Chapter Thirty-Six

Knox

It was just Bianca and me. We were in an empty storefront.

All I could see for miles were racks. Empty racks. Racks upon racks.

I wasn’t sure what they were for until Bianca walked out in a big, white dress and spun around.

I tried to touch her, but she was always just beyond my reach. I chased after her, but she kept flitting from rack to rack.

“You can do it,” I kept saying. “You can do it.”

But suddenly, I was alone. There was no Bianca. Now, it was just me and my voice that was starting to echo in my head.

Running, I was running, so fast and so hard. Until I finally came to a stop. Bianca was back and we were now in my bedroom, but it wasn’t my bedroom. The walls were gray, the furniture unfamiliar.

But she was on the bed, her knees pressing into the mattress as she stared at me in nothing more than a white bra and the laciest white underwear I’d ever seen.

“Come here,” she said, her voice breathy, and as if I was controlled by her, I moved forward and dug my hands into her hair.

Our lips pressed against one another’s and I couldn’t seem to stop our kiss. I needed her like I needed oxygen in my lungs.

But Bianca had something else on her mind, as she always did, and she pulled back, dropping her head behind her and running one pink-painted fingernail down her neck between her ample breasts. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t need to.

I had all the encouragement I needed to wrap my hands around her and spin her so her back was to me. Trailing my tongue down her neck, I started kissing her, inhaling her sweet scent, my hands already busy at work. One on her hip, steadying her, the other snaking around her torso to find a breast, to feel her through the delicate fabric.

I knew I needed to explore her, but even in this alternate reality, I knew I needed to go slow, to savor every inch of her.

As if she, too, felt impassioned, she let out a moan and threw her head back, her back arching as her nipple hardened under my touch, pressing into my palm under the barrier that I wanted to rip away with my teeth.

But I couldn’t stop caressing her, couldn’t take my hand off her. Didn’t want to.

I needed her. Wanting her to know how badly I needed her, I pressed into her backside, letting her feel what she did to me. Ready to explode, I bit down on her shoulder. Hard.

“Knox!” she cried. “Knox! Knox!”

My eyes flew open and I looked around, my entire body on alert as my heart raced. “Shit,” I muttered, coming to the realization I’d just had a dream about Bianca.

“Knox!” I heard my name being shouted again. “Noah’s here looking for you. Are you getting up?”

“Don’t worry, Bianca, I’ll just go on in and surprise our friend,” I heard Noah say on the other side of my bedroom door.

“Shit,” I repeated, looking at my clock. “I overslept.” Then I called, “I’ll be right out.” After I deal with my hard-on.

* * *

Bianca

“Who oversleeps when they make plans with a person to go to the batting cages in the morning?” Knox’s friend, Noah, asked while helping himself to juice in the refrigerator.

“Sorry about that,” I said, not sure what else to say.

“I’m just glad you were here to let me in. Do you know he sleeps with his phone off? It’s so weird.” He shuddered as he spoke as if afraid said weirdness was contagious.

I just laughed. Noah was a funny guy. I could see how they were friends. We hadn’t spent more than a few minutes together, talking as we waited for Knox, and I already knew I liked him.

“Do you run every day?” he asked me, going back to what we’d been talking about earlier.

I shook my head, though. “Not if it can be helped, but I do try. These days I have plenty of time on my hands, though, so there’s no excuse.”

“You sound like my wife, Crystal. She hates working out. You’d like her. We should get you two together sometime.”

I smirked and crinkled my eyebrows just as Knox finally decided to show up and say exactly what was on my mind—“What, like on a playdate?”

In what I was learning was Noah’s chill manner, he gestured in front of himself, his hand turning down and said, “Call it what you want.”

“I’d rather not, it’s strange, dude,” Knox said, and I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped my lips.

“Nice meeting you, Noah. I’ll let you two do your thing. I need to go take a shower anyway.”

* * *

Knox

Why’d she have to go and bring up a shower?

And while I was questioning things, why’d she have look so hot in those tight black pants and that little black top?

Wasn’t that dream bad enough? Now I had to go daydreaming about her, too.

“You’re drooling, man,” Noah said and tilted his head up, mock wiping his chin.

My eyes immediately cut to him. “Shut up.” I didn’t need her knowing that I was still stupidly feeling something for her.

“She’s gone, it’s fine.”

