Chapter 8 Savannah
Savannah
My toes had lost all feeling, along with my fingers, wrists, and knees.
All sensation was focused on the very center of me: first on the exquisite pleasure Knightly had wrung out of me with his hands and his tongue, but then the cracking of my chest. The emptiness of being loved for those few precious minutes before it had all been ripped away when he’d left me.
On the cold balcony, the July night air chilled my skin, my expensive lace underwear in a crumple beside the stone bench.
He’d kissed me like he’d meant it, like I was the only person in the world. I’d thought that he wanted to hold me forever, and then he’d left.
Such perfect words about how I was his fantasy. How beautiful I was.
Such a fucking liar, and I was an even bigger fool.
No, he did not get to kiss me and make me come on his tongue and say all the right things and implode our friendship without a fight.
The half-empty bottle of Champagne abandoned, I stalked off the balcony and through the winding halls of the hotel.
Party music and cheers were ringing from the ballroom, the wedding still in full swing as I jammed my finger against the elevator button.
An old song from when my parents had been in high school played on the speaker above me as I glared at my reflection.
Mascara was smeared under one eye, and my fake lashes were hanging on by a single pinprick of globby glue.
Peeling them from my upper lid, I stuffed them into my clutch.
Now I had a weird bare line between my eyeliner and my lash line.
Great. My updo, so meticulously created by the stylist Darcy had hired, was in complete disarray.
Red and purple bruises marred my neck and chest—the burn from Knightly’s stubble, his mouth, his tongue.
The elevator car carried me up four floors. Knightly John had another thing coming if he thought I would be another mistake to him. I was his best friend. I deserved better.
The key card I’d never given back tapped against his door lock, flashing red three times before I got the green light and was swinging his door open.
His white tux jacket had been tossed beside his shiny shoes.
The faint sound of water running behind the bathroom door was the only sound.
He hadn’t bothered shutting the door all the way. Why would he?
Confident, bring me to my knees with his fingers and tongue Knightly. Shatter my chest into slivers Knightly.
Swinging the door open, I stomped into the steam-filled room. The knob didn’t have time to hit the wall before I was yanking the curtain open and glowering at Knightly in all his wet and naked glory.
“How could you leave me out there?”
With a clap over his groin to cover a sizable dick—glad to see firsthand that I was right about what I felt pressed against me in the tent summers before wasn’t exaggerated in my memory—he flattened his back against the wall. “What are you doing in here? How did you get in?”
“You gave me a key, remember?”
“Bana...”
“Don’t.” I gripped the shower curtain, the nickname splitting something in my chest I had already thought was broken.
Oh, so this devastation would be a slow burn.
Before I could second-guess myself, I kicked off my shoes and lifted my foot over the side of the tub, joining him under the pelting hot water.
“Don’t call me that. You left me on that balcony. Why?”
His gaze grew wide as the shower soaked my dress, making it cling to my body. “Can we—Can I get out first?”
“No, tell me. What did I do? Why would you treat me as if I were some—” I shook my head, a lump forming in my throat.
No, it was worse than the way he’d treated the others.
Never had I heard of him leaving them seconds after sex.
From what I’d heard, he was actually a good after-sex cuddler.
So what was it about me? “You think I’m another one of your whores? ”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “Don’t you dare ...”
“What? That’s how I feel.”
“You can’t come in here and demand answers, Savannah. I don’t owe you that, not after—” He swallowed and dropped his dick to run his hand through his hair, scratching at his scalp. We were both past the point of it mattering now.
“So why did you kiss me then?” Tears were mixing with the steam of the shower, slipping down my cheeks with my smeared makeup.
I must have looked a fright. “Why did you touch me? Make me feel this way if you’re just going to walk away and leave me?
” I would feel pathetic for what I said next, but it was the truth. “It’s not fair.”
“We both know who the whore in this situation is. I was just making it easier for you. I am being fair. Isn’t that what you wanted? Someone to take you for a spin.”
My silly words during the post-orgasm haze came back to me.
“Is that why? Knightly, that was a joke. A terrible, not even that funny joke I made trying to be coy or flirty or charming.” I stepped closer, my hand raised.
“Is that why you left? Did you think after all we’ve been through, that’s how I see you? ”
“Isn’t it?” He shot me a glare.
“Knightly, you’re my—” I swallowed hard, a new fissure opening inside me—the brightness of hope I had been tending for years.
With only inches now between us, the water sluiced over his body that I could finally take in.
His muscular arms tensed as he braced himself, the strength of his thighs, the trail of dark hair that led from his belly button down to his half-hard cock on full display.
Resting my hand on his chest, I traced the shadow of his collarbone.
“I’m what?” He straightened, space forming between us as he gazed down at me with those inscrutable whiskey eyes.
I’m yours.
“You’re my everything. You’re mine. And I want to be yours in whatever way you’ll have me.” I could barely form the words, my mind still reeling from being so close to him.
His gaze flickered to my mouth and down my body until his fingers closed around my wrist, pulling me in closer, his breath hot on my face.
“Don’t give me hope unless you mean it. Tell me this is really what you want.
Because if you say that you’re mine, I won’t be able to let you go. I’ve waited too long for this.”
“Not as long as I have,” I whispered.
His hand shot out, tangling in my curls, yanking my mouth to his as a growl ripped from his chest. Hairpins dropped onto the shower floor as we came together. His hands roamed over my body, my ribs, my ass, my thighs.
“I love you. I’m so fucking in love with you.” His words were slick on my skin.
It was messy and desperate, teeth clashing while the water clung to us.
I wasn’t sure how, but he somehow turned the shower off.
We were stumbling from the bathroom, drips in our wake as his mouth never left mine.
