by Erika Kelly
“It’s so pretty from the outside,” Knox said. “It doesn’t look like an industrial park.”
“Oh, it did. Three years ago, when it opened, it had a karate studio and a shared office set-up. Neither business cared about the façade. But, after they left, a big furniture store expressed interest. They needed a huge showroom, and there’s nothing in town with that kind of space. Of course, they didn’t think their high-end customers would give them a chance when it looked so bleak, so the owner tarted it up. Put up all that dark wood and fancy fittings. Unfortunately, the furniture store decided to open in Idaho Falls, and that was that.”
Knox nodded, her gaze seeking his. He gave her a firm nod. He liked it a lot.
The agent caught the exchange and said, “Okay, I’m heading back to town. As soon as this storm passes over, I’m showing the Hellerman Ranch.” She slapped the key in Gray’s hand. “I’ve known you since you were in diapers, so I trust you’ll lock up. You know how to put it back in the box?”
Gray pocketed the key. “Sure do.”
“Great.” She headed for the door. Before, she left, though, she turned back to them. “Knox, honey, I made this our last stop today for a reason. I wanted you to have other spaces to compare this one to, so you’d see what a great deal it is. If you want to hold off, wait for something new to come on the market, that’s fine, but I guarantee you won’t find a better space for the price.”
Knox made an effort to smile, but anyone could see she was having a hard time. “Thank you so much. I’ll be in touch soon.”
“You got it.” The moment the agent opened the door, thunder exploded, and rain pummeled the metal roof. “Oh, goodness,” she shouted, before dashing out.
He reached for Knox, clasping her delicate wrist. “What do you think?”
“This is definitely the best place.”
Not: this is the one I’m going to lease. She was hedging. “Do you want to keep looking?”
“No, I don’t have time to wait for another property to hit the market.”
“Then what’s the problem?” He wanted to press a kiss to her pulse point, but he checked the impulse. After she’d shut down on him last time, he didn’t know where they stood. “Talk to me.”
“I guess I just need some time to think. Leasing a building is a huge expense, and one I hadn’t considered.”
He understood that. “Would it help if we called a meeting and went over finances?”
A clap of thunder startled her. It sounded like the skies unloaded a dump truck full of gravel on the roof. “I don’t think that’s necessary. I have to relocate, and I’m not going to find a better price. It’s just… Remember at the trailer, you asked if I’d want to do fittings there? Well, the same question applies here. Can I imagine my customers coming here? It’s not exactly—”
“An atelier.”
“No.” She tipped her head back and blew out a breath. “But, also, it just sort of drives home that I’m committing to living in Calamity. God.”
Brodie’s words slammed into him. You know it as well as I do, man. This town’s too small for her. He couldn’t force her to stay—he wouldn’t even encourage her. It had to be her choice. He let go of her wrist and took a step back. “I heard about the MacAllisters. I knew big things were coming for you, I just didn’t know they’d come this quickly. But here we are. And now you’ve got to make a choice.”
The next boom rattled her so badly, she let out a shout of frustration. “No, I know this is the right choice. It’s just a little scary. Leasing a building? Hiring all these people? Salaries, benefits, maternity leave…it’s a big deal.”
“It is. I can’t do anything about the location, but one thing we might consider is taking on equity investors.”
With two fingers, she rubbed her temple. “Yeah, maybe. I have a lot to think about.”
It struck him, what was troubling her. “If you sign a lease, you lose the option to take off when Chanel calls.”
She gave him a weak smile. “I think you know that was more a fantasy than a real possibility. No, I’m staying here for at least a year. Signing a lease, though…it’s just throwing me off a little.”
“Let’s call a meeting, so we can talk about it as a team. That’s where the great ideas come from, when we’re all together in a room, bouncing ideas off each other.”
She nodded vaguely, like she was humoring him. “I need a little time alone to wrap my head around all this. It’s just how I work.”
But she wasn’t humoring him, he realized. How had he not seen this from the start? He could change pronouns all he wanted, but she could only think in terms of the personal, because it was all she’d ever known.
Maybe it wasn’t about Calamity or couture. Maybe it was just the overwhelming responsibility of being the top of the pyramid in her life. No parents or siblings…no one to catch her if she failed.
It was so far out of his realm of experience, that the idea was deeply unsettling. He knew, no matter what, he had his brothers, his uncle, the ranch. Friends. His inheritance. For one stark moment, he swiped them from his world, imagined himself like Knox, completely and totally alone.
It was…devastating. Just as she turned from him, he caught her arm. “You’re not alone. We’re all in this with you.”
“I know.” But she sounded about as firm as dandelion fuzz.
“No, I don’t think you do. Knox, look at me. We’re in this with you.”
“Look, I’m going to sign a lease. I just…I need to look at my finances and think about the location. I need some time to work through it all.”
Yeah, he was pretty sure he’d gotten it right. It was the vast well of loneliness she lived in, with only her voice and thoughts echoing against the walls. He cupped her beautiful face in his hands. “You’re not alone. You’ve got us.” Me. If you’ll have me.
