by Violet Paige
“Hi.” She smiled. She had changed out of the bikini.
I moved past her, reaching for the door handle.
“Knight? What’s wrong? What happened?”
I slammed it closed. “I can’t talk.”
“Wait.” She pressed her hands against the driver door. “Have you been drinking? What’s wrong? My father said something. What? Just tell me. Or let me drive you home and then you can tell me,” she pleaded. “Don’t go like this, Knight.”
But I couldn’t listen to her any more than I could to her father. I spun out of the circle drive and away from the Martin mansion.
9
Kennedy
“What did you say to Knight Corban?” I demanded an answer from my father. His gaze was out the window. He watched one of the gardeners trim rose bushes. The brown clippings fell around the man’s boots. He stooped, collecting them in a bucket.
“It was an introduction. We got further than I expected.” He hadn’t turned to look at me.
“What does that mean?” I had changed into a sundress while he and Knight spoke.
“Don’t worry about it. Everything will be fine.”
“It doesn’t feel fine.” I was good at reading my father’s moods, but I couldn’t read his thoughts.
“I’m handling it.”
I walked out of the office, not feeling reassured. I dialed Knight’s number, praying he would answer. It went to voicemail.
“Damn it,” I muttered. I searched the house until I found Kimble and Joseph in the kitchen. “I need to go out,” I announced.
“There’s nothing on the schedule.”
“I’m putting it on the schedule,” I snapped. “Who wants to drive?”
Joseph looked at the other bodyguard. “I’ll go,” he volunteered, but Kimble intervened.
“No. I’ll go.”
“I don’t care who drives me.” I sighed. “But let’s go. Now.” I stormed past them, through the tiled mudroom, and into the garage. I climbed into the back of the closest SUV and waited for them to follow. I needed to find Knight.
I convinced Kimble to take me to Knight’s apartment. I’d only been once and didn’t make it any further than where he parked his car. I was beginning to learn that if I included Joseph and Kimble in my plans, they helped me. I wouldn’t go so far as to call them co-conspirators, but they were at least willing to follow my orders.
I recognized the tall building when we pulled into the alleyway. Knight’s car was parked diagonally in front. I hadn’t been able to take in the features the first night. I barely had time now, but it was in a charming part of the city.
“Wait here,” I instructed the bodyguards. “And before you say anything, you both know I’m not in any danger. I have my phone.” I held it up so they could see it. “He has security. I’m perfectly safe.” I saw the look on Kimble’s face. “Do not walk into that apartment, do you understand?” I had to make it clear.
“Yes.”
I exited the car and jogged up the stone steps. I knocked and was startled when a man with white hair opened the door.
“Hello.”
“Hi.” I smiled. “I’m here to see Knight. I’m a friend of his.”
“I’m afraid he’s not here.”
I frowned. “He left his car out front. I just saw him fifteen minutes ago driving that car. He was at my house.”
The man blushed when he realized he was caught in a lie. I couldn’t blame him for covering for his boss.
I pushed past him. “Is he upstairs?” There were no noticeable doors in the foyer, only a staircase that led to the second story.
“Yes, but I wouldn’t—”
I ran quickly to the second level. “Knight? Knight?” I stopped when I saw him sitting in front of a baby grand piano. The windows to the courtyard thrown open. Sheer curtains danced in and out of the room like ghosts.
“Knight, what happened?” I approached him cautiously. There was a full bottle of gin on the piano.
“I told you I can’t talk about it.” His back was to me. His broad shoulders stretched for most of the keyboard. I lightly placed my palm on his shoulder. He jumped.
“I just want to know what happened. That’s all.” I kept my voice quiet.
He shook his head. “No.”
I took a step toward him, sitting on the edge of the bench, so that my back was to the keys and I faced him. He didn’t make room for me or acknowledge that I had broached his space. There was something dark and haunting in his eyes. It gave me chills.
