Page 58 of When The Noise Stops

I had spent years using sex to shut my own head off. Hurt, fuck, forget. It worked until it didn't.

Knox was hurting.

I knew the difference between a man who wanted you and a man who needed somewhere to put his dick in frustration. Knox needed this. I could feel it in the way he held my hips, in the way his tongue worked my mouth.

"Lila."

"I'm here. Take what you need." He had been here for me more than once. I could be his anesthetic for one night.

He snatched the front of my dress down. The wet fabric gave easy. Rain hit my breasts, and then his mouth did. He sucked my nipple like he was mad at it, hard enough that my back arched and a sound came out of me I didn't plan. His beard scraped the soft underside. He switched sides and did it again, all teeth and tongue, while I ground down on the hard line of him through his jeans.

"Grizz—"

He dragged my dress up around my waist and shoved my panties aside. His fingers found me already wet, and not from the rain. He made a low noise when he felt it, pushed two fingers into me, testing me, then pulled them out and went for his belt. He grabbed my hand. Guided me to grip.

I lined him up and sank down.

"Fuck."

I wasn't sure which of us said it. He stretched me in one slow, mean slide until I was sitting on him to the base, full enough that I had to pause and breathe against his shoulder until the sting dissipated.

He held my hips and moved me on his dick. My tits were still out, bouncing when he pulled me down. Water dripped from my hair onto his skin. He went back to my nipple and sucked while I rode him, the wet sound of it louder than the rain when I rose up and dropped again.

"Look at me."

I did.

His eyes were tired in a way the fire had not been allowed to show. I kept looking and rolled my hips slower, clenching around him on purpose, and his head dropped back against the railing.

"That's it," I whispered.

"Take it. I got you."

He pulled me down and fucked up into me from the step, short and deep, his mouth open against my breast. I came first, shaking in the rain, pussy gripping him in ugly little pulses. I cried out loud enough for the neighbors to hear; I couldn't hide. He followed with a broken sound against my skin, holding me there so I had to take all of it, his dick jerking inside me while the rain ran down my back.

We did not move for a while.

The rain kept falling. His heart beat under my palm. He was still inside me, softening, my panties twisted to the side, my dress was ruined. He did not thank me. He didn't move or speak. He put his face against my neck and breathed like he had been holding it since we left north Florida.

I held the back of his head and tried not to spout any sentiment. He didn't need it.

The shop would still be gone.

Chapter 24

Lila

We ended up on my living room floor.

Our wet clothes were in a pile by the door. I had pulled the pink blanket off the back of the couch and thrown it over both of us.

Grizz was on his back beside me, one arm behind his head.

I was curled on my side looking at him.

The rain tapped against the windows.

SZA played low.