21. Gemma
Chapter twenty-one
Gemma
Rule #19: No smoothies before 7 am (also they're gross).
I 'd assumed a full night of cuddling was a myth. No one really cuddled the whole night; usually, the men I'd slept with rolled over or left the bed after a couple of hours. But not Rook. He held me against his firm body all night, and if I rolled over in my sleep, I found myself snuggled against his chest or wrapped in his arms.
When I woke the next morning, it was to find myself nose-to-nose with his perfectly chiseled, handsome features. Blinking sleepily, I took in the light fan of his eyelashes against his bronze skin, the stubble along his jaw and the disheveled perfection of his blond hair against his forehead. He had to be almost forty, I was pretty sure, but the creases in his skin were light, and if anything, more rugged than aged.
I ran a finger down the bridge of his nose, and his eyes peeled open blearily. I smiled at him, tracing a line from his nose to his lips, and down his chin. "I didn't take you for a cuddler."
His arms tightened around me, bringing my naked body flush with his. "I'm not… usually." His voice had that scratchy, early-morning quality that made my heart flutter.
I squirmed under his hold, my bladder screaming at me to get to the bathroom. "I'm going to pee myself if you don't let me up, though. I tried to get away from you at like three this morning and you mumbled something about being tangled."
His straight teeth flashed white in the early morning light. "Inside joke."
"With whom?"
"Myself." Knox slid his hands away from my body and rolled onto his back, stretching with his hands behind his head. I took a second to appreciate the way his muscles bunched and rolled with the stretch, and then I slipped out of bed to get to the bathroom. I knew better than to fall asleep right after sex—nobody liked UTIs. But it had been impossible to resist melting into his embrace last night.
After I'd used the bathroom and washed up, I wrapped a towel around myself and scrubbed a hand down my face, trying to clear away the heavy fog of sleep. I felt drugged. I hadn't had a drop of alcohol the night before, but somehow, I had something like a hangover. Maybe having sex with Knox really was some kind of drug. It had certainly stolen away all the logic in my addled brain. What had I been thinking? One moment, I'd been on a date with a perfectly acceptable man, and the next, I'd been fucking my roommate in a greenhouse.
And then I'd kept fucking him.
I squeezed my cheeks together, looking at my disheveled appearance in the bathroom mirror. My hair had poofed out around my head after the shower and had dried in weird, crimped up patches overnight. I had a huge hickey on my neck, and my lips were still puffy from being ravaged by Rook's perfect mouth. "What the hell, Gem?" I gritted out to my reflection. She stared back at me, bewildered and off-kilter.
I eased open the bathroom door, peeking out to see if Knox was still in bed, but I found it empty. I wasn't sure why I was sneaking around, but somehow, in the light of day, what we'd done felt immensely idiotic. Maybe he would pretend it had never happened. Maybe we'd gotten it out of our systems.
I slipped into the closet like a dirty whore caught in the senator's bedroom and pulled on a cotton shorts and tank top set with little strawberries printed on the fabric and an itty-bitty bow at the curve of the neckline. I'd bought the set on a whim, nostalgic for the cute pajama sets I'd never had as a kid. It was a little chilly in the house, so I threw a slouchy sweater over it and padded uncertainly out of the bedroom to the kitchen.
Knox was wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt, and the muscles along his toned back shifted and bunched in a mouth-watering display as he moved around the kitchen getting coffee ready. I faltered halfway to the kitchen, taking in the planes of his stomach as he turned to face me, and then I caught sight of his ruffled hair and piercing eyes. Nope. I definitely had not gotten that out of my system. If anything, I needed another hit like now.
His lips tilted up to one side. "Good morning."
I swallowed a groan of desperation. "Morning." Mini whined in her crate, and I snapped out of my Rook-daze to let her out. She danced around me happily, docked tail wagging and pointy ears pricking up like a fox. I rubbed her head and neck before making kissing sounds and waving to the elevator. "Come on, girl. Let's go for a walk." Pumpkin bleated from her pen, shoving her face between the bars and demanding attention. I hesitated, wondering if I should clean her pen and get her fresh water and food first.
"I've got Pumpkin," Rook said, pressing the button on his fancy cappuccino machine and coming to stand in front of me with a complacent expression. He rested his hands on my arms gently. "You're going to freeze walking out there in that getup, though."