“Please,” I whispered. I didn’t want to beg him. But nothing felt right. It was as if there was a fracture between us, but I didn’t know where it was. How could I mend it if I didn’t know how to find the break?
“No.” He was firm.
“What about the tickets? The trips? Are they here? Do you want to show me?” I was trying to think of anything to shake his mood. To bring back the enthralling man I was falling for.
“I don’t want to talk about the trip.”
“What then?” I questioned.
His chin drifted toward me. I caught the hollowness in his eyes. A depth of pain I didn’t expect to see. Not on him. Not on a man who dripped with confidence and charm. I didn’t know any other way to erase it, but with my lips. I kissed him fully and passionately. I nipped at his mouth and lashed at his tongue with my own. Did kisses heal? Could this one?
I tugged on his shirt, quickly unfastening the buttons. I pushed it open, admiring the lines of his torso. The way muscle met muscle. Knight threw the shirt on the floor. I let my nails rake over his abs. He tossed my hands off his body.
I moaned when his fingers wrapped to my waist, drawing the thin sundress around my hips. My breath caught against his. My heart beat faster. The blood pumped in my veins as I crawled into his lap.
I felt the hard ridge of his cock through my satin underwear. I rocked against the bulge, closing my eyes. I wanted the friction. I craved it. I whimpered when he pressed my back into the keys and began to kiss my neck. His lips trailed my throat until he was between my breasts. The sundress fell to the side when he pushed the fabric out of the way. He palmed a generous portion of my breast.
“Ohh,” I gasped as his tongue lapped before he sucked my tit into a hard point. He gazed at my nipples with lust, yanking the other one free and kissing it with roughness that made my body feel alive.
Our mouths met again, and he kissed me harder. With more force. More passion. It was as if there was something tangible swirling between us. A force of nature beyond our control.
The keys clanked as we moved together. I worked the top button on his pants, easing my hand inside.
“Fuck,” he groaned as I slid my palm along his cock. If I could free it with some maneuvering. One thrust, and he’d be inside me. Fucking me on the piano. I’d watch the pain in his eyes drain as the desire won him over.
“Knight,” I pleaded as he pushed the satin fabric between my legs aside, circling my clit with certain strokes. He growled as he plunged his fingers inside me. I eased up and down, letting them fill me, stretch me. Things had ended too quickly in the cabana. I needed this. I needed him.
His teeth took my nipple with authority and I panted, knowing the more his fingers penetrated me, the closer I was to coming. I worked his cock, trying to concentrate on bringing our bodies together, but he was relentless. I lost control. I lost my senses. He yanked my hand from his pants and planted me higher on the baby grand.
“All I want is to fucking devour you,” he growled. I should have taken it as a warning. I watched in awe as he peeled the panties over my knees and down my shins. They tickled my ankles before he tossed them over his couch.
I slammed the keys with my palms when he spread my thighs. Our eyes met once before his head dipped and he began devouring my pussy. The first swirl of his tongue was torture. I raised my hips, whimpering for more.
“Fuck me,” he growled, diving between my legs again. He feasted. My knees wrapped aroun
d his head as his tongue darted in and out. My feet banged out notes high and low. A barrage of random sounds, louder than my moans.
I pressed into the baby grand. I needed leverage. Gravity. A way to belt out what this man was doing. He pried my velvet lips wide and ran his tongue around my clit.
“Holy shit,” I hissed.
But he wasn’t done. Every time he dragged his tongue over my clit, I thought it was it. Release was near. But he sucked. He nipped. I begged for more, grinding my hips toward his mouth. My nipples were hard and puckered. I dared run my fingers over my tits and I whispered his name toward the ceiling. My breath was ragged and the juices flowing from my pussy were slick from him. From this unequivocally dominant sex god lapping at my pussy.
I was in heaven. Maybe it was hell. I couldn’t tell the way my body rode the sensations. He kept me wanting. Needing. Pleading.
