Surrounded By Knight

by A. N. Hennessy

  “You okay?” His leg stopped. He turned from looking out the window, capturing me in his beautiful green-blue eyed gaze.

  “Never been better.” His smile was perfectly faked.

  “You sure? Because your body language says otherwise.”

  He shoved his free hand through his hair and looked over to a sleeping Addie before looking back at me. The torment and anguish on his face told me everything I needed to know and my heart hurt for him.

  “I don’t really celebrate this kind of stuff. Not the best memories there. You know?” He shrugged mildly as if it were nothing to discuss.

  I unbuckled my seatbelt as fast as I could and threw my arms around his neck. Trevelin had become very close to me, and I guess you could say we were extremely good friends. Nothing had escalated between us other than the immense chemistry that we shared, and it seemed to be getting stronger and stronger as time progressed.

  I think I even love him.

  This was something that was completely new to me. I’d never been in love with anyone before, and you better believe it would be my little secret. I guess that was what this strong emotion I felt towards him was. When I saw him hurt and in pain it was as if the pain traveled straight to me, causing me to feel the same exact form of hurt along with him. We shared it, and I wanted nothing more than to soothe him and make it all better. I couldn’t dispel the dense thought that he needed me.

  “There’s always time to start new, fonder memories,” I told him, pressing my cheek against his black leather jacket at his shoulder, the coolness seeping into my skin. His leather covered arms wrapped around me, cloaking me in a cloud of so many emotions I could hardly breathe.

  I felt his large hands rub circles on my back. “If they’re with you, Country, they’ll be the best fucking memories I could ever ask for.” He clutched me tighter. I swallowed the tears that were threatening to escape. I didn’t want him to see me emotional—when it came to him, he made me feel things I was clueless to. No matter if we were always just friends, I wanted to be there for him. Someone he knew he could rely on. Someone he knew would never abandon him.

  ♪♫♪♫♪♫

  We got settled in at the farm house. A funny feeling tingled over my skin when I walked through the living room by the sectional couch where Trevelin had first slept with me in his arms. It held a sentimental value to me now. I wanted to tell him to put his bags in my room but I stopped myself. The past few weeks I’d been sleeping in the bunks on the Knight Slayer, not really wanting to, but it was best from the unneeded pull he had on me. However, there were a few times where he took it upon himself to remove me from my bunk in the middle of the night and I would wake the next morning surrounded by him and his intoxicating scent.

  Then there were times when I was with Trevelin that he just acted...odd. One minute we would be laughing and having fun and the next he’d get all serious and go to say something, but stop a few words in and say, “Never mind.” I had no clue as to what was with him or why he’d get all crazy, but it seemed to be worse on days when he knew I’d been with Ryker. That much I put together.

  He was one confusing friend, and I would like to know that if there was something bothering him he would feel comfortable enough discussing it with me.

  A spine-tingling smile stretched across my lips as I walked down the stairs to find him lying in his spot on the couch. Legs stretched long, arms propped behind his head—he looked as if he owned the couch. When he saw me, he opened up his arms and said, “Come snuggle with me, Country.” I obliged giddily and curled into his arms like a kitten deprived of love, resting my head on his chest. “If this doesn’t feel right, then I don’t know what the hell does,” he murmured into my hair. I smiled contently, completely agreeing with him, but not able to speak it aloud.

  Our spot on the couch was so comfortable and peaceful that we both fell asleep. We woke to Addie shouting at us. “Izzy! Trevelin! Wake the hell up.”

  I grumbled, not wanting to move, but sat up anyways, rubbing the sleep from my face. Addie tapped her foot, giving us both a pondering look. “You two are so damn weird. You are together all the time, sleep in the same bed—”

  “Sometimes,” I interjected.

  “Whatever. And I know you’ve kissed, yet that’s all there is. No sex, no relationship, just mushy lovey-dovey crap. Am I missing something here?” Crossing her arms, she looked from me to Trevelin, giving him a pointed look. He went to say something, but I saved him the trouble of having to explain anything to Addie.

