A deep glutaral moan escaped from him, and when I peeked in his direction, the need for him to fill me struck even harder. His hooded dark eyes were pinned on mine, clearly enjoying what I was doing to him. I felt powerfully feminine and couldn’t stop myself. Reaching for his hand, I lifted it to my hair, silently giving him permission to use me however pleased him.
And he did.
Slowly at first, testing how much I could take, I bobbed, taking him in and out of my mouth, deep throating when he pleased. Holding his tightened testicles in my hand, I knew he was close, but before I knew it, he lifted my up, his hands digging into my armpits, lifting me easily onto him. My legs around his waist, I leaned forward and kissed him. Morning breath be damned.
Kissing him was amazing.
He was passionate but playful. Sweet yet demanding. Gentle then rough. He was like a riptide, and I let the current of everything Knox take me away, along for the ride. I loved how in control he was and how confidently his lips and tongue moved against mine.
How just kissing him made me achingly wet, and when it was time, he pushed me down, perfectly, so I could ride him. Up and down, I took him as he handed over the reins, but I was under no false illusion of who actually held it. How could I with how his hands held on to my hips and his eyes owned me?
Still, I teased.
I took.
I felt magnificent as I chased after the daybreak of my orgasm. It flooded my body. Euphoria from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. Sounds escaped my body I had no idea I could make. He didn’t let me go, pushing my body higher and higher. The waves crashed into me, and when it had washed out of me, he took over.
Moving my body like a doll, he positioned me on my belly, his strong, huge body between my legs, and before I could look back at him, he took me. Hand clenching the sheets hard. Like an animal, a primal need took control of him, and he drove into me.
In and out.
Harshly.
Roughly.
Rutting into me.
I had never felt anything like it in my life. I had only read about it in cheesy romance novels I stole from my sister’s nightstand. He fucked me, but even then, it wasn’t on a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am level. It was intimate and beautiful. A coupling. We were one. Unbelievably intimate and passionate even through its roughness, and even though I had just come, I was on the brink again, and I knew he felt it
“Come for me, baby,” he demanded, and like his good girl, I did.
Whereas the previous orgasm had washed through me, this one splintered, cracking through me. Making every nerve explode as I shattered under him only to prolong the bliss as I felt the warm heat of his own release. My name sounded like the most beautiful chant in his deep voice as ribbon after ribbon filled me. If I had been thinking straight, I would have realized there was nothing between us to protect us from our action.
His body fell on top of mine, trapping me under him. His body felt amazing. I had never felt safer or more at home than that in moment. With that thought, I drifted off to sleep to the sensation of his lips on my shoulder.
Knox
“I can’t,” I quietly answered.
“I need you here.”
“I understand that, but…” How could I tell him about Lena? Eli would think I was insane. Or maybe he would be the one person in my life who would understand.
“Please,” my buddy mumbled. One damn word from a friend who had never asked for a thing, and my schedule and plans were going to hell.
Looking at the beautiful angel sleeping in my hotel room bed, I sighed. How the hell would I explain I had to leave?
“Look, man, get on the plane. I’ll try and smooth out feathers for you at the New York site. I just really need someone to watch over this project. You know I wouldn’t ask if I weren’t in a bind. I can’t—”
“Yeah, I know,” I muttered, tearing my eyes away from my funny girl. “Alma.”
“Alma.” I could hear the smile in my friend’s voice. “Alma and the baby.”
“Congratulations, man.”
“Thanks.”
“You know I’m happy for you, yeah?”
“Appreciate it.”
“Even with the timing being shit,” I joked and heard him chuckle. I cleared my throat. “Eli?”
“What?”
“You know when you met Alma?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you know.”
“Know?”
“Yeah, you know, how did you know she was it for you?” I asked in a hushed tone. A moment passed, and I heard him curse.
“Don’t tell me the great Knox Madison got knoxed on his feet by a woman?” He was teasing. Great. Not that I would have expected differently. I was forty, never married. My married buddies always got on me about it.
“Eli,” I warned
“Oh, this is too good. I cannot wait to tell Jared.”
“Haha… come on.”
“You’re at Chase Tucker’s wedding, right?”
“You know I was.”
“Was it a bridesmaid? I bet she’s young. Or wait, no. Is it the mother of the bride? Will Chase have to call you dad?”
“Eli.”
“I just knew,” he explained confidently, like somehow those three words explained it all, and at the end of the day, they kind of did.
“Did it freak you out?” Because I wasn’t. I was calm. Well, mostly calm. The anxiousness stemmed from wanting to tie her to me.
“Is that what’s going on, old man? You freaking out?”
“What is it with everyone riding me about my age? I’m not old. And to answer your question, not one damn bit,” I answered honestly as I looked at her. Her beautiful hair stood out against the pure white sheets below her.
“Then there you go. What else do you need?”
“Time.”
“In my opinion, time is for chumps. Why wait when what you want is right in front of you? I hated the time I lost with Alma.” She had slipped away in the middle of the night on him, and he had searched high and low for her. Thankfully, they had been more connected than either of them realized, and he had found her at his brother’s house. She was his sister-in-law’s cousin.