“You want to sit around here all day, or do you want to hit some balls?”

Noah’s eyebrow shot up, but only momentarily. Then he turned his head and felt his bicep. “Wouldn’t want to neglect these bad boys. They’re Crystal’s favorites. She actually named them along with my—”

“Enough,” I cut him off before he could make me want to wipe my brain clean with bleach.

* * *

“You’re not seeing it for what it is, man.” Noah tried convincing me a love triangle was actually a good thing after I’d brought him up to speed. “Most men would give their left nut to be in the type of situation you’re in.”

I rolled my eyes and picked up my bat, ready to start swinging as I stepped up and Noah slipped the first token into the machine. “How do you figure?” I asked as my bat connected with the first ball.

“Threesomes are hot,” he said off to the side.

Bam! Second hit. “No, just no. There will be no threesome.” Bam! Third hit. “Besides, the triangle kind of fell apart.” Thank goodness. And even if it hadn’t, I was not one of those men who’d be into a threesome. Not with Bianca. I couldn’t share her with anyone—another man, woman, or even a cat. No, after all the time I’d spent wanting her, she would need to be all mine.

He shook his head and smacked his lips as if to say yeah, right . But he didn’t get it. “I’m not stupid. It’s still intact, but we can pretend. So indulge me, do the little ladies not get along?”

Understatement of the century. “Not necessarily.” I mean, seriously, could you see Bianca and Rina sharing a bed—with me? I’m cringing at the prospect. They’d rip each other’s hair out.

“Even better. Hate sex is the best. Trust me, I know. When Crystal and I are arguing, we reach new heights, if you catch my drift.”

I didn’t need that picture inside my head. “Everyone catches your drift. You can feel free to keep some things to yourself. As for my love triangle and the possibility of a threesome? That won’t be happening.”

“Suit yourself, but if I were you, I’d sleep with that Bianca chick sooner rather than later. Have you seen her?”

As the balls kept coming, my jaw tightened at him talking about Bianca that way. I knew it was just Noah and he meant no harm, but it still pissed me off. “Yes, I’ve seen her,” I ground out, a thunderous clap ricocheting off my bat as I hit yet another ball, perhaps with a little too much aggression behind it. That aside, I was on a roll today.

“Good, because for a second there I thought I might have to make you an appointment to see an optometrist.”

Definitely not. But if he kept this up, friend or not, he was going to have to see a doctor himself for a black eye. “The problem is, all I do is see her and I want her. Bad.” I tossed my bat down when the pitching machine came to a stop, my mind on the dream I’d had again. Man, was it a good dream. Too good. And definitely not something I should be thinking about at the batting cages.

Switching places with me, Noah picked up the bat and starting swinging at the air like he was some sort of pro, or an idiot who wanted to pretend he was a pro. Meanwhile, I put another token in the machine for him. “So pick Bianca.”

I shook my head. If only. “It’s not that simple,” I confessed.

“Seems simple to me.”

My hands on the netting, I leaned into it and watched as he got started. Let’s just say that took a few minutes—baseball was not Noah’s thing. Once he hit a rhythm, though, I explained, “Well, it’s not. Her father hates me and is so adamant about us being together that when Bianca told him we’d be dating, he actually fired her from their family business and she moved out. Hence the reason why she’s living with me now.”

“Oof. You should’ve called me before making the decision of having her move in. Living with a woman is not all it’s cracked up to be. Trust me, they pretend like it’s us that’s the problem, leaving the toilet seat up and socks on the floor, but no, it’s them.” He turned to me for a split second before eyeing the ball flying toward him, not that it helped since it flew right by him as he jumped to the side. “We have to experience everything with them and let me tell you, the mood swings are nothing to take lightly.”

I wasn’t sure why I wanted to talk things out with him. I should’ve known better after the video call we’d had in Paris. I had a feeling taking any advice from Noah was a bad idea. “Bianca doesn’t have mood swings and it hasn’t been bad living with her.”

“Ah, so you haven’t experienced PMS yet.”

“Not personally,” I said. Okay, I needed to stick to my gut and steer clear of Noah’s advice on this topic. He was getting way off track for my liking and frankly PMS was not something I wanted to think about.

He ignored me. “Oh, yeah, premenstrual syndrome.” He swung, but missed the ball. Again.

I exhaled. “Enough. I got it, and you need to concentrate.” And I couldn’t listen to this anymore. Or watch this, frankly.

