Undone: The Untangled Series, Book Two

by Layne, Ivy

  Knox

  By the time we were seated in a four-top overlooking the water, I had a better idea what Lily meant by It's been a long day.

  Adam squirmed and wiggled, complaining about everything. The seat wasn't right. There weren't enough crayons. He wasn't hungry.

  Lily sat beside him, trying to keep him occupied. When she finally got him interested in the maze on the back of the kids’ menu she said quietly, “I'm sorry. He's tired—”

  “—not tired.” Adam cut in, a mulish set to his chin.

  “We're all tired,” I said. “Hopefully, we'll get a good night’s sleep tonight. Maybe we can go to the beach again tomorrow.”

  I was hoping that would get a smile from Adam, but he ignored both of us, doggedly coloring his menu with the crayon. Lily turned down the offer of wine. I ordered myself a local beer.

  If I'd thought we'd have a romantic dinner, I would have been very wrong. We barely managed to get out more than one sentence at a time. Either Adam interrupted, or Lily was forced to turn her attention to him before he destroyed the restaurant around us.

  Adam ordered a hotdog with applesauce. I got lobster, again. Lobster bisque and a full dinner plate. Lily skipped the bisque but joined me for the lobster dinner. Our plates arrived quickly, not a surprise since it was early and the restaurant wasn't that busy. Our lobsters had been picked from their shells for us, saving us the mess.

  “I haven't had lobster in so long,” Lily said.

  “You live in Maine. They have fresh lobsters in the grocery store.” They did, a huge tank of them swimming around right by the seafood case.

  “I know, and I love them. I guess I've gotten into the habit of cooking for a five-year-old, and Adam doesn't do lobster.”

  The five-year-old in question shoved his plate to the middle of the table, his lower lip pooching in mutiny.

  “Adam, eat your dinner,” Lily said, the words so rote, so practiced, I knew they'd been repeated a thousand times, ten thousand times, over the last few years. Adam pulled his paper in front of him again, refusing to look at his mother or his plate.

  “Don't like it.”

  “You asked for a hotdog,” Lily said with hard-won patience. “Hot dogs are your favorite.”

  “It tastes funny, and the bread is too crunchy. It hurts my teeth.”

  “What do you mean it hurts your teeth?” Lily asked, exasperation gaining on her unraveling patience.

  “I have a wobbly tooth, and the bread hurts. And the applesauce is chunky. I don't like chunky applesauce.”

  “Since when do you have a wobbly tooth? And you like apples. The chunks are apples.”

  “Which tooth is wobbly, bud?” I asked, not sure if Lily would appreciate me butting into their conversation. She tilted her head to the side and waited for Adam's answer.

  He dropped his jaw and stuck a finger into his mouth, wiggling one of his bottom front teeth. The little sucker moved. Not a lot. It wasn't about to fall out, but it did move.

  Lily's eyes flew wide, and she smacked a hand over her mouth, leaning down to touch her forehead to Adam's, her exasperation forgotten for the moment.

  “It's your first loose tooth. How long has it been wiggling? Why didn't you tell me?”

  “Just started,” Adam said, not sharing his mother's excitement.

  I checked out his plate with the partially eaten hot dog and bowl of homemade applesauce. It looked good to me. Not as good as my lobster, but still pretty good. Especially for kid food.

  “Wait a second,” Lily said, “you didn't have any problem eating your sub at lunch. Are you saying your tooth wasn't loose at lunch?”

  “I don't know. It didn't hurt then.”

  Lily let out a huff of air, exasperation back in full force. “Adam, you have to eat dinner.”

  “Not hungry. I don't want it. Not gonna eat it.”

  Lily braced her elbow on the table and dropped her forehead into her palm. She hadn't been wrong earlier. It had been a long day. We'd started before dawn with fear and danger, but the ending had been pretty good, until now.

  Dinner with a cranky five-year-old was nowhere near as bad as an invasion by six armed guys. We got through that, we could get through this.

