WITSEC

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

I exhaled slowly to expel any remaining nerves I had as I set my alarm before leaving the house. I was wearing the new white leggings and sports bra I’d gotten at the mud run. There was only a three-inch gap of skin showing between where the sports bra ended and where the top of my leggings began. My stomach scars were covered.

At Desert Stone, it was Derek’s day off and Creed was covering the front desk. The moment I walked through the door, he spotted me. Creed smiled until his eyes dropped to my sports bra. He stood abruptly, frowning deeper and deeper the longer he stared at my chest and the sliver of skin I had exposed. “I love you,” he practically growled.

My head canted to the side slightly. “I love you, too?”

He sighed through flared nostrils. “Because I love you, it’s going to take a lot of fucking effort not to kick every guy’s ass in here.”

“Why is that?”

He gave me a look. One that told me he wasn’t buying my ignorance.

I held back a grin as I glanced down at my outfit. “Don’t you like it?”

“Oh, I like it. I’ve thought of five different ways I want to take it off you since you walked in.”

My grin broke loose, and I began to make my way around the desk. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

The phone rang and before he answered it, he grumbled something under his breath about getting into a fight.

Hiking the strap of my gym bag further up my shoulder before it slipped off, I made my way toward Keelan’s and Knox’s offices. I checked on Keelan first to see how he was doing and to make sure he wasn’t pushing himself. His office was dark and empty.

“I made him go home. You missed him by ten minutes.”

I turned and saw Knox working at his desk in his office directly across the hall.

“Is he all right?” I asked as I stood in his doorway.

“His head was hurting.” Before I could react, he added, “He was pushing himself being here and I had a talk with him. He’s going to take the next couple of days off and give his body time to heal.”

I squeezed the strap of my gym bag. I couldn’t change what had happened to Keelan, but I could help make up for it. Making life a little bit easier for him was a good way to start. One way I knew how to do that was to cook. Comfort food always made me feel better when I was under the weather. I could even make some meals that were easy to reheat for when Knox was at work and the rest of us were at school.

Looked like I was heading to the store again. Not that I minded. I loved grocery shopping. The idea of Jacob lurking about, though, made me nervous.

As soon as that unease tried to overwhelm me, I fought it back. I couldn’t do that to myself again. I would not cower in my home, too afraid to leave. I had to live my life. I didn’t want to see it pass me by because of someone else anymore. I had my ankle tracker on. I had a gun under the seat in my car. I could defend myself. I would not relinquish any aspect or moment of my life to Jacob. If I did, he’d win, and I was tired of bad people winning.

“Did you need something?” Knox asked as he worked at his computer.

After last night, I wholeheartedly felt he was bothered by something and he wasn’t being honest with me about it. It was why I was tempted to say no and just go for my run. I wasn’t going to, though. I needed to be patient and hope that whatever was going on would resolve itself or he’d eventually talk to me. I stepped inside his office and shut the door.

At the sound of the door closing, he paused in the middle of typing and tracked me with his eyes. As he did, I caught him taking in my outfit with a similar frown to the one Creed had given me.

I dropped my gym bag in one of the chairs in front of his desk as I made my way behind it. He pushed his chair back a little and swiveled to face me.

I leaned against the edge of his desk and bumped my knee into his lightly. “I wanted to check on Keelan and ask you something.”

He sat silently, waiting for me to continue.

“It’s been mentioned a few times that I need to work on strengthening my upper body,” I said. “It’s also been mentioned that I should ask you for help with that. I would also prefer that it was you helping me, but I also understand that you’re super busy. So if you are unable, maybe you can recommend one of your trainers and?—”

“I will help you.”

A smile overtook my face. “You will?”

His gaze bounced all over my face.

“What?” I asked, resisting the urge to touch my face. Was there something on it?

“Nothing.”

“Knox, what is it?” I said a little firmly.

“You asked for help with something, and you looked so happy,” he answered.

“I’ve asked for help before.”

He scoffed. “If you’ve ever asked any of us for help, it has been out of desperation.”

“I like to do things on my own,” I grumbled.

“We know. How’s that new swing of yours coming along?” he asked.

That was harsh, but point made. “You know why it’s hard for me.”

“I know.”

“I’m working on it.”

“I know,” he repeated, grabbing my hips and pulling me to stand between his legs.

I tried not to act surprised or awkward. I put my hands on the back of his neck and the tips of my fingers were poked by the tips of his buzzed hair.

Because he’d initiated this closeness, I decided to take a risk. I raked my fingers through his blond hair. He closed his eyes as I trailed my nails over his scalp, and I began massaging his head. “Will you help me build my swing?” I asked.

His eyes snapped open, locking with mine. “I can do that.”

