Chapter 5
Knox
I flopped down on the king-sized bed and turned on the TV just as Lorelai came into the room. She glanced over at me with disgust and, without saying a word, made her way over to her bag and started hanging her dresses in the closet.
We’d spent most of the day apart. She’d gone down to the beach with Aurora, Candace, and some of the other girls that were part of the wedding party, while I hung out with the boys.
I’d come back to the room early and showered and gotten ready for dinner. I figured it would ease some tension if one of us got ready early. As she paraded back and forth in front of the TV, hanging up each dress she brought, I could barely pull my eyes from her bikini-clad body.
“You seem on edge. What’s wrong?” I questioned.
“Do you seriously have to ask me that?” she asked, hanging up the next dress with force, only to have it fall to the ground.
I watched as she bent to pick it up, then she glanced at me, scowling.
“You seem upset.”
“Really? How can I not be?”
“Look, I’ve had enough of the attitude, okay? I’m helping you out, so I’m sorry if the little kiss on the cheek was a little out of line for my fake girlfriend, but like I said, if this is going to work, it needs to be believable, and you’ve got no choice but to loosen up a little,” I said, flipping through the TV channels.
“It’s not that!”
“It’s not? Could have fooled me. You’ve been uptight ever since that happened.”
“I told you this trip was going to be the death of me.”
I frowned and shook my head. “Not sure what you are alluding to their princess.”
“Stop with the princess, okay? I was supposed to have a separate room, and now, because of some hotel booking error, here we are,” she said, opening her arms and waving to the room. “The bathroom doesn’t even have a door!” she squealed.
I turned my attention from the TV to her, looked toward the bathroom, and smirked. “Don’t worry, I won’t look…much.”
“It just would have been better to have our own rooms.”
“I hate to break it to you, but I was supposed to have my own room as well. I was also looking forward to putting it to some use because I planned on getting a little something this weekend, but that went out the window for me with the news of sharing a king-sized bed with you!”
“Oh my god, you are impossible!”
“I’m just stating facts there, princess! You’re just moping around because you won’t be able to have quality time with your vibrator. I get it!”
Almost immediately, her cheeks went red, and I thought for a moment her head was going to pop off. She glared at me and then turned away.
“You’d only hope that I wanted to spend some quality time with my vibrator,” she bit out.
“Sure would. I like to watch. You could always put a show on for me.” I winked.
Lorelai just glared at me, before grabbing her toiletry bag.
“I’m going to go take a shower and get ready for dinner. Enjoy your alone time. Just make sure you’re finished before I get out of the shower, and make sure you don’t leave any mess behind. I have to sleep in that bed as well. Also, if I catch you even so much as glimpsing into the bathroom, you are dead.”
I smirked as she gathered some other things from her suitcase. She was too much.
“I’m all dressed for dinner,” I admitted, looking down at myself.
She shrugged as she walked by. “Dressed or not, that doesn’t normally stop a man from getting himself off.”
She made her way into the bathroom area, and I couldn’t help but smirk as I adjusted the pillows behind my head. I’d be willing to put a thousand bucks down to say there was a vibrator in her suitcase, but I knew if I valued my balls, I’d dare not look.
I’d actually deserved every single word and every glare she’d given me. I had to prove to her that somehow I wasn’t the same ass I was all those years ago. I was wrong to have put her down the way I had the night she expressed an interest in me. If I really wanted another shot at her, I had to cut the crap.
At the end of the show I was watching, I glanced at the clock. She’d been in the bathroom the better part of an hour, and I hoped she was just about ready or we’d be late. I shut the TV off and sat up and called her name.
“What?” she barked.
“You about ready?”
“If you’re worried about missing dinner, go on. I can catch up.”
I wasn’t worried about missing anything. I’d hoped she would have been ready faster so we could go down and have a couple of drinks together, because I figured this apology I was holding might go better for me in public with alcohol.
“It’s not that. I um, wanted to talk to you about something,” I said.
“Just say whatever it is you have to say.”
I took a breath. It would be better if she were standing here in front of me while I said it, so she could see that I meant it.
“I’m waiting,” she called.
I closed my eyes. “Look, I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted all those years ago.”
“What are you talking about?” she questioned, still not in front of me.
It felt like my heart was going to fly out of my chest as I sat there. I didn’t know why I was struggling so badly with this. Perhaps it was because I didn’t know if she even remembered that night. She was pretty drunk, and chances were she either didn’t remember or she thought the entire thing had been a dream.
“Knox? Are you going to continue or make me wait?” she said.
When I looked up, Lorelai stood before me, looking at me with confusion. My heart almost stopped as I looked at her. Her hair looked different. Normally, it was pulled back in a ponytail or clip, but now soft curls framed her face and her long hair fell over her shoulders. Her red painted lips matched her ruby-red dress. She looked sexy as hell.
“Are you going to tell me what it is you wanted to say or what?” she asked again, this time with annoyance.
“When you kissed me that night in the bar….”
Her cheeks now matched the colour of her dress as she stared at me. “Never bring up that night up to me again. That was one mistake I not only regret, but one I’d never make again, and besides, it doesn’t matter what you said to me all those years ago.”
“It wasn’t the truth, what I said,” I confessed, her coconut-scented body spray hitting my nose as she passed by.
“You were being nothing but honest,” she said as she made her way over to where she’d laid out her shoes and slipped her feet into a pair of black heels. She walked over to the mirror and smoothed her dress down her body, then reached up and wiped above her lip.
“I wasn’t honest, and it wasn’t the truth,” I said, standing up, my voice barely audible.
“That may be what you believe now, but I saw the look in your eyes. It was the truth then, and honestly, Knox, it’s okay.” She turned and made her way over to me, wiping away some crumbs that must have fallen on my shirt when I had a couple of chips earlier. “There, that is better,” she said as she looked up at me and gently smiled.
The look in her eyes nearly gutted me. She could try to tell me it was okay, but there, hidden deep in her eyes, the truth reflected.
“I pushed you away that night because you were Phil’s little sister, and I knew back then I’d probably lose my friendship with him. Not only that, but you didn’t deserve to be with a mentally fucked-up guy like me. You deserved better.”
Lorelai frowned and glanced at me before she stepped away and put on her earrings.
“What exactly do you mean by fucked-up? I just want to know, since I am sharing a room with you, after all.”
“Lorelai, it’s not a shock that I don’t have a clue how to make a relationship work. I mean, my dad left my mother, and any of the other marriages she was in lasted less than two years. I didn’t want to take a chance that I’d fuck things up with you, so I pretended to be the bad guy and I pushed you away.”
Lorelai shook her head. “Knox, please, let’s just put it behind us. It really doesn’t matter. I’m different now, and until you brought it up, I’d forgotten all about that night. Now let’s just get through these next few days, and then you’ll be free of me. You can go back to your life, go get some, and the pair of us can stop playing this ridiculous charade.”
“No.”
“So then, what you are saying is the truth?” she said, crossing her arms in front of her.
“Yes. I fucked up, and I’m sorry. I’m going to do whatever it takes to prove it to you this week, and I am going to make damn sure your ex knows just exactly what it is he gave up when he walked away.”
She stood there, staring at me. I couldn’t tell if she believed me or not. I wanted her to say something, anything that acknowledged what I’d just said. Only instead of commenting, she grabbed her small clutch purse, shoved her lip gloss and key inside, and made her way over to the door.
“We are going to be late.”
I watched as she walked out of the room, head held high, and disappeared out of sight.