The Intelligence Unit Series

Sawyer took one look at the woman standing at the end of the bar and knew he was in very deep shit. His boss, Kennedy, was still on maternity leave. She'd decided to take a full three months off to be with her son, Theo, who was now about eight weeks old. Sawyer had had no idea that babies' ages were measured in weeks when they were little, but Lia, the short-term bartender who was covering for January while she was out on leave, had made mention of Theo being eight weeks old the other day. Lia had two kids of her own, so Sawyer figured she must know what she was talking about. None of that, however, explained why Kennedy was standing at the end of the bar, her hands folded neatly over the polished wood surface and her Cheshire-cat smile aimed directly at him.

"What are you doing here?" Sawyer asked, prompting Kennedy to laugh.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but I own the place. Or, at least, half of it." She'd done a business deal with the owner last year that had given her joint partnership in the Crooked Angel. But the guy was more of an investor than anything else, and Kennedy ran the bar and grill to a strong profit every year. He'd been all too happy to give her control of the day-to-day operations and partial ownership to sweeten the deal.

"Okay, fair," Sawyer said, holding up his hands in concession. "What I meant was, why aren't you enjoying your maternity leave in a place that isn't work?"

"Oh, I am enjoying myself. We made it a family outing." Kennedy gestured across the bar to the tall, tattooed firefighter effortlessly cradling their infant in one tree trunk of an arm as he chatted up the other members of Station Seventeen at their usual table. "Anyway, after I talked to January the other day, there was no chance I wasn't going to come out here and do a little recon."

Sawyer's gut tightened, but he kept his expression on the level. "Recon for what?"

"Oh, my God, you're so cute when you're trying to play it cool. For Jo, that's what!"

Oh, hell. Sawyer swung a look around the bar, praying like mad that Jo and Frankie and everyone else from the Intelligence Unit were way out of earshot.

"It's not that big of a deal," he said, although the way his pulse had just picked up at the sight of Jo standing by the pool table and looking far prettier than any other woman in the room said otherwise.

Kennedy's darkly lined green eyes went wide. "She's the first woman you've shown any interest in since you moved to Remington. You don't think that's a big deal?"

"No. Yes. It's..." Sawyer blew out a breath. "A little complicated."

"Mkay. Come on." Kennedy was off her bar stool in a flash, leaving Sawyer in a thick wake of WTF.

"Where are we going?" he asked, catching up to her as she slipped beneath the pass-through to let herself behind the bar.

"Somewhere a little more private so we can talk this out," she said. Pausing only to ask Lia and Evie to hold down the bar, Kennedy led the way through the kitchen and to the back office, giving Sawyer the choice to either follow or be dragged. Since he wasn't an idiot-not only was she his boss, but she was tough as hell-he followed her into the office and sat on the couch in the small, quiet space. Kennedy closed the door, then moved over to the desk and leaned against it to face him. "Okay. Spill it, Knox."

Sawyer took a slow breath. He knew better than to argue with her-she was like a big sister to the tenth power, times two-but still... "I'm not sure there's much to spill, necessarily. Jo is visiting from Savannah for a few weeks."

"She told me." At Sawyer's raised brows, she added, "Frankie introduced us when Gamble and I got here a little while ago. Jo is pretty fantastic."

"I know," Sawyer said, and even though his face heated, he wasn't about to pull back on the truth. "I think so, too. But we've only been on two dates."

After their skating date had gone so well, Jo had agreed to go out with him again last night. Although his experience as a Marine had given him a bit of an unfair advantage, he'd chosen laser tag to challenge her comfort zone. Despite the fact that Jo had needed to warm up to the adventure, she'd eventually let him give her some pointers and had seemed to have fun. Sawyer had enjoyed being around her even more than he had on their first date, although he was starting to realize that liking her as much as he did might not be such a great thing.

He knew he should pull back. Take it easy, at least a little bit. But f**k, every time he saw her, every time she laughed or trusted him to coax her a little farther out of her shell, he just wanted her more.

"Okay." Kennedy's throaty voice brought him back to the office. "Two dates isn't a lot, I'll grant you. But you like her, right?"

"Yeah," Sawyer said without hesitation. "I like her a lot. But I think that's part of the problem."

"Sorry, how is liking her a problem?"

"For one thing, she's been burned in the past by taking things too fast. Her ex wasn't exactly a champ in the monogamy department, and they share a daughter," he added, but didn't need to elaborate further before Kennedy lifted her chin in understanding. "She's also here auditioning for a pretty big role. She's got a lot going on, and I don't want to mess with that."

Kennedy nodded, her black hair brushing her shoulders. "That makes sense. Still, spending time with her doesn't necessarily equate to messing with anything. You can just hang out and do what feels right and let the rest unfold from there."

Sawyer knew Kennedy was right. He and Jo were supposed to be having fun. Maybe a fling, if things went the way he wanted them to. Anything else would mess with the fact that she had a life back in Savannah, and he had a very separate one here in Remington. For her sake, he could keep things casual.

For her sake, he had to.

