Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LOTTIE
The softest of pressures against my forehead wakes me from my sleep, an arm tightening around my waist.
“Sorry,” his voice is low and gravelly in my ear, its sound flooding me with memories from last night. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Mmm. What… time is it?” I ask, mid-yawn, not even hiding that I don’t want to move an inch from where I lay.
I groan when I stretch, feeling the soreness in my joints and between my legs.
The former, I’ll wear with a badge of honor.
I was bent in the most delicious ways last night.
The latter serves merely as a reminder of the inconveniences of endometriosis: sex hurts sometimes. And not in a good way.
Don’t let it ruin this moment, Lottie.
Knox wraps his other arm around my waist and tackles me when I try to sit up, rolling effortlessly on top of my body. Caging me between his arms, Knox starts kissing a line down my neck and chest. With a laugh, I put my palm to his forehead and push him away.
“Knox,” I plead.
He sighs like I’ve just taken his favorite toy away from him, and rolls onto his side, resting his head on his elbow as he looks at me with a broad smile, dimples popping.
“Still early. Around seven.” He takes my hand in his and brings it to his lips, kissing each finger softly.
I suck in a breath, trying not to get distracted by the tenderness of the moment, by the dangerous look in his eye.
Not because it’s the same predatory one he used before taking me, but because of the depth of the emotion I can see in them.
Knox’s boyish grin makes another appearance before kissing the palm of my hand this time, pulling me away from the intense feeling building in my chest. “I had a lot of fun last night.”
Throwing caution and restraint out the window, I roll into him, wrap an arm around his shoulders, and burrow into his chest. “Me too,” I whisper.
“I wish we could stay in bed all day.”
“Same,” I breathe.
All too soon, he pulls away, reaching for something on his nightstand. I groan, pulling at him. “Come back.”
He laughs softly at my whining. “Hold on, I want a picture of this.”
“What?” I shriek, pulling the comforter up to cover myself.
Knox rolls his eyes at me, camera at the ready.
“I’m not talking about photographing you naked.
Although I’d be totally into that if you’re interested.
I just meant this moment right here.” He aims the camara at me, although not quite directly at my face.
Adjusts the zoom a few times, and snaps away.
“What moment? There is no moment.”
“How can you say that?” He looks over at me, a smile in his eyes though he’s completely serious.
“This, right here. This is a moment. I wanna remember it always. I want there to be a record of this. You and me, waking up together for the first time.” He makes it sound like we’ll have a thousand more mornings like this, and I want them all.
My heart tightens in my chest, and suddenly I find myself at a loss for words. Panic creeps up my throat, tightening my airways. Does this behavior fall in line with “casual”?
But then he buries his face in my neck, inhaling the scent of my hair while holding the camera above us and I can barely think.
“And if I don’t want to remember?” It’s meant as a joke, but my voice comes out colder than expected.
He flinches for a second, pulling away. But his eyes are gentle when he says, “You’re just gonna have to fight me on it, I guess.
” Knox launches himself at me after that, covering me with his entire body.
With a squeal, I struggle to get away, laughing, but he holds me down, straddling my hips.
With one hand, he takes hold of both my wrists and pins them above my head; with the other, he snaps another picture.
“I’ll keep you tied here all day if you don’t cooperate.
” He laughs softly, hiding behind the camera.
“Stop, I give up!” I laugh, and he releases me, lying back down to flip through his photos with a gentle smile on his face.
“Can I at least see them?”
He smirks, glancing between me and the camera. “I don’t think you’re ready for what the camera has to say yet.”
“Oh, yeah?” I sputter a laugh.
“Yeah.”
“What, exactly, can a camera say, then?”
“Sorry, have you never heard of the expression a picture is worth a thousand words? It can say a whole lot.”
Laughing, I roll to sit on the edge of his bed and stretch. I feel the heat of his chest against my back, his lips on my bare shoulder, inching up towards my neck. Strong arms wrap around my waist in a vice-like grip just as I turn my head just in time to meet him with a kiss.
“Don’t go,” he whispers gruffly against my lips. “Stay all day in bed with me.”
I moan, pressing another kiss to his lips. “I can’t. Have to open the store in a couple of hours. I need to go home and change before I meet with Luke again.” I hear the slight rumble in his chest at my ex’s name and suppress a smile.
