Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
This time when he reached out, when I felt his hand on my face, he wasn’t wiping away pizza sauce or a stray leaf. He brushed his thumb beneath my eye, over my cheekbone, and I felt like my brain was buzzing. Yep, totally going to stroke out.
“Your skin is so soft,” he said in this deep whisper I almost couldn’t make out.
“Oh,” I replied ridiculously. What was wrong with me? Why was that how I answered, and why in the fuck couldn’t I make myself say anything else?
“Sorry. I—”
“No!” I rushed out when he went to pull away. I put my hand on his, danced my wood-dusty fingers along his skin.
“I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
“Do you want to stop?” I asked, my voice sounding needier than I wished it did.
“No.” Knox leaned in, his lips gentle and unsure against mine.
I closed my eyes, savored the feel of his rough beard against my skin. I had no idea why that did it for me. I wasn’t sure if it had before Knox, but yes, the contrast of his wiry hair and the gentleness of his questioning lips was making me crazy.
As much as I wanted to grab him, to hold him and deepen the kiss, I let it move at his pace. Knox pressed a few closemouthed kisses against mine before his tongue teased the seam of my lips. I opened them for him, wanted to taste him and let him taste me. It was tentative at first, but then his hand was in my hair and he was pulling me closer, kissing me deeper.
Our tongues moved together, dipped and retreated, danced. Knox pushed off his stool and stood between my legs. My hands went to his hips, my head tilted back as he kissed me like I’d never been kissed before. Like I was his favorite thing in the world and he was savoring me.
He growled into my mouth, all deep and raspy. My brain shut off, and I went on instinct, my legs wrapping around him, my hand journeying from his waist to the bulge beneath his jeans, and oh, fuck yes, he was big. But then his body went tense and he jerked away from me as if I’d electrocuted him.
“Shit. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have touched you like that. I got ahead of myself.” Fuck, why had I pushed? I was pretty sure he’d just had his first kiss from a man, and I’d rushed him. “I’m sorry,” I said again.
“It’s not your fault.” He shook his head, took another step back. “I’m… I’ve never done this before. I’ve never kissed a man or thought about it and…”
“And I pushed. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t blame yourself. I liked it; clearly, I liked it.” He signaled toward the very obvious erection in his jeans. “I…I don’t know. It’s a lot.” Knox stepped back more, then began to pace. He rubbed his beard before dropping his head back. “Fuck. You’re my friend. I don’t want to lose that. And Logan…he loves you, and this…I don’t know how to process it, or what it means, or what it would do to him, because I don’t know if…”
If he would want more than a release? Than a kiss? If he would want a relationship with me and what how he felt about it either way would do to his son? The part about Logan, how much his kids meant to him, was one of the things I liked so much about Knox. “It won’t happen again.” I stood, and Knox’s eyes zeroed in on my bulge. I turned away.
“I don’t want to screw this up.” And then because he was Knox, he came over to me, put his hands on my shoulders. “I don’t want to hurt you…or Logan…but I don’t know. My brain is a bit of a mess right now.”
“I’m fine,” I lied, stepping away from him. “You won’t hurt me, and we won’t hurt Logan. We just go back to how things were and pretend it didn’t happen.” The words were bitter on my tongue. This hurt infinitely worse than being stood up tonight.
“Cal…” he said, and my heart jumped. It was the first time he called me that, the name I usually hated, but I liked the way it sounded coming from his lips—comfortable, familiar.
“It’s fine, Knox. I get it. Logan comes first. Fucking around with me would make things awkward. Not to mention what’s going on inside you personally.” I didn’t even know if he wanted to fuck around with me. “I need to go.”
“Callum,” he said again.
“It’s fine. I’m just…I’m just gonna go.” I turned and walked out.
Knox didn’t come after me.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Knox
It had been almost a week since I’d seen Callum, and I couldn’t stop thinking about him, about the way he’d tasted, and melted against me, and hearing the noises he’d made when I’d kissed him.