We couldn’t stop moving, didn’t stop devouring each other.
By the time we reached the bed, we were both trembling.
With a waver in his step, he pulled away, his gaze flickering over my shivering body. “Poor girl, soaked to the bone in that silk dress. Let’s take it off, and you can show me what I’ve been dying over for years.”
His thumb hooked on the strap of my dress, the fabric soaked as he pushed it off my shoulders and down my arms. For every inch of exposed skin, Knightly followed with a kiss, the brushing of his lips over my collarbone, the inside of my elbow, the tops of my breasts.
I was a doll being slowly unwrapped. My dress slipped over my hips to land in a puddle at my feet.
For a moment, he just stared up at me, reverence in his lust-darkened gaze.
His lips pressed against my skin, kissing everywhere before he captured my nipple in his mouth, tugging it between his teeth, sucking hard. A groan reverberating through my body as my nails scraped over his scalp.
His mouth ghosted down, nipping and sucking, as I gasped under his feverish touch.
“Do you remember what you told me the night we met?” he whispered as his palm swept up my ribs, fingers curling over my breast to pinch my nipple. I couldn’t contain my moan as I arched into his touch.
“N-no,” I stuttered out, my fingers in his hair. His tongue trailed over my belly button, down over my left hip, where he sucked a patch of skin until it bloomed pink.
Rising to his feet, he cupped my face in his palm, his mouth brushing against mine. “You told me I’d be lovesick over you.”
Lovesick. What a ridiculous phrase. Something I would’ve thrown out in my early college days, when I’d been so sure of myself. Sure of what and who I wanted. Nothing could have prepared me for Knightly. For this gradual ailment, this desperation, this ache, until we were too far gone for a cure.
“I think we’re both a bit lovesick.”
“Say it again,” he commanded, his voice breaking as he wrapped a firm hand around my throat, not squeezing—guiding. Claiming what had always been his.
“I’m yours.”
He lowered us onto the bed, my legs falling open for him to slot between. That night in the tent, I’d thought I knew what the weight of him would be, but it was nothing compared to this press of his body.
“So pretty.” His fingers slid up and down my center as his thumb traced over my clit. “And all mine, aren’t you?”
“Knightly, please, I need—I need—” I gasped. An emptiness like I had never experienced was drowning me. The thick ridge of his cock pressed hard at my entrance.
“Shh. I know what you need.” His cock slid over my wetness, back and forth, tapping my clit before sliding lower.
“Please, please.”
“My baby begs so pretty, doesn’t she?” He sucked at my bottom lip, and I bit down as he teased me more. “Tell me I’m it for you.”
“You’re it for me.” I tried to shift closer, but his other hand held me still.
“What else?” The ache built higher as his fingers laced with mine.
“I love you. I love you so much,” I stuttered out. “Please, Knightly.”
“I got you, baby.” His lips brushed my ear. “Who am I to refuse you anything?”
His hips slammed against mine, his cock stretching me in a single thrust. Stars flickered behind my eyes, and I pulled his mouth to mine hungrily.
As he moved in and out of me, he dragged along that spot inside me that ached for more.
I lifted my hips to meet him as the pressure built.
His tongue on mine, he grabbed my wrists above my head, holding them together with one hand while the other slid down my body.
Still buried inside me, his eyes dark, he grabbed my leg, hoisting it over his shoulder, and drove himself deeper into me. Every thrust made me gasp louder.
“You’re such a gorgeous mess for me.”
Our bodies tight together, his kisses turned demanding, and somehow this was breaking me worse than anything had before it.
From his thumb on my wrist, the control of his body as he moved inside me, to the burn of his gaze, every stroke was taking me closer to the edge of something I could never return from.
I was being ravaged. Broken apart to be fit back together by him alone.
As I clenched around him, he let out a groan from deep in his chest. He reached between us until his fingers found my clit, tilting my head to the side. His mouth scraped along my throat, the sting of his teeth sparking through me.
“Close, baby?” There was no way he didn’t know the answer. Still, I nodded at him, moaning into his shoulder. “Let go for me, baby. Show me how good it feels.”
I gasped as my hips rocked against his. Despite the drag of his cock inside me, his hand gripping my wrist in place, his teeth against my skin, his fingers swirling over my clit—my last semblance of control was broken by his whispered gasps.
Over and over, a sound filled the room, and I realized it was my name.
“Savannah, my Savannah.”
My climax pulsed through me, sharp and hot as I shattered under him, my body trembling, and his rhythm faltered as he followed. His grip on my wrist tightened as he buried himself inside me with a shudder.
Sweat slicked, his head fell back into the hollow of my throat as we both caught our breath. Still inside me, he rolled us over to the side, his fingers brushing damp hair off my face.
“You know, Darcy told me this would happen,” he murmured. “I didn’t believe her, but she told me the night we met. Said I would be foolish not to see what the universe had in store for me.”
My temple rested on his collarbone, his heartbeat in my ear.
“Oh, she’s going to be insufferable about this.
” The blur of the night played over in my mind, grainy footage of emotion and sensation.
Lifting my head, I smirked. “Did you know she gave me a thumbs-up when you and I were dancing together? Who does that?”
Chuckling softly, he shook his head, a dramatically pained expression washing over his face. “Darc. At least we know she approves. She didn’t four years ago. Told me to stay away from you, in fact. But look at us now. We’ll be hearing about this for the rest of our lives.”
The rest of our lives.
The declaration hung in the air between us. His eyes softened as his thumb traced over my bottom lip. “To think we could have been doing this long ago.”
Cupping his cheek with my hand, I rested my forehead against his, the mingling of our breath heating the air. “I think we’ve both been a little foolish.”