  “No, you’re not missing anything, because there is nothing to miss. But I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t make our friendship sound so...so trashy.”

  Trevelin scoffed as if something irrational was said and stood hastily. He glowered at Addie as he passed by her and walked straight out the front door. My eyes followed his retreat until the door slammed shut with a loud BANG.

  “You seriously need to open your eyes, Izzy.”

  I glanced up at her and frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  She sighed and sat down beside me. “Trevelin likes you, if you haven’t noticed. The poor guy follows you around like a lost puppy. And the way he looks at you…” She sighed again. “Don’t say nothin’, because I’m not supposed to know, but Jace said Trevelin never behaves with other girls like he does with you. It was always one thing and the end.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Well, I don’t know. I’ve known them as long as you have, but I think that you need to either cut out the PDA stuff you do with him or lay it all out there. Save both your time. Not to mention Ryker.” As if she has room to talk. “You know that cut Trev had on his hand?” I nodded my head. “Know how he got it?”

  “Yeah, he said he cut it on a glass he dropped.”

  I’d just gotten back from having some drinks with Ryker after the concert in Georgia. I entered the Presidential suit I was sharing with Reed and Trevelin to find them seated in front of the large flat screen playing the Xbox.

  “Hey, guys,” I’d said, slinging my purse to the table by the door.

  “Sup, Kitten? Want me to kick your ass in some Halo?” It wasn’t uncommon for Reed to ask me to play the violent video games he and the guys seemed to love so much. There was nothing I found appealing about blowing someone’s head off.

  “She has better shit to do,” Trevelin answered for me. Each word was sharp enough to cut through steel. “FUCK!” he growled, then slung the controller to the game across the room. I flinched at the loud crash it made as it hit a vase of flowers that smashed to the hard floor.

  “It’s okay, Schnookums, you died, not the end of the world,” Reed cooed to him.

  “This shit fucking blows.” Trevelin jumped to his feet and stormed to his room without so much as a sideways glance at me.

  I wasn’t in my own room for ten minutes when I heard another loud crash followed by Trevelin cursing. I found him in the kitchen with his hand under running water at the sink, the water stained pink from his oozing blood.

  “Oh my god! What happened?” I ran to him, grabbing a towel off the counter by Trevelin’s iPad on my way. “Let me see.” I took up his hand, dabbing at the large gash on his palm. It didn’t look deep enough to need stitches, but horrific enough that my stomach churned with bile at all the blood. “Are you okay? What did you do?”

  I looked up at him. Lines marred his forehead, his breathing was ragged and rushed, and his jaw was clenched so tight the veins were throbbing in his neck from the pressure.

  “Nothing, just dropped my whisky glass.” It wasn’t his normal smooth voice that made love to my eardrums. It was rough and husked.

  “Sharp edges have a tendency to cut,” I tried to tease.

  He cleared his throat. “Fucking tell me about it.”

  I wondered if he meant more by what he’d said, but I let it go and retrieved the first aid kit from the bathroom. He seemed to battle conflicting demons as I tended to his injured hand,
but he never spoke another word other than the concentrated stare he was bathing my face with.

  When I was done, he surprised me by slinging the contents across the kitchen counter, grabbing me abruptly, and hauling me to his room where we laid in the dark, not saying a word as he petted my hair and smothered me with more emotions than I could bear.

  Addie’s perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched. “A glass he threw across the hotel room door because of the article he read on the internet about you and Ryker.”

  Trevelin’s iPad on the counter flashed vividly in my mind. It was by the towel I’d grabbed to clean the blood from his hand.

  Ryker had taken me to dinner the night before in Atlanta and we had been swarmed by photographers while leaving the restaurant. He’d been holding my hand like he always did when he took me somewhere. It was no different than when I was out with Trevelin. People snapped pictures of Trevelin and I every chance they got, they’d even scream for him to kiss me or, the one I loved the most, women shouting profanities at me and screaming that I was too ugly for him and how much they hated me.

