Chapter 20
KNOX
Did I know my little criminal would break into my house? Yes. It was about damn time.
Did I imagine the kind of tornado she would leave behind? Fuck no.
The moment I entered my apartment, my legs had frozen for a full minute.
The entire living room was a mess. Not only was the couch crawling with roaches, but the entire kitchen looked like a bomb had exploded.
When I’d opened my cabinet under the sink to grab the cleaning supplies, I’d found glassware stacked haphazardly down there.
This had only resulted in me opening every single door of my cabinets, only to find that every item had been moved to the worst possible spot imaginable.
My little criminal was definitely creative and certainly did not belong in the kitchen. She was to be kept as far away from the kitchen as possible. Up until that point, she’d managed not only to put me in the worst temper of my life but also made my hands itch and my skin crawl.
I wanted to wring my little criminal’s neck when one of the roaches crawled over my shoe and tried to enter my once spotless, sparkling kitchen.
When I got my hands on my heartless, vengeful girl, she was gonna get the spanking of her life.
My hands already itched with the need to grab her throat and slam her against the wall.
I looked around my house, and my eyes landed on the glaring recording devices and cameras. My girl took liberties that even I hadn’t taken. Immediately, I turned to the camera and flipped her off.
Now that I knew the cameras were placed all around my house, it felt like her eyes were following me, watching me, taking her pleasure from my reactions.
Just to keep us on the same footing, I nonchalantly put in my AirPods, opened the recording device app on my phone, and tuned into the device that she hadn’t managed to catch.
She’d missed one audio recording device in her bedroom.
You plant enough devices day after day in someone’s house, and they’re bound to miss at least one.
It was a gamble, but if she was in her bedroom right now, I would be able to hear her. “Not really impressed so far, little criminal,” I said out loud, as if talking to myself, and when a scoff hit my ears, I knew she was in her bedroom.
I held off on saying something in return, just to keep up the mystery.
“Go to the fucking bedroom, and we’ll see.” Her muttered response had the hair on the back of my neck rising. Pretending that I didn’t hear her, I skipped checking the guest bedroom and the hallway restroom and entered my bedroom.
My bedroom was left relatively spotless, and my eyes narrowed on my uniform shirt lying on the bed.
“Look at the fucking board, look at the fucking board,” she chanted.
A smile almost broke across my face as I bit my lip to stop myself from revealing that I could hear her loud and clear.
I didn’t want her to stop talking or, worse, discover the recording device.
Her excited, breathy voice was doing something to my body, as all my blood rushed down to my cock.
I stepped closer to my shirt but found it simply rumpled on the bed.
“Maybe I should’ve put the picture on the shirt,” she mumbled.
Biting my lip, I casually turned to the whiteboard and stepped toward it. And now I knew why she desperately wanted me to look at the fucking whiteboard. Her response was neatly written right under my own, and a small Polaroid was stuck just underneath it.
Too late. I’m sure you won’t mind the mess.
For a second, I didn’t understand her “too late” until I plucked the photo and looked at it properly.
My vision narrowed, and my cock rose to its full fucking mast as I stared at my beauty straddling my uniform shirt, her fingers coated in her arousal as if feeding it to me, and her masked face tilted in a seductive challenge.
“How do you like that, Knox Steele?” Her breathy voice was fuel to the burning inferno raging through my veins.
My eyes fell upon the shirt and the vision of her riding my shirt, fucking herself on her knees, moaning my name, breathing in my scent, head thrown back in pleasure, slammed into my mind.
The beast inside me snarled against the righteous cage I kept it locked behind, wanting to hunt my little criminal and slam inside her tight little hole.
I marched to the bed and picked up the shirt, the need to see the evidence of her arousal riding my body hard. Blinding need rattled against my chest, my beast going feral for a taste. For a fucking whiff.
And I gave in.
With my eyes trained on the camera, I brought the shirt close to my face.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she hissed. I could imagine her eyes glued to the screen, watching me.
I took a deep fucking whiff of my shirt, and before I could stop it, a loud, animalistic growl rattled through my chest at that delicious smell of sin and sex embedded in the fabric.
“Ohmigod. Ohmigod. Stop that.” Her breath hitched on the last word, and I damn fucking knew she didn’t want me to stop at all.
So keeping my eyes on the camera, I winked at her and gave a long, indulgent lick at the very spot where she’d left behind her sinfully delicious essence. Euphoria exploded in every cell of my body. My cock ached sharply as my tongue got a mere hint of her taste.
Her gasp only managed to ramp up my need further. “Oh God. Oh God.”
I looked into the camera and couldn’t help but growl. “You should’ve left behind more of you, my little criminal.”
She whimpered, and I knew she was just as affected as I was.
“Are you touching yourself, little stalker?”
“No…” Her denial ended in a moan.
“Don’t you fucking lie to me,” I growled, and immediately realized that I accidentally answered her.
Her loud gasp let me know she’d grasped what I’d done.
“You can hear me.” Her shock made me smile wider. It wasn’t going to be long before she discovered the small audio recording device I’d stuck in the far corner of a shelf above her computer setup.
“Don’t worry. It’s our little secret. Now tell me, did you have fun coming on my shirt?”
Her breathing turned shallow. “Fuck off. And no. You’re sick.”
