Hard Knox

by Amber Malloy

  “Ah.” She slid her hand along her collarbone and tilted her head to the side. Fuck! A completely innocent gesture forced him to drop his napkin on his pants for an excuse to adjust himself. Sexy radiated off her in waves. “It’s something that you need but can never get enough of.”

  Knox ducked his head with a chuckle. “I totally deserved that.”

  Dinner went fast. On one hand it was a good thing—he had enjoyed her company—but bad that he had to let her go. “Check,” he told the server.

  “It’s been taken care of.” The waitress winked at Remy.

  “But I…”

  She put her soft hand on top of his big mitt. “It’s the least I can do for giving you so much grief.”

  Knox didn’t know what to feel. Annoyance crept into his spectrum of emotion. However, the sheer boldness of her gesture had come off hot as hell.

  “Not that I don’t appreciate you taking me out, but I did ask you for the date.”

  She shrugged. “Then you should definitely pay the next one.”

  Relief flooded his system. Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to resort to begging, since he wasn’t above it.

  When they left the restaurant, Knox escorted her to the waiting Uber. He wanted to drive her home, but more than anything, he wanted her to be comfortable.

  “Well, thank you for emasculating the shit out of me.” He stood close to her. The scent of cinnamon and something similar to honeysuckle warmed his nose. Without accepting the warning that his brain sent to his heart, he dipped his head to capture those pretty lips that he craved. Remy leaned into his touch. Bearing in mind that Heartbreaker kept him rock hard with a mere glance, he reluctantly pulled away. “So-o-ory… Was that too forward?”

  She smiled at him in that teasing manner he had come to enjoy. “It’s just that I don’t generally eat red meat,” she said with a note of humor.

  Knox had wolfed down a slab of beef at dinner—growing boy and all. He would have never imagined she would use his choice of nourishment against him.

  “Uh…” He met her brown eyes with a penetrating stare. “You know how the Cookie Monster wrecks those cookies like nom, nom, nom, and Scooby Doo is like a fiend for his snacks?” He nodded his head and waited for her to follow his thought process.

  “Yeah,” she finally agreed, before she darted out her tongue and licked her bottom lip. Habit? Nah, he didn’t think so. Cool-ass Heartbreaker might be turned on. Finally, a point for him.

  “Well, I eat the shit out of meat,” he whispered close to her lips. “I. Fuck. Meat. Up.” He kissed her lips again—this time harder.

  All eyes in the room were on Knox. “Did that nasty shit work?” Mooch asked.

  “He had me at Cookie Monster,” one of the hackers said. Light chuckles lifted the thick stress before heavy silence blanketed the room. A knock at the door interrupted them. Hawk left to answer it.

  “Is she out of surgery yet?” he asked.

  “I’ll text Doris,” Daisy told him.

  “Hope you don’t mind.” A minute later the big guy came back with a stack of pizzas. “It looks like a long night ahead.”

  As Hawk passed around plates and boxes, the whole scene blew him back to the days of college all-nighters. Knox wandered toward the television. On the news, a static shot of Jake’s bar flooded the screen, along with pictures of the disagreement he’d had with Remy from earlier. Closed caption explained the assault and the confusion around the mysterious assailant, inadvertently pointing the finger at him.

  “These women are working on getting you off the hook, and once that happens, he would have gone after me, right?” Mooch joined him in front of the TV.

  “A loose end is running around the city. He needs a sleight of hand to save his goon,” Knox muttered.

  “And I have a record. My DNA is on file,” Mooch admitted. The kid’s melancholy energy poured off him in waves. “Remy knew.”

  “She has fight or flight down to a science.”

  “Doris said she’s in recovery.” They turned toward Daisy, who read the update off her phone. “She’ll be there for an hour, then they’ll wheel her to a room.”

  “When I can see her?”

  “Press is everywhere, but mainly they’re all over this place.” Daisy turned the channel to the security. The media had all the exits covered.

  “But nobody’s with her.”

