Chapter Four
Two Weeks Later
“I want you to hit out at the glove,” Knox slapped his palm and waited for Ava.
“This is stupid.”
“The next time anyone thinks to hit you, you’re going to hit them back.” He held his hands out.
Ava was currently sporting a black eye. She had gone to the grocery store, alone, as he had to deal with some work, and came back with a black eye.
He’d been intent on killing the fucker that had hurt her.
Only, it had been an honest mistake, and he’d hacked into the grocery store to make sure.
Ava had been walking down an aisle, minding her own business, when a young baby, no older than two, threw his pacifier out of the shopping cart.
Ava bent down at the same time, the two-year-old kicked out as he’d been flinging his legs back and forth.
Ava, not watching, got kicked in the eye.
The mother of the boy had been mortified.
Throughout the whole shopping trip, the woman had stayed close to Ava, had even offered to pay for the groceries.
After seeing Ava’s lack of ... observation, he’d insisted on teaching her some techniques. She was proving to be a difficult student, as she simply didn’t want to learn.
“You don’t have to do this,” Ava said.
“That black eye says otherwise.”
“This was a complete and total accident. Trust me, there is nothing wrong with this black eye.”
“I’ve told you, you are training and that is final. You work for me, two hours of training every single day, and I’m not going to argue with you.”
Ava put her hands on her hips. She wore a pair of shorts and an oversized shirt. He could tell she was trying to figure out a reason to argue with him. There was nothing.
“We’re doing this.”
“I don’t need to learn to fight.”
“I say you do. If you don’t learn to fight me, then I’m going to tickle you until you have no choice but to learn.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” She glared at him, but he saw the doubt.
Within seconds, Knox had her on the floor, and he tickled her. There was no way she could get away from him. She was no match for his strength and he kept tickling her, even as she begged.
“Stop, please, stop,” she said, and she kept laughing.
He knew if he kept going, there was a chance she was going to wet herself, but he was not going to stop.
“You know what I need to hear,” he said. He had slowed down his tickling, but if he needed to prove a point, that was exactly what he would do.
He continued to tickle her, even as she was close, and then he heard those magical words he’d been wanting to hear.
“Fine, fine, I submit, and I will learn to fight.”
Knox stopped tickling her and put his hands either side of her head.
He wasn’t quite sure how they had managed it, but he was resting between her spread thighs.
She was also trapped on the floor, between his body, and he glanced down at her and watched as she licked her lips.
It would be so easy to press forward and give in to the pull he had to her.
This was a line they hadn’t crossed. Ava was still his PA. To cross that line would be dangerous.
Or would it?
He couldn’t help but think of Marshal. An energy between them.
Ava didn’t move. Had she stopped breathing? He wasn’t sure, but Knox pulled away, even as his body screamed to close that distance between them. He actually created a bigger one and held his hands up.
“Hit me,” he said.
She scrambled to her feet, and he couldn’t be sure if her flush was because of their closeness or another reason.
He watched her and waited as Ava struck out, exactly as he asked her to.
Ava was strong, but she needed to work hard to get stronger.
He told her to hit out at his fists so she would get used to the feeling.
Next, they worked on tackling. He knew this was going to be a bad idea. Being close to Ava was not going to be easy. It was taking every ounce of willpower to keep his dick flaccid. He was a master of control. No one told him what to do.
Only, Ava attacked him, as he asked her to, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back against him so that the curve of her ass was nestled against his cock. It felt so damn good, but he took a deep breath and refused to get hard.
She wriggled against him. Did she actually wriggle a little closer? This was messing with his head. He could do no more than push her back so there was a gap between them.
“Good lesson,” he said. “We’ll work on the same tomorrow.”
Without looking at her, he took off, leaving the gym, and making his way toward his bedroom. He went straight through to his en-suite, where he turned the water to cold and stepped beneath the icy blast. He needed to calm the fuck down.
That control had snapped at her wriggle. His cock was rock fucking hard, and he had no choice but to wrap his finger around the length and start to work from the base up to the tip, and back down again.
He gritted his teeth, moaning as he worked his cock, imagining Ava in front of him.
Her beautiful full lips opening up, begging to take his cock into her mouth, and he was more than happy to give it to her.
Just his imagination alone was enough to send him over the edge, and he did so with a grunt, as he came, spilling his seed down the drain of his shower.
He needed to get his head together. Ava didn’t want him to lose control. She’d been around people all her life that had lost control, and he wasn’t going to be another person she couldn’t trust.
Ava was off limits. He hoped he could keep remembering that.
****
When Knox had first started the self-defense lessons, Ava hated them. She didn’t want to learn self-defense. The incident at the grocery store had been an honest mistake.
She looked into the mirror and some of the bruising was already starting to fade, and it no longer looked as bad as it had.
The young boy had looked so upset when he realized what he did.
His mother had been sad as well. Ava didn’t mind.
She didn’t like getting hit in the face, but this had already happened, and there was no point in crying about it.
Only, the way Knox had pinned her to that mat, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.
She tried to think of all the chores she needed to do.
Being his PA was not always easy. Yes, he had told her she could hire staff to take care of his home, but she liked to do it.