  One thing was for sure, I was definitely not liked by the Knight Raider’s female fans.

  The article Addie was talking about had accused me of giving Trevelin a dose of his own medicine. It had made me sick to read, because that wasn’t what I was intending to do at all. I didn’t want people to think I was in a relationship with Trevelin, nonetheless have them think I was cheating on him. He’d never said anything to me about it and I never wanted to bring it up, afraid he was mad at me about it for making him look bad. Apparently he had been.

  “I don’t understand, why would he do that?”

  “Because he cares about you,” she breathed tirelessly, rolling her eyes.

  “Yeah, friends tend to do that.”

  “Why do I even bother?” She waved her hands in the air, getting up. “Mom wants us to come to the house.” That was all she said before she turned and walked out the same door Trevelin had angrily left through.

  I’d figured Trevelin liked me, but not in the way Addie was making it out to look or the way I wanted him to. I had no idea what to do. I didn’t want to lose him. I knew what it was like to miss him, and that had been only for two weeks. There was no way I could live if I never got to see him again. I’d just have to give him a piece of me and hope for the best. The thought made me feel slightly bad for Ryker, just slightly.

  I searched around the house for Trevelin before giving up and getting in the truck. He must have gone to the house with Addie. I sat admiring the view of the big brick house where I grew up before finally getting out. The wind was chilly, but not too bad, with a thick, heavy coat it blocked out most of the bitterness. I entered the house to be swarmed and hugged by my parents.

  After the hugs and kisses and the we missed you’s subsided, I followed them into the living room where Trevelin was sitting on the couch talking with my uncle Marvin. He looked up at me, gave a small smile, and continued with his conversation. I hated his small smiles. Those were the ones he normally gave me when he was mad at me or upset about something.

  I was about to go tell him we needed to talk when a cold hand grabbed my arm. “I see ya brought home the blond. Good choice, my dear.” I grinned at the soft yet raspy voice of Nana Lulu. I turned around and hugged her, but it didn’t stop her from saying what she wanted to. “That boy has great bone structure, strong shoulders, and the hair of a damn god. Perfect genetics for my grandbabies. Just don’t name ‘em nothin’ that’ll make me wanna kick y’all’s asses. Like Lulu,” she snarled. “Make it something unique, something y’all. I don’t know what my momma was a thinkin’. Y’all gonna make me one happy old woman, I’ll tell ya that. And I bet you’ve had some fun with—”

  “Lulu...” My voice sounded astonished—mortified was a more like it. One would assume she and Addie were blood related.

  “What? Boys’ gotta ass that’ll make ya wanna slap your preacher silly. And those eyes...” She withered off dreamily, or my ears were automatically shutting her out, knowing what she’d say next. In order to save myself from blushing every shade of red, I walked away.

  We ate dinner and talked with my parents for a little bit. They both appeared to love Trevelin, and he seemed to fit into my family perfectly, if not better than I did. My dad gave off the feeling of being more comfortable with me and Addie traveling with the band, and he looked at Trevelin like he was his own son. I would be lying if I said that didn’t bring tears to my eyes.

  After a few hours of rehashing everything with the family I decided to leave. I was exhausted and needed to get away from Nana Lulu. The old woman didn’t know when to stop. Love her to death and back, but man was she insane. I couldn’t say which was more embarrassing; her flirting with Trevelin like she was his age or her talking about her nonexistent grandchild we had made together. Surely to goodness she knew you had to have sex in order to make a baby, considering she had two kids of her own, my dad and Uncle Marvin.

  Lying on my bed after wrapping some Christmas presents, my door creaked open and a coat flew at me. “Put that on.” I gave Trevelin a puzzled look. “Just do it,” he said sternly.

  I listened, pulling the large coat on and zipping it up. He walked to my closet and began taking several blankets from the top shelf. “What are you doing?” I asked, watching him.