“Thanks, man. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
“I’m sorry about this. Bring her if you want. It shouldn’t be more than three days max.”
“No worries. See you soon.” I ended the call, setting the phone on the small table next to me. I would be busy overseeing the last bit of the project Eli needed help on. I couldn’t take her. She would be bored out of her mind.
Holding my head in my hands between my knees, I heard her shift in bed, and I looked up at her.
Her brown locks fell over her shoulder, her head tilted slightly, quietly studying me.
“You have to go,” she finally said, reading me clearly, and I swallowed hard.
“I do.”
“Okay.” She stood, taking the sheet with her, and I stood and rushed over to her.
“Knox—”
“Lena. Please let me explain.”
“There is no need for explanations.” I could see the walls she had built around her.
Walls I would tear down with my bare hands if I needed to.
“You don’t understand.”
“I do. It was fun.” She lifted and dropped one of her sexy shoulders. “Just so you know, you didn’t have to sell me on the whole New York thing. You could have said it was just what it was. One-night stands happen. We’re both adults—”
“We are not a one-night stand.”
“Morning nookie happens with one-nighters, Knox. It’s okay.”
“I’m coming back.”
“Okay.” She rolled her eyes, pushing me away, grabbing her dress from the floor, and I followed her around the hotel room like a puppy.
“I am.”
“I’m sure you are.”
“Lena, baby—”
“I’m not that type, though, Knox.” Something about th
e tone in her voice made me grab her in my arms, enjoying the feel of her bare under the sheet she had wrapped around her. I liked her in white.
“Type?”
“I’m not a port-of-call girl. The idea can be romantic to some, but it’s not me.”
“Port-of-call girl?”
“And I get the allure of you. I do. A man like you. All sexy and masculine. And if I were five years younger, I might have gone for it.”
“Port-of-call girl?” I asked again, needing her to clarify what the hell she meant.
“You know, the girl you call when you’re in a certain city. The stupid girl holding her breath for her turn.”
“Oh, my funny girl.” I nuzzled my nose against hers. “You’re not a port-of-call girl,” I reassured her.
“Right. Only because you didn’t know the term, but I’m sure you have a little black book full of—”
“I do,” I admitted and felt her try to get out of my arms. I dropped my lips lower to her ear. “I do have a black book. One I haven’t used in more than two years. I haven’t so much as looked at a woman sexually in over two years. Easy sex lost its allure a long time ago, Lena.” She softened into my body, and I didn’t miss the way her arms wrapped around my waist.
“You don’t want me to go with you anymore, though.”
“I do. God, I do. But my plans changed. A friend of mine needs help overseeing a lucrative project, and I can’t say no. He’s never asked me for anything, and he needs my help.
“Oh,” she whispered, resting her head against my pec.
“It’s in Texas.”
“Texas?” she asked, her head pulling away to look at me.
“I’ll be swamped with work and making sure details are done and finished. You would be bored to death, and I wouldn’t be able to give you the attention you deserve.”
“Oh,” she sighed, her cheeks the prettiest shade of pink.
“I’m nowhere done with you. Exploring this thing with us.”
“Exploring things?”
“I’ll be back,” I promised her, hoping the next three days would go by in the blink of an eye.
Chapter Six
Lena
“Earth to Lena!”
“Wait, what?” I shook my head, trying to focus on my best friend, who was sitting in front of me.
“What is the matter with you?”
“Nothing. What were you saying?”
“Only that she thinks nudes are art,” Aubrey exclaimed, and I tried to come up with what the hell she was talking about.
“Oh,” I mumbled as I looked at the people sitting around us, my mind drifting to Knox. Why was he never far from my mind? I felt semi-unhinged. Not even Efren Harris, my first crush back in middle school, had taken so much headspace.
“Earth to Lee!”
“I’m sorry, Bee,” I apologized guiltily.
“Is this about the old guy?” she asked, and I ran my fingers through my hair and fought from rolling my eyes.
“What? Knox is not old.” I shook my head at her.
“Umm, okay…” Aubrey rolled her eyes, brushing her jet-black bangs out of her face. “Just saying he’s closer to retirement than us, though.”
“Anyone older than us is,” I pointed out trying not to laugh. “Okay, so, what were you saying?”
“She thinks nudes are art!” My best friend huffed, and I laughed, taking a sip of my ginger ale. My best friend was my other half. She understood me in a way not even my family could.
“Who does again?”
“My boss’s girlfriend,” she huffed, resting her head on her hand. I could see the longing in her eyes for a man who didn’t notice her unless he needed something.
“So, that makes her what? A Vincent Van Hoe?” I winked, and she cracked an odd smile.
Aubrey Rey was many things, but bubbly, or expressive for that matter, wasn’t one of them. It was probably why we got along so well. We had met freshman year in college and had been inseparable since our Sociology 101 class.
“Right?! See, that’s the answer I was expecting from my smart-assy, sarcastic, funny best friend! Come on, Lee, you’ve been a million miles away since old man Hemingway left.”
Knox had come back five days after our night together and had stayed for three.
They had been bliss.
A vacation from life.