Her denial was just so sweet. I opened my pants, and her panicked voice hit my ears. “Stop that. What are you doing?”
I smiled as I realized she could just stop watching me any time she wanted.
She could hunt down the recording device and shatter it into a million pieces, severing our connection.
But she didn’t. So with a proud grin on my face, I locked my eyes with the camera and gave her a wink.
“Showing you what your taste, your lovely photo, and the little wet spot on my shirt did to me. Don’t you want to see the result of your little stunt, my devil? ”
Her breathy gasp reached me before her words. “No.”
“I’ll show it to you anyway.” I pulled my rock-hard cock out of my pants and gave it a stroke, easing the ache she caused. A grunt escaped my chest as I looked at the precum gathered on the tip of my cock and looked at the camera. “See what you do to me, little hellion.”
Her whimper washed over me, and my balls tightened. A growl rumbled up my chest, and my neck arched with euphoria. I squeezed my cock and stroked harder. “Yes, hellion. Fuck yourself with your fingers. Just like you did while riding my shirt.”
Her breaths were choppy, as if she was stopping herself from moaning out loud, as she gritted out, “I’m not fucking myself. I’m disgusted by you.”
A combination of a laugh and a grunt escaped me as I stroked myself faster. My mind clouded with inexplicable, undeniable lust and her breathy gasps. “And I’m not stroking myself. This is me being disgusted by the evidence you left behind.”
“Fuck you,” she moaned.
I looked at the camera as I kept stroking myself and flipped her off with my other hand. “It’s gonna be the other way around, little stalker.”
Her loud scoff had my chest heaving with breathlessness. Her words were gasoline to the fire in my veins. “Only if you can catch me.”
“You’re already caught, sweetheart.”
And she laughed. A genuine laugh followed by a sinful moan. A wave of brilliant ecstasy shot down my spine as my balls tightened. I stroked faster, thrusting my hips into my fist, driving them harder as I would inside her. “Is this what you wanted, little criminal?”
She gasped.
“Is this what you wanted to see? Your stalker, mindless with need? Fucking himself raw, wishing it were you instead? Is that why you installed these cameras?”
Her sharp breath ended in a whimper. “I…” Gasp. “I am keeping an eye on my enemy.”
I drove my hips harder into my fist, causing her to whine in my ears. That little sound evaporated all my logical sense, turning me into a mindless fucking beast rutting into my bed. I stared at the camera and licked my shirt, tasting her on my tongue.
Agony and need rammed into my soul, hunger for her etching into my bones as I looked at her in the camera. “Tell me your name, my little criminal.”
“Why?” Her breaths were getting choppy, and I knew she was just as close as I was.
I smiled at her, pleasure robbing me of all of my pretenses. “So I can shout it when I come.”
“Fuck,” she moaned loudly. “Never. Can’t. Fuck.”
Her chants turned into loud whimpers. I knew she wouldn’t give me her name. Fuck, I’d never craved to know somebody’s name as much as I was dying to know hers.
My hand flew over my cock as I gritted out, “Then scream my name, you hellion. Come for me, and you better fucking scream my name.”
“You motherfucking…Knox. Knox. Fuck. Knox.” The sound of her coming with my name on her lips lodged in my chest like a bullet.
That one word—my fucking name—on her lips had me shooting in my hands onto the shirt, right where she had her cum. My body jerked as burning, snarling pleasure erupted from my cock, leaving me in a state of the highest of ecstasies. “That’s my good girl,” I purred.
“Fuck you.” Her words were the complete opposite of the emotions in her voice.
“Tell me your name.” I walked to the bathroom and cleaned myself.
“No.”
I walked out and stood directly in front of the camera. “You know I’ll find it out.”
“You won’t.”
“Don’t challenge me, hellion.”
She scoffed. “Don’t you have some real crimes to solve? Or would you like me to solve them for you?”
I stepped even closer to the camera. “You can hide all you want, sweetheart. But you’re a criminal. And I’m a cop. I’m bound to catch you.”
With that, I smashed the camera into pieces. The next second, the audio streaming from my earphones cut off. My jaw ached, and I realized how hard I clenched it.
I needed to see this woman's face. I needed to know this woman's name.
Most of all, I needed to catch her in the act of a crime and arrest her.
Put her behind bars and end this obsession I was developing.
Ten years. I had given ten years of my life to maintain the law-abiding, rule-following, gentleman persona.
My mother had sensed the darkness in me ever since I had first killed an injured bird in our backyard.
Since then, every day, every week, every month, every fucking year, in the godforsaken thirty-five years of my life, my mother had drilled her rules of moral behavior into my mind.
She had protected me every time the darkness inside me had won over, and I’d fucked up.
She’d been endlessly patient and unconditionally loving even though I never once could feel that same kind of emotion for her.
She was the one who taught me to have a healthier and safer outlet for my dark needs.
My brother went into cybersecurity and private security so he could protect me if the need arose.
My whole life, I’d abided by the rules that not only kept me safe but also kept the two most important people in my life happy.
One girl couldn’t ruin it all.
One criminal girl with hazel eyes full of mischief and darkness couldn’t ruin my morality, my carefully constructed life, every promise I made to my mother for her to live without worrying about me, and every fucking thing that I stood for.
I wouldn’t let her.