
, been in love with and unable to go near her, he’d loaded up on credits so he could graduate early. That was his only solace. One day, he would leave, and never have to see her again.

It was also a stake slowly driving deeper and deeper into his heart, splitting it wide open.

He settled against the pillows, propping his Renaissance and Revolution book up on his knees, trying to get lost in the past.

Someone banged on the door.

Swearing, he rolled off the bed, and, still swearing, crossed the room, telling himself that he wasn’t desperately hoping it was Savannah on the other side.

“Liam.” His heart fell.

“Sawyer. You have to go with me.”

Sawyer frowned, wondering if he’d somehow missed half the conversation. “What?”

“Aaron is in Laura’s room just now, isn’t he?” Liam had a strong Australian accent—an accent that got stronger when he was upset. But Sawyer had caught the words
Laura
and
Aaron
, and could guess the rest.

“Yeah, but everybody’s down there. Caleb, Beckett…”

“If he’s down there and I’m not, you know what will happen, right? He’ll be all over her. And she’ll forget about me and—”

“Yeah, Liam, sorry. That sucks. I mean, he did see her first.”

“I don’t bloody well care!”

Aaron and Liam had been best friends, too. Once.

Before Laura.

“Come on.” Liam grabbed Sawyer and dragged him out the door. It swung shut behind him—with his key still sitting on the counter. Now, to get back inside, he’d have to go to Savannah’s room to beg a key from one of his roommates. And he knew himself too well. If he went within sight of her, he wouldn’t leave.

He wasn’t strong enough.

But Liam was propelling him down the hall, toward the noise at the end that had to be coming from the girls’ room.

He sighed as his adrenaline sped up at the mere thought of seeing her again. Like he hadn’t seen her less than two hours ago. Like he hadn’t seen her almost constantly for the past two days.

It had been hell.

It had been heaven.

They came around the corner and she was sitting in the hall, reading a book with her long dark hair piled in a bun on top of her head. In a tank top and track shorts.

Damn, she was gorgeous. She saw him as they approached, and her entire face lit up, brown eyes hopeful. High cheekbones, eyelashes that went on for miles. She was Native American, and she had permanent sun-kissed skin. And her lips…

“Beck said you were going to bed.”

“I dragged him out. Aaron in there, then?” Liam asked, his eyes hardly bouncing on Savannah before they were staring at the door. How on earth anyone could look at her and not notice her was so beyond Sawyer it was unfathomable.

“Yeah. Sorry, Liam. But there are lots of people in there. Go right in.” She stuck a bookmark between the pages and started to rise, and Sawyer, despite swearing to himself four thousand times on the way down here that he would not touch her, reached out and pulled her to her feet.

And then couldn’t let go.

He could see the rush of blood stain her cheeks as she swayed toward him. “Thanks.” It was all he could do not to push her against the wall and kiss her until she forgot about the book she was holding or the boy whose heart she had broken in the other room.

The hardest part? He knew she wanted him to. He knew she wanted him to do a lot of things he wouldn’t allow himself to do.

“So… meet clothes for partying now?” He raised an eyebrow. Liam deserted them, but considerately left the door open.

Savannah looked down and blushed. “Crap. I was—I was trying to take a nap.” Her blush spread, down her cheeks to her chest. “We were invaded and it was noisy—”

Whirling, she hurried into the room, grabbed her bag and disappeared into the bathroom. He’d embarrassed her, which was the last thing he’d wanted to do.

“Sawyer! You decided to grace us with your presence!” Beckett yelled from across the room. He wasn’t watching Sawyer, though. He was watching the door Savannah had just slammed behind her.

Sawyer waved, suddenly engulfed by the crowd of people crammed into that one tiny room. At least half their team, plus several people he’d never seen before. Someone had stuck their iPad earbuds into a toilet paper tube, using it as a speaker. There was dancing. And pizza. And alcohol.

Coach would be so pissed.

“Better?” she asked, and he was amazed he hadn’t realized she’d approached him. Usually, he could feel her coming from a hundred yards away. Swallowing hard, mustering his courage, he turned.

Loose, lacy black shirt hanging off one shoulder. Painted on jeans with holes in the knee and one at thigh level that nearly choked him. And barefoot. He swallowed twice more before he reached out, pulled the pencil stuck in her hair and let it loose. “Better.”

She grinned.

And he was caught in her eyes. So dark, they were almost black. He couldn’t look away. He couldn’t breathe. And the only sane thought he could muster was that if he didn’t kiss her, he would die.

“Sawyer! It’s your song!” Beckett yelled, which meant either he could see them and was too far away to get between them, or he couldn’t see them at all. Sawyer leaped away guiltily, hating himself because her face fell and there was pain in her eyes.

Don’t touch her. Don’t touch her. Let her go.
“Hey.” He grabbed her wrist, pulling her back to him. “Dance with me.”

She blinked, confused, still hurt. He slid his hands down to her waist, moving her closer as he swayed to the music. Her eyes slid half shut as she tipped her head back, and he could feel that silken hair brushing against the tops of his thumbs. She slid her arms around his neck, moving with him as he pulled her tighter against him, until he could feel every soft curve of her.

There’d be no way she could miss how much he wanted her.

Sawyer gave up fighting. He dipped his head, his mouth just brushing her exposed shoulder. She sucked in a breath, her hands tightening behind his neck. “Savannah,” he whispered against her skin, moving to her collarbone.