“How about we think about something else?” I suggested, sliding my hand along his jaw to thread my fingers into the hair at the base of his skull.
Lucy let me tilt his head back further. “Something else? You don’t want us to figure out how to get rid of your dad?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to think about him anymore.”
“But surely there’s something we can do–”
“I said no, Lucy.” I tugged his hair sharply.
Lucy gasped. His hands stilled against my stomach, his eyes searching mine, before he swallowed roughly. “You’re trying to distract me.”
I leaned down to nip at his throat. “Is it working?”
I traced the top hem of his pants, then dipped just below them on his lower back. Then I bit a bruise into the base of his neck, and I felt him melt, giving me all his weight.
15
LUCY
Everything moved quickly after that.
One moment, Knox and I were having a heart-to-heart, where he told me about his Nana, his father, and the deadline to get a job. The next, I was stumbling backwards into the tent while Knox clumsily tried to unzip it without breaking our kiss.
I laughed. “Zipper too hard for you?”
“Shut up,” he bit my lip, a scolding if ever there was, his voice more of a growl than I’d heard from him, “and get inside.”
I heard the zipper finally scrape against itself as he managed to open the doorway. He shoved me lightly.
I tried to step back while sucking on his tongue, only to trip over the tent and fall inside with a yelp.
Knox laughed, even as I dragged him with me.
He landed half on top of me, knocking the wind out of me with a loud curse.
“Knox!” I complained, gasping for air. My back was on the air mattress he’d inflated an hour ago, but half my ass was on the ground of the tent, which meant right on top of the cement that made up the porch.
“Hush,” Knox dismissed—the jerk—before hooking my knees with his hands and hauling me fully onto the mattress in one smooth motion.
“Holy shit,” I exhaled, “how did you do that?”
Knox laughed. “What, manhandle you? I’ll show you.”
Before I could protest, he’d hauled me up to sitting and had stripped me of my shirt.
I shivered. “Knox, it’s freezing out here!”
But he was too busy looking at me, his stare intense and heated as he trailed over my neck and chest, then down to where I knew my waist tapered narrower.
I wrapped my arms around myself, half from the chill and half from how vulnerable I suddenly felt.
“Hey, don’t hide from me.”
Knox threaded his fingers with mine and coaxed my arms back. He guided me onto my back, pinning my hands on either side of me.
“You’re stunning.” He pressed a kiss to my mouth, then trailed lower, down my throat and chest.
His words were like a brand, and I moaned and gripped his hands harder where he had me pinned to the air mattress.
