Chapter 34 Run
Knox blinked at me, clearly confused.
“What are you talking about?” he said. “Ashley, slow down.”
I shoved the phone toward him again. “The podcast. The one with Apple. It came out tonight.”
He frowned. “I haven’t seen any podcast. I was outside with Titan.”
“Well, I watched it,” I snapped. “And she said she’s pregnant. Five months. And she implied the father is someone she reconnected with. Someone she knew years ago. Someone I work with.”
His expression shifted from confusion to disbelief. “No. No. Ashley, absolutely not.”
“She said she tried to contact him for months,” I pushed. “And after I started working for him, he disappeared. That he didn’t want her anymore. She said everything except your name.”
“She’s lying.”
The certainty in his voice should have reassured me, but it only made my emotions spike higher. I knew they had slept together. That was the reason I targeted him in the first place—because Apple wanted him. It had been part of the plan. Her being pregnant, however, had never been part of it.
“She sounded convincing,” I said. “She said she was five months pregnant.”
His eyes snapped back to mine. “That’s impossible.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” His voice hardened. “Ashley, listen to me. I did hook up with Apple before. I’m not going to lie about that.”
I made a face, but he kept going.
“But the last time was almost a year ago. There is no way she is pregnant with my child.”
I felt heat rising in my face, frustration boiling under my skin. “For all I know, you have kids all over the place. You didn’t use a condom with me!”
His gaze snapped to mine. Something hot and dangerous flashed there.
“With you. Only with you. And I don’t have kids anywhere.”
“You expect me to just take your word for it?”
“I have always used condoms with other people. Always. I am not careless. I am not stupid.”
My breath hitched, anger and something else tangling together.
“You didn’t with me. You didn’t even think about it.”
His jaw tightened. “You were the only exception. Because you make me lose my mind. Because nothing else existed in that moment except you. Because all I could think was ‘I must have you.’”
The intensity in his eyes made it impossible to look away. “You’re saying that like it’s my fault.”
He took another step closer. “I’m saying it like it’s the truth.”
The air between us thickened. Heavy. Charged.
“You are upset,” he said. “But that baby is not mine. If there even is any baby.”
In my rational mind I knew he was right. I knew Apple lied like she breathed. But rational didn’t matter right now. Not with my emotions ricocheting everywhere, sharp and hot and impossible to control.
“She doesn’t matter,” Knox said, voice low. “She never did.”
Maybe she didn’t. Maybe I knew that. But the pressure inside me kept building, twisting tighter and tighter until it had to go somewhere.
“Then why do you act like you don’t want me anymore?” I snapped.
His brows pulled together. “What?”
“Ever since the kidnapping attempt, you barely touch me. You hover. You tiptoe.”
His jaw clenched. “You haven’t been yourself. I was trying to be careful.”
“I don’t want careful,” I said, the words ripping out of me before I could stop them. “I’m not made of glass.”
His jaw tightened. “I know that. Believe me, I know that.”
“Then stop acting like I’ll break.”
He stepped in, close enough that I felt his breath on my cheek. “If I stop holding back, Ashley, I won’t be careful. Is that what you want?”
I didn’t answer.
I didn’t need to.
The air between us shifted, thick and electric, like the moment before a storm breaks.
He searched my face, eyes dark, intense, hungry.
“Ashley.”
The sound of my name hung between us, heavy and charged.
A beat passed.
Another.
His gaze dropped to my mouth, then back to my eyes, like he was fighting something he was losing badly.
“You think I don’t want you?” he said at last, voice low and rough. “I want you so much it scares me.”
I swallowed hard, my pulse racing. I felt his hand slide to my waist, fingers curling just enough to make my breath catch.
“Tell me to stop,” he said.
I didn’t.
His voice dropped, rough and low. “You have no idea how hard that’s been.”
Heat shot through me, sharp and dizzying.
“Show me.”
He grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled my head back, his mouth crashing into mine. His kiss was rough, demanding, his tongue sliding between my lips like he meant to take everything I would give him.
I gasped into him, and he lifted me effortlessly. My legs wrapped around his hips on instinct, my body fitting against his like it belonged there.
I had never felt so small.
So held.
His hands moved to my ass, gripping firmly. One of them slipped beneath the waistband of my leggings from behind, his fingers sliding over the sensitive skin there.
He teased me for a moment, tracing the slick heat between my thighs, before pushing two fingers deep inside me.
“Knox,” I gasped.
He didn’t stop. He pumped his fingers slowly at first, then harder, his hooded gaze locked onto mine, watching every reaction, every breath, every tremor.
“You’re so fucking wet for me, baby,” he murmured, his voice low and rough.
I whimpered as his mouth found mine again. My lips parted for him, my body yielding as he forced a third finger inside. The stretch made my breath catch, my fingers tightening against his shoulders.
“You’re going to choke my cock,” he whispered. “Aren’t you? Your pussy is so greedy, squeezing me so tight.”
A broken cry escaped me.
He leaned closer, his mouth brushing my ear, his breath hot against my skin.
