“Knight –”
His arms gave me a squeeze.
“Came hard, feel good, do not piss me off.”
I fell silent.
“You learn your lesson?”
I hoped so.
I nodded against his shoulder.
His arms gave me a squeeze as his fingers at my behind dug in gently.
Then he said quietly, “I believe you but I wanna make it clear. Shit might go down between us that’ll make this go bad. You don’t leave until we both know there’s nothin’ we can do to retrieve what we had. And if you believe that and I disagree, then you talk to me before you leave me. You might hear fucked up shit about me from a variety of sources. But you talk to me before you react. I will confirm or deny, I will be honest and last, I will explain. If it’s shit I don’t want you to know yet, I’ll explain that too and you’ll wait until I’m ready. You feel you can’t, then, babe, you still fuckin’ talk… to… me before you leave me.”
I nodded against his shoulder again.
Knight kept talking.
“You can believe about ten percent of anything that comes outta Nick’s mouth. This will not be somethin’ you need to concern yourself with because you will never see him again. If the impossible happens and you do, I don’t care if you’re walkin’ down the street, he’s across the street from you and a half block up, you fuckin’ call me. Get me?”
Another nod.
More from Knight.
“I do not give charity fucks. I don’t know what he said to you but honest to Christ, I don’t even know what that is. Bottom line, no one, Anya and when I say that,” his arms and hand gave me another squeeze, “I mean no one has had my time, my attention and my cock the way you do. And you don’t have those because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. You have that because you’re everything that’s you. Somethin’ in you made it easy to believe the bullshit Nick fed you. We gotta work that out, babe, and with that project, I’m all in. But there is no… fuckin’… way a woman like you, not just one who looks like you, but a woman like you should ever think in a million fuckin’ years she’s a charity case. You need to understand, baby, that in this scenario right here in this bed no matter whose ass is tender, I’m the lucky one. You with me?”
At the word “lucky” my head jerked up and I stared at his shadowed face.
“What?” I breathed.
“You aren’t with me,” he muttered.
“Are you serious?”
“Are you comfortable with the fact that my boys roughed up your landlord?”
My body stilled and I whispered, “Honey –”
“Answer me, babe, are you comfortable with that?”
“Can we –?”
His hand came to my jaw and his arm around me got tight, pulling me closer and he whispered, “Anya, babe, answer me.”
“No,” I blurted.
“But you’re settin’ it aside because you’re drawn to me and I’m makin’ you happy,” he surmised.
“Yes.”
“Then babe, I’m the lucky one because with you, I’m not settin’ shit aside. And with me, I think you already get without really knowin’ that you always will.”
My hand slid up his chest and I whispered, “Honey, let’s not talk about this.”
“Bury your head, baby, please, God, do it. But straight up, you give me good, normal and clean and you do it knowin’ you’ll never get that back. I’ll take that. Fuck, yeah, I’ll take that. But I’ll only take it knowin’ somewhere inside you, you get what you’re givin’ to me and you understand it’ll never be returned.”
“You’re scaring me again, Knight.”
“Enough to ask me to leave?”
“No,” I whispered and his hand clenched my jaw.
“Christ, my baby,” he whispered.
I didn’t want to talk about this anymore so I changed the subject.
“I’m sorry I believed Nick,” I said softly.
“You believin’ him didn’t say shit about me. It said shit about how you feel about you. We’ll work on that.”
God, he was scary, scary sweet and I was thinking scary smart too.
“Bet I bought myself a bad girl,” he muttered and I blinked.
“Pardon?”
“Baby, how many times did you come on my face?”
I bit my lip.
Then I shared quietly, “I lost track.”
Knight burst out laughing, both is arms closing tight around me as he shifted us down in bed and rolled me to my back, him at my side.
When he stopped laughing, his hand slid up to curl around my neck, palm at my throat.
“You gonna be a bad girl?” he whispered.
“I haven’t decided,” I whispered back and his hand spasmed.
Then he asked, sounding appalled, “I hurt you?”
“Uh… yeah, Knight. You spanked me.”
“Too hard?”
“Um…”
“That you couldn’t stand the pain, Anya, that it didn’t feel good even as it felt bad. That kinda too hard, babe. I didn’t get that from you, not even close. When I was done, you were soaked.”
“Well that’s because, um… the answer’s no. If that’s too hard then it wasn’t. Not even close.”
His hand relaxed as did his body.
God, how could this guy have just spanked me, my bottom still felt warm and tender and yet at the same time he was unbelievably sweet?
“We need a safe word,” he muttered.
“Probably,” I muttered back.
“No, babe, we do. We should have worked that out before but I’ve been goin’ easy on you, payin’ attention, not pushin’ too hard. Didn’t think we’d be here this quick. I’ll think about it, give it to you before I take you again.”
Easy on me.
Something, maybe, to look forward to.
“Okay,” I said softly.
At my word, he gave me a squeeze before he shifted, yanking the covers out from under us, flicking them over us then settling onto his back. He rolled me and tucked me into his side.
Then he ordered, “Sleep, baby.”
“Okay, Knight.”
I settled in. Knight’s arm around me drew me closer then relaxed. My arm snaked across his flat belly, curled around and I held on.
Then I called, “Knight?”
“Yeah, babe.”
I bit my lip.
“Babe?”
I stopped biting my lip.
Then I whispered, “Uh… you should probably prepare for me being bad, um… occasionally.”
Knight went still for a moment before both his arms locked around me tight and he burst out laughing.
I turned the corner to Knight’s study.
Nick was crouched at the safe. It was open. He was rifling through it.
I opened my mouth to say something when his head turned to me.
Then he surged out of his crouch, flying through the air toward me, his entire head had changed from Nick to a wide, gaping mouth filled with rows and rows of sharp, lethal teeth.
I jerked awake and, still held close to Knight’s side but still half asleep and feeling his arm around me as a prison, I yanked away from it on a roll.
“What the fuck, babe?” His drowsy, deep, rough voice came at me and I froze.
Torso up and on my ass in the bed, I lifted my knees, soles of my feet to the bed and put my elbows to them, head to my hands and took in a deep breath.
Knight’s hand curled around my wrist.
“Anya?” he said softly.
“Bad dream,” I whispered.
“Jesus, it’d have to be,” he muttered, pulling gently at my wrist but my head came up. My hand dropped to the bed taking his with it and I looked to his shadowy head.
“Nick was trying to get in your safe,” I announced and I felt as well as saw his body go rock-solid.