Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Knox
“ W here the hell have you been sneaking off to?” Matt asks.
“Good question,” Sean agrees, blocking the door. “Pretty sure I know the answer, but I’d like you to tell us.”
We’ve just signed five hundred vinyl record covers in Trevor’s suite. This was after a six-hour commercial shoot for the number one streaming app in the market. I’m too exhausted for a deep dive into my personal life, so I don’t answer.
“Wherever you’re going, I support it,” Jay chimes in from the couch. “You haven’t been this easy to be around well, ever.”
“I get it. I can be an asshole.”
Matt laughs. Jay coughs, and Sean says something under his breath that sounds something like understatement of the year.
“You know you can talk to us. About anything. The good or the bad.”
“I know, Matt. I know.”
“We know you’ve been going through something you haven’t wanted to talk about. We respect that and we’re here when you’re ready. But when we see something good happening between you and Ryan, it doesn’t make sense you wouldn’t want to share that with us.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Come on, we think it’s great. Why the hell are you hiding it from us? We aren’t stupid.”
“Part one of her article came out this morning,” Jay chimes in. “You read it yet?”
Ashamed as I am to admit it, I haven’t. Things are good right now. I’ve ignored her article to avoid any possible shrapnel I may catch from reading it. She’s putting me back together. I’m not ready for my pieces to shatter again.
“Your girl can write.”
My girl.
I like how that sounds.
Jay hands me the copy of the magazine on the table I pretended not to notice earlier. “It’s great, man.”
“You all read it?”
They nod and I take a seat on the opposite end of the couch, flipping through the magazine until I see the headline... The Hollow Knocks Are Not A Band. They’re A Family.
My heart warms and from the opening paragraph it soars. She’s captured us as we are and not how the world sees us. Our hardworking grit and our love for each other take center stage. It’s not about me, it’s about us.
When I read the last lines, my feelings for her are cemented.
As these small-town boys embark on their final two weeks at Madison Square Garden, they may be saying goodbye to life on the road, but we will always have their music embedded in our souls.
As fans, we’ll continue to turn to their songs as we navigate the ups and downs of life.
We can always count on the Hollow Knocks to get us through a heartbreak or to celebrate life’s highs and commiserate with the lows, just like this family of brothers have been doing together for over two decades.
Whoa.
“It’s fucking great,” I admit.
“She’s fucking great.” Surprisingly, it’s Trevor who speaks up. “She gets it.”
I nod. All I can think about is how badly I need to get to her. Need to kiss her. Need to tell her how I feel. Excited, I get up from the couch and make a beeline for Trevor’s kitchen not wanting to wait another minute.
“Tell us what’s going on,” Matt demands. “We aren’t stupid.”
I help myself to a bottle of champagne and Trevor’s full bucket of ice. “Gonna borrow this.”
“Sure, help yourself, shit stain.”
To irritate him even more I kiss him on the cheek. He tells me to fuck off.
I search my pockets for my phone, I come up short.
“Looking for this?” Matt holds my phone between his fingers.
When I reach for it, he slides it into his back pocket.
“Dude, I gotta go.”
“To celebrate with Ryan?”
Screw it, I’ll leave my phone. I turn to leave, but Sean is blocking the door.
Well, shit.
Clearly, I’m not getting out of here without a conversation so, I cave. “What do you want to know?”
“You’re happy, aren’t you?” Sean asks.
Happy is an inadequate word to describe how Ryan makes me feel.
It’s been three days since she invited me into her bed. Since then, food tastes better. The sky is bluer. The grass in Central Park is greener. Life is in HD, and full of vibrant colors I never knew existed.
“I am,” I concede.
“She’s helping you through whatever’s been haunting you.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement.
I simply nod.
Satisfied, he signals to Matt and my phone flies across the room, Sean catching it one-handed like a ninja.
“Good. Now get your damn champagne and go see your girl.” He hands me my phone, then pulls me into a hug, whispering in my ear. “You finally found the one, didn’t you?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“You’re right, let’s not jinx anything.” Sean leans over to brush his knuckles over the small entryway table, knocking on wood for good luck.
“Superstitious asshole.” I chuckle. “But keep knocking. I can use all the luck I can get.”
