Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Knox’s dismissal when Ellie had been about to say yes filled her with a hollow sense of rejection.
She had never found it easy to flirt with men, and once she was with Andrew, there had never been any need for her to do so.
Even if she now knew that hadn’t stopped Andrew from doing a lot more than flirting with other women.
But she had been teetering on the edge of saying yes to Knox, of welcoming and enjoying the mind-blowing pleasure she felt sure he would be able to give her. That she longed to experience. For him to now put that off, maybe forever, left her numb.
“Of course,” she answered stiffly, sure inside herself, despite his earlier comments, that the suggestion would never happen again.
She turned to stare out the side window. The familiar buildings eventually told her they were almost back at her apartment building. It couldn’t come soon enough for Ellie. Right now, all she really wanted to do was get away from Knox and the vulnerability caused by her feelings for him.
Feelings that had only deepened during their secluded lunch together and then watching him with the babies. She had no doubt he had been a wonderful dad.
“Ellie…?” Long and elegant fingers captured her chin so that Knox could turn her face toward him. “It really is only a raincheck,” he assured gruffly. “Today has been emotional for both of us. I don’t want you to do anything, for the two of us to do anything, that you might later regret.”
“Not you?”
“No, not me,” he answered firmly. “I already know how I feel and what I want.”
Ellie doubted that any woman had ever had cause to regret being intimate with Knox. He had an air about him, a confidence not arrogance, that told her he was completely comfortable in his own skin. A confidence that would ensure no lover of his ever left his bed, or theirs, unsatisfied.
Andrew had been Ellie’s only lover, and although sex with him had been enjoyable—until the last couple of years, when it had become very sporadic and had seemed more like a chore—she believed now that it had only been exciting in the beginning because she had thought she was in love with him.
But in the nine years they were together, she had never experienced a single climax with Andrew. Waves of pleasure and a feeling of connection, yes, of physical closeness, but it had never resulted in an actual orgasm.
She instinctively knew that wouldn’t be the case with Knox.
There was an inborn sensuality to Knox, an appreciation in the warmth of his eyes when he looked at her, telling her that when he made love to a woman, her pleasure would be the only thing in that given moment important to him.
His wife had not only been cruel in abandoning her husband and daughter when they had needed her the most, but also stupid for leaving a man as gorgeous and considerate as Knox.
Just as Ellie knew she would be stupid if she were to walk away completely from the warm promise she could see in the dark depths of his eyes. “Raincheck,” she finally agreed huskily.
Knox leaned forward to kiss her lightly on the lips, appearing to savor the moment, before pulling back slightly to rest his forehead against hers. “I meant it when I said I’m going to be a part of your life for the foreseeable future.” His breath was a warm caress against her cheeks.
Ellie felt a returning warmth starting to fill some of the hollows inside her.
Damn Andrew and his adulterous ways for even briefly having the power to make her think of distrusting Knox!
She would not, really should not, put Knox in the same category as her cheating ex-boyfriend.
“Have dinner with me tomorrow evening?” Knox now coaxed.
Renewed excitement fizzed up inside her, her cheeks warming. “That would be lovely, thank you.”
“Believe me, it’s going to be my pleasure.” He kissed her lightly on the lips again before drawing back as the cab came to a halt outside Ellie’s apartment building.
“What are you doing?” Ellie prompted when Knox opened the door beside him.
He gave her a quizzical glance. “Walking you to your door.”
She smiled to take the sting out of her words. “That’s a really gentlemanly thing to do, but I believe I’m capable of walking unescorted across the pavement, going up in the elevator, and then down the hallway to my apartment.”
“I’m sure you are too.” He nodded. “But my dad, who was very old-fashioned in his ways, taught me it’s polite to always walk a lady to her door.”
“He sounds charming.”
“He was,” Knox confirmed affectionately.
Telling Ellie that his father was no longer alive. She had no idea about his mother. But she would have plenty of time tomorrow evening, when they met up again for dinner, to ask him those questions.
“A compromise,” she decided with a smile. “You can walk me as far as the elevator.”
“Wait there,” he instructed as he got out of the cab before coming round to her side of the vehicle and opening the door for her to step out onto the sidewalk. “I’ll be two minutes,” he informed the driver.
The other man shrugged. “Whatever, it’s your dollars, not mine,” he dismissed disinterestedly.
Knox chuckled as he placed his hand beneath Ellie’s elbow and walked with her into her apartment building. “New York cab drivers!” He gave a shake of his head, his expression amused.
Ellie turned to face him after they reached the elevator and she’d pressed the button for it to return to the ground floor. “Thank you for a lovely lunch, and I’m looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow evening.”
His eyes held hers captive as he assured her, “So am I.”
They stared at each other for several long and intimate moments before Ellie moved up onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his.