“Do you want me to fuck you,” he murmured, “to give us both what we need?”
I nodded, unable to speak.
His hand tightened in my hair, forcing my head back.
“That’s not enough,” he said quietly. “Give me your words.”
My pulse thundered in my ears.
“I want you to pin me down,” I whispered. “Force your way inside. I’d beg you to stop, but you wouldn’t. Because it would be yours to take.”
He went completely still.
His fingers stopped moving inside me as he pulled back just enough to see my face clearly.
His eyes searched mine, dark and intense, making sure. Not assuming.
“Do you want to play?” he asked.
My throat tightened, but I didn’t look away.
“Yes.”
His forehead pressed to mine, his breathing rough.
“Ashley,” he murmured, voice low and strained. “If we’re doing this… we’re doing it right.”
I swallowed, nodding.
“‘No’ doesn’t mean no. ‘Stop’ doesn’t mean stop. You know that.”
“I know.”
“So you need a word,” he said. “A real one. Something you’ll use if you want me to actually stop. Not slow down. Not change. Stop.”
The seriousness in his voice sent a shiver through me.
Not fear.
Anticipation.
“Choose something you won’t say by accident.”
I thought for a moment, breath unsteady. “Red.”
His eyes flicked with approval. “Good. If you say ‘red,’ everything stops. Immediately. No questions.”
I nodded again.
“And if you need me to ease up, but not stop,” he added, “you say ‘yellow.’ That means you’re overwhelmed, but still in it.”
“Okay.”
His voice dropped even lower. “Say it back to me.”
“Red means stop. Yellow means slow down.”
“And ‘no’?” he asked.
“Doesn’t mean no.”
“And ‘stop’?”
“Doesn’t mean stop.”
His jaw flexed, like he was barely holding himself together. “Good girl.”
Heat rushed through me.
He leaned in, his lips brushing mine without kissing me. “Now tell me what you want. Clearly.”
I exhaled shakily. “I want you to take control.”
His breath hitched. “More.”
“I want you to pin me down.”
He closed his eyes for a second, like the words hit him hard.
“And?” he whispered.
I held his gaze. “I want to fight. I want you to take.”
When he opened his mismatched eyes again, they were darker than I’d ever seen.
For a moment he didn’t speak. He just held me against him, my legs still wrapped around his waist, his hands gripping me.
Then his voice dropped, low and rough. “You really want that.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a confirmation.
A final check.
“Yes,” I whispered.
Something in him shifted, a subtle tightening of his jaw, a deeper breath, a flicker of something fierce and controlled in his eyes. The kind of look that told me he had just crossed a line in his mind, one he’d been holding back from for weeks.
“Then listen carefully,” he said.
He let me slide down his body, so my feet touched the floor, but he didn’t step away. He stood right in front of me, his chest rising and falling slowly, his eyes never leaving mine.
The air between us felt electric.
“You asked for the game,” he murmured. “So here’s how it starts.”
My breath caught.
He leaned in, his lips brushing my ear. “Run.”
A shiver shot through me. For a heartbeat I didn’t move.
Then instinct kicked in, and I turned and sprinted down the hallway toward the bedroom, my pulse thundering in my ears.
My heart raced, adrenaline flooding my veins, every nerve alive with anticipation.
I barely made it through the bedroom doorway before I heard him behind me.
I veered toward the en suite bathroom, my fingers reaching for the doorframe, thinking I could make it, slam the door shut, put something between us.
I didn’t make it.
His arm wrapped around my waist and yanked me back just as I crossed the threshold.
“No!” I gasped, the word breaking from me as he lifted me off my feet like I weighed nothing.
The world tilted.
“Let me go,” I said, my hands pushing at his arm. “Stop.”
He didn’t stop. He carried me the last few steps and threw me onto the bed. The mattress dipped hard beneath me, the air rushing from my lungs in a sharp cry.
I scrambled immediately, crawling across the sheets, trying to get away.
“No. I don’t want to.”
His hand closed around my ankle.
I cried out as he dragged me back across the mattress, the sheets tangling around my legs. I kicked, twisting, trying to pull free, breathless sounds falling from my lips.
“Stop.”
He caught my other leg, hauling me back fully beneath him.
The mattress shifted with his weight as he climbed over me, pinning me down.
I writhed beneath him, my wrists pushing at his chest, my breathing uneven.
“No,” I gasped. “I don’t want this.”
His hand closed around my wrist, pinning it above my head. His other hand pressed my hip firmly into the mattress, holding me exactly where he wanted me.
I couldn’t move.
My chest rose and fell rapidly, my pulse racing, my body trembling beneath his.
He leaned down slowly, his mouth hovering beside my ear, his breath hot against my skin.
His voice was rough now. Strained. Barely controlled.
“Is it still green?”
I turned my head, forcing myself to meet his eyes.
They were dark. Focused. Watching me. Waiting.
Waiting for me. For my answer.
My throat felt tight, but I held his gaze, letting him see everything there. The fear. The anticipation. The trust.
“Yes,” I whispered.