She didn’t look at him.
He lowered his hand right over her heart, the heel of it pressing down on the plumpness of her breast. “I need you to hear me, Knox. Not just in your head, but in your heart. You’re not alone. We’re in this together. You and me. All of us. We’re with you.”
She knocked his hand away, the fire back in her eyes. “That’s so easy for you to say. But I saw Amelia’s bag. She might look like some free-spirited surfer girl, but she comes from money. This is fun for her right now, because it’s new, and it’s got so much potential, but it’s not her career. It’s not her life. You don’t understand, because you’re in the same situation. There is no rock bottom for either of you. If this fails, it’s no big deal. You can move on or dabble in something new.”
He opened his mouth to challenge her, but her fierce expression shut him up.
“Zach left Hugo Rossi to work with you. He could get a call from Ralph Lauren and take off…” She snapped her fingers. “Like that. You’re leaving for New Zealand in a few weeks, and your posse might just decide to go with you. And they can. They can, because there’s nothing at stake for them. They can walk away from my business and not lose a single night’s sleep over it. So, no matter what you say, the bottom line is I’m very much alone. And that’s not a complaint. I’m just saying that I’m the only one completely invested here, because it’s my career, my paycheck. Without it, I have nothing.”
“I don’t know what bag you’re talking about, but Amelia’s parents run a bait and tackle shop in Key West. If she owns an expensive purse, it’s because she makes enough money at Duck Dive to afford it. We work hard, and we play hard. As for me…” He went into freefall, like flying off the edge of a cliff and hoping like hell he landed on a patch of snow and not rock, but he forged ahead. He’d hidden the truth long enough. “I have loved you since I was six years old. Every second you spent holding Robert’s undeserving hand, every time you got into his truck and drove off with him, it felt like ripping my heart right out of my chest.”
“Gray.” It was the most vulnerable he’d ever seen her, and it touched him.
“But now
that I’ve had you to myself, I can promise you, whatever I felt back then doesn’t come close to how I feel today. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“I think so.” Her voice came out soft, almost incredulous.
But she didn’t trust it. “Then let me make it clearer. It’s more than liking you, which I do. I like your passion for your work, your drive and ambition. I like the way you are with Zach, Amelia, Callie and Delilah, the way you really listen to them. It’s also more than being attracted to you, which I am.” Anxiety covered him like a fog. Exposing himself to a woman who didn’t feel the same way…it could not turn out well. But like hell if he wouldn’t take his shot. “It’s that my cells are formatted for you. My heart…” How did he explain it? “My heart beats in rhythm with yours. I loved you as a boy, but as a man who’s spent time with you, kissed you…this is a whole other level. You might’ve imprinted on me as a kid, but you’re in my blood now. Whether you want me as a man or a business partner or as nothing more than a friend, I’m committed to you. To us.”
Beneath the wariness, the thrill of his message shimmered in her eyes. “I don’t know what to say.”
Then he’d show her. Tipping her chin, he lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed gently, wanting her to feel how much he cared. But the minute her lips softened, parted, and he got a hint of wet heat, he licked inside, and that damn pounding in his blood to own this woman, body and soul, overtook him.
Her scent filled his senses, hurling him back in time to dry summer days when they’d hiked the Bowie Pass, after school in her trailer, laying side-by-side on her bed, feet braced against the wall, as they’d held stupid and hilarious conversations through her Etch-a-Sketch.
To the kiss in the hotel room, when she’d lost control and clung to him with desperation.
To the other night on the trampoline, her hips twisting, fingers pulling his hair. The sounds she’d made from his touch.
With the clatter of rain on the roof, he lost himself in the intimacy of the moment, the privacy…the seclusion. He deepened the kiss, his tongue searching for acquiescence…surrender.
Want me, Knox. Want me as much as I want you.
Jesus, fuck. He’d said it out loud, his voice, deep, growly, like a command.
Everything changed in that moment. She got up on her toes and threw her arms around his neck. “I do.” She pressed closer to him, her plump breasts on his chest, her hips shifting restlessly over his painfully hard erection. “God, Gray, of course I do.”
His body rejoiced in the invitation. He kissed her, his hands caressing down her slender back and over the rising slope of her ass. When she gave a desperate moan, he lost it. Clutching those firm, round cheeks, he held her tightly to him, bending his knees slightly, and rocking up into the space between her legs.
With a wild look in her eyes, she wrenched her mouth away and said his name on a sigh. “I’ve never felt anything like this. It scares me, Gray. It scares me so much.”
“I got you. I swear…I got you.” Trust me.
She went wild, hands gripping his hair, kissing him with a fervor that made his composure slip, then fade away. He needed more.
Right the fuck now.
He carried her to the wall and pressed her hard against it. One part of his brain still probed, flashed, waiting for a signal that she didn’t want this—because he’d lived with the belief that she didn’t return his feelings for so damn long—but her urgency, the desperate sounds she made told him she wanted him every bit as much. He’d never felt so plugged in, so alive.