"Has anyone ever told you that you give pretty good advice?" Sawyer asked with a grin.

"Years of tending bar." She winked. "You'll get there soon enough. Just do me one favor, would you?"

"Name it."

Sawyer expected a smartass retort to match Kennedy's steel-toed personality. But what he got shocked him into place on the office couch.

"When the rest does unfold, promise me you'll listen to your head and your heart. There's a lot to your story, Sawyer. To who you are. If Jo is worth sharing that with, then don't be afraid to do it, even if it feels risky."

Sawyer's heartbeat pounded in his ears. He did have a complicated past, one he'd worked really f*****g hard to reconcile, or at least try to. He hadn't told Jo the worst of it when they'd gone skating the other night-not even close. How badly he'd been hurt. How much he'd lost. The soul-crushing guilt he still felt sometimes at having survived when others hadn't. The headaches, the panic attacks. The blurred vision and memory loss, the days he was one hundred percent certain he was going insane.

Not that he wanted to bury those things. Not anymore, anyway. They just hadn't seemed like first date material, especially not with Jo, who was so cautious with her feelings.

Kennedy was right. Those things were a part of his story. But they were also loaded with emotions, most of them painful. He'd just promised himself to keep things casual with Jo. He couldn't go blabbing about his ghosts and expect her not to run. Not anytime soon. So he worked up a smile and went with the truth he could tell. "I'm not exactly scared to take risks, boss. Thanks for the heart to heart."

As long as his heart stayed out of things, Sawyer would be just fine.

***

Four hours later,the crowd at the bar had thinned out considerably. The kitchen had gone dark over an hour before, with all the stations cleaned, broken down, and prepped for tomorrow's lunch shift. Sawyer was closing with Lia, and they'd been slow enough for the past hour for them to get the majority of the bar tidied up and stocked. The firefighters, cops, and first responders had all said their goodnights. Jo had lingered at the end of the bar, and between the lack of customers and the way Lia had shooed him away every time he'd tried to split the remaining work with her, Sawyer had spent most of the last ninety minutes deep in conversation with her.

He knew he needed to stop liking Jo so damn much. Trouble was, the more he talked to her-the more she told him about herself and the more she listened to him as he did the same-the more he realized the truth.

He just didn't want to. He wanted whatever she'd give him.

He wanted her.

"Okay," Sawyer said, turning toward Lia and clearing the thought from his mind. What he wanted was only half of the equation. No matter how hot Jo looked when she threw her head back and laughed at something he'd said, or how wide-open and beautiful she was when she listened to him tell stories about growing up at the end of his old man's bar. "You've done enough for tonight. Far more than I have, in fact. Go on. Get out of here."

Lia's coppery brows rose. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. There's barely anything left for me to do, other than a little bit of restock and putting up the bar stools." There was paperwork, sure, but he could just as easily do it tomorrow morning when he came in.

"I can help," Jo offered. "Consider it payment for hogging the end of the bar all night."

Lia laughed. "Okay, okay. You don't have to tell me twice. I'll see you tomorrow, Sawyer. Goodnight, Jo."

"I can still walk you to your car," Sawyer said. The Crooked Angel was in a pretty low-crime part of Remington, but still. The two people who closed always walked each other to their vehicles every night. Safety in numbers, and all. Grabbing her purse from beneath the bar, Lia waved him off and headed toward the front of the bar. "I got a spot right out front."

Sawyer shook his head. "It's no big deal."

"Look, if you stand right here by the windows, you can see my car." She waited for Sawyer to get to the windows lining the front of the place, then pointed, and sure enough, her hybrid SUV was sitting at the curb. "I'll be fine. Goodnight."

She gave Sawyer and Jo one last wave before heading out the door. Sawyer watched through the window as she reached her car and got in, locking the front door and turning to rejoin Jo at the back of the bar and grill only once Lia had safely driven off.

"That was nice of you," Jo said, sliding off her bar stool as Sawyer returned to his spot behind the bar. The place was empty now, save the two of them, but somehow, that just made the space seem more cozy.

"We always walk each other to our cars at night, no matter who's closing," Sawyer said. Any one of them could be mugged or attacked, regardless of size or gender. "It's just a precaution, but..."

"No, I get it. Everyone who works here is like a family. I think it's great that you all have each other's backs." Jo pointed to the pass through at the end of the bar, her brows lifted. "May I?"

Sawyer nodded, mostly because he selfishly wanted her closer to him. "You don't have to help me finish cleaning up, you know."

"I totally camped out at the end of the bar and monopolized your attention all night," she said with a laugh, moving over the thick rubber bar mats to stand beside him.

"I let you," he countered, but she shook her head.

"I'm still helping you clean up."

They worked together for a few minutes, refilling various napkin holders and placing clean glasses on the trays where they belonged, the silence around them comfortable. She wiped down one end of the bar as he took charge of the other, both of them working toward each other until they met in the middle. Her fingers brushed over his, and even the slight contact lit him up in about ten separate places, all of them on fire for her.

