Chapter Thirteen #2
“You’re killing me,” she breathes against my jaw. Her hips rock forward, pressing against my thigh, seeking friction I’m not
giving her. “Knox, please.”
“Please what?”
“Touch me. Really touch me.”
I slide my hand up her stomach, over her ribs, until I’m cupping her breast through the thin cotton of her bra. She arches
into my palm, and I can feel her nipple hardening against my hand, straining toward me. I rub my thumb across it and she gasps,
her whole body jolting like I’ve hit a live wire.
“Like that?” I do it again, harder this time. “Or like this?”
“Both. Either. God, I don’t care, just don’t stop.”
I reach behind her and unhook the clasp with one hand, pulling the straps down her shoulders until she’s bare beneath me.
For a moment I just look at her, drinking in the sight. Small, perfect breasts with pink nipples already peaked in the cool
air. The rapid rise and fall of her chest as she watches me watching her.
“Beautiful,” I say, because she is. Because I need her to know.
I lower my mouth to her breast and close my lips around her nipple, sucking gently while my hand palms the other. She cries
out, her fingers tangling in my hair, pulling me closer. I work her with my tongue, tracing circles around the sensitive flesh,
then scraping my teeth across it just hard enough to make her hips buck off the bed.
“Knox.” Her voice is ragged now, breaking around my name. “I need—I want—”
“I know.” I kiss my way across her chest, giving her other breast the same treatment while she writhes beneath me. “I’ve got
you.”
I trail kisses down her stomach, pausing to taste the salt on her skin, to feel the way her abs clench with anticipation.
When I reach the waistband of her underwear, I look up at her. Her eyes are dark, glazed, her lips swollen from kissing.
“Yes or no?”
“Yes. God, yes.”
I hook my fingers under the elastic and drag the cotton down her legs. She’s bare now, completely bare, spread out on my sheets
like something I conjured from a fantasy. I can see how wet she is, glistening in the low light, and my cock throbs painfully
against my briefs.
“You’re so fucking perfect.” I run my hands up her thighs, pushing them apart, making room for myself between them. “I’ve
thought about this. You have no idea how many nights I’ve thought about this.”
She props herself up on her elbows, watching me with hooded eyes. “Show me.”
I lower my head and press a kiss to her inner thigh, right where the skin goes soft and sensitive. She makes a sound caught
somewhere between a laugh and a whimper. I do the same to the other thigh, then work my way higher, leaving wet kisses along
the crease where her leg meets her hip. So close to where she wants me. Not quite there yet.
“Knox.” There’s warning in her voice now. Desperation. “Stop teasing.”
“I thought you wanted to take it slow.”
“I changed my mind.”
I grin against her skin and finally, finally press my mouth to her center.
She cries out, her hips lifting off the bed, and I pin them down with one arm across her stomach. She’s hot and slick against
my tongue, her taste flooding my senses as I lick a long stripe from her entrance to her clit. I circle that swollen bundle
of nerves, learning what pressure makes her gasp, what rhythm makes her thighs clench around my head.
“Oh god.” Her fingers twist in the sheets, her whole body trembling. “Oh god, oh god, right there, don’t stop—”
I don’t stop. I seal my lips around her clit and suck gently while my tongue keeps working, and she shatters against my mouth with a broken cry that sounds like my name.
I feel her pulse around nothing, clenching on emptiness, and I want so badly to give her something to hold on to. My fingers. My cock. Anything.
But I promised we wouldn’t rush.
I ease her through the aftershocks, licking soft and slow until her trembling subsides. When I crawl back up her body, she
pulls me down into a messy kiss, tasting herself on my tongue.
“Your turn,” she says against my lips, her hand sliding down my stomach toward my waistband. “Let me—”
I catch her wrist before she can reach me. “Not tonight.”
“Knox.”
“If you touch me right now, I’m going to lose what’s left of my self-control.” I press my forehead to hers, breathing hard.
“And I meant what I said. We’re not rushing this.”
“That’s not fair.”
“I know.” I roll onto my side, pulling her with me until we’re facing each other, legs tangled together. “Rain check?”
She laughs, a little breathless, a little incredulous. “You just went down on me and you’re asking for a rain check?”
“I wanted to. That was for me as much as it was for you.” I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “When we do this for real,
when I’m inside you, I don’t want it to be on a night when you’ve been scared and upset. I want you present. I want you here
with me, not half in your head worrying about whatever’s coming tomorrow.”
She’s quiet for a moment, studying my face. Then she leans forward and kisses me, softer than before, lingering like she doesn’t
want it to end.
“You’re a frustrating man, Knox Bishop.”
“I’ve been told.”
She tucks herself against my chest, her head fitting perfectly in the hollow of my shoulder. I pull the covers up over us
and wrap my arm around her waist, holding her close.
“For the record,” she says into my skin, “when we do this for real? I expect the full Knox Bishop experience. No holding back.”
My cock twitches at the promise in her voice. “Noted.”
We lie there in the darkness, my heart still pounding, my body still aching with unspent need. She traces lazy patterns on my chest, her breathing slowly evening out. I can feel sleep pulling at her, the exhaustion of the evening catching up.
“Knox?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad I’m here.” Her voice is soft, drowsy. “With you. Even with everything else.”
“Me too.”
She falls asleep like that, curled against me, her breath warm on my skin. I listen to the steady rhythm of it while I stare
at the ceiling, too wired to follow her down.
The man outside her building.
I keep coming back to him, worrying at the memory like a loose tooth. The glimpses I’ve caught. The silhouette I can’t quite
place. There’s something familiar about him, about the way he moves. Not just military training, though he has that. Something
more specific.
Like someone I used to know.
I close my eyes and try to summon details. Neck tattoos crawling toward his jaw. Lean build. The way he vanishes, smooth and
professional, the moment he’s spotted.
Where do I know him from?
Afghanistan? Timing doesn’t feel right. One of my contractor gigs? Possible, but I worked with hundreds of people. A training
exercise? A bar on some base, years ago?
The answer hovers at the edge of memory, refusing to come into focus.
Hailey shifts in her sleep, saying something I can’t make out. I tighten my arm around her and force myself to let it go.
Tomorrow I’ll figure it out. Tomorrow I’ll dig deeper into whoever’s threatening her. Tomorrow I’ll make good on my promise.
But tonight I hold her while she sleeps, her secrets heavy between us, and tell myself that trust is something you build one
brick at a time.
Even when you can’t see the shape of what you’re building.