He settled back against the wooden bench with a satisfied smirk because he knew he had the upper hand. There was something infuriatingly sexy about how unbothered he looked, and I pressed my thighs together tight to smother that desperate little ache between my legs.
Knox’s eyes bore into me like he could read my every thought. And then that subtle grin faded, and his expression became solemn.
Almost… sinister.
“I’m just trying to get you to admit why we’re actually here,” he said, his voice dipping to a low growl.
I licked my lips, wanting to look away from his eyes, but I couldn’t. It was like he’d possessed me somehow, freezing me in place so that I could only stare back at him. My gaze bounced from the scruff along his jaw to the dark brown eyes that had come so familiar to me over the years.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed about what you want, Hallie,” he said.
“But it’s wrong.”
“It’s fantasy,” he said quickly, “And I’m not saying you have to act it out with me. If that’s the part that’s tripping you up, then fine–I’ll never bring this up again. But if you want to explore your darker side with someone who…”
He paused, his Adam’s apple bobbing before he continued.
“Someone whocaresabout you, and who has the same twisted sexual needs, then maybe we shouldn’t ignore this. I can give you exactly what you want. Safely.”
I stared down at my fingers clutching the plastic coffee cup, convinced this had to be a dream. I never knew letting Knox see my filthy stickers would lead to something like this. It felt so absurd and impossible that I kept wanting to tell him to drop it. I could thank him for the coffee, apologize again, and be on my way.
But instead, I let my curiosity win. After glancing over my shoulder to make sure we were still alone in that corner of the park, I asked, “What exactly… would that look like?”
Knox's lips pressed together firmly, and his eyes traveled from my eyes down to my fingers, still curled around the cup. I trembled internally, excitement flowing through my nerves like an electric current.
“Well,” he said, that gravelly voice making me shiver. “It’s like you said last night. You’d set some guidelines for me, and a timeframe. We’d establish a safe word.”
I just nodded. “Okay.”
“Everything else would be up to me,” he said, and the words instantly made my pussy twitch. I clenched my thighs tight like he’d be able to tell how turned on I was. But it wasn’t like I had anything to hide from him anymore, was it? Fuck, he could probably smell how horny I was. I dipped one hand between my legs, sliding it into the warm crevice at the apex of my thighs. As I shifted in my seat, Knox’s eyes tracked my movement.
Could he see how much power he already had over me?
My mind was filled with questions–at least a dozen of them. But with his penetrating gaze turning my brain into total mush, I only managed to ask, “When?”
“I don’t know. Should it be scheduled,” he began, pulling his phone out of his pocket. I watched him navigate to his Notes app. “Or do you want to be… taken by surprise?”
Oh, fuck. Just hearing him utter the word “taken” in this sense had me horny as fuck.
Though my heart threatened to beat out of my chest, I forced myself to say the words on the tip of my tongue.“If we do this, then I want you to surprise me,” I said, digging my nails into my inner thigh. “Maybe we could give it a two-week timeline, but I don’t want to know when you’re coming. I want it to be like–”
I stopped, faltering for a second. How could I really say all these words out loud? How could this be real? Maybe I could still pretend I’d been just joking the entire time, and I could run back to my car without looking back.
“Say it,” Knox commanded, and that was when I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Like you’re an intruder breaking into my apartment,” I said, the words stringing together like I needed to get them all out in a hurry. “A stranger. If this actually happens, I want to feel scared, Knox.” I spoke fast, my heart going into overdrive. I couldn't believe I'd just said any of that out loud. But I’d meant every word, so I reiterated my last point to make sure he understood. “I want the fear to feel real.”
Knox didn’t even blink or flinch. In fact, I watched him tap away on his phone, keeping a record of everything I told him. My God. Brody wanted me to see a priest when I talked about this stuff, but Knox was sitting there takingnotes.
“You can stop talking about this in the hypothetical, Hallie. It’s going to happen,” he said, and I nodded like a child being scolded. “Now, just tell me what’s off the table.”
My lips parted, but I struggled to answer. The thing is, I didn’t want to provide him with a list of specifics. I wanted him to truly be in control of everything that happened to me, but I didn’t know how to say it.
He glanced up from his phone screen at me, likely sensing my hesitation. “Do you want me to be… rough with you?”
I stared back into his eyes, imagining how rough he might be. Despite the way he slammed me up against the wall the night before, there was this lingering trickle of doubt that he was capable of doing any of this to me.
There we were, making our plan and putting things in motion to bring this fantasy to life, but I still couldn’t believe that it was going to happen. Because he was still Knox Ballard, and I was still Hallie Rutherford. This wasn’t us.
