Chapter 12 Knox
KNOX
The smile Lucy had on his face made this entire day worth it.
While I loved my friends dearly, they were a lot to handle on a good day. But dragging Lucy out here, away from the stresses of his life, gave him the opportunity to embrace the fun and chaos of my found family.
“You brought him to meet your family,” Maisie hummed as we reset for our last round of laser tag.
It was 1-to-1, and this round would decide the winning team. According to our longstanding rules, losers bought lunch for the group. Given that my dad was nipping at my heels about Nana’s house, I needed every spare penny to keep the house away from his money-hungry hands.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
But I did. These guys were my family, even if not by blood, and I knew they would take care of Lucy, even if that care meant teasing and poking him like they did to each other. It was how we’d always shown affection.
Maisie rolled her eyes. “I’ve never seen you fall for someone so fast, Knox. We’re happy for you, though. If he’s the one for you, then we’re here to support you all the way.”
I glanced around to make sure Lucy had disappeared to the other side of the war room and out of earshot. “You like him, though, right? You seemed happy when you were talking to him.”
Tucker shoved me then, nearly knocking me off my feet despite my height advantage.
“Shut it, you prick. Of course we like him,” Tucker scoffed. “A little quiet for you, maybe, but we can work on that.”
Maisie shoved her brother. “That’s obviously because of us, dipshit. When Knox was with him, he deflated like a fucking balloon. All the tension just poof! Gone in a flash.”
I stared at her. “What?”
She shoved me next. “Don’t be an idiot, Knox. He likes you. He likes all this big protective asshole thing you’ve got going on, just like you like his cute artist thing.”
“He’s more than that.” I frowned. “He has a lot going on, and I don’t think he’s done something so…chaotic in a long time.”
“So you’ve opened him up to new adventures.” Tucker smirked.
I smacked him in the back of the head and kicked the back of his knee, sending him to the floor.
“You’re useless at this. Let your sister talk.”
Maisie snorted. “Glorious. Perfect. God, he’s such an idiot.”
I sighed. “You’re all horrible. I should have protected Lucy and let him stay home.”
“But then we wouldn’t be able to give you our blessing, right?” Maisie asked, looking far too knowing. “Because we do, you know? Make your move, Knox. Tell him how you feel.”
I looked in the direction of the enemy base, where Duke was probably laying out their team’s strategy to grind my team into dust.
“I think I will.”
After that, it was too fast to think. The buzzer rang, signaling the start of our final round, and we dispersed into the maze of walls, black-lit obstacles, and areas of pitch dark shadow where someone could hide at any time.
I usually took the offense. It came naturally to me. But something pulled me toward the wall, where there were more barriers but also more lights. It felt like a semblance of protection for newer players to have something like a wall against their back.
I took the corner quickly and ducked behind one of the walls that wasn’t lit, settling myself into the shadows and taking slow, quiet breaths so I wouldn’t be heard.
For a few seconds, it was silent, save for Duke and Tucker squealing and swearing at each other near my team’s base, where Duke would want to open fire and Tucker would want to defend.
Then I heard it. Soft footsteps against the thinly carpeted floorboards that were likely older than us.
Lucy. It had to be. None of my friends were ever cautious, even Maisie. But Lucy took soft, even steps this time. Cautious.
I closed my eyes and trained my ears to the sound, mapping the distance he must be. When I heard the creak right outside my hiding spot, I leapt into action, lunging from the darkness behind the wall and crowding Lucy against the wall.
Lucy yelped and swung, but I was too close for it to result in much more than smacking his gun against my arm as I planted one hand on the wall beside Lucy’s pale hair.
“Knox,” he gasped, eyes wide and breath coming in ragged pants from what must have been quite the shock.
But he didn’t complain about our closeness, and his empty hand even moved to hover in front of my chest, like he wanted to rest his hand there but realized a split second before he made contact what he’d been doing.
Just like I knew it would, my heart jumped into my throat at his proximity. At those damn eyes trained on me like I was the only thing in the room. It fed my ego, admittedly, but it also made me want to show him exactly how good I could make him feel.
His tongue darted out to wet his lips, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Fuck it.” I dropped my gun and kissed him for all I was worth.
He grunted at the force behind it, but the hand hovering over my chest was now fisting my shirt in a tight grip and pulling me impossibly closer. His head hit the wall with a soft thunk, and he let his gun slide down my back to land on the floor without care.
Those fingers threaded into my hair, and I lost it.
“Fucking hell, Lucy,” I groaned, slipping my right hand under his thigh and yanking it up around my waist.
“Knox,” he gasped in response, grip tightening on my chest and hair, and his ankle hooking around the base of my spine.
