“Take good care of ’em, Knox,” he said finally.
Knox grunted in response and pulled me back a step, my hand sliding out of Duke’s. The man shuffled off in the direction of the big commercial kitchen.
“We’re leavin’,” Knox announced. “Go get Way.”
Something had crawled up Knox’s ass. Good. It would keep me from falling head over heels for the man.
Wordlessly, I picked up the coffee he’d brought me and headed outside to collect Waylay.
I coaxed her off the playground, telling her that it was time to go home. As we were saying our good-byes, I spotted Knox by the truck with Duke.
He was handing over a backpack that looked as though it was stuffed full. They were having some kind of discussion that looked intense. Duke kept nodding while looking at his feet and scratching absently at his arms.
He didn’t look up until Knox held out a white envelope and said something.
“Who’s Knox talking to?” Waylay asked.
“A man named Duke. He cut his hair earlier.”
“Is he okay?”
I didn’t know if she meant Knox or Duke. “I don’t know, honey.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
F.I.N.E
Knox
I’d fucked up in so many ways already, I couldn’t stop myself from making it worse. Even knowing what I had to do next.
“Knox,” Naomi moaned, her voice muffled by a pillow. This time she wasn’t screaming in frustration. She was doing her best to stay quiet while I fucked her in my grandmother’s house. In the bedroom I’d grown up in.
She was on her hands and knees in front of me.
I thought it would be easier if I couldn’t see those eyes. If I didn’t get to watch the way they went glassy under heavy lids when I made her come one last time.
I was fucking wrong.
I tightened my grip on the back of her neck and hit the brakes on my thrusts. It cost me. But holding there, sheathed to the hilt inside her, was worth it.
She shuddered against me, around me, when I pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her shoulder blade. My tongue darted out to taste her skin. I wanted to breathe her in. To commit every second of this feeling to my memory.
I was in too deep. I was drowning. She’d pulled me in over my head, and I was the dumb bastard who’d gone willingly. Forgetting everything I’d learned, every promise I’d ever made, every reason why I couldn’t do this.
The possibility that it was already too late loomed large.
“Knox.” Her sob was broken, and I felt her walls flutter around my throbbing dick. My blood pulsed in response.
I stroked my hand down her back, worshiping the silky warmth under my palm.
Naomi pulled her head out of the pillow and looked over her shoulder at me. Her hair was a mess, her lips swollen, lids heavy. She was seconds from coming. From giving me that miracle. My balls tightened, and I dug my teeth into my lip.
I needed this. I needed to give her this. One last time.
I dragged her up so we were both on our knees. Her back flush to my front.
She lifted her arms overhead, reaching back to grip my neck, my shoulder.