by Dannika Dark
The sheets cooled his legs, and he pulled the coverlet over his bare chest. Women like her weren’t attracted to him, they were afraid of him. That was a hard fact he lived with. Mothers corralling their children, women clutching their purses… People were always making assumptions that he was trouble.
And maybe they were right.
Lavender hung in the air, but it was her apricot conditioner that clouded his thoughts.
“Why don’t you like women?” she asked point-blank.
Before he could answer, Sunny continued.
“My dad was a drunk. He spent every night at the bar and when he got home, he used to yell at my mom and put her down.” Knox listened to the sound of her feet rubbing together as she took a shallow breath. “He was a miserable man, and I hated the fact my mom put up with it. He threw her clothes on the lawn more than once, but she always defended him. She blamed us for making him that way.”
“Did he…”
“Hit me? No. He never laid a hand on my mom, either. You don’t have to hit someone to abuse them, Knox. But he hit my brother once or twice. The night Kane left home, they were fighting, and my father said that he wasn’t his son. How can someone be so cruel?” There was a thoughtful silence. “Sometimes I still wake up with his voice in my head, and the things he said to me, the things he called me. No matter how old you get, you never let go of stuff like that. I don’t want to make the same mistakes my mother did, and that’s why I don’t get serious.”
Knox turned his neck and stared at the back of her head. That was a hell of a thing to reveal. He never met a woman with such intimate candor. Quid pro quo, he thought.
“My father hit me. A lot.”
Knox never told anyone that story, not even Adam. Abuse was one of those ugly family secrets that revealed far too much about a person. It gained sympathy stares, and most women thought it was a hereditary trait. Knox would cut off his arm before ever striking a woman, or a child. That’s what led him to search for Zoë, because in his heart, he knew he couldn’t follow through with those orders. He swallowed hard, and decided to finish.
“I never knew my mother; she took off when I was born. The only women in our house were the whores the old man brought home from the bar. To address your question, I like women. They’re a good time, that’s all.”
He expected an argument, waiting for her to throw him out of the room.
“Aren’t we a pair?” she sighed.
It was an offhand comment, but he liked the sound of it—the idea of him and Sunny as a pair. A pair of what, he didn’t know. They were on opposite ends of the spectrum as far as personality and lifestyle, yet they both sprang from the same, dark past.
“I’m not judging you, Knox. At least you don’t lie about it like some men do.” She reached over, wrapping her small fingers around his large hand.
With that touch, with those words, something inside of him ignited. Knox was a supernova on the verge of exploding into the dark void.
***
Sunny felt an unexplainable connection with Knox from the moment they met. It didn’t have to do with him sticking up for her—as impressive as it was—but there was something intangible. Now she understood why. He may have pretended the abuse didn’t mean anything, but deep down she knew it mattered. It always mattered.
Knox came across as an insensitive meathead, but deep down, he was a softy. He was the only man at the dinner table who cleaned the dishes and made her sit down. The broken doorknob was suddenly fixed, but no one confessed. Early that morning, Sunny found him kneeling on the bathroom floor trying to repair the leaky faucet. She yelled and shooed him out, but closed the door and smiled, staring at the tools she never used. Sunny spent her life avoiding men like Knox, and he turned out to be an impressive example of a man.
The alarm clock on the nightstand ticked like an impatient fingernail on a table.
She gripped her pillow when the bed shifted, listening as the sheets made a soft hiss. He was moving closer and the bed depressed, causing her to hold on tighter. When a strong arm locked around her waist, she held her breath in surprise.
Knox pulled her flush against him, and his chest warmed her back almost immediately. Once connected, he relaxed.
In those quiet minutes that passed, Sunny thought about how rarely she went to sleep in someone’s arms. He nestled his chin against the back of her neck, breathing in the soft smell of her hair. A strong heartbeat pounded between her shoulder blades, drowning out the sound of her own, which was racing.
Knox was thoughtful in ways that didn’t attract attention, but made him stand apart from the other men. On the first night, she made okra and meatloaf. It was obvious Knox didn’t care for the okra, but he cleaned his plate and complimented her cooking. So on the second night, she cooked meatloaf again, because she watched the way he enjoyed it. Simon grumbled a complaint and Knox stood up at the table, reached over, and scraped Simon’s meatloaf onto his plate. That settled that.
God, her mind scrambled in the calmness of that room. Every time his breath skimmed over her shoulder, it filled her up with an insatiable need to be devoured by him.
Bravely, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and pulled his hand to her mouth, kissing the palm. His reaction was immediate, and Knox tensed. Sunny took it a step further, drawing a circle with her tongue in his hand. He tasted of salt.
“We shouldn’t do this.” His voice was raspy, filled with the same need.
Denial shouldn’t sound so sexy, but it did. Sunny was never put in a position where she was the one making all the moves.
Her fingers worked open the buttons of her gown, and laid his hand over her bare breast. He was putty in her hands and she was putty in his.
When he lightly pinched her tender nipple and caressed the soft skin that surrounded it, she moaned, arching her back. Knox had the physique of a warrior and the hands of a saint.
Desire rolled through her when his tongue slid across her shoulder. Sunny turned over and stared up at him, glossing her lips with her tongue.
