3. Knox

CHAPTER THREE

Knox

“Does it feel good, babe?” I ask, my slow, steady thrusts making my toes curl.

“Fuck, don’t stop,” he whines and arches his back. I run a hand down his side, feeling every hard crevice of his body. “More. Harder.”

Hitching his leg around my waist, I roll my forehead against his. “You feel so good. So good.”

I need him to say it. It’ll be what tips me over the edge. It’ll make me fall even more in love with him.

“Oh, Knox ? —”

“Knox?”

Fuck me. I’m losing my mind.

I blink repeatedly, snapping out of my daze, only to realize I’m not in bed making love to Everest. It takes me a second to remember I’m supposed to be helping him pack to move in with Rhys. Immediately, my gut sinks and a knife slices at my heart. Right . Still, the way Everest so innocently looks at me as he holds two identical shirts makes me soften.

“Yeah, babe?” I ask.

He raises both shirts. “What do you think? Which one should I get rid of?”

“They’re exactly the same,” I snort. I shake my head, itching to move around the boxes separating us and run my fingers down his cheek. “Keep both. They bring out your eyes.”

Because, if I remember correctly, I’ve peeled both shirts off him before too.

“Thanks, man.” Those same bright eyes fucking sparkle as he smiles. He ducks his head shyly and begins sorting through his closet. “So, besides helping me, what else do you have planned for today?”

“Nothing much.” I shrug, taping up a box full of sneakers.

Sighing, he shakes his head as he tosses shirt after shirt over his shoulder. “Why don’t you hang out with some friends? You’ve been such a recluse lately.”

I wonder why .

Those “friends” he’s talking about… I hate them. They’re superficial props I use so that I can cover up my deals. They don’t really want to get to know me, only making the bare minimum of polite conversation to make sure I like them enough to give them free product, which I never do.

“But you’re my favorite person,” I tease, hoping he’ll turn around and see how sincere those words are.

“Well, isn’t that sweet.” The fact that he’s laughing feels like a punch in the gut. I don’t think Everest realizes my true feelings for him. He’s too kind and generous to ever fuck with anybody like that. I’m cursed with a blissfully ignorant best friend.

“I was thinking maybe we could grab some hot pot?” I suggest. “See that new movie that just came out.”

“The one about the girl stranded in the forest and stalked by a masked killer?”

“The one and only.”

“Hmm.” He thinks it through before throwing a smile over his shoulder. “I think that sounds like a plan.”

“It would, but we already made plans.”

I close my eyes and hold back my groan as Rhys waltzes in the room. He completely ignores me, opting to go straight for Everest, wrapping him up in his arms as his hands wander down to his ass.

Everest cocks his head. “We do?”

“Remember, we’re going to pick out a new bed frame,” Rhys reminds him, dropping kiss after kiss on his cheeks.

Jesus, can they be any more touchy?

Everest blinks, looking momentarily distracted by Rhys’s lips until he nods. “Right.” He turns to me, a truly remorseful smile on his lips. “Sorry, Knox. Maybe we can rain check for tomorrow?”

I nod, trying to brush it off like it means nothing. Chances are, Rhys is going to find a way to already have plans with him tomorrow too. I’m completely sure that he’s currently mauling Everest for all he’s worth because I’m here. He’s a goddamn bastard who wants to rub his relationship in my face. Fuck, he’s the worst.

But when Everest pulls back and I see that love-struck look in his eyes, I realize that my sadness overcomes the hatred I feel toward his boyfriend. I clear my throat, because I’m pretty sure they’ve both forgotten I’m here. Everyone always fucking forgets. “So, if you’re heading out, I probably should too.”

Everest finally breaks apart from Rhys and makes his way toward me. My breath hitches as he hugs me, and I can’t help but throw Rhys a smirk as I hug him back.

“Thanks for helping me,” Everest mumbles, then pulls away with that sweet smile. “I’ll text you tomorrow?”

I pat his shoulder. “Sounds good, babe.”

I don’t miss the way Rhys growls at the term of endearment. Yeah, I still do it to fuck with him. Sue me.

I leave them—probably so they can fuck before being all domestic and shit—and head down the stairs. Taking the elevators down to the parking garage, imagine my very unpleasant surprise at finding Elton on the other side of the doors.