If there were staff to do this job, it would no longer feel like her home.
It was all Knox’s but she lived here and took care of it. In her crazy head, it made sense.
She rolled over in bed and pushed the blanket off her body. It felt way too warm, and she closed her eyes.
There was a nightlight, which she always kept on. Yes, her past was fucked up, and she accepted that her fear of the dark was part of that. The dark was so easy to terrify kids with.
She put her hand to her forehead, because the truth was, the dark would be so much easier to deal with right now. The dark was ... not arousal, which was exactly what she was feeling, and that scared her.
Even though she’d been through a lot, Ava was still a virgin.
Some of the girls she had lived with hadn’t been as lucky as she had.
The men had taken a shine to other girls.
Ava had been deemed an ugly kid that no one wanted.
She’d been happy with that. After Peter Carmichael had nearly killed her, she had quite shocking scars on her body, which had actually stopped some men from hurting her.
Knox wasn’t just any man. It was like she could feel him right there on the bed, pressing between her thighs.
She hadn’t felt afraid. As she laid there, staring up at him, she felt like she was screaming at him to do something, to kiss her, or to do just about anything.
Ava didn’t know why she felt so ... needy.
It was wrong to have these feelings about her boss, and she couldn’t help it.
She let out a growl, because right now, she just couldn’t seem to get any sleep, and her body refused to be quiet.
Leaving her bedroom, she wasn’t quiet as she made her way downstairs toward the kitchen.
She had on a pair of socks, some shorts, a sleeveless vest, and went straight to the fridge.
The house was so quiet. Even though she hated the dark, she loved the night.
There was just something about the quiet that helped her feel at peace.
She grabbed the chocolate fudge ice cream out of the freezer, along with a spoon, and didn’t even bother to leave the scene of the crime as she started to eat the ice cream.
It was a lovely soft scoop, and she just knew it had to have a bunch of chemicals to make it that way.
Not that she cared. It didn’t matter the tricks she made for homemade ice cream, it always set so solid that it was next to impossible to sneak some.
This way, she was able to enjoy some without waiting for it to melt.
“You’re up,” Knox said.
Of course, she should have known she couldn’t move around this house without him knowing.
“Ice cream,” she said.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
She shook her head.
Why did this man have to torture her even more right now? He was ... naked. Okay, so he wore a pair of sweatpants, but he didn’t have on a damn shirt. Those pants didn’t even look big enough to properly cover him. How had her life gotten to this? When had sweatpants become so sexy?
Knox moved in close, and he got his own spoon. He was close now, and as she inhaled, she enjoyed his musky scent. She tried not to think about just how good he smelled.
Ava took a large scoop of ice cream, hoping to distract herself with the cold. He was so close, their arms almost touching, and she looked down at his heavily inked arm.
What would it be like to be able to touch him without abandon?
To kiss him without fear of consequences?
She thought of all the romance movies she watched where the couples just gravitated toward one another.
It looked so damn easy. There was no way she was going to ruin this.
She took a slight step to the side, hoping to create a little space.
It didn’t feel good, and it also didn’t last. Knox was close within a second.
Was she losing her mind? Ava didn’t know what to do or think.
“Why are you awake?” she asked, trying to distract herself.
“Couldn’t sleep.”
She wanted to know why. “Bad dreams?”
“No.”
She licked her lips and glanced toward him as Knox looked at her. Was he looking at her lips? Did he want to kiss her? What was going on in that head of his?
She nibbled her bottom lip, while trying to figure out what to do next. Nothing was coming. Her stomach kept twisting. Why was it so easy for some people?
“Why are you up?”
Ava didn’t know what was happening, and then he suddenly stepped behind her. Both of his hands going either side of her, trapping her between the counter and his body. Did he put his lips at her neck?
“You know, I couldn’t stop thinking about how good you felt on the mat today,” he said. “Is it wrong, Ava, that I want to fuck you?” he asked.
This made her gasp, and she quickly spun around. She didn’t know what she was going to say, but right now, staring up into his blue eyes, and with his body so close, this was the opening she had been waiting for.
Slapping him was not what she wanted to do.
Instead, she threw her arms around his neck, pressing their bodies together, then she took the leap of faith she had been wanting to take for some time, and kissed him.
Ava had never willingly kissed another man.
This was, as far as she was concerned, her first real kiss.
At first, Knox didn’t touch her. His hands stayed on the counter as Ava kissed him with a passion she didn’t even realize she possessed. She moaned his name, pressing her body against his, and then Knox touched her. One hand banded around her waist and the other cupped her face.
He finally touched her, and his hands, although rough, felt gentle on her body. She didn’t want him to stop, and he took over the kiss. He pressed her against the counter, and she felt the hard ridge of his cock as he rocked against her core.
This is what passion was all about. The movies had it so wrong. They didn’t know how to portray this feeling. It was much better than chocolate. Was it possible for sex to be much better than chocolate? Ava didn’t want it to stop.
Gripping the back of his neck as she pressed her body flush against him, she felt the warmth of his touch, and then they had no choice but to stop as his intruder alarm went off.