As he leaned into my touch, his hands squeezed my hips a little and pulled me even closer.

“Since you’re in such a giving mood, can I ask for one more thing?” I asked.

He rested his head against my stomach. “You can ask me for anything.”

Warmth bloomed in my chest at those words. I almost stopped massaging his head to savor the feeling. Almost. He seemed to be really enjoying what I was doing, and I found that far more satisfying. “Actually, it’s not a request, more of a heads-up. My friend Isabelle is looking for a part-time job and I told her about the front desk position.”

All I got in response was a grunt, which was perfect. I had no expectations of him. Desert Stone was the guys’ and it wasn’t my place to sway their decisions. But Isabelle was my friend and I wanted to at least say she’d apply. Knox could do what he wanted with that information.

His grasp moved up from my hips. I gasped at the feel of his warm hands as they slid over my exposed skin. His thumb rubbed over my ribs from the top of my leggings to the bottom of my sports bra.

An unbearable heat burned through me. “Knox.” I tugged on his hair a little, forcing his head back. He stared up at me with hooded eyes. I wanted to kiss him.

I released his hair instead.

He captured my wrist as I went to drop my hands at my sides, and he pulled me down.

The moment his mouth was on mine, I challenged him by trying to control the kiss. Every fiber of my being wanted this man and that was how I kissed him. I showed him how much I wanted him with my lips and tongue.

He let me. He didn’t pull away or shut down.

So I allowed myself to let go and just feel with him. I straddled his lap. My fingers returned to his hair as my mouth broke from his and traveled down his neck. Needing to taste him, I swiped my tongue along his skin.

I felt him shudder as my mouth trailed over the spot a few inches down from his ear. I paused there and ran my teeth over that sensitive area. His breath hitched as I nipped at that spot harder, then licked away the sting.

He let out a throaty growl and his patience for letting me have my way evaporated. He fisted my ponytail, forcing my mouth from his neck, and his mouth claimed mine. He kissed me that way, too. Like he was claiming me, and his tongue was what he used to brand me.

His arms hugged me and he stood. I didn’t have time to hook my legs around him before he set me on the desk. He gently pushed me to lie back and he followed without breaking our kiss. We knocked things over, crinkled papers. He didn’t seem to care. Instead, he shoved most of what was on his desk off of it as we made our descent. He leaned over me, standing in between my legs. I locked them around him, nestling him tightly against my core.

His hands smoothed over my sports bra before he squeezed. I arched into his touch like an offering. With one hand he shoved my sports bra toward my neck and broke away from my mouth to take in my breasts. The cold air conditioning assaulted my nipples, making them peak. But it was his gaze that made them ache to be touched.

His warm hands pushed my boobs together before he nuzzled his face between them. The feel of the scruff along his jaw scraping against my sensitive mounds made me shiver. He ran his nose toward one of my nipples before sucking it into his hot mouth. He made me writhe beneath him as his tongue and teeth took turns torturing me. My legs tightened around his hips and I bumped against his hard shaft in his pants. We both groaned and he rocked his hips, grinding himself against me. The feel of him behind the roughness of his slacks against the thin material of my leggings was like stoking the flames of a fire. It made me hotter and hotter.

“Knox,” I moaned, so close to coming.

He stilled.

Oh, no.

It was as if the sound of my voice had the same effect as a bucket of ice water on him. He removed his mouth from my breast and flattened his hands on the desk by my upper arms. He stared down at me for a long moment, eyes taking in my exposed breasts, my flushed skin, my labored breathing. “Shiloh—” he started to say.

No. No. No. No.

Dread hit me. “Knox, please,” I pleaded.

The papers on his desk crinkled as his hands fisted. “We should stop.”

“Why?” I didn’t ask to pressure him. I asked to understand.

Before he could answer, Knox’s office phone began ringing. A red light blinked in sync with the ringing next to a button that said Front Desk.

Knox let out an exasperated sigh and hit the button. “Yeah?” His tone was curt, but held a lot less annoyance than I was currently feeling.

“Did I interrupt something?” I could hear the smile in Creed’s voice.

“Yes,” I answered at the same time Knox said, “What do you want?”

Creed laughed. “Sorry, Shi. Knox will have to make it up to you later.”

No, he won’t do that. That bitter thought clanged through me, hammering the feeling of rejection around the walls of my heart.

Knox stood straight, giving his full attention to Creed. I let out a very, very frustrated sigh.

“Your next interview is here.” Creed continued to talk to Knox as I worked to calm my body down.

“Which one is it?” Knox asked.

Creed laughed again. “It’s hard to think when all the blood has left your brain and gone straight to your di?—”

“Creed!” Knox barked, which made Creed laugh some more.

“What are you laughing about?” I heard Colt ask distantly through the phone.