  “She’s not alone, Knox. Trust me,” Daisy tried to assure him.

  “I’m not with her,” he said, harsher than he should have. “And that’s what matters.”

  The woman pouted. “We still need the passwords, so whenever you’re ready.”

  “But what about when she wakes up? Can we—”

  “No, she’ll have no access to any digital devices, and in the case of—”

  “A leak or a mole in your organization,” he finished for her.

  Daisy nodded. “Once we move her, very few people will even know where she is.” The techie took her spot back on the couch. Apparently, the legislative arm of the government held a smidge of power, but being potential president-elect put the psychotic nutter in a whole different league.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Already in the thick of summer practice, Knox had stayed on campus for the season. During holidays he would head back to Toronto, but for the most part, he lived in Michigan all year around.

  Over the last two months, he’d seen Remy. He would have loved to say exclusively, but figured that might be only on his part. Knox seriously wondered about hers. They’d made out once or twice, but since they only hung out in public, it meant those sessions never went too far. Frustrated as hell, he didn’t really know where they stood. Afraid for the first time in his life that he would be friend-zoned, he felt plain stupid.

  “Hey there, slugger. Do you want to ice that black eye?” Hawk opened the freezer and tossed him a bag of frozen berries. After being stuck in a bad play, he’d twisted his ankle. To retaliate against his offensive lineman, he had returned the favor and knocked the shit out of him. Unfortunately, the asshole had swung back.

  Coach had threatened to bench them if it ever happened again. “So, are you going to introduce me to this chick you’re hitting people over or are you going to keep hiding her?”

  “The other way around,” he muttered. While he tried to balance the bag over his eye, Knox texted Remy that he would be late. Simply bananas over her, he got the feeling she was using him to merely pass the time. She held this strange edginess that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

  “No shit? You’re the dirty little ugmo. Now I really want to meet her.” Hawk laughed.

  I’ll come 2 u.

  Door’s open.

  “So-o-ory, I think she’s a ghost professional, so-o-o…” On his good foot, he hopped his ass to the bathroom for a shower. “Leave the door unlocked on your way out.” He whipped the frozen bag at Hawk, who snatched it before it hit him in the face.

  “Dude, you seriously need to get some.” Hawk didn’t date. He had a weird rule he’d made in high school. Thankfully, Knox didn’t have to worry about Remy running into the man who didn’t understand the concept of a girlfriend.

  Sore as hell, he stripped off his clothes and turned on the shower to jump in for a quick wash. Remy had only stopped by his place a couple of times to cut his drive in half, but she had never stayed long. Knox still didn’t know where she lived. Nothing added up with her. Obviously, he should let the dream of Heartbreaker go.

  “Knox!” she called from the living room. “I heard you got a booboo.”

  Stepping out of the stall, he wrapped a towel around his waist and opened the door. It being a typical college apartment, he could pretty much see the whole layout. There were two bedrooms and one bath. Remy stood with her back to him, unloading groceries onto the kitchen counter.

  “It’s the summer. How did word travel so fast? There’s barely anyone here.” Confused by the bags of food she was unpacking, he approached her.

&nbs
p; “A girl knows a girl who knows a guy.” She turned around and raised her eyebrow at him. The towel probably didn’t cover all that much.

  While she clearly judged his state of undress, he took stock of her. High ponytail meant girl next door, but curls down framing her face meant wild child wanted to play. Luckily, her hair was down. He took in the rest of her—tank, long flowy skirt… Hold on! No bra! What the absolute fuck?

  “If your foot hurts, we can stay in tonight. There’s a million things we can do.”

  Tired of the free-falling tornado of confusion that consumed him whenever he got in Heartbreaker’s hemisphere, Knox released an aggravated sigh. “Unless it starts with my dick in your pussy, we’ve got to go out.”

