Worth It

“Don’t,” I warned, my voice soft.



She merely sniffed, crying silently. “Don’t what? Tell you the truth? Tell you I don’t even remember how many there’ve been, how none of them could ever make me forget you.”



“Stop it.” I backed her against the wall, using my size to intimidate her, scare her into silence. Because hearing about her with other guys chipped away at my soul.



But she only looked up at me through all her tears. “I let them into my body, and then I let them do whatever they wanted to me, and none of it mattered because all I ever wanted was—”



“Damn it!” I roared and slapped the wall by her head, making her flinch. “I said stop.”



I don’t think she could stop, though. She’d already abandoned her pride. She was baring her soul, and her tears seemed to drag each word from deep within her. “No one ever kissed me like you did. No one ever touched me like you did. No one—”



With a choked sound of defeat, I crushed my mouth to hers. I had to shut her up. Her words were slaying me. Her tears were like poison. I died a hundred deaths from each aching confession. And I needed her to stop before I ceased to exist.



It wasn’t until she clutched my face and ran her fingers up to my head, pulling hard at my scalp, that I realized I’d just kissed her.



Then it all hit me at once. Her smell, the taste of her lips, the warm soft texture of her cheeks under my palms. I groaned and pressed deeper into her softness, letting it consume me.



“City,” I gasped, arching her face back further so I could devour her. This was the end of a six-year famine, and I was starving.



She whimpered, grasping back at me just as frantically. Her fingers couldn’t seem to stay still, racing over my body, over my scalp, back down my shoulders, clutching my ass and pulling me tight in between her thighs.



“Yes,” she moaned, soaking me in.



God, I’d missed the humping, missed how she loved to grind against me as her mouth moved under mine.



Her blue jean skirt bunched up to her waist as she lifted her legs to wrap them around my waist. My fingers couldn’t resist the invitation and curled around her exposed thighs before slipping up and finding her panties. When my thumb brushed over the damp spot, we both groaned. Breaking the kiss to press my forehead to hers, I shoved the cloth aside and found her clit, messaging it without mercy.



“Knox,” she keened out, clutching my shoulder and riding my hand.



“It’s been too long,” I bit out, so intent on her pleasure I couldn’t focus on anything else. “...since I’ve seen you come.”



She panted and writhed, telling me how close she was. “Knox,” she gasped again, her voice high. It was starting; her fingernails dug through the cloth of my shirt into me, her eyes began to roll, and her mouth opened just as someone yelped, “Oh, shit. Sorry.”



I whirled around, ripping my finger out of her and pressing my back into her to protect her from view, but Ten had already averted his face and was reversing from the break room.



“My bad,” he apologized, only to pause and hold up a finger. “But for the record, I totally did not see you two happening. I mean, what the fuck? When did—”



“Get out,” I growled, and he was gone.



As soon at the door shut, I shot away from Felicity, moving to the opposite side of the room. Shaking like crazy and on the edge of my own control, I wiped a hand over my face, only to smell her on my fingers. Big mistake. I almost came in my damn pants.



I risked a glance her way to find her smoothing down her skirt and trying to regain her settled breaths.



“You okay?” I asked.



She smiled at me, one of her warm, lovely City smiles. “Sure.” Then she shrugged and blushed, chagrined. “I mean, other than being totally embarrassed that Ten saw us and rocking all this sexual frustration, yeah, I’m great.” She moved toward me as if she was going to hug me.



I held up a hand, jerking my head back and forth. “That shouldn’t have happened.”



Slowing to a stop, she frowned, her smile dying. “What?”



I looked away because I hated her disappointment. “I told you, Felicity, we can’t ever be together again. And I fucking meant it.”



I hurried from the room before she could respond, even though she looked too hurt to do so. Then I blew past both Ten and Asher, along with the other waitresses who’d worked tonight, and I escaped.



Once outside, I found the same shadowed place where I’d hidden the night Felicity had first tried to find me, and I pressed my back to the wall, aching with regret.