I felt the first quiver snap like the release on the end of a bow. I waited for the next vibration. My belly burned from wanting him so badly. Suddenly he thrust a thick finger inside me and a long moan ripped from my throat. I’d never made that sound in my life. I couldn’t hold off the orgasm any longer. I pounded the keys as it took over, crashing through me. Tearing at my veins. Breaking me. Ripping me apart. Knight pumped in and out, filling me, stretching me, kissing my clit and sucking my pussy until I was a ragged mess. A second orgasm tore through my body.
The keys clanked while his mouth made claim to me. My eyes opened when I realized my body had stilled. Knight was staring at me. He had lowered my legs.
I smiled at him. “Thank God. That was amazing.” It had been building and building to this moment. Both of us climbing and clawing at each other with no interruptions.
“You should go,” he whispered.
I shook my head. “I don’t have to.” The bodyguards would stay outside. He didn’t have anything to worry about. I tried to reach for him. We had only just begun. I wanted all of him.
“Yes, you do,” he corrected me.
He picked up the bottle of gin and took a drink. I watched him, trying to figure out what in the hell was going on.
“I’ll stay. We can order dinner.” I peeled myself off the piano carefully, making a loud noise against the keys anyway. I tucked my breasts inside my dress. They still felt raw and warm from his teeth.
“I can’t. I can’t do this. With you.” His eyes cut to me and I didn’t understand. I’d felt the sting of rejection before, but not like this. Not after a moment like we just had. I saw the stiffness in the front of his pants. He hadn’t recovered any more than I had. He wasn’t done either. We were not done.
“Knight, just…”
“No,” he barked. “You have to go.”
He took another swig of gin. “How drunk are you?”
“Not drunk enough.”
I tried to straighten my dress in place, while biting the inside of my cheek. I didn’t want him to see a tear. He wouldn’t.
“Why?” I whispered. “Why even…” I couldn’t say the words. I took a step toward the skinny French doors. They reached all the way to the tops of the twelve-foot ceiling. Knight’s hand clasped around my wrist, stopping me from leaving.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
I closed my eyes. “What was your plan?”
“To make sure you never come back.” He released my arm and stumbled toward the piano. I watched in disbelief as he finished off the bottle and smashed it against the farthest wall. He started to play. It was haunting. As haunting as the demons I had seen in his eyes.
I didn’t look for my green satin underwear. I ran out of the room and down the stairs. The door opened into the sunlight. Kimble and Joseph both waited outside the car.
“We’re headed home.” I ducked into the backseat. I refused to look up at the window as we drove away.
All I knew was that Knight had accomplished his plan. I would never come back.
10
Knight
It was almost a week before I presented my father with the letter from Lucien Martin. I knew time was running out before he told Kennedy about the offer. I’d spent the week drunk. I’d spent it playing long ballads on my piano. I’d spent it sleeping off one hangover just to get to the next. I’d canceled meetings. Neglected work.
“What’s this?” My father took the paper stained with drinks and food splotches. It hadn’t left my hand.
I had showered and shaved before appearing at the office. At last I didn’t look like a man who had been desperately lost.
“It’s from Lucien Martin,” I explained. “I told him it wasn’t an acceptable offer.” I waited for my father to read it. He folded it.
“He can’t have my hotel.”
“I know.”
He shoved the letter in a drawer in his desk. “The Vieux Carre is critical.”
“I told him you will have the hotel. I don’t know what else to say. He’s not going to get it. There are lots of way to make that happen.”
“His daughter, though? Have you met her?”
It wasn’t a question I expected. I nodded. “I have.”
“And?”
“She’s beautiful. Smart. Young.” I looked at him. “Just graduated college.”
“But you’re not interested in a beautiful young girl?”
“The hotel is the cornerstone to your entire plan. Trading Lucien’s daughter for that property isn’t a good move for you.” I couldn’t even bear to say Kennedy’s name out loud.
“What about for you?”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
He crossed his arms. “The bastard isn’t going to have the hotel. I don’t care if his daughter is a god damn Miss Universe playmate.”
