“You didn’t have to do that, but… thank you,” I said, lifting the coffee to my mouth for a sip. It was so delicious that I turned the cup to look at the label, making a mental note to visit Penny Lane Coffee sometime in the near future. “Didn't you get coffee for yourself?”
“Not thirsty.”
“People don't drink coffee because they'rethirsty,” I said with a little laugh, flipping my hair off my shoulder.
Knox gave me a half-grin before glancing past me toward the pond. “I’ve had my caffeine allotment for the day already.”
For a few seconds, I sipped my latte in silence, and he rubbed the stubble on his chin and stared off into space like he was waiting for something.
Oh, right. He was waiting for me.
This was my idea.
“So, um,” I said, inhaling slowly as I remembered why I was here. My voice dropped lower like the people across the park might overhear. “I just wanted to apologize for last night. I shouldn’t have saidall of that stuff. I don’t even know where it came from, honestly, and I’m so embarrassed. And I’m just… sorry that I dragged you into my insanity.”
Knox didn’t say anything right away. His expression barely moved, but something shifted behind his eyes. I caught the tiniest flicker of disbelief, like he was seeing straight through the apology to the lie underneath it. Or maybe that was just me projecting every guilty thought I’d had since waking up.
Because the truth was, this apology wasn’t what I wanted to say.
Not even close.
Beneath all that humiliation, there was still this insistent, nagging thought in the back of my mind that neither of us were just playing around last night. And that same reckless part of me wanted him to push back and draw it out of me. I wanted him to tell me I hadn’t imagined the ravenous look in his eyes when he pinned me against that wall.
I mean, I couldfeelhow aroused he was.
And though I was playing coy now, I hoped and prayed with every cell in my body he could see through it and he’d know I was bluffing. I did not want Knox Ballard to accept my apology.
This was only a test.
“Fine,” Knox said, clearing his throat. He shifted on the bench to straighten himself, staring down at the concrete path below our feet. “Right. You were drunk. You didn’t mean any of that.”
“Exactly.”
“And I definitely didn’t mean anything I said, either. I was just fucking with you.”
He shook his head like he absolutely meant every word, but the crinkles in the corners of his eyes gave him away. The way his lips subtlylifted certainly didn’t match the words coming out of his mouth, either.
But I kept playing.
“Good,” I said, a little too cheerful. “I’m glad we’re totally on the same page, then.”
His eyes caught mine. “Me too. We can just go back to normal and pretend that conversation didn’t happen. Since that’s what we both want.”
“For sure.”
After that, we fell quiet, both of us staring at the green leaves swaying in the breeze overhead. Which one of us would be the first to crack? I wanted it to be him, but the silence between us just stretched on and on. In my peripheral vision, I saw him cross his arms.
And then he muttered, “Brat.”
My head snapped toward him. “What?”
“What?” he echoed. His eyebrows lifted innocently, as though he’d said nothing at all. He wanted me to think I’d misheard him.
“You called me a brat.”
“Well,” Knox said, stealing another quick glance at my thighs. “Because you’re acting like one.”
I huffed out a breath, acting offended as I raked my fingers through my hair. “Ugh! I’m sitting here apologizing. I wouldn’t exactly call that bratty behavior.”