It was all the encouragement Knox needed to slide his arms about her waist and hold her tightly against him as he deepened the kiss.
Ellie rested her hands on his shoulders and lost herself in the pleasure of that kiss.
By the time Knox raised his head, they were both breathing hard, and his cheeks were as flushed as Ellie’s felt warm.
He cupped her heated cheeks as he looked deeply into her eyes. “Tomorrow.” He made that single word sound like a promise.
“Yes,” she confirmed.
He dropped his hands to his sides and took a step back as the elevator arrived and the doors quietly opened. “I’m starting to regret not seeing you again until tomorrow.”
Ellie chuckled. “My parents always told me that anticipation is half the pleasure.”
“Yes, but they were probably talking about birthdays and Christmas,” he dismissed. “This is so much bigger than either of those.”
Her eyes widened. “It is?”
“Oh yes,” he said with certainty.
Ellie stepped into the elevator before the doors could close and it disappeared to another floor. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”
“Shall I book a table for seven thirty tomorrow evening? That way, I can come to your apartment to pick you up about seven?” he suggested softly.
She gave a shy smile. “That sounds perfect.”
He nodded. “Please don’t change your mind between now and then, or you’ll break my heart,” he told her as the doors began to close.
Ellie smiled all the way up to the fifth floor, along the hallway to her apartment, and while she unlocked the door to go inside.
That smile instantly faded the moment she saw the chaos of furniture having been upended, all the kitchen cabinets having been emptied onto the kitchen floor, and her personal items in the lounge strewn across the carpet.
Her face paled when she saw the man sitting in one of the chairs in the chaos of that room.
* * *
Knox checked his messages during the cab ride back to his office. There was one from Linus, but after seeing the title in the Subject box was Ellie’s name, he decided to wait to read it until he was seated behind his marble desk. He saved the two attachments for last.
As usual, Linus had gone above and beyond, providing Knox with far more information than he had asked for.
There was the bare bones of Ellie’s life, parents, education, boyfriends—there had only been two, very brief but not intimate relationships, before Day.
There was far more information on Andrew Day.
His deliberate estrangement from his own family.
His financial dependence on Ellie, both during and since their relationship ended.
Because he had taken half the value of everything Ellie owned.
The report also detailed his womanizing and gambling during the relationship.
The latter had been while Ellie continued to share his life in total ignorance of his infidelity and betrayal.
Linus’s last comment was a warning to Knox, before he looked at the attachments: Remember, revenge is a dish best served cold.
Once Knox had read those attachments, he was fully able to appreciate the warning.
Knox was usually clearheaded and logical in his thinking, rarely allowing his emotions to guide his actions. He certainly didn’t allow his temper to rule his emotions. But the two attachments were both hospital reports for one Eleanor Hall.
The first one was dated almost six months ago, after she had arrived at the hospital in great pain and unable to move her left arm. An X-ray had revealed that both her wrist and the two bones at the bottom of her arm were broken.
Also included in that visit was a negative STD test.
Because that bastard Hall hadn’t cared who he stuck his dick into while continuing to stick it into Ellie!
The second report, from just two months ago, was for Ellie having arrived at the hospital complaining she was having difficulty breathing. The doctor, after examining her and taking more X-rays, had put this down to the extensive bruising on her abdomen and two broken ribs.
Knox had broken three ribs years ago, and even now, he remembered that difficulty breathing and that they had hurt like the devil for the weeks it had taken for them to heal. They still twinged occasionally.
On both visits to the hospital, Ellie claimed to have acquired the injuries after a fall.
Which Knox didn’t believe for a moment. Especially considering the STD test and Ellie refusing to elaborate on how Day’s behavior behind closed doors since their separation had been unpleasant.
Unpleasant!
Knox had absolutely no doubt the type of injuries Ellie had suffered had been caused by deliberate pressure, possibly a vicious twist, applied to the delicate bones of her arm and wrist. The bruised and broken ribs were, in all probability, delivered by Day’s fists.
Fucking bastard!
Knox now knew the exact reason Linus had issued that warning in regard to revenge. Because Knox’s first instinct was to pay Day a visit, right now, and beat the ever-loving shit out of him and see how he liked it.
Only a coward would physically hurt a woman. In this case, Ellie. The woman Knox was falling in love with.
Linus had also provided the information that Ellie’s first visit to the hospital had come shortly before she went to her lawyer and drew up a contract that gave Andrew Day half the value of the business and the apartment they had shared for nine years.
The second visit was immediately after Ellie had told Knox she had realized she was losing clients to Day’s newly opened agency. Knox could only assume she must have confronted the other man with that information, and the bruising and broken ribs were the result.
Knox’s hands were clenched into tight fists. He really, really wanted to hit something.
Someone.
And he knew exactly who that someone was.