Adrian once told a story about Knox pistol-whipping a man who tried to rob a gas station—Knox just happened to be in line behind the guy who pulled a gun on the cashier. He didn’t hesitate. He just stopped it, later refusing to let any of us call him a hero.
But he was still the same reliable, soft Knox, who held babies and shoveled driveways and always kept his word.
I’d never even heard him raise his voice, but the way he was looking at me now, his eyes dark and almost predatory, led me to believe he wasn’t as harmless as I’d always assumed.
He was just toying with me, right?
He had to be.
I licked my lips, straightening myself as I lifted my chin to look up into his eyes. “You seem pretty certain that my odds aren’t zero. How can you be so sure?”
Though Knox’s rapidly rising chest told me he was breathing hard, he didn’t flinch. His eyes bore into mine like they were reading straight through me, and a menacing smile stretched across his face. Every second that passed, I felt the ground tilt beneath me, heat spreading across my skin in a way I couldn’t blame on the alcohol anymore.
It was all Knox.
And then he leaned in, bringing his mouth close enough that I could feel his breath on my cheek. “Because I know myself pretty well, Hallie. And I’m glad to finally meet this side of you.”
Three
Knox
Hallie Rutherford was tremblingbefore me.
Not from fear. I knew the difference. No, this was something else entirely, her eyes wide beneath the moonlight, completely fixed on me like I’d just flipped a switch inside her.
Christ.
I’d known this girl half her fucking life. She was twenty-four now, and tall for a woman, yet I still towered over her. And for the first time, I became acutely aware of every inch I had on her.
Every inch that separated us.
And every inch I’d love to sink into her cunt.
That last thought slammed into me so hard and fast it almost knocked the wind out of me. I stepped back half a foot just to stop myself from doing something stupid. And Hallie looked up at me all doe-eyed and flushed like she actually wanted something dangerous. Like shecravedit.
God help me, I could give it to her.
I could overpower her right now, if I wanted. Not that I would. But the thought was there, swirling around inside my sick fucking mind beneath the polite façade I’d worn for years. I kept these urges buried, knowing there was something dark and twisted inside me that no woman would ever understand.
I didn't understand it myself. Not at all. Some nights, that darkness I knew lurked just below the surface eventerrifiedme.
But Hallie looked at me like she wasn’t afraid of it. Those pillowy pink lips and deceptively innocent brown eyes could probably pull it right out of me.
She swallowed loud enough that I could hear the sound in her throat. “You wouldn’t do that to me,” she said, the words coming out in a whisper.
She was still testing me. The stubbornness was endearing–almostcute, even–but maybe I needed to be less subtle in letting her know:I want to be the one who gets to play with you.
At first, I let my eyes do the talking. I held her stare, letting my gaze travel slowly from one eye to the other, giving her every chance to understand exactly what I meant. I imagined holding her down and the way she’d wriggle and whimper below me, hoping she could read the desire on my face. But just in case she couldn’t, I said, “You really think I can’t be the man to give you what you want?”
Hallie’s mouth fell open with a scoff. “Knox, the things I want a man to do to me are really fucked up. It’s so… depraved.”
“Is it?” I asked, and her mouth snapped shut in surprise as I took a small step forward. When she didn’t move, I took another, closing the space between us until her back pressed into the metal door of the garage apartment. There was nowhere else she could go.
I raised both hands and braced them on either side of her head on the door, caging her in completely. I didn’t touch her, but I could feelthe heat rolling off her body onto mine. She could have slipped away if she wanted, and I’d let her–but instead, she just stood there and froze, hiding her breasts behind that damn Kindle.
God, that GOOD GIRL sticker was such a damn lie.
“Is it really that depraved,” I whispered, lowering my mouth so close to her that my lips nearly grazed her earlobe, “if it’s something we both want?”
