Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Knox

The look on her face.

God, it’s hilarious.

But it’s the pink that floods her cheeks that has my dick going hard.

“What?” she whispers. “We— I— Um— I?—”

I grin and cup her cheek. “I’m kidding, lioness.” I tilt my head toward the bag I left on the island. “I brought you Joe’s.”

She blinks once.

Then twice.

“Joe’s?” she whispers. “I?—”

“Turkey club with avocado and kettle chips, right?”

She blinks again. “I— How?—?”

How do I know her favorite sandwich? Because I’ve been obsessed for months now.

“Let’s eat, lioness,” I say instead of telling her that and drop my hand to the side, moving to the island and tearing open the bag, reaching in to pull out our chips and sandwiches.

But before I can set them on the counter, she yanks the bag away from me.

“Um, hungry much?” I ask lightly.

She tears into the paper, stares at the bread, then peels it back.

Then she goes still.

So fucking still she could be a statue.

“Did I get it wrong?” I ask, mentally scrolling through my list of all things Ivy. “I can go back.”

Slowly, she sets the bag down. Just as slowly, she turns toward me. And still, yup, slowly her head comes up, those gorgeous brown eyes drifting to mine. “Getting naked.”

I frown, trying to understand what she just said. “What’s that, baby?”

“Getting naked.”

Okay, so I’ve heard her right. It’s just that words don’t make sense when paired with a turkey club. “Um…”

A step toward me. Another. “We’re not eating lunch,” she murmurs, dropping her hand onto my chest, just above my heart. Then she’s moving slowly again, dragging her fingers down my pecs, my abs, my?—

My breath hitches when she pauses at the waistband of my pants.

“ We’re ,” she says, slipping one finger inside to trace against my bare skin, “getting naked.”

I shiver, fixated on that finger moving back and forth, back and forth.

So, it takes me a second to process what she’s saying.

Okay, more than a second.

But, eventually, I get with the program. I snag her hand, tug it free. “Lioness, I?—”

“Don’t go all noble on me, Knox Adler. You asked and I’m willing.” Her mouth tips up at the edges. “Now follow through on the naked part.”

My dick twitches.

But I have to make sure.

“Ivy,” I whisper. “You don’t?—”

Her hand slips from mine and descends, but this time it doesn’t stop at my waistband. She cups me, fingers wrapping around the length of my cock and squeezing.

I curse.

She steps closer, until her front is pressed fully against mine, her breasts soft against my chest, her thighs flush to mine, her hand trapped between us. “I want you,” she murmurs. “I’ve wanted you for so long.”

“I didn’t come here for this, lioness. I just knew you’d be worried and?—”

Her free hand comes to my jaw. “Knox?”

“Yeah?”

“I know you’re good at talking.” Her brown eyes dance. “But will you please do less of that and more of the whole getting naked part?”

It’s the mischief in her stare.

It calls to the devil inside me, erodes any possible hope of control.

“You know,” I say, reaching for the hem of her shirt, “I’m really good at multitasking.”

“Oh?”

I draw the material up an inch, trail my fingers over the smooth skin of her abdomen. “I can talk and give you an orgasm at the same time.”

“I think I’d prefer less talking and more pleasure.”

Grinning, I tug at the material, dragging it up and over her head, leaving her in her simple cotton bra and a pair of leggings that coat her like a second skin. “Mmm,” I say, lowering my head and flicking out my tongue, trailing it along the column of her throat, the hinge of her jaw, not stopping until I reach her ear. “Have I told you how beautiful you are?”

“Yeah, yeah,” she mutters, though it’s interspersed with her breath hitching when I suck on her earlobe, when I flick out my tongue again to tease the sensitive spot behind her ear. “Less talky, more orgasms.”

I nip lightly, love that she trembles response in. “But sometimes talk is good.” I press a kiss to her jaw, then to the corner of her mouth.

“Lies.”

“Mmm.” I drop my lips to hers and taste her, slow and deep, until both of us are breathing hard. “But what if I talk about how I want to peel off the rest of your clothes and kiss every inch of your naked body?”

She shivers.

“Or if I tell you that once you’re naked, I’m going to get down on this floor and you’re going to sit on my face?”

Another shiver, more violent this time. “Well, at least that would get you to stop talking.”

I grin, slide my hand down her throat, trail my fingers over her bra. Then I’m pulling the material up, exposing breasts that are more beautiful than anything I could have dreamed up—and I’ve dreamed a whole fucking lot. “You’d think that,” I say, cupping one of those gorgeous tits. “Wouldn’t you?”

She gasps when I lightly pinch her nipple between thumb and forefinger. “Y-yes.”

I lean down, until my mouth is just above her flesh, my breath a hot glaze on her skin. “And you don’t think these words would feel good vibrating against your clit?”

“Knox— oh!”

I suckle her deep at the same time that my free hand slides down, down, in .

Hot flesh.

Wet lips.

I groan. She moans. And then we’re both moving. She yanks at my shirt. I shove at her pants, her underwear. Her bra is tangled over her head. My sweats are down around my ankles.

It’s a flurry of movement, not graceful in the least, but it’s effective.

Because in that short amount of time, we’re both naked, and the condom from my wallet is within arm’s reach and?—

“Woof!”

Our heads whip toward the animals, and I see two pairs of beady eyes on us.

“Yeah,” I mutter. “This isn’t going to work.”

She jerks, but I don’t give her time to reconsider, just snag the condom and scoop her up. The squeal she makes is fucking adorable. But I have other things on my mind as I carry her down the hall and toss her onto her bed, getting a flash of glistening pink folds and bouncing breasts.

I close the door and then I’m over her, spreading her legs and tossing one thigh over each shoulder.

“Should we see how good those words feel now?”