“I know, Dad. It’s exactly what I said to him.”
“Wait.”
I paused at the door. I was ready for the meeting to be over.
“Last time Lucien came up, you said he sent an emissary in his place for the meeting.”
“Yes.” Fuck. He was putting pieces together.
“When did you see him then?”
“At his house.” I couldn’t lie.
“Some sort of follow up meeting?”
I shook my head. “No, I wasn’t there to see Lucien.”
“Why then?” he pressed.
“I was there to see his daughter.”
He peered at me. “What the hell is going on, Knight? Your sister’s wedding is in two weeks. Two fucking weeks. I’m running around trying on tuxedos and eating cakes your mother puts on a plate for me. I don’t need to worry about you getting fucked over by Lucien Martin’s daughter. You have some thing for her after all? Is that what you’re trying to tell me? Feelings? What is it? Are you just screwing her?” He shook his head. His face turned red. “The man is a con. He’s not one of us. He never will be. He’s about to learn the price for trying to interfere with my business. You don’t need to be anywhere near that family.”
I stared at him. “Five minutes ago, you wanted to know if I was interested in marrying her. Now you’re saying she’s off limits?”
“His offer is rejected. No deal. No daughter-in-law.” He pulled the letter from the desk and shredded it. I watched the tiny pieces float to the trashcan.
I needed space to breathe. “Okay, Dad.” But it wasn’t okay. And I still couldn’t figure out why. “I’m out.”
“We have dinner tonight with Seraphina and Brandon.”
But I kept walking without acknowledging the family plans or the dinner. I didn’t acknowledge his tirade. I didn’t argue again about how he had decided on one extreme then the other. I had to find some air.
“I’m surprised you called.”
“Sorry, man.”
Parker shrugged. “It’s been a few weeks.”
“You know. Wedding shit for Seraphina.” I had started lying to my friends. When had I become the asshole?
“I get it. I get it.” He sat across from me. We had ordered pints at an Irish bar.
I wip
ed the sweat from my brow. It was hot as hell. The third day it had reached over a hundred degrees this week.
“Look, the reason I called is because I need some help.”
I straightened in my seat. “What is it?”
Parker rubbed the handle on the glass as if there was a smudge he was worried about.
“Chelsea’s pregnant.”
I swallowed instead of spitting out the beer and it lodged in my esophagus.
“Fuck, man, you okay?” Parker stared at me.
“Yeah. Yeah.” I tried to inhale a full breath. “Sorry. She’s pregnant? I didn’t think you two were serious.”
“We weren’t.” He hung his head. “But things happen.”
“What are you going to do?” I was blindsided.
“Marry her.” I saw the grin on his face.
“No shit.” I couldn’t believe it.
“Yeah. My dad is going to be pissed, but first the grandchild is going to carry some weight being the first Bastion. Don’t you think?”
“Yeah. Yeah. That will definitely help.”
I stared at the bubbles in the beer. I was supposed to congratulate him. A baby. A marriage. We were the same age. We had gone to prep school together. College together. He was my best friend. He was headed down a path I didn’t want a single foot on. I’d never felt more distant from him.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked.
“A lot of changes.” I nodded. “Seraphina. Now you.”
“It’s not how we planned it, but she’s having my baby. I can’t walk away from that. And I do love her. It took a fight for me to figure it out.”
“A fight? What do you mean?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t react the way a man is supposed to react when he finds out he’s about to be a dad. Chelsea said she’d do this on her own. She was ready to breakup. It was then. Right then when I thought I lost her, that I realized I was a fucking idiot. Who am I going to find better than her? You know?”
I didn’t think that was the way marriages should be decided. Parker knew my philosophy on marriage. He witnessed the same kind of arranged bullshit I did. But bringing it up now would only be a punch to the gut. I kept my mouth shut. The truth was I didn’t know Chelsea well. Maybe she was the perfect woman for him. They’d been sleeping together a few months. I didn’t want to ask the obvious. Was he sure it was his baby?