Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Knox

I exhale, the cool morning air creating a cloud of condensation around me as I supervise Winter in Ivy’s back yard.

She’s not in any hurry to do her business, apparently, considering she’s spent the last ten minutes sniffing every rock and pine needle.

There’s a creak, a whoosh of air, and I turn to see Ivy walking out onto the porch.

She’s in those fuzzy pajamas, thick socks, and oversized sweatshirt, and she’s still beautiful enough to take my breath away.

“Hey, lioness.”

Her eyes are wary, but there’s no sign of thick walls to keep me out, and I exhale again. “I wasn’t sure how you take your coffee,” she says quietly, holding up the mugs in her hands.

“Just black.”

A twitch of her lips. “That’s how you got all the hair on your chest?”

“You saying I’m some sort of Sasquatch or something?” I tease, accepting the mug she holds out.

“If the shoe—or maybe I should say, skate , fits.” She drags her gaze down my front and every part of me snaps to rigid attention.

Every part.

In a way, it was hell sleeping beside her, holding her, and not doing more.

But in another, it was…perfect.

“You could certainly do with some manscaping?—”

My mouth falls open and I set my mug on the railing, turn to face her. “Rude.”

“I say again”—and fuck, but I love that she feels safe enough, comfortable enough to tease me—“if the skate fits.”

“And I say again—” I snag the mug from her, set it beside mine on the railing, then snag her wrist and yank her against me. “ Rude.”

“Knox,” she whispers, snaking the arm that’s now trapped between us up, up, up …until it’s resting on my chest, just over my heart. She flexes her fingers, and my heart goes double time—something I know that she can feel because her expression softens and she whispers my name again.

I tuck a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “How are you feeling today?”

She screws up her face, and I grin.

“That good, huh?”

She shrugs. “I’ve been better.” A sigh. “And I’ve been worse.”

“I hate that for you.”

She touches my cheek. “I hate a lot of stuff.” She steps closer. “For both of us.”

“We’re a pair, huh?”

A soft laugh, but she allows me to draw her closer, her body relaxing against mine.

All I know is that I trust you.

I tighten my hold then give her back her mug and jerk my chin out toward the yard. “Winter’s happy.”

“Lots of pine needles to sniff.”

“And bushes.”

“And rocks.”

“Woof!”

She chuckles. “And shadows to bark at.”

We fall silent, and I hold her as I watch the pooch, listen to the sounds of morning, feel the cool breeze on my skin.

“You cold?” I ask after we’ve stood there, watching Winter and sipping our coffees for a few minutes.

“No,” she says. “But we can go inside if you are.”

“I’m not cold.” I smooth a hand down her back then lift my mug. “But I could use a top off.”

“I can?—”

“I’ll get it, lioness.” I nudge her toward one of the chairs. “Why don’t you take a load off, and I’ll get us both a refill.”

“You don’t have?—”

I cup her jaw. “I think we’ve established by now that this— us —is something we both want.”

Wide eyes, pink cheeks.

“Capisce?”

Her lips part on an inhale, then she exhales and nods. “Capisce.” She holds up her mug. “One milk. Two sugars.”

“Good.” I snag her mug. “And got it.” I turn for the house, chuckling when Winter follows me inside and promptly tries to climb up next to Snowball on the couch in the living room. I give her a boost, shake my head when they both sigh in contentment.

Those two.

Grinning, I top off our mugs, add Ivy’s milk and sugar, then head back outside.

“We’ve been abandoned?” she asks lightly when I pass her the refilled mug.

“Yup. Winter decided the appeal of Snowball was too tempting to ignore.”

Her lips twitch, and I settle into the chair next to her. We’re doing something completely normal, something someone might even say is boring, but…I’m settled, content, home.

And an idiot to have ever run from this.

“I didn’t thank you for last night.”

I bump my knee against hers. “Pretty sure you did.”

She shakes her head. “No, I didn’t.”

“Ivy, I told you. I don’t need?—”

One second, she’s sitting next to me, the next her mug is on the deck and she’s plucking mine from my hands. She sets it down and turns to me.