  In a low voice, I asked, “Should we have it packed up for later? Maybe he'll change his mind.”

  Lily nodded, her forehead still braced in her palm, and let out a long sigh. I reached across the table to bracelet her wrist with my fingers, giving a gentle tug. She sat up, her eyes tired.

  Repeating her words from earlier I said, “It's been a long day, Lily. Let's eat dinner and let him color?”

  “I'm sorry he's—”

  “Don't worry about it. He's five. He's been a champ, all things considered. Here, you need to try this lobster bisque,” I said, holding up my spoon, hoping the soup would distract her. I hadn't had lobster bisque in a while, but this stuff was beyond good.

  Lily leaned across the table. I slipped the spoon between her lips. She closed her eyes and hummed as she tasted the soup.

  “Oh my God, that's amazing.”

  It was. I took a spoonful for myself, then fed her another, still holding her hand. Adam ignored us, happy to be left to his own devices, and we managed to share the entire bowl of bisque before he slumped in his seat, let out a groan of despair, and slid under the table.

  Lily's hand pulled from mine, and her head disappeared beneath the table cloth. “What are you doing under there? Get off the floor!”

  From beneath the table, I heard, “Boooring. This is boring. There's no kid stuff to do.”

  “Draw something with your crayons.”

  “Don't want to. Don't want crayons. Bored. Why do we have to do grown-up stuff?”

  Lily sat up, her teeth cutting into her lower lip as she struggled to get a hold of her temper. Adam wasn't always perfect, but I'd never seen him this cranky.

  I'd also never seen him after being woken in the middle of the night by a man holding a gun to his mother's head, then dragged halfway across the state.

  He's five, I reminded myself. He's five, and it's been a bitch of a day.

  Lily looked like she was at the end of her rope. Despite Alice's plans, this was not the night for romance. Not that I thought there was much room for romance with a five-year-old chaperone sitting beside us.

  Still, a man could hope.

  It had only been a week since I'd seen Lily's picture in Trey's file. One look and I'd known. I had to be the one to help her.

  She'd opened her door, and I’d started to fall. One week, and I was all the way in. I wanted Lily. Not just in bed. Not just for a night. I wanted her.

  Did I want romance? Fuck yeah. Candlelight and a fancy dinner and Lily in that dress. Then Lily out of that dress. Mine.

  I could wait. Adam came first. I loved that about Lily.

  I love my mom. Hell, I was here partly because I wanted to protect my mom from Tsepov. But she hadn't been a mom like Lily. I couldn't remember her ever reading me a story. Giving me a bath. Tucking me into bed. Forget listening to my stories about school.

  Lacey Sinclair was interested in herself. She didn't know how to love the way Lily did, with her whole heart. With her soul. Lily loved with everything she had, and I wanted some of that for me.

  I couldn't love the way Lily was with Adam and then expect her to forget about him as soon as I flashed a bouquet of roses and a nice dinner.

  Lily took care of everyone else. She was devoted to Adam. She cooked me dinner and stocked the cottage with snacks, just in case I got hungry. I'd bet even when Trey was cheating on her and treating her like shit, she still took care of him, cooking and doing his laundry whether he deserved it or not.

  Who took care of her? From what I knew of her life, her parents, and her husband, it sounded like the answer was no one. No one took care of
Lily. That was about to change.

  I caught the waitress as she walked by. “Can you bring the check and three to-go boxes? We have to get this guy to bed. Long day in the sun.”

  The waitress smiled and promised to be right back.

  “Thank you,” Lily whispered in relief. “He's only going to get worse. He needs to go to bed.”

  “Don't need to go to bed,” Adam's voice floated up from beneath his chair.

  Lily ignored him, helping to pack up our unfinished meals while I paid the check. The waitress had included a twine-handled shopping bag with our boxes.

  I gave it to Lily, nudged Adam's chair out of the way, and picked him up off the floor. He struggled a little, mumbling, “Wanna walk.”

  “Don't you want to ride on my shoulders?”

  A moment of wiggling consideration. Then, “K.”