I looked down at my bare legs, and then back to Knox. He had sounded kind of… nice just now. "I'll be okay," I assured him with a hint of stupefied wonder.
"Make it a quick walk," he said with a squeeze of my arms, and then he turned to clean the puppy pads from Pumpkin's enclosure.
I shook my head. This was weird. I was used to being growled at or maybe even snapped at first thing in the morning, but I wasn't sure what to make of gentle Knox. Mini didn't seem to notice anything was amiss and greeted Rook while I got her leash from the hook on the wall. As far as Mini was concerned, it was business as usual.
As I walked her through the older industrial sector, I tried to take a deep breath and will myself to take my dog's perspective. Nothing unusual to see here. It was just a typical Saturday morning. I would hop online, play my game for a few hours, do some laundry, take Mini on some extra walks, and maybe get some shopping done. Pumpkin was costing me a small fortune in puppy pads to keep our apartment clean with a farm animal in it. I texted my gaming pal to make sure I stuck to my plans.
GemsNlace178576:
Hey Emma! You there? I'll be on around 10 this am.
Emmaculate94:
Long time no see! It's been a hot minute. I've got a mini campaign today. You in?
GemsNlace178576:
Hell ya! I could use a distraction.
Emmaculate94:
Lol, that sounds like a story. Tell me later?
GemsNlace178576:
Def will IG.
By the time I returned, I had almost convinced myself that none of last night had happened, that everything would go back to the way it had been, and I could be cool enough to consider my night with Rook a one-time thing. But then I hung up Mini's leash, stamping my feet and trying to warm up my frozen legs, and Knox walked up to me with a hot mug of coffee looped through his strong fingers. Before I could take it from him, he tilted my chin up and kissed me so soft and slow, my thoughts scrambled like tossed hashbrowns.
He tapped my chin as he pulled away. "I can read your mind, Gem. You can't pretend that last night didn't happen." I stared at him, my mouth ajar and my fingers numbly wrapping around the warm mug he passed me. Knox led me to the island with firm pressure at the small of my back. "Relax. It's not like I'm going to make you put labels on things." He caged me in from behind, pressing his hands to the counter on the island, and surrounded me with his warmth to the point that my eyes closed in satiation. "But I'm not letting you get away, either."
"Hmm," I hummed, letting my head rest against his chest. "That's characteristically vague of you."
He kissed my hair before moving away again, and then he went to pour himself a cup of his weird mushroom coffee. "Get some caffeine in your system, and then we can have a… debriefing." He smiled over the rim of his mug with a hint of mischief.
Oh. He was playing with me. He knew very well that I was trying to play it cool despite the flutters in my stomach, and he was calling me on my bluff. Asshole. I sipped my coffee and fluttered my lashes. "I didn't know you wore briefs, but I'll gladly debrief you."
His smile widened, and he took a drink of his healthy brew but didn't say anything. As I finished my first cup of coffee, Knox busied himself in the kitchen, making us smoothies I was pretty sure I would detest, and I watched him with my cheek on my fist, admiring the way his body moved with easy grace. "You didn't make it to the gym this morning," I observed.
Knox glanced at me from where he was cutting kale. "You offering to give me a workout?"
My jaw dropped. "Dr. Rook, you are positively flirtatious this morning."
"I don't need to flirt with you," he said, bringing over the cutting board to where he'd set up the blender on the island. Facing me across the marble space, he quirked one dark blond brow. "I already got you to my place, didn't I?"
"Oh my God," I laughed. "You are flirting. Do you use this rizz on all the girls? What is this? How much pussy do you usually get? Be honest with me."
He rolled his eyes and dumped the kale into the blender where he'd already put pineapple, cucumber, and banana. It looked objectively disgusting, but I wasn't going to complain about breakfast service. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's less than you're imagining. But is that really what you want to discuss over breakfast together?" He fitted the lid to the blender with a snap and a pointed stare. "My exploits?"
I couldn't help it; I grinned outright. "This is fascinating. What are we debriefing? I'm dying of curiosity."
Knox hit the blender button, and as the loud whir filled the open living space, he leaned his forearm on the top and gave me an inscrutable look with the corners of his mouth curved up. Brat. He pressed the button again, and the green liquid swirled to a stop. "First of all, I wanted to apologize for ambushing you when you were with Spencer." He frowned in thought as he took the lid off the blender. "I momentarily lost my mind, I think."