“Nothing,” Creed responded to Colt. With his laughter gone, but mirth still riding his voice, Creed finally answered Knox. “Katrina Mills. She’s interviewing for assistant manager.”

Knox’s eyes lit up with recognition. “All right. I’ll be out in a couple of minutes,” Knox said and hung up.

Knox helped me sit up and watched intently as I put my boobs back into my sports bra. “You’re hiring an assistant manager?” I asked, ignoring the whiplash he was giving me.

He nodded. “It’s very hard for all four of us to have a day off together and when we do, I constantly get calls or messages from staff covering us that day. It’s even worse when we take a vacation.”

I did notice Knox on his phone a lot. “You’re hiring one in case Mr. X shows up, too, aren’t you?”

“We’ve wanted to hire one for a while, but the possibility of X did incentivize us to do it sooner rather than later.”

I retightened my ponytail that he had tugged on, and I hopped off his desk. My whole body was still buzzing from what we’d done—or hadn’t finished. I was going to have to take my sexual frustration out on my run. That, or take a really cold shower.

Knox stuffed his hands into his pockets as he watched me dig through my gym bag for my earbuds and water bottle.

“I’ll come up with a schedule to start working on strength training,” he said, as if what we’d just done hadn’t happened.

I nodded and headed for the door.

I pushed myself hard for the hour that I ran. Sweat slid down my neck and back, soaking my sports bra. I tried to cool down with one last walk around the track. A few runners passed me as I did.

By the time I made it to where I’d left my water bottle in the cubbies by the stairs, I wasn’t panting as hard and the air conditioning blowing on my sweat caused my skin to break out in goosebumps.

As I began to chug my water, I caught a male runner, passing by on the track, doing a double take at me. I didn’t think much of it until two women running by did the same.

Frowning, I glanced down, and quickly covered my boobs with my arm. “You have got to be kidding me,” I snapped. My soaked sports bra was see-through. What made it worse was that the air conditioning was making my nipples hard.

Freaking out, I looked down at my leggings. The front was fine. I spun in a circle trying to look at my butt. I couldn’t tell. They weren’t as soaked as my bra, but that didn’t reassure me. Feeling self-conscious, I held my water bottle over my butt as I rushed through the gym.

Both Colt and Creed were hanging out at the front desk. Creed was seated and swiveling the desk chair side to side as he talked with Colt, who was standing with his back to me.

Creed saw me and frowned at the distress I was obviously showing. “What is it?” he asked as I approached.

Not in the mood to explain here, I removed my arm from my chest to show him. Colt turned around at that moment, drinking from a water bottle as he did. His eyes met mine for a millisecond before dropping to my chest. Once he saw my predicament, water sprayed from his mouth. Both of them gaped at my chest—Colt wiping his chin as he did.

Letting out a frustrated grunt, I quickly covered my chest and dashed for Knox’s office. As I barreled down the hall, Colt right on my heels, I heard Creed yell for someone to cover the front desk for him. I stormed into Knox’s office, relieved his interview was over. Still holding my arm over my breasts and covering my butt with my bottle, I beelined for my gym bag.

My frustration skyrocketed when I didn’t find it in the chair where I had left it. I spun around searching, not seeing it anywhere. I looked at Knox. “Where is my bag?”

He was giving me a strange look. “What’s wrong?”

Creed walked in at that moment and went to stand next to Colt, who was giving me a sympathetic look.

I dropped my arm from my chest again. There was no sense in covering up. Everyone in the room had been up close and intimate with my boobs.

Knox’s brows rose and leaned back in his chair. “Not the first time I’ve seen white athletic wear do that.”

“I own other white athletic wear and they aren’t see-through.” Which meant that the people who’d made the one I was wearing used poor materials. I let out another frustrated noise that teetered on the edge of a whine. “I just flashed a bunch of people on the track, and who knows how many saw my butt if it’s see-through there, too.”

“Turn around and we’ll see,” Creed said.

I did as he said and moved my bottle out of the way.

“It doesn’t look like they are,” Colt said.

“Bend over and touch your toes,” Creed ordered. “They might be with the fabric stretched out.”

Again, I did as told and I touched my toes.

The room went silent for a few breaths.

“Well, it’s a beautiful view,” Creed said.

Slamming my hands over my butt, I straightened and whirled around to face them.

“Since when do you wear a thong?” Creed asked.

My cheeks were flaming hot. “I wear them when my leggings aren’t dark enough or are too thin to hide panty lines.”

“Mmm,” Creed hummed. “Is there any chance you will model them for me later?”

When I didn’t think I could get any redder, they loved to prove me wrong.

“Creed,” Colt chastised halfheartedly as he fought not to smile.