Grinning ear to ear, he holds the door open for me, ushering me out of the room with a grand sweep of his arm.
We’ve got our rooms at the hotel, and I’ve got my penthouse here in the city, but I love being in Ryan’s apartment. It’s comfortable. It’s real. It’s her.
Her door guy isn’t the typical portly gray-haired man you see in the movies. Instead, he’s young, attractive, and expecting me, so I don’t have to wait to be buzzed in. But the elevator moves at a glacial pace as I wait impatiently to get to her floor.
Letting myself in, I close the door behind me, leaning my back against it in hopes it will keep me upright, because the sight of her in nothing but an oversized off the shoulder sweatshirt, and her sexy black glasses she only wears at home, take me out at the knees.
Looking up from her computer screen, she smiles at me. “Hey.”
“Watcha doin’?”
“Well, I was working. But it appears the subject material has interrupted me.”
“Is that what I am to you? Your subject material?”
She stands and saunters across the room. When she reaches me, she rises onto her toes, her lips graze mine. “What do you wanna be to me?”
Fucking everything.
“A hell of a lot more than a job.”
“Hmm... You may have to show me what you mean.”
“With pleasure, Miss Jameson.”
Bucket cradled in one arm, I take her by the hand and head for the kitchen, not wanting to go a second longer without touching her .
Freeing my hands off the ice and champagne, I grip her hips, placing her onto the small kitchen island. Her legs wrap around my waist, and she reaches for her glasses.
“Leave them. You look like a naughty librarian.”
She giggles pushing the heels of her feet into my ass to bring me closer. Her greedy hands push my leather jacket to the floor so she can claw at my T-shirt, impatient to have it off as well.
Relieving her of her sweatshirt, I first look her in the eyes, making sure I have her attention before I take in the rest of her body, wanting her to watch as I worship her.
“Lay back.”
She obeys, hissing and arching her back off the cold, hard surface beneath her.
Her hands grip the edge of the counter above her head.
Flattening my palm against her chest, I drag it down her body until I reach her silk panties.
Bending down, I push my nose into her pussy, breathing her in deeply.
Squirming below me, her next hiss isn’t from the cold countertop but from need as I nip at her clit.
I slip my fingers into the sides of the satin at her hips, and she lifts so I can discard it, leaving her bare below me.
“You are a fucking goddess, Ryan. And I want to worship at your altar.” My tongue glides up her center and over her clit.
I give it a teasing flick but continue up her body, taking a nipple between my lips and circling the pink bud with my tongue.
I reach for the ice and her eyes go big with anticipation before closing. “You ask what I want to be to you?” I circle the same nipple with an ice cube while slowly pushing two fingers inside her. Her moans fill the air, and I never want to leave this damn kitchen.
“I want to be the only one who gives you this kind of pleasure.”
Her eyes fly open, shocked by my words.
I move the ice to her other breast and warm her teased nipple with the heat of my mouth. Her head falls back as sounds of ecstasy escape her lips, her hips grinding against my hand.
“I want to be the only man who hears you make that sound.”
She moans again.
Removing my fingers, I scoot her ass to the edge of the counter, bending down and propping her legs on my shoulders.
“I want to be the only man who ever tastes you again.” And then I do just that.
I devour her until she comes in my mouth while screaming my name, eliciting my own growl against her most sensitive place and sending her into oblivion.
Before her climax is over, I shove my jeans down, roll a condom on, and enter her in one swift motion. She screams in pleasure and pain. I should have eased into her, but the beast inside me was too insatiable and needed to feel her wrapped around him.
“Sorry, you okay?”
“Yes. Yes. Please don’t stop.”
Holding her in place, so her head doesn’t slide off the countertop, I thrust into her. “I want to be the only one you beg for more.”
Her eyes are closed again, her back arched in pure abandon.
She is exquisite.
Slowing my rhythm, I hover over her, needing to feel my skin against hers without putting my full weight on her. I kiss the place over her heart before my lips trail up her neck, tenderly taking her earlobe between my teeth. “What do you want, Ry?”
“You. Just you, Knox.”
Thank God!
“You’ve got me, baby.”