His other leg came next, and I was hauling him into my arms before I was pressing him back against the wall, the friction sending a bolt of need that had me hardening in my pants and Lucy’s hips rolling against my stomach.
I opened my eyes and was greeted with the sight of the beautiful man in front of me, looking aroused and wanting. His eyes were lidded, his hair askew against the wall, and his head tilted, exposing a perfect column of pale skin on his throat.
Before I could blink, my mouth was on the pulse of his neck, and I was scraping my teeth against it as he whimpered.
The base of my neck sparked as his grip tightened on my hair and tugged it harder than Lucy likely intended.
“Sorry,” he breathed, breath ragged.
“I’m not,” I argued, slipping one hand under Lucy’s shirt to trace along the column of his spine.
He shivered, and I felt every inch of it against me.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
Three shots were fired off, and my vest deactivated, signaling my death.
I groaned and dropped my forehead against Lucy’s collarbone as he went still in my arms.
Duke laughed. “Seriously, you two? We are in the middle of a war.”
I turned my head to glare at him, but he didn’t look apologetic in the slightest.
He shrugged. “Well, not anymore. You lose, Knox. You owe me lunch of my choice, which I have decided is about half a dozen hot dogs from that cart two blocks over. Now put Lucy down. My virgin eyes can’t handle this.”
“I will pluck out your so-called virgin eyes, Duke,” I growled.
Lucy nudged my arm, and I reluctantly set him back on his feet.
Even under the black lights, I could tell his entire face was bright red from being caught in such a compromising position. His face was down-turned, which I wasn’t at all okay with. I never wanted him to feel guilty about anything we did, as sudden as these things seemed to happen.
“We’ll meet you out there,” Maisie said with a small smile as she tugged Duke out while he complained. She sent a look to Kaiden, who obediently started hauling Tucker out, too.
“Thanks.” I nodded. “We’ll be right behind you.”
I turned back to Lucy, who was fixing his hair from the mess I’d made of it.
It wouldn’t have been a big deal, except that I’d seen him do the same thing earlier when he was trying to pull himself together after something intense and stressful.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I tried to keep my tone steady, wanting to soothe him a bit so he would relax again.
Well, maybe not quite as relaxed as when I’d had him against the wall, but I would take what I could get, and it was dangerous how much I wanted him against that wall again.
“That was,” he shook his head, “I’m sorry.”
“Lucy.” I ducked so I could meet his eyes, where they were still looking at the floor.
Lucy caught my eye, and his blush returned. “What?”
I smiled. Maybe Maisie wasn’t so far off when saying he relaxed enough around me to be himself again. To not hide behind his politeness—at least not entirely. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not, so you shouldn’t be either.”
“Your friends just caught us making out like teenagers when I’m supposed to be making a good impression.”
Fuck, he was pouting. How did I end up wanting someone who could go from hot and wanting to soft and pouty in less than a minute?
“And you did.” I took his hands in mine and squeezed them. “Maisie loves you already.”
“What about Duke? He’s your best friend, and he thinks I’m going to ditch you or something.”
I frowned. What the hell had Duke said to him? “He’s just protective. I’m a big boy, Lucy. I can handle it if you don’t want to see me after this month.”
Lucy bit his bottom lip, but I saw the wobble anyway.
“Lucy?”
He raised his gaze back to mine. “I want to.”
I tilted my head. “You want to?”
“I want to see you after this month,” he clarified, settling the nerves that had set back up in my stomach. “I like you.”
I grinned and swept him back up into another kiss. “I want that too.”
“But Duke said–”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what Duke said. I will happily knock his head in if he keeps saying shit that makes you shrink again, though. Just say the word.”
Lucy’s eyes widened. “Knox, no. You can’t do that."
“I’ll handle it. He’s saying shit because he’s protective, just like I am of him. But that doesn’t mean he gets to tear you down.”
“He wasn’t, really.”
“He tried to tell you not to ditch me, when I want you to spend time with me by choice, not by guilt, Lucy. You have enough of that to deal with already.” The last part came out under my breath, making me want to knock Mr. Sterling’s teeth out for using that part of Lucy to his advantage.
“But we can talk about that later. Right now, I guess I owe these guys some hot dogs. Then we can go home.”
Lucy nodded. “I can buy the hot dogs.”
“I’m the one who lost, Lucy.”
Lucy bit his lip. “But I’m the one who distracted you.”
I hummed. “I believe I was the one who jumped you, actually. Come on. It’s just hot dogs. My treat.”
It might hurt the wallet, but that was better than making Lucy feel like I was using him for his money.