  Vacant, no expression. Nothing. That’s it. Hot girl who had fallen into his arms simply wasn’t for him. He would sulk for a minute or two, even three, but then he would find a way to get over her. Everything in his life had been affected by Remy’s unexpected appearance and he couldn’t afford it. If he didn’t want his ranking changed in the draft, he needed to gain a better perspective, and he couldn’t do it with this flipping gorgeous distraction.

  “Hmm-m.” She bit her bottom lip and turned those big doe eyes to him. “Dick in my pussy was one through nine, so it’ll probably get super freaky once we hit the double digits, right?” Whipping off the towel, he wanted her to be sure. “Well, damn… I know what you can do if the football thing doesn’t work out.”

  “The jokes… Could you curb them for like a minute? I’m kind of naked here.” Knox approached Heartbreaker.

  “Who says I’m joking?”

  He grabbed her under her arms and lifted her to his lips. She was light as a feather. He put everything he felt into their kiss. When she wrapped her legs around his waist, Knox groaned.

  After that it turned into a grinding, filthy frenzy of lips, teeth and body parts. He yanked her tank over her head and thankfully he was right about the no bra. Remy’s tits were perfect.

  “God, you’re so hot.” After he’d sucked her nipple into his mouth, he barely managed to limp his way to the bedroom.

  “Holy shit, the way you smell, so-o-o damn good all of the time,” he said, between kisses to her breasts and neck. “Do-over.”

  “What?”

  Knox dropped the beauty onto his comforter and took in his porn dream, splayed across his bed. “Full disclosure… I’ve wanted you from the minute I saw you.” Knox’s cock stood at fully erect and painful attention, but he knew he had to spit this out. “If I had known today you would finally let me touch you, I swear I would have jerked off in the shower. So this is going to be fucking fast and I’m going to need a do-over. Got it? This one doesn’t count.”

  He expected her to get up from the bed—or the very least laugh. Instead, she tossed her head to the side and smiled. “Okay, Supastar… You get a do-over.”

  Knox pounced. Somehow, he had held out long enough to make her scream his name. Somehow, he didn’t die in the middle of the hardest orgasm he’d ever had that nearly blinded him.

  “What the hell was that?” Remy huffed, out of breath. She fell back against the bed.

  Your future husband’s dick. Get real acquainted with it. Gathering her close, he rolled her body into his side. “My ticket to your full name.” The rumble from her giggles tickled his ribs. She adjusted her hair to lay her head on his pec. God, she felt good.

  “Don’t laugh?” She kissed a spot near his nipple, causing those intense flutters to tickle his insides. Seriously, he began to turn into a junior high school girl in her presence.

  “Unlike how you callously laughed at my dick?”

  “No, I was laughing at the poor beating my pussy was going to take. That thing is huge!”

  “An-n-n-n-nd now I’m hard again.” He kissed the side of her head.

  “Give her a minute. She’s recuperating.”

  Knox chuckled. “Quit stalling and tell me your whole name and social security number, in case you run.”

  “Why would I run?” She rolled on top of him, smashing her full breasts against his chest.

  “That anxious energy that sprouts out of nowhere. When I’m on the field, I have to settle my nerves or risk making the wrong play. If I don’t, then lights out, someone else gets your spot in the pros. I can tell you want to run.”

  The sun blasted through the slats of his blinds. Knox had never imagined Remy in his bed, let alone in the middle of the day. Perhaps after an expensive meal by candlelight… Truthfully, he’d never thought he would get this far with her. She set the bar high. On the other hand, maybe smacking the shit out of his teammates had provided him with awesome superpowers.

  “Requiem… My name is Requiem.”

  “Baby, your hint was the thing you need but don’t get enough of.”

  “Which is sleep!”

  “Bullshit. Sex, sex and more sex. Ask any dude. I thought your name was Forny.” Hard as hell again, he flipped Remy onto her back.

  “Who names their child ‘fornication’?” She laughed underneath him. Joining in with her humor, he came up with the brilliant idea of a naked comedy club, since she found him so damn funny with his clothes off.

  “The same people who name their kid ‘sleep’. And since you won’t be getting any of that shit today, let’s test your theory.” As he worked his cock into her pussy, she sighed into his mouth.