When he notices me, he automatically smiles, but it fades just a tad when I don’t return it. It would be easy to smile back, but Elton’s the definition of a golden retriever, and that’s a little too much for me.

“Hey,” he finally says, waving a hand at me. “What are you doing here?”

“Visiting friends,” I tell him curtly as I step out of the elevator and move to walk around him.

“Oh! Cool! I live here, you know?” he says, stepping in front of me quickly.

I raise an eyebrow at him. He’s acting like we’re friends, and while I give incredible blowjobs, I don’t think that constitutes a friendship. “What do you want, Elton? I have places to be.”

“So…” He rolls his bottom lip in his mouth, his cheeks flushing. “Um, I never got to thank you.”

I purse my lips in irritation. “For?”

“Sucking my dick,” he blurts out, chuckling after to hide how fucking weird that statement is. “It was good, so, yeah. Congrats.”

At the mention of the quickie blowjob, my cock twitches. While we might not be anywhere near close to friends, that doesn’t mean I haven’t taken an interest in his body. Elton’s a lot like Everest, both of them physically fit, but he’s leaner and more defined. Fuck, I’ll admit that when he presented himself so confidently in front of me earlier this week, dick swinging with pride, it was hard not to stare.

I hate to say it was also hard not to fall on my knees and ask for a redo, but that’s probably because he’s hot and I’m horny as hell.

But still, it’s kind of adorable the way Elton continues to blush. He’s normally so brazen and loud, not doubting his words, and this side of him is new. It makes it all the more easy to fuck with him. “Been thinking a lot about it, then?”

It takes him a moment, but he scoffs. “It was an orgasm, Knox. You drank my cum like it was a damn milkshake.”

I can’t believe it, but he actually gets a laugh out of me. Okay, there’s the Elton I know. So fucking blunt it’s not even funny. “Right.”

“You know my brother, Everest, right?”

Trying to bite back my annoyance and bitterness, I grit my teeth. “Heard of him, sure.”

“Well, he’s moving out, so that’s nice.”

“How do you feel about that?”

I don’t know what possesses me to ask that. I’m firmly Team Everest, and I know all his insecurities surrounding Elton. If anything, I should be relieved that Everest is finally breaking out of his brother’s shadow and becoming his own person. Still, I find myself curious.

“It sucks,” he admits with a small shrug. “I was looking forward to hanging out with Ev, but I get that they want their own space.”

That prickles at my skin. If he really wanted to get to know Everest, he should have tried harder, not taken no for an answer, and tried to realize what his brother was going through. He shouldn’t have been so…Elton about it and made everything about himself all the damn time.

But I don’t want to start shit, so I brush him off. “Sure.”

“Sure?” he parrots, his brow furrowing. “Aren’t you supposed to say something comforting?”

I snort. “And why would I do that?”

“Because when you’re getting to know someone, the polite thing to do is engage in conversation.”

“You think giving you head makes me want to get to know you?”

Okay, it’s a dick thing to say, but it’s a reflex at this point. He doesn’t want to get to know me, nobody does, so what’s the point of these pleasantries? I wish people would just be straight about what they want and their motivations. He’s trying to be nice and it’s fake as hell. Nobody can be that interested in other people all the time. It’d drive someone crazy.

“Wow, you’re such an asshole,” he says, but it doesn’t sound like the insult it’s meant to be. “I guess have a good day?”

“You too,” I toss over my shoulder as I walk right by him and head to my car. I brush off that weird interaction as a momentary blip of insanity. This whole thing with Everest is really fucking me up in more ways than one. First, I suck Elton’s dick, and next I’m actually speaking to him?

As I enter my car and my eyes land on the slowly closing elevator doors, I see that Elton’s still staring at me, something unreadable and entirely too curious in his gaze. I don’t like it one bit. He can keep his curiosities to himself. I’m not some sort of puzzle for him to solve or toy for him to play with. He can find that anywhere else—he normally does—and I’m sure one of his dozens of friends can sate his nosiness.

Although, as the elevator doors close and he disappears, a stray thought hits me. I wonder if he truly knows what it feels like to be alone.

Alone like me.