It seemed in the day of light and real life, everything was better just being around him. But real life was a bitch. I had work, and he had work, so we had to keep going on without each other.
That had been a month ago. An entire month. We talked and texted, but the time zones and our schedules hardly aligned.
Bottom line: long distance was for suckers.
I knew I should give it up.
I should call it quits. Every time I talked it up in my head and why it made sense to end the possibility, he called, and just the sound of his voice made me wonder how the hell I had survived thirty entire years before having heard his voice. It was exhilarating and soothing, and I was half in love with him already. Which was ludicrous. Who fell in love with a man in the span of five days of actual facetime?
Me. That’s who.
“Old man Hemingway.” I smiled as I repeated her tease, popping a French fry into my mouth. “That’s a good one. I’m gonna use that one on him tonight.”
“Eww, if that’s some weird role play thing… Please tell me more,” she wickedly joked, and we both laughed. “So, come on, Lee.”
“Come on what?”
“You know what. What about this mysterious Knox Madison?”
“Nothing. He’s in Florida for a week, and then I will have him for four entire days,” I shared with a shrug.
“Wow.” The enthusiasm clearly lacked from her tone. “Four days this time, huh?”
“Aubrey—”
“You know this is a booty call, right?” she bluntly said, but I didn’t flinch. It didn’t really hurt. I was actually surprised she hadn’t said it before.
“It’s not,” I quickly and defensively answered. “It’s—” But I stopped talking because I wasn’t sure what we were.
I knew what I wanted.
I wanted more of him.
Knox was everything I never let myself dream about in a man. I knew what he gave and how amazing he was.
Mr. Madison was sweet and smart and funny and perfect for me. But at the end of the day, he was far, far away.
So, I shrugged. “So what if it is,” I answered, not liking the way it sat in the pit of my stomach.
There was something happening between Know and me. I knew that. Calling it a booty call cheapened it.
“Okay, Lena, remember that time you got bangs?” Aubrey asked, and I sighed.
“Bee.”
“And everyone told you how amazing they looked?” she kept going.
“Yes,” I groaned.
“Who told you the truth?” she asked, her skinny arms crossed in front of her chest.
“Aubrey—” I tried to argue.
“And remember when you were looking for a place to buy, and everyone kept agreeing with you about a townhome? What did I advise?” I had to remind myself I loved my best friend.
“To get a house,” I grumbled.
“And was I right?”
“Aubrey—”
“Was I?”
“Yes. From a financial and investment standpoint, the single-family home was for the best. There, you happy?”
“Umm, yeah. Not even a year later, your sister and her boys moved in,” she reminded me, and she wasn’t wrong.
Having owned my own house with extra room had come in handy when my sister had divorced her dipshit husband. I leaned toward Aubrey and playfully glared into her light blue eyes.
“Okay, Madame Aubrey… What does that magical crystal ball say I should do about Knox?”
“Well, after much thought…” She might not be bubbly, but she had a flair for the dramatic. “I think you and the Sugar-Daddy Warbuck’s should
have fun.”
“Fun?” I laughed. I loved how we knew one another inside out, yet we still somehow shocked the hell out of each other.
“Lots and lots of sweet, dirty fun.”
“I really shouldn’t have told you about that ice cream sundae.” I laughed.
“Lots of the dirty. Just make sure he’s wrapping it up. I don’t know if sugar babies are covered in—” she kept talking, but I didn’t hear her as I tried to fake my way through the conversation.
Wrap it up.
Shit.
How had I not let it click in my mind when it had happened? We’d had unprotected sex.
A lot of it.
Especially on the days he’d come back, he had been insatiable. So much I teased him about keeping Viagra in business, and then he went on to prove to me how it was all him and not some little blue pill.
Pill.
I wasn’t on the pill. I hadn’t been having sex before I met Knox. I hadn’t been in a relationship for a very long time. So, I hadn’t seen the need.
“Because, come on. How cheesy would it be if this is the point in your life when you get knocked up by accident?” She was still talking, and I chose that moment to listen. “At thirty? Because, come on, babe, you honestly know better than some co-ed, right?”
I did.
I should have, at least.
“Right.” I sipped my ginger ale.
I was drinking ginger ale. My stomach had been queasy, but I had chalked it up to a stomach bug. I hadn’t had my period, but work had been stressful.
“Oh, my God!” She chuckled, her slender frame moving. “Imagine! You would be Knoxed up!” Her eyes widened. “Do you get it? Knoxed up. Knocked up”
“Yeah, hilarious! Keep your day job. I don’t think Don Drapper will be knocking on your door anytime soon for a premier marketing gig,” I mumbled, hoping she couldn’t see the stark fear in my eyes. Could it be?
Knoxed Up.
Shit.
Had he Knoxed me up?
Knox
I couldn’t brush off the how distracted Lena had sounded when I talked to her. Looking at my calendar, I wasn’t looking at appointments and meeting and to-do lists my assistant loved to torture me with. I was looking at how far it was
“Casey?”
“What?” the crotchety woman of only thirty-two answered. I swear anytime I talked to her, it was like talking to a younger Sofia Petrillo from the Golden Girls.
Knoxed Up Page 4