“Lioness?” I ask, lifting my eyebrows.

She clambers onto my lap. “Yeah?”

“Wanna clue me in?”

She cups my cheeks, holds my gaze. “You’re wonderful, Knox Adler.”

I inhale sharply. “Baby?—”

“Shh,” she says lazily, dragging a finger down my chest, dipping it beneath the waistband of my sweats.

One brush along the head of my cock and I’m hard.

“Baby,” I begin again.

“Hush,” she says, gripping me, stroking me firmly. “No more darkness. No more past. We’re here together and alone and…I want you.”

If I was hard before…

Now I can barely think because there’s no blood left in my brain.

But one thing penetrates.

“I don’t have a condom,” I blurt, needing to make that clear before things go too far, before my control unravels any further?—

But she doesn’t help my control because she just reaches into the pocket of her sweatshirt and grins, pulling out the small foil square with a flourish. “But I do.”

And then she yanks at the waistband of my pants, dragging them and my underwear down enough for my cock to pop out.

“Like my own personal present,” she says, fisting me, leaning forward, and sucking me cock deep in one slick movement.

“ Fuck ,” I growl as she seals her mouth over me. “Lioness, I?—”

One touch.

One stroke.

One hot, wet mouth…

And I’m dangerously close, even before she starts working me in tandem, mouth and fist, lips and teeth, tongue and?—

I jerk. “Christ, lioness!”

“Just making sure you’re paying attention.”

I’m paying attention. An earthquake could be shattering the world around us and my focus would still be reduced to her and only her.

As she sucks and strokes.

As she takes me so deep her eyes fill with tears and cling to those thick lashes.

As she moans and works me faster.

Harder.

Until I lose patience and…

Drag her off me.

“My turn,” I growl as I reach for her.

But she backs away from me, tosses the condom into my lap and stands.

“Lioness—”

Her answer is pushing down and stepping out of her sweats, her underwear. Then she turns away from me, and…

Bends over the railing.

That lush ass, her strong thighs and calves, the scorching hot look she tosses me over her shoulder.

Control?

What the fuck is that?

Cursing softly, I struggle to think, to slow down. I want to plunge deep inside her, fuck her hard and fast and furious, but…

Control.

My head spins, and frankly, it’s miracle that I’m conscious at this point at all, considering all the blood in my body is currently pooling in my cock, but I am and I take advantage of it, rolling the condom down then standing and moving to her, kicking her feet apart.

“Knox— oh, God.”

Okay, maybe thrusting into her in one smooth stroke isn’t exactly control , but her pussy clamping around me tells me she likes it. The same as her head dropping back and her hips moving against me, and?—

Her moan.

It’s beautiful, that moan, her body, the tight clasp of her cunt, and I tell her, knowing she likes the words, knowing that she likes me telling her how wet she is, how good she feels, how much I want her.

I feel it in the ripples of her pussy, the arch of her spine, the way her hips grind back against me.

I feel it in the shudders of her body, the deepening of her groans, her pelvis jerking, seeking out more and more and more of me.

And with each stroke, I give it to her.

Give her all of me.

Until she stills and?—

“Knox!”

Until she’s there.

“That’s it, lioness,” I say, my orgasm so close that I can taste it. “Now, baby. Come for me now.”

And she does, tightening so hard that I swear I black out, or maybe that’s because my orgasm is ripping through me, tearing my insides to shreds, leaving my knees shaking and my legs struggling to work and?—

“Woof!”

It’s muffled through glass.

But demanding enough to snap me out of my haze.

And same goes, apparently, for Ivy because she stills, laughter bubbling up in her, filling the air around us.

It’s beautiful, that sound.

Almost as beautiful as the smile she tosses me over her shoulder. “Children,” she says on a mock sigh.

Grinning, I pull out, help her get dressed, and we go inside to start the day.

But the more minutes that pass, the more I’m left with the certainty that this woman is worth the fear, the need, the pleasure, the joy.

That she’s worth so much more than that.

She’s worth the world.

My world.

And I’m determined to make sure she knows that.