Sighing, I push the loose hairs from my forehead.
Why can’t my life ever be easy? Why can’t I be like Ben, who knew what he wanted to do when he was four years old?
Fuck.
I go to put my foot down, but it slips over the edge and I’m falling backward, stumbling down a steep hill. A yelp escapes me and dirt fills my mouth as I hit the ground with a hard thud.
“Fucking ow!” I groan.
After all that, my AirPods are still snug in my ears and I reach up to pull them out, my hands falling to my sides when I finally catch my breath. I better not have broken anything. The last thing I need is a hospital bill I won’t be able to pay—the crystal shop doesn’t exactly pay top dollar.
I wince, attempting to push up from the ground while pulling twigs and leaves out of my hair. I’ve run this track a lot. Never once have I slipped or strayed from it, and I certainly have never fallen down a damn bank.
“You seem to find yourself in the worst positions.”
I pause, the blood pulsing through my veins flowing a little faster now. I could recognize that voice anywhere, which is ridiculous since we haven’t known each other long. I don’t even know him now. “Well…” I brush the dirt off my leg but wince when I feel a sharp pain stab against my inner thigh. “Shit.”
He chuckles, and I finally look up to where he stands, thinking I’d see him doing some weird shit, but he’s not. A large boulder protrudes from the water and his body sits perched on top. It’s like I finally notice everything that I didn’t before. Like the sound of a waterfall crashing against a large bed of water or the manic flapping of birds’ wings from above. I glance up, watching as they scatter from the trees as if a threat has revealed itself and instinct screamed run. A strange sense of adrenaline bursts behind my ribs, but I swallow beyond it.
He shifts around, the muscles in his back rippling with the movement. Why is he here, and most importantly, why is he here shirtless? It isn’t helping me at all. I don’t even know his name.
“What’s your name?” I ask, attempting to get to my feet again but retreating when the ache in my legs worsens.
“Knight. What’s yours?” His tone is flat, but if my senses are on point, as they always are, he had to work really hard to get it that way. Or maybe it’s the tic in his jaw that makes me think so. Or maybe he already knew my name. “Er…London.” I finally manage to shuffle up against a tree trunk, unzipping my pocket to get my phone out. I’m going to need reinforcements to get the hell out of here. “Are you stalking me?” It’s half a joke as I scroll through my contact list to find Ben. If anyone is going to steal a chopper and save me, it would be him.
“What the fuck?”
I jolt in shock, my phone slipping from my hands as I look up at the shadow that stands before me. Jesus. His naked chest gleams with either sweat or water, I don’t know, but I have to crane my neck to see it. He’s so damn tall and I’m half my already small size sitting on my ass. I look down at his ripped jeans and heavy boots as I attempt to lean around his body to see how far away the rock is that I just saw him perched on, but before I can move, his hand is on my chin and his face is level with mine.
I stop breathing. My stomach twists like someone has reached inside and squeezed it.
“Who said you could touch me?” I ask. In the back of my mind, annoyance pricks at the gentle whisper. I’m not gentle. I’m nowhere near gentle.
“I do what I want.” His thumb grazes the rim of my bottom lip and my breath hitches when it leaves a trail of fire along the base of my spine. “You’re bleeding.” I lose myself in the depth of his eyes. As blue as an iris. Too bad I want to watch it wilt.
“No, I’m not.” I move my face away from his touch, but he squeezes it again, forcing my eyes back onto his. God fucking dammit.
The corner of his mouth kicks up in a slight smirk, showing a slither of his Colgate perfect teeth. Ridiculous. No one should ever be this attractive. Or have hands as roughly divine as his.
“What are you doing out here?” Irritation poisons my words as I try to tidy myself up more. The throbbing between my thighs only intensifies, and the more time that goes on, the more obvious it becomes.
He turns over his shoulder slightly, the gravel crunching beneath his boots. He pauses for a second as his eyes find the thick forest behind the waterfall, but he quickly collects himself when they rest back on me. Maybe he was busy, and that was why he was shirtless. I most likely messed up his kinky little fuck-a-thon.
I look in the direction of the water, the sensation of a thousand tiny thumbtacks pricking at my back as I wait for his woman of choice to show herself.
But then he clears his throat with a shrug. “Swimming.”
A little whirl starts low in my stomach, smothering the irrational irritation that was brewing there.
“Right…” I try to stand again, but the gravel bites into my palms and I wince again, bringing them up to my face. Cuts and grazes are all over the cushions of my hands when he snatches my wrist with his one.
His eyes slice to the small wounds, brows pulling so low it casts a shadow over his features. It’s as if he’s fighting against something I can’t name, his dark gaze flying up to my face, and then back down again, a tortured darkness blanketing him.
My breath runs shallow. “What are you—”
He leans in farther, and my words die in my throat. I watch, completely transfixed, as he drags his tongue over my hand, keeping his eyes on mine.
My body quivers at the connection, subconsciously called closer, but he brings his other hand to my throat, squeezing in warning. He doesn’t want me to move, not a single centimeter. His face hardens, his pupils blown wide. So wide I swear his eyes almost look completely black for a moment, but I know I’m delirious from the heat … or something, when a split second later they seem to flash white.
Too many emotions flicker across his face to name.
“Fuck,” he forces past clenched teeth, his grip tightening on both my wrist and my neck.
Is he going to kiss me?
The warmth of his breath touches my lips and his eyes cross together when we’re too close to see each other. My heart beats erratically in my chest, as if it’s trying to warn me to run, to get the hell away as the birds did.
I’ve never been very good at listening.
My lips part slightly and Knight makes his decision.
He takes them with his own.
My stomach drops to the ground and my veins turn to fire as I deepen the kiss. His fingers trail around the curve of my throat and to the back of my neck, forcing me closer to him. Electricity burns over my flesh the longer we’re connected and I reach aimlessly to the back of his head, fisting his hair and tugging on it. I need to get closer, so much closer. I need to know what his skin feels like beneath mine—god. What the fuck.
He shoves me away and I fall forward from his absence. My ears buzz with the comedown of adrenaline that’s still racing around my body and crashing into every emotion on its way down. My head swims with fatigue as I try to blink past what just happened.
“Fuck…”
“Okay. Wait—” I shove up from the ground, finally able to make it to my feet, but by the time I’m at full height, Knight is gone.