“Easy, cowboy. We have to start building the new shelves and stuff, so there’s a lot to review. I have responsibilities, you know. Grown-up stuff.”
He releases me from his possessive grip, and I almost beg him to pull me to him once more. “And I’m not a grown-up? I seem to remember doing very grown-up things to you last night.” His hands travel down my sides and to my front to cup my breasts.
I smirk, playfully slapping his hands away and getting to my feet, quickly pulling the tee he wore last night where it lay on the floor over my head. I sneak a deep inhale of it, snorting the scent coming off the softly worn fabric like an addict. “You know what I mean.”
“Whoa, why are you covering yourself up?”
“Did you just miss the conversation we just had? I need to go.”
“I already forgot. I was a bit distracted.”
“Seriously, Knox. I need to get home, get dressed, and come back to work.” I scuttle around his apartment, picking up my purse, dress, and underwear, searching for my bra under the bed. “Have you seen my bra? I can’t find it.”
He stretches out onto his back on the bed, feet crossed at the ankle, arms behind his head, body like a tatted up Greek god. “Nah. Tossed it sometime between orgasms the first time around.”
I snort, checking under the bed again. “I can’t believe you—” I stop dead in my tracks, my eyes catching on the midnight blue object on his nightstand. “What is that?” I ask, my voice trembling.
“Oh.” He laughs, sitting up in bed. “Your e-reader. I may have taken it from your place when I was there.”
“What? I’ve been looking all over the place for this,” I shriek, taking it in my hands. I feel myself blush beet red in mortification. The amount of books I have on there that are just for spank bank material… “What the hell are you doing with it?”
“Research.” He shrugs with a laugh, staring up at me with adoration.
“Re—What? Oh my god.”
“You know, I was a little surprised to see just how many different romance sub-genres there are, but I gotta say, they’re all really hot. Even the alien-human ones had me going there for a second. I can totally see why you’d be into them after reading parts of one.”
My jaw drops, mortification freezing me in my place. “I cannot believe you went through my reader. That’s like—that’s like reading someone’s journal.”
“After everything I read, I think it’s more like going through someone’s browser history.” He shrugs nonchalantly. “I don’t know why you’re so upset about this.” He smiles up at me, pulling me towards him on the bed.
I press my hands on his chest, pushing him away.
“C’mon, Lottie,” he says with a laugh. “You can’t actually be mad.
Sure, I stole it from your place. But I think it’s hot.
And no one said we couldn’t recreate a few of the scenes in there.
I’m actually looking forward to it. I can’t take you to another planet or anything, and I wouldn’t be down to have sex in the snow—shrinkage and all that—but I’m not opposed to a little body paint if you really want to recreate those alien books. ”
“Oh my god,” I groan, skin heating, every inch of it covered in a deep crimson blush.
“That one book about the former child actress who does the dance competition has that incredibly hot sex scene in the park that I think we could totally recreate and—”
“Whoa! Spoiler alert! I haven’t read that one yet. And how did you get through so many books in such a short amount of time?” I never pegged him as a fast reader.
He shrugs. “I’ve only read five of them, and just skipped to the good parts. All scenes we’ll recreate in due time.”
I snort, unable to resist his cheeky smile, the brightness in his eyes as he talks about future plans between us. But I can’t focus on that now, instead moving my thoughts to more pressing matters. “I am a sexual person—”
“I definitely know that.”
“—and I will not be shamed for reading the books I read.” “You shouldn’t be. Read what you like.” He shrugs.
“And I read other stuff besides smutty romances. I read contemporary romance, too. And thrillers and personal development books. I read business strategy, books, too. Did you not see those on there, too?”
“Duh, but I wasn’t going to read those. I was more interested in other stuff. For research purposes. And you’ll find no judgment from me. I’m not the type of guy to shit on someone’s tastes. In fact, I think I might encourage this particular one. It gives me hope.”
“What do you mean—?” But my alarm cuts me off, taking me back to more pressing matters. “We can talk about this later. Can I borrow a pair of sweats or something? I don’t want to risk running into anyone dressed in last night’s dress when I walk back home.”
“You’d rather they see you in men’s clothes?”
“It’s just sweats—no one will know. In all honesty, I’d rather they think I’m a slob than a trollop.”
He bursts out laughing. “A trollop? For sleeping over at the guy you’re seeing’s apartment? Really?”