"Oh." The word coasted past her lips as little more than sound. F**k, how could he want her more than he had ten seconds ago? "Hi."

"Hi." Although it nearly broke him, Sawyer held himself in check, letting her make the first move-or no move, if that's what she chose.

But she didn't. Leaning closer, Jo tilted her chin up to meet his stare, her eyes glittering in the soft white lights strung overhead. She didn't speak, simply pressed up on her toes to fit her mouth to his. Sawyer's brain screamed at him to take it slow, to kiss her softly and sweetly and not drown himself in the way she tasted and felt even though his d**k was fully on board with that as a Plan A. But then Jo parted her lips, her tongue sliding over his as she sighed into his mouth, and all bets for slow and sweet were off. One of Sawyer's palms found the back of Jo's neck, his fingers splaying upward to tangle in her hair as his other hand gripped her hip, tightening over the denim there. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders to close the slight space between them, bringing their bodies flush. His breath hitched at the contact, but he didn't stop.

More. More. He wanted more.

With a demanding sweep of his tongue, he deepened the kiss. A sound broke from the back of Jo's throat, needful and hot, and it shot directly to Sawyer's c**k. She kissed him back just as hard, her mouth hungry as she tasted and took, then let him take in return. But it wasn't nearly enough-Christ, he would gladly drown in this woman-and before his brain even realized he would, he'd reached down low to lift her off her feet.

She knotted her legs around his waist in one quick movement that nearly f*****g killed him. "Sawyer," she breathed, her lips still pressed against his. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she tilted her head back to give him access to her neck. Sawyer took it without thought. He placed her on the bar so he could pay her body the full attention she deserved, settling himself in the cradle of her hips. Their bodies weren't quite level-they were both tall, well-aligned when they were standing, but sitting on the bar gave her the height advantage.

But with the way his mouth currently lined up with the center of her chest, Sawyer would gladly surrender every advantage just to have a taste.

Starting at her neck, he kissed a slow trail over her collarbone. Jo arched into the touch, and all the resolve he'd tried so hard to build slipped.

But then it disappeared altogether as she murmured one sweet, single word.

"Please."

His fingers moved over the buttons on her shirt, freeing just enough of them to expose her petal-pink bra. Her nipples strained against the thin fabric, making his mouth water and his c**k painfully hard.

Still, he looked at her. But again, she said, "Please."

He couldn't refuse her.

Sawyer slid the satin aside, dipping his mouth to one n****e. Jo gasped, her body going bowstring tight. Then she hooked her knees over his waist, bringing his belly in contact with the gorgeous heat building between her thighs, and it was all the encouragement he needed. Using his palm to hold her steady, he licked and sucked, first in short, fast flicks of his tongue, then in slower, harder strokes. Jo moaned, thrusting against him and whispering his name in that throaty voice that he couldn't get enough of, and in that moment, Sawyer wanted nothing more than to make her come just so could strip her naked and bend her over the bar and make her come again. To-

A knock at the door made his heart slam and Jo's eyes fly wide, both of them stilling in an instant.

"Is that-"

"Stay here," he said quietly, slipping her from the bar so she could find her feet. True, anyone with bad intentions probably wouldn't knock, especially since Sawyer would be able to see whoever it was as soon as he got to the windows. He still proceeded with caution, making his way to the front door on full alert.

Lia stood at the front door.

"Sorry!" she said through the glass as soon as she saw Sawyer. If she noticed his mussed hair or kiss-swollen mouth, she didn't show it. "I left my cell phone behind the bar. I'd have called you to tell you I was coming back for it, but..."

Sheepishly, she shrugged. Sawyer tried for a smile, although he had a feeling he'd missed by about a hundred yards. He slid a covert glance at Jo-clothes righted, expression entirely neutral as she wiped down the bar he'd just wanted to bend her over, and f*****g hell, what had he been thinking? "Right. Sure, come on in. Jo and I were just finishing up."

Lia made fast work of grabbing her phone from behind the bar, apologizing again before heading back out. Unease perked in Sawyer's chest, but he couldn't exactly ignore what he and Jo had just done. What they'd almost done, right there on the damned bar. "Jo, I-"

"You don't have to say anything," she said, shaking her head. "Really. I should probably apologize. I got a little...um..."

She broke off, clearly flustered, but no. No way. They might've gotten more impulsive than either of them had intended, but the last thing he wanted from her was an apology.

But first, he needed to get one thing straight. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure?" she said, wary.

"Do you regret kissing me just now?"

Jo blinked in surprise but didn't pause. "No. I just, um, got kind of carried away."

"Me, too," Sawyer admitted. "But it felt pretty good, getting carried away with you. Maybe not something we should do in the middle of a bar," he conceded, and there, there was the smile he was after. "But I don't have any regrets, either. Just because it was impulsive doesn't mean it's a bad thing."

After a beat, then another, she nodded. "Fair enough."

"Good. Now let's finish up so you can get home." Sawyer said. But as they put up the bar stools and he walked her to her car to say goodnight, he knew he wasn't going to stop wanting her any time soon.