“Mine,” he said again against her shoulder.
“Yours,” Ellie echoed without hesitation.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“What the fuck are you doing sleeping in the home cinema in my apartment?” Knox demanded furiously early the following morning. It was out of pure habit that he had bothered to pull on a pair of black boxers before coming downstairs.
Linus looked up from where he was slumped down in one of the comfortable seats in the private cinema. “This is the only room in the apartment that’s soundproofed.”
Knox felt the burn of color in his cheeks as he realized Linus hearing him and Ellie making love together was probably the reason the other man had felt in need of that soundproofing.
Knox and Ellie had made love many times during the night, their desire for each other seemingly insatiable. Once Ellie got over her initial shyness, they had both been vocal in their enjoyment of each other.
In fact, the only reason Knox was here now was that he had come downstairs to make coffee and toast to give them the fuel they needed before they made love again.
The only reason Knox had realized they weren’t alone in the apartment was that he had spotted Linus’s distinctive black-and-silver backpack in the hallway near the elevator.
Knox gave a self-conscious wince. “How long have you been here?”
Linus gave him a pointed glance “About six hours, give or take.” He stretched his arms up in the air. “I did call you last night to let you know I was on my way, but you didn’t answer. I called several more times, with the same result, so in the end, I gave up and just let myself in. When I got here, and heard the…distinctive noises from upstairs, I didn’t think it wise to even attempt to sleep in one of the guest bedrooms.”
The other man definitely looked the worse for wear. His dark blond hair was tousled and sticking up in several places, the scruff on his jaw was heavier than normal, his eyes were red-rimmed from lack of sleep, and there was an oily looking stain down the front of his creased navy blue T-shirt. His jeans were unfastened at the waist, and he was barefoot.
Knox frowned. “How did you even get in?”
“Please, don’t insult me or my skills,” Linus scorned. “Besides, this was Magnus’s apartment before it was yours. You didn’t change any of the codes.”
“Fair point,” Knox acknowledged grudgingly.
“The moment I realized you weren’t alone, I barricaded myself in here and caught up on some of the sleep I lost on the flight over.” Linus gave a martyred sigh. “Bloody Fergus has the family jet this weekend to take Thea to the Bahamas, so I had to travel on a commercial airline.”
“But you traveled first class, right?”
Linus grimaced as he nodded. “But the beds are never long enough for a six foot three inches tall man, and I hate being shut in a small space with stale air and so many strangers.”
Knox knew that was probably because Linus, being the tech expert of Wynter Security, spent the majority of his time shut in his apartment in London behind his numerous computer screens. He only came out from behind those screens when it was absolutely necessary or if one of the family asked him to.
Linus’s presence, not just in Knox’s apartment, but in New York, meant he had to have had a good reason for leaving the sanctity of his mancave and traveling here by public transport.
“Is everyone okay at home?” Knox pressed worriedly.
Linus gave him a pitying look. “If they weren’t, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Then why are you?”
Linus shrugged, trying to stretch the kinks out of his body. “I think, to save me having to repeat myself, we should wait for your Ellie to join us.”
“How do you know my…nighttime companion is Ellie?” Knox asked.
“Well, the interest you’ve taken in her welfare this past week hasn’t gone unnoticed and,” he added when Knox would have spoken, “I distinctly heard you shout out her name several times when I first arrived. While we wait for her to come downstairs, could I have a coffee? A very hot and very sweet coffee?—”
“Knox, did you get lost on your way back to the bedroom?” Ellie’s teasing voice sounded much closer than where Knox had left her upstairs, reclining in the comfort of his rumpled bed.
He could only hope she had a towel wrapped around herself to cover her nakedness.
“Oh.” The puzzlement could now be heard in Ellie’s voice when she obviously reached the kitchen and Knox wasn’t there. “Or maybe you forgot where the kitchen is. Okay.” She seemed to be talking to herself now. “Ah, I did wonder… This hallway leads to a gym. And this one— Wow, you have your own personal cinema.” Ellie admired as she came to a halt in the doorway.
Much to Knox’s relief, she was wrapped in a towel. She also looked sexy as hell with her disheveled golden hair loose about her shoulders and those beautiful aqua-blue eyes on full display as she hadn’t put on her glasses. She perhaps wasn’t aware of it—yet—but she also had several visible love bites on her neck and shoulders.