Hitching her up so he could balance her with one hand, he cupped her jaw and deepened the kiss. She fisted the hair at the back of his neck so tightly it hurt, but knowing she was that turned on? It was fucking everything.
His hand shifted lower, until it closed over her breast, cupping and caressing. She arched her back, pressing her core against him and grinding. He had to have her, had to. His hand shoved under her sweater but got tangled up in all that material.
“Wait.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she lifted it up and over her head and sent it sailing. Pressing her shoulder blades against the wall, she arched her breasts to him in invitation.
“Fuck, Knox. Gotta have you.” He peeled back the cup of her bra, and all that peachy flesh spilled out, the nipple puckered and hard. He covered it with his palm and rubbed his thumb over it, so fucking turned on by her response.
“Gray. God.” Her legs banded around his waist in a possessive hold.
He dove in to kiss it, licking and sucking, as she gasped.
“I’ve never…I can’t…” And then she cried out in frustration.
It sent a spasm of need through him, and he set her down. He ripped open the buttons on his jeans, tipping a chin to her leggings. “Off.”
She stripped out of them and kicked them away, her pink panties tangled in the black. Grabbing his shoulders, she pulled him back and kissed him with a hunger that only fueled the ageless, burning desire he had for her. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, and electricity tore down his spine, lifting the fine hairs at the back of his neck.
He grabbed her ass cheeks, hauling her tightly against him. “I want you like I’ve never wanted anything in my life, but I don’t have a condom.”
With her gaze on his chest and her hands roaming greedily, he thought for a moment she hadn’t heard him. But, slowly, she reached for the back of his neck, sifted her fingers through his hair, and whispered, “When was the last time you were with someone?”
Oh, fuck. He reached between them, squeezing his dick to relieve some of the pressure. But nothing helped. He was desperate for her. “Not since spring, when I was tested at the training facility.”
She batted his hand away, rubbing his erection with the heel of her hand. “You didn’t hook up with anybody during Titans?”
Sensation exploded in him, and he wrapped his hand around hers. Harder. “No.”
With a half-lidded gaze, she circled the head of his dick with her thumb. “You feel so good.”
He needed to come so badly, but even more, he wanted her hands on him. “You’d just come back into my life. You think I wanted some random piece of ass?”
Her complexion, clear and smooth, turned pink, and everything in her softened. But it was that little sigh of pleasure that did him in. He needed her now. With bent knees, he lifted her off the ground and pressed her against the wall. “We doing this?”
Her hands clasped behind his neck, her body trembled as she licked her lips. “Yes, God, now.”
Gently, he lowered her onto his cock. He slid in, nice and slow, because he’d waited a lifetime to see the look in her eyes when he filled her. And it was worth all the agony to watch her eyes go lazy, to hear her sensual, erotic moan.
He took his time, so he could feel every nerve-ending in his cock light up as it passed through her slick, hot channel. Holy fuck. She felt so good, smelled so good, everything about her just made his heart sing.
“Move, Gray.” She pumped her hips.
It might be his only time, so he needed to savor every moment of pleasure. He sank in all the way and then eased back out. Yes. Jesus, yes.
“More…need you…” Her voice had gone wispier, her ass wriggling.
Then, with a snap of his hips, it was on. He couldn’t hold back anymore. She felt too good, too right. This woman…everything about her called to him, drove him wild.
“Yes. Oh, yes.” She moved in rhythm with him, skin slapping, urgency rising.
The heat their bodies generated had their scents mingling, combining in a potent perfume of lust. And he knew—he just fucking knew—this was it. It would never get better than this.
Her legs tightened around him, her hips tilting, swiveling. “Gray.” Her voice came out breathy.
Oh, fuck, yes. So hot. She felt so good. So fucking good. Every thrust drove him closer to the edge. The slap of skin against skin, the hot surge of her desire coating him, drove him closer to ecstasy.
He was so close, on the edge, but he needed to bring her there with him. Needed her to crash with him. “Knox.” The sound came out a whisper, a plea. Her chin jerked up, and the moment she caught his gaze, a sting of awareness burst in his chest.
She looked so sexy, so soft and sweet, and catching her in this unguarded moment made him feel so fucking tender toward her. The intimacy was almost too much, too intense. And he knew she felt it, too, because she closed her eyes, fingers digging into his back.
Look at me. He thrust hard, and her eyelids flew open. While he had her right there with him, he reached between their bodies and found her sensitive nub.
Still watching him, she spasmed. “Gray.”
Flames singed his scalp, his balls drew in tight, and the base of his spine tingled. The roar of his orgasm powered through him, transporting out of his body, and he let out a shout so loud it echoed in the room.
She grew more frantic, her hips twisting, until her head fell back on a cry with her release. He slowed his pumps, desperate to stay inside her, to stay connected, but he pulled out and lowered his head, trying to get control of his heart rate.
Limbs still trembling, he sucked in a breath. He couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe he’d finally been with Knox…Jesus. It had been better than any fantasy he’d ever had of them.
But, while he was riding his high, she was gathering her clothes. “We should probably go.”
All the liquid heat in his veins froze at her tone. He reached for her arm. “Knox?”