  I lifted him, holding onto his knees and trying not to wince when he sank his fingers into my hair. I was glad we'd stuck with the restaurant attached to the hotel. Somehow, we got Adam back to the room without incident.

  I set the leftovers on the small dining table by the kitchenette, putting Adam's box into the little refrigerator. Lily led Adam into their bedroom.

  She left the door open a few inches, giving me a front row seat to the nightmare that was putting a cranky five-year-old to bed.

  He wanted to sleep in his clothes.

  He didn't like the pajamas she'd packed.

  He wasn't tired.

  He wanted a different story.

  Lily handled most of it with her customary calm. By the time Adam interrupted the story to complain for the fifth time, I wondered how much more it would take before Lily blew her top.

  I wasn't in there with them and I was ready to beg him to please go to bed already. When he said, “I want Mr. Knox to read to me. You're not doing it right,” I hauled myself to my feet.

  I was used to going without sleep, but that didn't mean I wasn't tired, too. Whatever.

  He's five, I reminded myself. Five.

  Lily spotted me in the doorway, her mouth tight with fatigue and annoyance. “I'm sorry. You don't have to—”

  I sat on the other side of the bed and held out my hand for the book about the steam shovel. “I can read a book, Lily. I don't mind.”

  I didn't. Especially if it would get Adam to shut the hell up. Momentarily satisfied, Adam leaned into me, his eyelids heavy, his stuffed monkey held tight to his chest.

  “Start at the beginning,” he demanded.

  No problem. It's not like the book was long. I flipped to the first page and began to read. The book wasn't bad, about a steam shovel who lost his job when bigger equipment came to town and then saved the town by finishing the hole for the new library after the new equipment broke down.

  By the time the hole was finished and the little steam shovel discovered he hadn't dug himself a way out, Adam's breathing was even and deep, his eyes closed.

  Fucking finally. I met Lily's eyes over his sleeping body, seeing my relief mirrored in her face, lightened by a hint of wonder. She took the book from my hands and eased off the bed, pulling the covers up around Adam’s shoulders.

  We tiptoed out of the room, closing the door behind us. Lily stopped and turned, cracking it open a few inches. “I know he's fine, but I want to be able to hear him if—”

  “Good idea,” I agreed before she could apologize again.

  “Dinner?” I asked, tilting my head to the table where I'd laid out our unfinished meal.

  Her hand going to her stomach Lily said, “I'm starving. I'm so hungry I might eat Adam's hot dog, too. That would serve him right.”

  “How about champagne and chocolate?” I offered.

  “I don't think I can do more than a glass of champagne,” Lily said, “but I'll never turn down chocolate.”

  I popped the cork on the champagne, pouring us both half a glass. “You look beautiful in that dress,” I said. “You always look beautiful, but I've never seen you like that.”

  Lily took the glass of champagne I handed her, sipping, her gaze running over my button-down shirt, open at the collar.

  “Me either. I mean, I've never seen you in anything other than a T-shirt. You look… Really nice.”

  She swallowed another sip of champagne. I put my glass on the table and crossed the distance between us, hooking my arm around her waist and pulling her against me.

  Her breath quickened, her face tilted up to mine. Nerves skittered through her eyes, but she didn't pull away.

  “Are we on the same page with this, Lily?”

  Lily came up on her toes, her weight shifting forward, pressing closer. I'd take that as a yes.

  “I'm going to kiss you. If you don't want me to—”

  Her arms were around my neck, pulling me down. That was all I needed. My mouth closed over hers, and I kissed her the way I'd been dying to kiss her since the first time.

  Making chocolate chip cookies felt like a lifetime ago, though it had been barely more than a day.

  Twenty-four hours ago, I'd kissed her against my better judgment.

  Kissed her because I couldn't stop myself.

  Not now.

  Twenty-four hours, and everything had changed. This was the first kiss of many. I was going to make it count.

  I wanted to peel that sweater down her arms, to slide the straps of her sundress off her shoulders, to free those round breasts, to feel their weight in my hands.