“Is that the best you can do?” Over the years, seduction became second nature to her. She discovered little tricks in the bedroom, and men liked to prove themselves.
“Don’t say things like that.”
Her finger circled around his chest. “Why not?”
Knox captured her mouth and kissed her like he meant to take her; kissed her all the way down to her toes. His warm, wet tongue tangled with hers—deep and slow. She felt like a tiny ball of yarn tumbling down a staircase, unraveling to the very core. When his lips broke free, it left her breathless.
“I don’t want you talking like that, you got it? You’re not that kind of girl, so don’t think you have to be that way with me.”
“You said women are nothing but a good—”
“I lied,” he cut in, softening his voice. “Not with you, I don’t want it to be like that with us. You be Sunny with me, you be yourself.”
Knox kissed her reverently, and her nose filled with the musk of male and lust. His lips were soft in contrast to the stubble around his chin. It scraped against hers—but she liked it. Sunny touched his cheek, tracing the line of his jaw. He always covered his hair, so she relished seeing him without the hat. She loved the way it was wavy at the ends. It was unruly—just like him. Sunny scraped her fingers up and down his neck until he involuntarily moaned.
Knox spread her legs, cupping a heated hand over her panties.
“More,” she breathed.
“All you want, baby girl,” he said, stroking her deep.
He rolled on top, propping himself up on his elbows. Soft, wet kisses showered her. He was far too gentle; Knox came across as a man who just got right down to business. Maybe he was, but not tonight. Not with her.
The kiss grew to an unexpected frenzy. His body was raw power—as if she had her arms wrapped around a hurricane. She curled her fingers behind his neck, sucking on his tongue until Knox spiraled out of control, rocking his hips a
gainst her.
She broke the kiss, gasping for air.
“Is this hurting you?” He started to move. “I’m too big, let me—”
She pulled his shoulders until he crashed down on top of her. “Stay where you are,” she demanded.
Knox lifted the ends of her gown, peeling it over her head. He balled up the material and flung it across the room.
When his eyes lowered to her breasts, she became self-conscious. Sunny was curvier than she used to be. It was a rough year and those excuses for avoiding the gym were beginning to haunt her. She was always voluptuous in all the right ways, but the last man she slept with was Marco, and the two times they had sex, he never touched her. Only recently did she find out it was because he was a Mage, and their energy spiked during sex, making it impossible for them to touch a human. It seemed kinky, but left her feeling hollow and insecure.
Sunny moved her arm over them in embarrassment; maybe he didn’t like what he saw.
“Don’t you dare cover yourself,” he said, snatching a wrist and stretching out her arm. “You’re magnificent.”
His mouth came down on the first one and he moaned, like a man tasting food after a long fast. His tongue awakened tiny little nerves she never knew existed, as it swirled in rhythmic circles. Knox was exquisite in how he took his time. He savored her.
She whispered quietly into the waves of his black hair. Not quiet enough as the word reached Knox’s ears. Dark eyes rose to meet hers.
“Say it again,” he said.
She stroked his cheek with her thumb and blushed at the way he looked at her expectantly. “Lover.”
He closed his eyes.
Knox was the opposite of all the pretty boys she dated. His face carried the etchings of worry, his brow wore lines of anger, and secrecy kept those lips pressed thin. Small scars, indentations, and imperfections left her wondering if they were from his line of work… or his father. He was a man weathered, but he was beautiful.
Lips kissed beneath her breast, wandering over the curves of her hip.
She bit her lip when his tongue stroked her inner thigh. Need overwhelmed her. It was more than she could stand, and she scissored her legs against his shoulders.
When the warm heat from his mouth lapped over her panties, Sunny grabbed him by the hair. She didn’t mean to be rough, but Knox didn’t take any notice. Without hesitation, he pulled them off and went in for the real thing.
Knox didn’t tease, torment, or even ask permission. He delivered, and drove his kiss into her, pleasuring with unrelenting strokes.
She clutched his hair, and his large arm snaked around her thigh and held it in place. Did it ever feel this good? A rapid pulse fired off in her chest and her body tensed. He was gentle with her, stroking her hip with his free hand as she let go of his hair and gripped the pillow beneath her head. Just as she closed in on her release… he pulled away and met her face to face.
“Why did you stop?” she panted.
“I don’t have anything with me so we’re just going to keep doing this because goddammit, I can’t stop. I don’t do this with the other women.”
When his eyes skipped to the left and his ears reddened, she knew what he meant.
Her fingers laced around the edges of his sweats, and he sucked in his stomach. “Take them off.”
The sweats came off in less than three seconds.
Sunny reached around to the bedside table, pulling a condom from the drawer. He stared at her intimately, in a way no man had ever looked at her before. In the soft glow of the light that shone through the curtain, she watched his lids close as the condom glided over his sex.
Knox cupped the back of her neck and buried himself deep inside of her. There was another connection threading between them on a different level, and a strange familiarity settled over the moment.
She caressed every muscle and groove with delicate fingers. It seemed important that he knew a touch that wasn’t just about sex, but about him.
There wasn’t enough air in the room when he started rocking against her.
