Chapter Five

Lena

Waking up, I came too slowly, like I was waking up while on vacation. My body relaxed as I stretched out, but my leg hit something. Something that strangely felt like another person, which was weird.

I didn’t do sleepovers.

Ever.

It was a rule of mine.

Not that I could remember the last time I had gotten lucky with anything not battery operated.

And even though I felt like a brand-new woman, I stilled, trying to come to without having to open my eyes. Knox, the recesses of my mind whispered, and I relaxed fully, his body heat right beside me.

I peeked through my eyes and noted he was still asleep. Slowly, I opened my eyes and silently let myself enjoy the view. He was handsome. Older with a light dusting of distinguished salt and pepper at his temples that I hadn’t really noticed the night before. The scruffiness on his jaw line was fuller and dark and made me want to kiss him. Not his lips, though he was a great kisser, but to feel my lips against the scruff on his strong jaw.

He was as naked as I was, which meant we were together in bed like the day we were born. The view was spectacular. His chest was incredible. He obviously worked out and took care of himself, and by the tenting of the light sheet, he was also up and ready.

Slowly and without overthinking, I moved my hands slowly downward, letting the white sheet fall lower, his perfect cock springing free and at complete attention. I shifted slightly out of his arms, careful not to wake him. Damn. How that thing fit in me I had no idea, but I did remember how amazing he had felt. I moved down and leaned my head toward his gorgeous cock. He hadn’t let me taste him last night, and I wanted to. I had never felt an ache to go down on a man, but here I was licking his mushroom tip before letting the crown slip between my lips. Sucking and licking him was just as much for my own pleasure as for his.

A deep glutaral moan escaped from him, and when I peeked in his direction, the need for him to fill me struck even harder. His hooded dark eyes were pinned on mine, clearly enjoying what I was doing to him. I felt powerfully feminine and couldn’t stop myself. Reaching for his hand, I lifted it to my hair, silently giving him permission to use me however pleased him.

And he did.

Slowly at first, testing how much I could take, I bobbed, taking him in and out of my mouth, deep throating when he pleased. Holding his tightened testicles in my hand, I knew he was close, but before I knew it, he lifted my up, his hands digging into my armpits, lifting me easily onto him. My legs around his waist, I leaned forward and kissed him. Morning breath be damned.

Kissing him was amazing.

He was passionate but playful. Sweet yet demanding. Gentle then rough. He was like a riptide, and I let the current of everything Knox take me away, along for the ride. I loved how in control he was and how confidently his lips and tongue moved against mine.

How just kissing him made me achingly wet, and when it was time, he pushed me down, perfectly, so I could ride him. Up and down, I took him as he handed over the reins, but I was under no false illusion of who actually held it. How could I with how his hands held on to my hips and his eyes owned me?

Still, I teased.

I took.

I felt magnificent as I chased after the daybreak of my orgasm. It flooded my body. Euphoria from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. Sounds escaped my body I had no idea I could make. He didn’t let me go, pushing my body higher and higher. The waves crashed into me, and when it had washed out of me, he took over.

Moving my body like a doll, he positioned me on my belly, his strong, huge body between my legs, and before I could look back at him, he took me. Hand clenching the sheets hard. Like an animal, a primal need took control of him, and he drove into me.

In and out.

Harshly.

Roughly.

Rutting into me.

I had never felt anything like it in my life. I had only read about it in cheesy romance novels I stole from my sister’s nightstand. He fucked me, but even then, it wasn’t on a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am level. It was intimate and beautiful. A coupling. We were one. Unbelievably intimate and passionate even through its roughness, and even though I had just come, I was on the brink again, and I knew he felt it

“Come for me, baby,” he demanded, and like his good girl, I did.

Whereas the previous orgasm had washed through me, this one splintered, cracking through me. Making every nerve explode as I shattered under him only to prolong the bliss as I felt the warm heat of his own release. My name sounded like the most beautiful chant in his deep voice as ribbon after ribbon filled me. If I had been thinking straight, I would have realized there was nothing between us to protect us from our action.

His body fell on top of mine, trapping me under him. His body felt amazing. I had never felt safer or more at home than that in moment. With that thought, I drifted off to sleep to the sensation of his lips on my shoulder.

Knox

“I can’t,” I quietly answered.

“I need you here.”

“I understand that, but…” How could I tell him about Lena? Eli would think I was insane. Or maybe he would be the one person in my life who would understand.

“Please,” my buddy mumbled. One damn word from a friend who had never asked for a thing, and my schedule and plans were going to hell.

Looking at the beautiful angel sleeping in my hotel room bed, I sighed. How the hell would I explain I had to leave?

“Look, man, get on the plane. I’ll try and smooth out feathers for you at the New York site. I just really need someone to watch over this project. You know I wouldn’t ask if I weren’t in a bind. I can’t—”

“Yeah, I know,” I muttered, tearing my eyes away from my funny girl. “Alma.”

“Alma.” I could hear the smile in my friend’s voice. “Alma and the baby.”