  He ignored my question. Taking my hand, he led me through the door, down the steps and out of the house. He was on a mission, leading me to the pasture where my running path was that I didn’t know I missed until then. He helped me over the fence, and then continued leading me down the path to the large pond. When we reached the small clearing around the water, he spread out one of the blankets on the ground and sat down on top of it. I looked around, noticing we were hidden from the house by the thick tree line. The round, bright moon floated high in the sky, shimmering off the water of the pond, making this spot seem magical.

  Trevelin patted the emptiness beside him. “Lay with me.”

  My face hurt from my huge smile, and my heart started bouncing around in my chest while my lungs felt like they’d stopped working altogether. He wanted me to lay with him by the massive pond, under the full moon, on a blanket while it was freezing outside?

  Was he nuts?

  Maybe a little, but I couldn’t tell him no.

  I took a seat beside him, loving the way he instantly wrapped his arm around me, then leaned back, taking me with him where we had a full view of the starry sky above us. I was speechless, but in that moment there was no need for talking. Everything was being said through our touches and silence.

  We lay there quiet for the longest time, looking up at the sky under the collection of blankets and stars, not the least bit cold. Trevelin had been playing with my hair and humming a tune to a song I’d never heard before in my ear.

  I practically jumped when he finally broke the still of our silence. “You’re special to me, Country. I don’t know if you realize that or not, but you are. I don’t feel the suffocation of loneliness when you’re around.” He twirled a strand of my hair around his finger as he spoke. “You make me want things I didn’t even know I wanted.” He slowly maneuvered onto his side so he could better see my face. The light of the moon made him glow, causing him to look unreal, untouched, unbelievable. His hand left my hair and he brushed it down my cheek. “I’ve never wanted anything as bad as I want you.”

  My breathing came in quick pants, and I realized there wasn’t a more perfect time, place, or person. I wanted him too. The same way he wanted me. I just hoped this wouldn’t push him away from me, change things between us. I would be crushed.

  I cupped his face without so much as a word and took full possession of his mouth. He grumbled and rolled so he was half over me, holding himself up on one forearm while the other hand worked its way back through my hair. Our mouths sealed together perfectly, leaving me to believe they were made to be together, united.

  When he sucked on my bottom li
p, a small noise escaped me without hesitation. The unexpected whimper created a pleased smile on his lips. He ran the hand that was in my hair under my shirt, touching my bare skin, and causing my back to automatically arch on its own, as if it was screaming for Trevelin to touch my breasts.

  I was on fire despite the cold weather. The throbbing that he caused deep within me weeks ago was still there, pounding stronger than ever, and I so desperately needed him to make it go away.

  My hands were all over him, touching all the places I only got to touch while making the music video while he kissed my neck, worshipping every inch of skin he could reach.

  When I shoved my hand into the back of his pants he pulled away with ragged breaths. “Country...” It was dark, but I could see the fiery desire flickering in his eyes. “We’ve gotta stop, before I can’t.”

  I swallowed hard and pushed myself to say it. “What if I don’t want you to stop, Hollywood?” He sucked in a desperate breath he seemed to need, a surprised expression looking down upon me. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but whatever it was, I wished he’d hurry up and come out with it. The waiting was maddening.

  “Izzy...”

  “Trevelin, don’t say no. I want this.”

  “I didn’t bring you out here for that reason. Fucking swear. Yeah, I wanted to be alone with you, to spend time with you, but not to fuck you.”

  “I know that. I just can’t take it anymore. I want you...Really bad.”

  “Oh fuck.” It was the only thing he growled before grabbing my face and kissing me fiercely.

  The kiss was hard yet passionate, and left me dying on the inside. I’d kissed him before, but there was something in this one, almost like he was pouring his whole heart and soul out to me. Branding me.

  In the blink of an eye I had his jacket and shirt off. He didn’t seem to have to a problem ridding me of mine either. The next to go were our shoes and pants. We were still under the blankets, but the heat of the moment was fierce enough to keep us plenty warm.