Page 6 of Puck Me Twice Over

Little Knox waved the bear. “They’re nice.”

“We’re not dating,” I protested.

“We did once.” Knox shot me a look that told me we weren’t done. Not even close.

But we were. I wasn’t that girl anymore. If only the damn rain would stop and I could get a ride home.

Home.

Oh, shit.

Knox’s attention shifted. A warm hand wrapped around mine. The sort of comfort I’d craved for the past months—years—and never actually received but stayed hoping that one day it would happen, knowing it would never actually arrive. My scars itched on cue, and I pressed a hand to my lower belly where my fries threatened to make an untimely reappearance.

“It’s okay, Flick.” The scent of coffee, warm and invigorating, twisted between us as the waitress refilled my cup then moved onto the table beyond ours.

Knox leaned back, speaking quietly. I studied the tiny bubbles that swirled in my topped up cup, watching them float round and round. Trapped, but going nowhere.

A fresh order of fries arrived, but not for us. Little Knox yelped and dived in with gusto. I smiled, breaking out of my reverie, and sipped my coffee. After a time, I let Knox tuck my hand in his. His grip was warm and firm. Familiar, though new callouses decorated the inside of his palm since he last held me like that. There was nothing soft about his touch. My heart pattered a little faster in my chest. That hold promised me he wouldn’t let go easily.

He rose when I finished my cup, ignoring the mom’s protests about getting the bill.

“I got it,” he said quietly, in the sort of tone that brooked no argument, but that also wasn’t a power move. He was just…there.

I remembered that voice, because once he was there for me. That had been a long, long time ago, though.

“No so long, Flick. We’re here.” Knox displayed those mind reading skills all over again as he tucked a wayward curl behind my ear where my hair had dried. He nodded to the deluge outside. “Are you ready to risk it all again?”

I bit my lip, knowing he wasn’t only talking about the blustery night. “For what?”

Will you catch me if I run from you again?

His hand tightened around mine. “I’m not leaving a pretty girl out on her own because her asshole boyfriend deserted her. Not even on game night when his team lost.” Knox pushed the door open. The first frantic raindrops splattered our feet. The sort of crazy I remembered him possessing welled from somewhere deep inside as he gave me a grin and pulled me in close. “You ready?”

“To go where?” I whispered. I couldn’t even see his truck and I didn’t correct him about who Garrett’s chosen team was. Not when I couldn’t see five feet in front of my face. There was nothing in my future beyond the chimera who stood right in front of me.

“I’m taking you home. My home.” Knox pulled me into the rain before I had a chance to argue. The rain smothered any protest I had, if I made any at all.

I couldn’t remember if I did.

CHAPTER THREE

KNOX

Felicity stared around my open plan condo like it was the best/worst place she’d ever seen. The benefit of a home game: I got to go home afterward. Potential disadvantage? Running into part of the population who knew me.

Tonight’s clash didn’t count in the negatives column. At least, not for me. For Flick? Maybe she saw things a different way, if what I suspected was true about her current situation. She still hadn’t moved after a few more minutes, so I nudged her gently.

“It’s okay to go further inside, Flick.” I pressed my hand to her lower back, praising Garrett the Asshole for ditching her. His one decent use. “I don’t bite,” —much— “but if we stay here, the part of my ass hanging out the door will end up soaked.” Still, I'd do it for her, regardless of if she knew that or not.

Flick jumped a little, but moved a few steps into the foyer, enough for me to slide in behind her. “Sorry,” she mumbled, clasping her hands about her waist.

Her fingers knotted in my spare jersey and it took everything in me to not reach across her and cover her delicate hands in my rougher ones.

She’d always been that much smaller than me, tinier by a whole frame. But a decade’s distance in time had filled out the curves I'd always craved back in junior high. Her jeans stretched at the hips and ass in ways that left me drooling in puddles behind her. Hell, I’d be mopping the floors after bedtime at this rate in the best of ways.

A tremor rippled over her. Barely noticeable, but it was there. Seeing as she seems to have dried out like I had back at the diner, I doubt that shiver has much to do with temperature. And she freaking tried to hide it from me, rocking on her heels to disguise the motion.

My teeth ground together. We don’t have that sort of trust to base anything on any more. The stark reminder took my ego down a few solid notches. I wished I had the bear to comfort her. Giving it away had been the right thing to do, but still, I’d wanted to gift it to her as a memory of tonight.