His chest was hot and sticky, rising and falling like an empire. She pressed her mouth to his bicep—tasting him—and it was salty, and male. He drove in so deep and fast that it sought for her release.
“So good, feels so good,” he muttered. “Want you. God… want you.”
A poet he was not.
“Harder,” she breathed.
He obeyed, and the bed launched itself against the wall and something snapped. Might have been the headboard, or a plank underneath the bed, but it didn’t matter.
Wet sounds—delicious sounds—filled her senses. Her manicured nails scored his back and there was no hiding the fact that he liked it. Knox pounded against her—hips crashing, pressure building until the mattress followed his rhythm, tossing her about. Gripping the sheets, she struggled to hold on.
“Grab on to me,” he said, planting his fists in the bed. She reached up and locked her fingers around him, finding it easier to stay in control when she held on to Knox.
Desire tightened like a coil and she threw her head back. His demanding thrusts forced the headboard to slam against the wall.
Repeatedly.
Knox stared at her with such intensity that her legs released their hold, falling limp for him to take control.
“I want you,” he said demandingly, and fell to his elbows.
The bedside lamp fell over and crashed to the floor along with the alarm clock.
Pleasure crashed through her and she cried out. Knox did, too—a whole string of profanities buried in a pillow that would have to go to church and be sprinkled with holy water before it could be used again.
They melted over one another as Knox dropped to her side. She laughed when she heard her earring roll off the nightstand to the floor.
It took a few minutes to stop seeing tiny flashes of light, and to catch her breath again. Knox rolled onto his back and pulled Sunny over him like a blanket. His chest was warm, and they fit together in all the right places. It was a strange feeling to be exposed to a man—not physically—but in the details of her life that she only told Silver. Most men made it to her bed after a few drinks and meaningless conversation, and maybe that’s why there was always a connection lacking. She placed soft kisses on his chin.
“You shouldn’t have to hear me curse.”
That deserved a laugh. “I’m a big girl, Knox. I think I can handle a swear word or two.”
“Or two?” His chin touched his chest and he smirked. She loved the way he smiled with his lips closed. It dropped ten years on his face. Small lines etched the corners of his eyes, and when one side of his mouth curved higher than the other, Sunny curled her toes.
He smothered her with a kiss on the forehead, dipping his nose into her hair. Knox wrapped his massive arms around her back, and she felt safe in them. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“My signature full body massage.”
“Oh, bring it,” she said with a giggle. “I like being pampered.”
His lips brushed across the top of her head and they stayed that way for a few more minutes. It was quiet, except for his occasional sigh, and the soft hiss of his hand as it stroked her back.
“I’m just going to say it,” he said decidedly. “When I said I wanted you, I didn’t just mean sex. I want you to be my girl. You deserve better, but I can’t get you out of my head. Shit…Adam is going to give me hell for this, but I’m not a coward. I’m asking you for something I’ve never asked any woman. Be with me Sunny, and only me.”
Sunny held her breath. “You mean, you want to get serious or just—”
Fool around, is what she was thinking. That was the obvious choice, given what just happened between them.
Knox hooked his hands beneath her arms and slid her up a fraction so they were nose to nose.
“Baby girl, if you even think about calling this a fling, we’re gonna have words. We fit. I’m not the kind of guy you go for
, but I’ll worship you like the moon. I’m solid in my word, and I’ll take good care of you.”
Sunny pressed a finger on his lip and thought about it. Marco was the only man she ever let in, and he deceived her in the worst kind of way. He exemplified everything she desired in a man. In the end, he was the worst of them all.
Knox, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Rough, intimidating, quiet—and yet he never gave her any reason to doubt.
“The last guy strung me along. If you do the same, I’ll never forgive you. Hell hath no fury—”
Knox gave a deep chuckle and his chest rocked beneath her. “I wouldn’t expect any less. It’s the real deal, but this is me, take it or leave it. If it’s about looks or money, then you can do better.”
“What will everyone say? We just met.”
“Does it matter? I feel something in my gut telling me this is right. If you don’t feel it too, then tell me to go to hell.”
Sunny lowered her cheek to the pillow and rested her head close to his. “It’s never been about money, and I think you’re handsome, but I’m going to tell you right now that I don’t like that you smoke. It reminds me of… I just don’t like it. I’m not asking you to change; I’m just giving you a heads-up when you can’t find your cigarettes and the toilet is clogged.”
He chuckled, and a deep, wonderful vibration rumbled in his chest. “Is that a yes?”
She paused. “When are you leaving?”
“Who said I was going anywhere? I’m not even asking for a bigger bed to share; I like this,” he said, patting the mattress. “It’s cozy. How do you feel about a move?”
“To another apartment?”
“Cognito,” he mumbled. “The city is growing on me.”
She lifted a shoulder, nipping his lower lip with her teeth. “Nothing is holding me here anymore. I don’t have roots, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I don’t like the idea of you being in the same city as Marco,” he stated as fact. “We’ll go back to Cognito and work things out.” He placed a kiss on her nose and took pleasure in running his fingers through her short, wavy hair. “It’s a fresh start, and I’ll help you work things out with a job.”