I fought a smile. "It was a little entertaining."
"Secondly," he went on, catching my gaze a moment before pouring the smoothie into two tall glasses, "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable in the apartment after last night."
"What, because we had sex?" I tilted my head, trying to tease him right back. In a South Carolina accent, I asked, "Are you worried about my maidenly sensibilities?"
Rook gave me a stern look as he slid my smoothie to me. "Very funny." I gave him a toothy grin.
"No." He placed his hands on the counter, leaning toward me from across the island. The intensity of his gaze nearly took my breath away. "I want to make sure you know I fully intend to keep fucking you."
I sipped down a hiccup. "Oh."
"And if that makes you uncomfortable," he went on softly, his eyes flitting to my mouth, my breasts, and then back to my face, "then we will need to find a different arrangement."
I paused, letting his words sink in. "You mean… you'd kick me out if I didn't have sex with you?"
"I would stay with Spencer," he corrected, leaning back and picking up his smoothie. "But that's only if you don't want me to bend you over this counter and fuck you six ways from Sunday."
My open mouth tilted back into an incredulous smile. "You are so filthy , Fudgecake."
He shrugged, taking a drink of the green concoction before wiping his mouth and leaning against the counter. "Think it over and let me know." His gaze darkened with indecent promises. "But don't take too long."
My breath froze solid in my lungs. "Ye Gods," I muttered with another faint smile.
Knox shook his head, lifting his eyes to the ceiling before he got to work cleaning up the astronomical mess he'd made. How a meticulous, serious man like Knox could be such a messy disaster was beyond me. "Before you make your decision, I think we should talk about our plans with the lease."
I took a cautious sip of the smoothie. It definitely tasted like grass, but the banana and pineapple helped a bit. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, we're still trapped in this thing, and if I'm honest, I'm driven by something other than a need to escape you." He gave me a rueful look, stretching his mouth to the side. "That may have been my goal originally, but for obvious reasons, I'm not finding the idea of sharing a space with you all that terrible."
"Fuck, I should have offered my pussy sooner," I joked.
Ignoring that, Knox swiped vegetable remnants in the compost slot and wiped the counter. "My mother needs to be taught that I'm not fair game, and I still feel that my original plan to force her to back out of the lease is the best option. If you agree to a fake engagement, we should accomplish that in a perfunctory way."
"This again," I groaned, getting up from the bar seat and swiping up my smoothie. "Why does it have to be an engagement?"
"Because it's exactly what she wanted," he replied. "And my mother only responds to three things—power, money, and influence. Once she thinks she has successfully influenced us, she’ll let her guard down, and I’ll catch her saying something incriminating. Azura, our lawyer, just needs one sentence from her, and then we'll have plenty of evidence to take her down.”
“Take her down seems kind of harsh,” I murmured, eying Knox warily. “Why not just confront her?”
Knox held my gaze. “You would confront her, wouldn’t you?”
“I will right now.” I searched around for my phone. “I’ll tell her off; I’m not afraid of your wealthy tyrant parent.”
Knox sighed through his nose. “You can’t do that, Gem. It’ll only make her more determined to win.”
I frowned. “You seriously don’t trust me at all, do you?”
"Gem." Rook tossed the cloth he'd been wiping with on the counter. "You’re changing the subject. Do you trust me? This is my mother. I’ve dealt with her for thirty-six years.”
He had me there, kind of. “I’m sure you do know her better. But if I get even a whiff that she’s still playing us, I swear to God—”
“—you’ll cut her to ribbons with your katana tongue. I know,” he said dryly.
"And to be clear, you want me to actually pretend we're engaged?" He nodded. I squinted my eyes in suspicion. "And amidst all this scheming, you're going to bend me over the counter, huh?"
He smiled, slow and hard, pushed away from the counter, and practically stalked me like prey. He backed me up against the island, and the heat from his body suffused my chilled limbs. "Is that alright with you?"
He'd told me to think about it, but I didn't need to. I wanted to lick a line from his jeans to his pecs, letting my tongue slide over the rivets of his abs and the smooth softness of his skin. I wanted to attach myself to his body like cling wrap on Sunday dinner leftovers—sucked in tight. I tilted my head back and considered him with a shrewd look. "I suppose that's… acceptable."
"Good." He brushed his lips against mine lightly. "Then get back in the bed."