I thumbed away the tears that tracked down her cheeks. Each one felt like a knife to my heart.
“I still don’t know if I would have made the right choice if Tina hadn’t called me and said she was in trouble. That’s when I knew I wasn’t going to go through with it.”
After everything Tina had done, at least she’d provided the excuse Naomi needed when she needed it.
“Daisy, you gave him a choice. It doesn’t matter how shitty the options are. It’s still his choice to make. He could spend the rest of his life with you or without you. He didn’t give you a choice when he hurt you.”
“But I should have listened to what he was trying to tell me. He didn’t want to commit, and I forced him to.”
“He had a choice,” I repeated. “Look. A man doesn’t go all in with a woman, it’s for a reason. Maybe he’s looking for something better. Maybe he’s just comfortable with his place in your world and doesn’t want to make a place for you in his. Either way, he makes no forward progress unless he’s forced into it.
“After that, even if he pops the question, even if he shows up at the altar, he’ll hold on to the fact that it wasn’t his idea. He washes his hands of responsibility for the entire relationship. But the bottom fucking line is, he had a choice every step of the way. You didn’t force him into anything.”
She looked down. “He never thought I was good enough for him.”
“Baby, truth is, on his best day, he was never gonna be good enough for you, and he fucking knew it.”
So he’d manipulated her and he’d tried to prove he was better by showing he was stronger, more powerful. By using force. And it only would have gotten worse.
“Damn it, Knox. You cannot be sweet to me right now!”
“Do not cry. Do not shed one more tear over some asshole who never deserved you in the first place. Or I’m going to go break both his arms and legs.”
She cast her eyes down then looked back up at me. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being here. For…taking care of me and cleaning up my mess. It really means a lot.”
I thumbed away another stray tear. “What did I say about crying?”
“That one was for you, not him.”
Instead of hunting Warner down and kicking him in the gut until my boot wore through, I did something more important. I lowered my mouth to take hers.
She instantly went soft and pliable against me. Surrendering. I spun us around so she had her back to the door.
“Knox?” she whispered.
Then I pressed my knee between her thighs and pinned her against the door with my hips as I plundered her mouth. She melted against me, eager and needy.
I was instantly hard.
The sexy little moan she made in the back of her throat when I ground my erection against her made me lose my fucking mind. I licked and kissed and tasted her until the air around us was electrified, until the pulse in my blood matched the beat of her heart.
I pumped my cock against her once, twice, three times, before shoving my hand between our bodies and under that skirt that I loved to hate.
When I found the silk edge of her underwear, I growled. I knew just by the touch it was one of the pairs I’d bought her. And I loved knowing she wore something I gave her close to her skin in a place I’d be the only one to see.
“He doesn’t deserve one second of your energy. Never did,” I said, yanking the underwear to the side with more haste than finesse.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes glazed with desire.
“Reminding you what you deserve.”
I thrust two fingers into her wet heat and swallowed her cry with my mouth. She was already rippling around me, begging to come. “Do you want me to stop?” My voice was harsher than I intended, but I couldn’t be soft, gentle, when she was making me harder than concrete.
“If you stop, I’ll murder you,” she groaned.