  For a second, I tried to convince myself that Adam was sleeping deeply, and we could do whatever we wanted.

  We could, but Lily was tired. She hadn't eaten. My body was ready to go, but it wasn't time. Not yet.

  Reluctantly I lifted my head, whispering against her ear, “Dinner. I just wanted to do that first.”

  She stared up at me, eyes dazed, still leaning into me.

  “Dinner?” she asked.

  “Dinner. You need food. Lobster, champagne, chocolate. Then more kissing.”

  “Can we skip to the kissing?”

  My cock strained against my pants, voting with Lily.

  Forget food.

  Kissing. Preferably naked kissing.

  My cock was insistent, but it wouldn't be the first time he had to wait his turn.

  “Dinner first.” Cupping her chin in my hands, I met her eyes and said, deadly serious, “We have time. Dinner first. Then I'll kiss you all night if that's what you want.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Lily

  I'll kiss you all night if that's what you want.”

  I said the only thing that popped into my mind.

  “Yes, please.”

  The grin that spread across Knox's face turned my knees to water and set the rest of me on fire.

  He expected me to eat dinner after a kiss like that?

  I couldn't think after a kiss like that.

  I was turned upside down and inside out. The last twenty-four hours had spun me like a top. I was still spinning.

  When I stopped, I'd get my bearings, but right now everything was still awhirl inside me.

  I couldn't forget that arm around my neck, the gun to my head. The bone-deep terror that Adam would be hurt. That the gun would go off and I'd be dead. Then Knox was there, one more person I—

  One more person I cared about who could be hurt.

  The next thing I knew we were at the beach under the bright summer sun and Knox was declaring himself my knight in shining armor.

  I wish I could say I was shocked by his revelations about Trey. I hadn't expected things to be that bad, but I'd known on some level that Trey's business hadn't been above board.

  I trusted too easily.

  I'd trusted Trey.

  Now I was trusting Knox.

  I wanted to think I'd learned my lesson, t
hat this time I'd chosen to trust the right man. I couldn't know.

  Knowing isn't trust. Trust is in the heart.

  The truth is, you never really know another person. Everyone has secrets. The best you can do is go off what they show you. What they do.

  By the time I understood that I was already married to Trey. Knox had shown me nothing but good. What about the cameras? I had to ask myself.

  I couldn't blame him for suspecting me. Trey had done a good job arranging our finances so I looked guilty, and Knox had told me about the cameras, knowing I'd be mad, wanting to be honest anyway. That had to count for something.

  Maybe it was the way he'd promised we'd find Adam's birth certificate, promised I wouldn't lose my son.

  I'm not a child, and I'm not stupid. I knew Knox couldn't promise me those things. He didn't control the universe. Without those papers, the deck was stacked against me no matter how powerful the Sinclairs might be.

  Yesterday he'd looked at me like I was a criminal. He'd told me I might be liable for Trey's crimes. Today he swore he was on my side.

  I believed him. Maybe I shouldn't, but I did. Something about Knox… I couldn't not believe.

  He didn't bullshit. Didn't charm. He didn't talk fast to get what he wanted. Knox laid it all out. He was who he was. He didn't talk unless he had something to say.

  How could I not trust this man? A man who kept his cool through dinner with a cranky five-year-old, and still had the patience to read that five-year-old a book until he fell asleep?

  It's one thing when it's your five-year-old. I love Adam more than life, and by the time Knox came in, I was ready to smother him with a pillow.

  Anyone who thinks that sounds bad has never had a five-year-old.

  Now we were alone. Finally alone. And everything had changed.

  He took my hand, leading me to the table. I followed, wobbling a little, my knees still weak from that kiss, my head still spinning from everything else.

  I sat in front of my takeout container of lobster. It was cold, but it still looked good. Knox set my refilled glass of champagne in front of me and sat on the opposite side of the small table.

  I took a bite and let my eyes wander our suite, suddenly too shy to look at Knox. That kiss had my brain all muddled.