That didn’t deter Creed’s teasing. “Or you can take off your clothes now and show me. It’s not like they’re covering much, anyway.”

“Creed.” That time it was Knox and it was far from halfhearted.

“And how would I model them?” I blurted, rebelling against Knox. I knew I needed to be patient, but I’d have been lying if I’d said I wasn’t a tiny bit mad at him. I had done something that bothered him, or it was something about me that did. Either way, it was me and he refused to talk to me about it. “Would you like me to strut like I’m on a runway? Or would you like me to dance and really show them off at every angle?” I was proud of how serious my voice sounded.

Stunned and silent. That was what they were as they gaped at me for a good minute.

Creed recovered first with a smirk that threatened to turn the dirty teasing around on me. “I vote for the dirty dancing.”

“I didn’t say it would be dirty. I’m sure I can dance tastefully,” I said, refusing to back down from this flirting game we were playing.

Creed didn’t back down, either. “It doesn’t matter what type of dance you do. You’ll still be in nothing but a little white thong and I’ll still want to rip it off of you when you’re done.”

Knox muttered something under his breath. I couldn’t hear it, but I knew Creed heard. I could tell by the way the laughter in his eyes dimmed.

“Even the robot?” I asked.

They all smiled at that.

Though Creed was grinning, it didn’t reach his eyes anymore. “Any dance, Shi, and I’ll still want you,” he assured and then his expression turned serious. “But I’m not your only boyfriend here. So unless you’re ready to dance with three of us, we should save the modeling for another time.”

Knox plopped something on his desk, drawing all of our attention. It was my gym bag.

I scooped it up and hung it on my shoulder. I was going to let it go and head to the bathroom, but my feet didn’t move. I wasn’t ready to back down just yet. And I wasn’t referring to Creed. I squeezed the strap on my gym bag. “What if I am ready?”

“You’re not,” Knox said with a firm tone.

Colt and Creed stayed quiet, which made me assume that they agreed with Knox.

“I don’t know how else I can say this to make any of you understand.” It was difficult to hide my irritation. “It is my responsibility to set boundaries on what I am or am not comfortable with and let you know what those boundaries are. It is not for any of you to assume or decide what those boundaries are for me,” I said, staring at Knox. “I know I come off as innocent and I’ve been through something tragic, but I’m not too ignorant or fragile to make decisions for myself. If any of you aren’t comfortable with something, then own it. Don’t pull back and say it’s for my benefit.”

Leaving them, mostly Knox, to hopefully process and understand my words, I stalked to the bathroom. I shut the door calmly even though I wanted to slam it.

“Creed.” I heard Knox’s muffled voice through the door. I leaned close, practically holding my breath so I could hear everything that they were saying.

“Don’t start,” Creed snapped. “You don’t get to call the shots. Each of our relationships with Shi and what happens between us is our business. I’m done listening to you. Stop trying to dictate the pace of my relationship and stop saying it’s what’s best for her. I love her and I trust her to know what she can handle. Can you say the same? You may not love her yet, but do you trust her?”

The room was quiet behind the door.

“You’re the one with the issues, Knox,” Creed said. “And after what she just said, it’s safe to say she can see it, too. I recommend you deal with it. Talk to her, because I know my girlfriend well enough to know that she didn’t humor the idea of modeling in her thong wholly for my benefit. She did it to challenge you.”

“You don’t have time to go in there, Creed. You’re covering the front desk,” Colt said.

“I’m taking my lunch break,” Creed said, his voice getting closer.

I barely stepped back in time before the door swung open and he walked in. I folded my arms across my chest. “Have you heard of knocking?”

He shut the door behind him. “I have a feeling you knew I was coming.”

My lack of response was his answer and he grinned knowingly.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

His eyes dropped to my chest. I had caught a glimpse in the mirror and my sports bra was still see-through. “I came to apologize.”

I arched a brow. “Oh, really?”

“Yup.” He took a step closer. “I figured I could either tell you how sorry I am, or I could show you.”

He was so close, his stomach brushed against my folded arms. “Show me how?”

He traced the tip of his finger along the scooped neckline of my sports bra, faintly touching the tops of my breasts. “I could start by taking this off.”

My toes curled in my shoes. “Is this one of the five ways you imagined taking my clothes off?”

“How I got you alone didn’t align with any of my ideas, but how I’m about to strip you…I think I’ll go with my third idea.”

“And that is?”

His eyes locked with mine as he knelt. “Quickly,” he said as he lifted my ankle to remove my shoe. “The faster I get you naked, the faster I can have squeezing around my cock as I fuck you against the shower wall.”

His words sent a pulse between my legs. “H—how does that prove you're sorry?”

He removed my other shoe, his gaze still locked with mine. “I won’t hold back anymore, Shi.”