I winced, but I couldn’t deny him. Not after he came back, despite everything I’d said. “I’m sorry about last night. I was–”
“Stop. We both said things we didn’t mean.”
He tugged me down the hallway into my room.
It was oddly neat in here, after the disaster of the living room and my studio corner. My bed was only barely ruffled, after I’d mechanically fixed the covers this morning.
Knox wrapped my arms around his neck and helped me out of my pants before he sat me back on the bed.
“Start talking,” he told me sternly. “I’m going to get your first aid kit from your bathroom.”
He didn’t move until I nodded, and he slipped into my bathroom, rifling around in my drawers.
“I don’t hear you explaining.”
I pouted. “It was nothing. Really.”
Why was I lying? Only ten minutes ago, I’d decided to run away like some teenager, escaping my family’s expectations and accepting the first minimum wage job that would hire me.
But, where that would have been embarrassing for me, it felt humiliating to be seen like that by Knox. To stand here and have nothing to offer him.
“Nothing? Really?”
Knox reappeared, his expression flat and disbelieving.
I shrank in on myself.
“Lucy, I want to help.” He kneeled in front of me and gently swiped a cloth over the tiny knicks in my skin. “But I need to know what happened. Who destroyed your living room? Your art supplies? Who did that?”
I bit my lip. “My dad.”
Knox’s gaze burned. “That fucking asshole!”
His grip tightened on my thighs, and I jumped.
He immediately loosened his hold and turned his touch to a light massage instead. “I’m sorry. Just, what the fuck did he do that for?”
I bit my lip. “Have you seen the news?”
He met my gaze, his frown soft and concerned. “No, but I heard about it. Maisie called me. She said your family were asshats.”
I winced. “They were…harsh, maybe. They came over this morning, after all the stories came out, and he was angry.”
Knox rubbed ointment into my skin before pulling a new pair of sweatpants up my legs. He eased me onto my feet to secure them around my waist, then he squeezed my thighs, urging me to jump.
I did, and I wound my legs around his waist.
He sat down on my bed, somehow apparently just wanting me closer to him instead of anything more. His hands were still braced on my thighs, but it was a comforting touch as he pressed a soothing kiss to the side of my neck.
“And he broke your things?”
I nodded. “He yelled at me, said I was ruining our family’s reputation. I blacklisted all of us now, and he’s not happy about it. I’m supposed to learn his business under him now, but…” I bit my lip, not wanting to admit my thoughts from earlier. The doubt was creeping back in.
“But?” Knox prompted anyway.
I hugged his neck, shamefully hiding from the intensity of his gaze.
“Lucy, tell me,” Knox smoothed his hand over my back, “please.”