“Congratulations, man.”

“Thanks.”

“You know I’m happy for you, yeah?”

“Appreciate it.”

“Even with the timing being shit,” I joked and heard him chuckle. I cleared my throat. “Eli?”

“What?”

“You know when you met Alma?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you know.”

“Know?”

“Yeah, you know, how did you know she was it for you?” I asked in a hushed tone. A moment passed, and I heard him curse.

“Don’t tell me the great Knox Madison got knoxed on his feet by a woman?” He was teasing. Great. Not that I would have expected differently. I was forty, never married. My married buddies always got on me about it.

“Eli,” I warned

“Oh, this is too good. I cannot wait to tell Jared.”

“Haha… come on.”

“You’re at Chase Tucker’s wedding, right?”

“You know I was.”

“Was it a bridesmaid? I bet she’s young. Or wait, no. Is it the mother of the bride? Will Chase have to call you dad?”

“Eli.”

“I just knew,” he explained confidently, like somehow those three words explained it all, and at the end of the day, they kind of did.

“Did it freak you out?” Because I wasn’t. I was calm. Well, mostly calm. The anxiousness stemmed from wanting to tie her to me.

“Is that what’s going on, old man? You freaking out?”

“What is it with everyone riding me about my age? I’m not old. And to answer your question, not one damn bit,” I answered honestly as I looked at her. Her beautiful hair stood out against the pure white sheets below her.

“Then there you go. What else do you need?”

“Time.”

“In my opinion, time is for chumps. Why wait when what you want is right in front of you? I hated the time I lost with Alma.” She had slipped away in the middle of the night on him, and he had searched high and low for her. Thankfully, they had been more connected than either of them realized, and he had found her at his brother’s house. She was his sister-in-law’s cousin.

“Thanks, man. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

“I’m sorry about this. Bring her if you want. It shouldn’t be more than three days max.”

“No worries. See you soon.” I ended the call, setting the phone on the small table next to me. I would be busy overseeing the last bit of the project Eli needed help on. I couldn’t take her. She would be bored out of her mind.

Holding my head in my hands between my knees, I heard her shift in bed, and I looked up at her.

Her brown locks fell over her shoulder, her head tilted slightly, quietly studying me.

“You have to go,” she finally said, reading me clearly, and I swallowed hard.

“I do.”

“Okay.” She stood, taking the sheet with her, and I stood and rushed over to her.

“Knox—”

“Lena. Please let me explain.”

“There is no need for explanations.” I could see the walls she had built around her.

Walls I would tear down with my bare hands if I needed to.

“You don’t understand.”

“I do. It was fun.” She lifted and dropped one of her sexy shoulders. “Just so you know, you didn’t have to sell me on the whole New York thing. You could have said it was just what it was. One-night stands happen. We’re both adults—”

“We are not a one-night stand.”

“Morning nookie happens with one-nighters, Knox. It’s okay.”

“I’m coming back.”

“Okay.” She rolled her eyes, pushing me away, grabbing her dress from the floor, and I followed her around the hotel room like a puppy.

“I am.”

“I’m sure you are.”

“Lena, baby—”

“I’m not that type, though, Knox.” Something about the tone in her voice made me grab her in my arms, enjoying the feel of her bare under the sheet she had wrapped around her. I liked her in white.

“Type?”

“I’m not a port-of-call girl. The idea can be romantic to some, but it’s not me.”

“Port-of-call girl?”

“And I get the allure of you. I do. A man like you. All sexy and masculine. And if I were five years younger, I might have gone for it.”

“Port-of-call girl?” I asked again, needing her to clarify what the hell she meant.

“You know, the girl you call when you’re in a certain city. The stupid girl holding her breath for her turn.”

“Oh, my funny girl.” I nuzzled my nose against hers. “You’re not a port-of-call girl,” I reassured her.

“Right. Only because you didn’t know the term, but I’m sure you have a little black book full of—”

“I do,” I admitted and felt her try to get out of my arms. I dropped my lips lower to her ear. “I do have a black book. One I haven’t used in more than two years. I haven’t so much as looked at a woman sexually in over two years. Easy sex lost its allure a long time ago, Lena.” She softened into my body, and I didn’t miss the way her arms wrapped around my waist.

“You don’t want me to go with you anymore, though.”

“I do. God, I do. But my plans changed. A friend of mine needs help overseeing a lucrative project, and I can’t say no. He’s never asked me for anything, and he needs my help.

“Oh,” she whispered, resting her head against my pec.

“It’s in Texas.”

“Texas?” she asked, her head pulling away to look at me.

“I’ll be swamped with work and making sure details are done and finished. You would be bored to death, and I wouldn’t be able to give you the attention you deserve.”

“Oh,” she sighed, her cheeks the prettiest shade of pink.

“I’m nowhere done with you. Exploring this thing with us.”

“Exploring things?”

“I’ll be back,” I promised her, hoping the next three days would go by in the blink of an eye.