  * * * *

  “Email, email!” the young one propped at the kitchen counter screamed. “I’m in. It’s 0718Requiem1018.”

  The first number was his birthday, the second Remy’s.

  “Maybe if he’d told us her real name sooner.”

  “So-o-ory,” he said, even though he felt he was the one owed an apology. The tortuous process had worn him out.

  “Remy just set a new record. We’re usually faster than this. Hey, it’s the congressmen. Turn the TV up.”

  Knox’s chest tightened at the sight of him. Raised to never hate anyone, he had a hard time channeling that emotion when it came to Brooks Richard. He sincerely wanted the man to drop dead.

  “My niece is out of surgery and resting well.” Doctors, nurses and staff from the congressman’s team surrounded him. “We don’t know who could have committed such a heinous attack, but the Chicago PD is working diligently to solve this crime.”

  “What about her husband, Quarterback Gavin Knox?” a reporter asked.

  As the congressman leaned over, a staffer whispered in his ear before he returned to the microphones. “At this time, we don’t have any information on him or where he’s at. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to check on my niece. She’s alone at the moment and she’ll need someone to be there when she wakes up.”

  Knox clenched his fists. He wanted to break something…anything, but mainly the congressman’s entire body.

  “We hear you’re throwing your hat in the ring for President.”

  “If I can stop senseless crimes like this from happening, I will seriously consider it. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” While he was escorted into the hospital by security, reporters yelled questions at him. He waved solemnly and made his way into the ER.

  “Ready for one more? From what I can tell, she has two cloud accounts, and nothing I’m running works,” the pixie girl asked, probably jazzed by her first password crack.

  “That’s enough.” Hawk held up his hand. “Really, look at him.”

  “No, I’m good. Let’s do this.”

  “She’s not even my wife and I’m having a hard time. Are you sure?” his best friend said.

  Mooch nodded his head. “I’ve got to agree with Hawk. You need to take a break.” The kid had kept quiet most of the night, either cleaning up after the hackers or grabbing them whatever they needed. Knox appreciated his help, but he probably couldn’t properly convey that sentiment. For hours he had run on nothing but fumes.

  “The longer this takes, the longer he can play the good guy.” Knox wanted everyone to know about this insidious man.
r />   Chapter Twenty-Five

  They were headed to Cancun in a few weeks and Knox wanted to bail. Unavoidably, name-calling would occur—'bitch-ass mofo’, and familiar terms of endearment that questioned his manhood. Of course, the only hit that would be accurate was ‘pussy whipped’.

  The thought of leaving Remy for a drunken bender in Mexico had caused a ridiculous amount of anxiety inside him. He’d had girlfriends in the past, but football always took precedence. Knox had never given up bro-time for a chick. However, the one thing that he felt deep down in his soul was that Requiem Bell was a bona fide runner.

  “So, is this girlfriend coming or what?”

  Probably not, he thought. While a mixture of football and hockey players fought over whose turn it was on the PlayStation, Hawk pawed one of his regular randoms. The hockey player had always been balls deep in a heavy rotation of girls since junior high school. Knox, on the other hand, usually kept his interactions to one at a time.

  “Not sure. Let me check.”

  He texted.

  Where are u?

  Remy had never made it to these impromptu get-togethers. She generally showed up once everyone had already left. If she did happen to make it, she would slip out before dawn. Knox was determined to pin her down, but it appeared Heartbreaker was a no-show. Again.

  Outside…

  Confused, Knox headed for the door.

  “Hey, no ditching us for phantom girl.” The big guy chuckled, already buzzed. Knox shook his head. Hawk had been diagnosed with type one diabetes years ago. No one on the team had a clue, but the hockey player knew better than to get drunk.

  When he opened the door, steamy heat smacked him in the face. The parking lot was virtually empty. A handful of students had moved back to campus early, but the true rush wouldn’t happen for another month. Eerie silence met him outside.