Page 51 of Knox Unleashed
“I don’t know if I can do this again and not get hurt.” It’s an admission I don’t really want to make, but it’s true. “I think you might have the power to do me some damage.”
He cups my cheeks and takes a step back. “Not sure I could hurt you if I tried. But something that feels this good, even when there are a million reasons that it shouldn’t? Don’t we owe it to ourselves just to be selfish for a goddamn second? Or am I the only one thinking this way?”
He leans forward and kisses the side of my lips, tenderly. My body arches back towards him.
“I need rules,” I say suddenly.
“Name ‘em.” He nuzzles my ear.
“When you’re finished with the two of us, you get your ass over here and tell me in person. You don’t just text me or leave a message or, worse, ghost me.”
“Done,” he says, immediately.
“The next rule is obvious. I’m not prepared to be one of many. You can’t sleep with anyone else.”
“Not sure how I feel about you holding my balls, Maren. But I’m thinking I won’t need anyone else with this pretty pussy at my beck and call.”
I shove at his chest. “And no beck-and-call shit. I can’t do this if you just show up for sex, stay for five minutes, and then disappear. It really sucked when you made me come and then walked out.”
He smiles softly at that. “If only you knew how hard it was to lie there, awake, with you in my arms yesterday, knowing I had to leave. I’m thinking we might need a rule where you can tell me to not come over.”
“For now, I think I’m okay without that rule, but I reserve the right to add it.”
Knox chuckles. “You have no idea how many times a day I’m gonna want you.”
I raise my eyebrow. “At your age?”
“Hey. I still got all my own hair and sex drive. You got any more rules?”
“One final one.”
Knox kisses me softly. “What’s that?”
“It needs to feel like a date.”
He laughs at that. “Maren, I haven’t been on a date in, like, fifteen years.”
“Then it will be good practice for you.”
“Sure. Fine. Whatever. Yes. It can be like a date. But you better keep your bar low because I suck at this shit and it’s not like we can really go anywhere.”
I offer him my hand. “Deal?”
Knox looks at it, then shakes it. “It’s a deal, Maren.”
He reaches for the hem of my polo shirt to lift it above my head, but I grab it and shove it back down. “Not here. We can’t do this in the bait shop.”
Knox looks around at the empty place. “Why not? Didn’t realize the bait shop had strict moral standards.”
I shove his shoulder and push him away. He slips his hands around my waist and lifts me down off the counter. Then, he takes my hand and leads me towards the main door and the external steps up to my home, and I shake my head.
“We’ll use the apartment in the boathouse.”
Knox looks to the stairway up to my apartment above the store. “Don’t you live upstairs?”
“I do. But you can hide your motorcycle in the boathouse.”
Something unreadable flickers across his face. “I can do that and still meet you upstairs.”
