And before I could overthink it or stop myself, a question spilled out of my mouth. “Where’s your girlfriend tonight, Knox?”
Fuck.There’d been no buildup. No filter. I’d just jumped right into an intrusive question that I already knew the answer to, the embarrassment already rolling off me in waves.
Knox tapped the bottlecap a couple of times against the glass table top, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Haven’t got one of those.”
“Oh. I didn’t know you and Justine split.”
Yes, I did.
I tucked my hair behind my ears, pretending like my mom hadn’t called me a couple months ago with a full rundown of Knox’s break-up with Justine, who cheated on him with her life coach.
Of course, my mother had received the information secondhand from Adrian, who didn’t bother to learn all the juicy details. I was dying to know more, but even as drunk as I was, I knew it would be inappropriate to ask.
Knox sat up a little straighter, putting his elbows on the edge of the table as he stared down at the swimming goggles one of my cousins had left behind. “Yeah, that was ages ago,” he said.
“Oh.”
Clearing his throat, he lifted his eyes to my face and asked, “How’s ol’ what’s-his-name?” He tilted his head to the side, pretending to think hard, as if he, Adrian, and the rest of my family hadn’t spent a year roasting me for dating a guy who made CrossFit his entire personality. “Brady-something?”
“Brody,” I corrected with a roll of my eyes. “And he’s dead to me. Just emotionally, unfortunately.”
He nodded, the corners of his mouth lifting into a smile he seemed desperate to hold back. Whatever teasing comment was on the tip of his tongue, he made an effort to hold it in.
“Hmm,” was all he said, dragging a hand down his jaw along his beard.
I decided not to ask him to elaborate. I didn’t need to know what that“hmm”implied. With a sigh, I flipped my hair off my shoulder and looked skyward, struggling to make my eyes focus on the fireworks in the distance.
“Anna’s probably going to be the next Rutherford in line to get married,” I said, in a breathy, melancholy voice. “Pretty sure Adrian and I are both doomed to be chronically unattached.”
When I turned to face Knox again, I was surprised to find him quietly smirking, a subtle look of amusement in his eyes. I opened my mouth to ask him what that look meant, but he leaned in closer, scooting his elbows toward me. His expression shifted into something smug, like he knew something I didn’t. And then, his voice low and husky, he asked, “Is that because you’re holding out for amorally greyman to… choke yourespectfully?”
For half a second, I was deeply confused and borderline offended.
Then my heart dropped.
And heat prickled across my skin.
The entire time we’d been just shooting the shit about his job and my family, the back of my Kindle had been facing him, with my explicit dark romance stickers on full display. And Knox had been quietly observing them as we talked, learning things about his best friend’s little sister he was never meant to know.
I swallowed hard.
Because I had never–notonce–imagined Knox Ballard saying the wordchokein any context, let alone in a flirtatious voice likethat.
I’d spent years mentally categorizing Knox as off-limits. Safe. Adrian’s reliable best friend. A constant in the background of our family.
And to him, I knew I was like the sister he’d watched grow up, untouchable and completely unsexual in every way.
But now he was looking at me like he’d made it painfully clear I’d just been reclassified as something else entirely.
The heat that had started as a faint prickle had now settled somewhere between my legs, and I was doomed.
Two
Hallie
Knox continued to gazeat me with a crooked smile like he could read every frantic thought in my mind. Several seconds passed before I realized I hadn’t answered him yet. Glancing down at the Kindle, I finally lowered it to the table to hide the stickers, though it was definitely too late.
I forced out a little laugh. “I only like morally grey men in the books I read.”