Ignoring me, he continued talking, though—“Nah, it’s serious. It’s like some sort of demon takes over Crystal’s body and I’m the enemy. I’m telling you, I sleep with one eye open on those nights.”

“Maybe you should be more sympathetic to what she’s going through,” I tried.

“Sympathetic? Did you not hear me? I’m the victim, dude.”

And that should’ve been the end of today’s insanity. I tried to get the conversation back on track (had to if I had any hope of making sense of everything going on in my head)—“Okay, well, I still have no idea what to do about Rina and Bianca.” I shook the netting as if to punctuate my statement.

Giving up, Noah dropped his bat on the ground and walked away as another ball came flying toward where he was supposed to be standing. “I hate this sport. I don’t know why I let you convince me this would be fun. Anyway, I think you do know what to do.”

Dodging another ball, I came around and reached for the bat to finish his set. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Bam! Have I told you how much I love baseball?

“It means I think you’re overthinking this, you baseball playing God. You already have your answer and don’t want to admit it.”

I waited while he put another token in for me to go again. “I played in high school. But you’re wrong,” I said, keeping my eyes ahead, waiting for the first pitch to come at me.

“I don’t think so. I can read people like a book. I’m a lawyer, it’s sort of part of the job to sniff out what’s going on that my clients aren’t telling me.”

“So now you’re a dog. The first step is admitting you’re a dog, then seeing what you can do to change your ways.”

“Real funny. But I’m serious. Sparks practically flew when you and Bianca were together this morning.”

“You haven’t seen Rina and I together, though.” Although, the only word for that was awkward. I think I just felt bad admitting it aloud.

“Meh.” It was as if he could read me. “Do you feel the same pull to her as you do Bianca?”

“Honestly? No. That’s the problem. By the way, you must be a great lawyer.”

“I’ve been trying to tell you. It’s a curse, really.”

The machine cranked out another pitch and I sent it soaring.

Getting our conversation back on track, Noah said, “Not feeling a pull to your ex like you do that cute little Italian thing is not a problem. It seems like you just got your answer.”

“I could ruin Bianca’s relationship with her dad.” I hit another ball and as it went flying, I turned quickly to eye him. “And you better watch out if you keep making comments like that about Bianca,” I warned.

Throwing his hands up in the air in the universal mean-no-harm gesture, he smirked. “It seems like we have our answer here. You like Bianca, period. And as far as her old man goes, it sounds like he already ruined their relationship when he kicked her out.”

“They could repair things if I don’t get in the way and we’re just friends.”

“You are not just friends, at least you don’t want to be. Otherwise you wouldn’t have described yourself as in a love triangle and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Great, so I’m all sorts of messed up.”

“Not messed up, just overthinking this.” He sat down and hooked his arms around his knees. “Let me ask you a question, who do you think about when it’s the middle of the night and you’re alone with your thoughts?”

Easy. “Bianca.”

“And who do you find exciting?”

“Bianca.” Woah, that was fast. I stopped and thought for a second before adding, “But Rina can be exciting, too.”

“In what way?” he challenged me.

I took a beat before answering, opting instead to closely watch the ball coming at me, then speaking. “Well, she has a lot of life goals and they’re exciting.”

“Now you’re just making shit up. Listen, if I were you, I’d make a decision sooner rather than later. Stop wasting time with a girl you don’t want to be with and start being with the girl you actually want to be with.”

“Dude, that was profound.”

“I can be sometimes.”

“I’ve never seen it before.”

“Whatever. Just take the advice.”

This round over, I laid the bat over my shoulder and crossed a foot over my ankle. “You want to go another round?”

Noah found a rogue ball, picked it up and tossed it at me. “Hell no. Let’s get out of here,” he said, standing up.

“You know, I’m glad we did this.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. I don’t see the appeal to balls flying at my face at forty plus miles an hour. I’ve got to protect all this,” he said and mimed rubbing a palm over his face.

Laughing, I just shook my head. “I meant the talking thing. You suck at baseball.”

Taking me in a chokehold, Noah laughed. “Yeah, well, I don’t want to make a habit of sitting around like chicks and blathering, either. I’m afraid it’ll lead to urges to paint my nails or other things girls do, and I have a rep to protect.”

“Wuss,” I countered, slipping out of his hold and twisting him in it.