Chapter twenty-one
Gemma
Rule #19: No smoothies before 7 am (also they're gross).
I'd assumed a full night of cuddling was a myth. No one really cuddled the whole night; usually, the men I'd slept with rolled over or left the bed after a couple of hours. But not Rook. He held me against his firm body all night, and if I rolled over in my sleep, I found myself snuggled against his chest or wrapped in his arms.
When I woke the next morning, it was to find myself nose-to-nose with his perfectly chiseled, handsome features. Blinking sleepily, I took in the light fan of his eyelashes against his bronze skin, the stubble along his jaw and the disheveled perfection of his blond hair against his forehead. He had to be almost forty,I was pretty sure, but the creases in his skin were light, and if anything, more rugged than aged.
I ran a finger down the bridge of his nose, and his eyes peeled open blearily. I smiled at him, tracing a line from his nose to his lips, and down his chin. "I didn't take you for a cuddler."
His arms tightened around me, bringing my naked body flush with his. "I'm not… usually." His voice had that scratchy, early-morning quality that made my heart flutter.
I squirmed under his hold, my bladder screaming at me to get to the bathroom. "I'm going to pee myself if you don't let me up, though. I tried to get away from you at like three this morning and you mumbled something about being tangled."
His straight teeth flashed white in the early morning light. "Inside joke."
"With whom?"
"Myself." Knox slid his hands away from my body and rolled onto his back, stretching with his hands behind his head. I took a second to appreciate the way his muscles bunched and rolled with the stretch, and then I slipped out of bed to get to the bathroom. I knew better than to fall asleep right after sex—nobody liked UTIs. But it had been impossible to resist melting into his embrace last night.
After I'd used the bathroom and washed up, I wrapped a towel around myself and scrubbed a hand down my face, trying to clear away the heavy fog of sleep. I felt drugged. I hadn't had a drop of alcohol the night before, but somehow, I had something like a hangover. Maybe having sex with Knox really was some kind of drug. It had certainly stolen away all the logic in my addled brain. What had I been thinking? One moment, I'd been on a date with a perfectly acceptable man, and the next, I'd been fucking my roommate in a greenhouse.
And then I'd kept fucking him.
I squeezed my cheeks together, looking at my disheveled appearance in the bathroom mirror. My hair had poofed out around my head after the shower and had dried in weird, crimped up patches overnight. I had a huge hickey on my neck, and my lips were still puffy from being ravaged by Rook's perfect mouth. "What the hell, Gem?" I gritted out to my reflection. She stared back at me, bewildered and off-kilter.
I eased open the bathroom door, peeking out to see if Knox was still in bed, but I found it empty. I wasn't sure why I was sneaking around, but somehow, in the light of day, what we'd done felt immensely idiotic. Maybe he would pretend it had never happened. Maybe we'd gotten it out of our systems.
I slipped into the closet like a dirty whore caught in the senator's bedroom and pulled on a cotton shorts and tank top set with little strawberries printed on the fabric and an itty-bitty bow at the curve of the neckline. I'd bought the set on a whim, nostalgic for the cute pajama sets I'd never had as a kid. It was a little chilly in the house, so I threw a slouchy sweater over it and padded uncertainly out of the bedroom to the kitchen.
Knox was wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt, and the muscles along his toned back shifted and bunched in a mouth-watering display as he moved around the kitchen getting coffee ready. I faltered halfway to the kitchen, taking in the planes of his stomach as he turned to face me, and then I caught sight of his ruffled hair and piercing eyes. Nope. I definitely had not gotten that out of my system. If anything, I needed another hit likenow.
His lips tilted up to one side. "Good morning."
I swallowed a groan of desperation. "Morning." Mini whined in her crate, and I snapped out of my Rook-daze to let her out. She danced around me happily, docked tail wagging and pointy ears pricking up like a fox. I rubbed her head and neck before making kissing sounds and waving to the elevator. "Come on, girl. Let's go for a walk." Pumpkin bleated from her pen, shovingher face between the bars and demanding attention. I hesitated, wondering if I should clean her pen and get her fresh water and food first.
"I've got Pumpkin," Rook said, pressing the button on his fancy cappuccino machine and coming to stand in front of me with a complacent expression. He rested his hands on my arms gently. "You're going to freeze walking out there in that getup, though."
I looked down at my bare legs, and then back to Knox. He had sounded kind of… nice just now. "I'll be okay," I assured him with a hint of stupefied wonder.
"Make it a quick walk," he said with a squeeze of my arms, and then he turned to clean the puppy pads from Pumpkin's enclosure.
I shook my head. This was weird. I was used to being growled at or maybe even snapped at first thing in the morning, but I wasn't sure what to make of gentle Knox. Mini didn't seem to notice anything was amiss and greeted Rook while I got her leash from the hook on the wall. As far as Mini was concerned, it was business as usual.
As I walked her through the older industrial sector, I tried to take a deep breath and will myself to take my dog's perspective. Nothing unusual to see here. It was just a typical Saturday morning. I would hop online, play my game for a few hours, do some laundry, take Mini on some extra walks, and maybe get some shopping done. Pumpkin was costing me a small fortune in puppy pads to keep our apartment clean with a farm animal in it. I texted my gaming pal to make sure I stuck to my plans.
GemsNlace178576:
Hey Emma! You there? I'll be on around 10 this am.
Emmaculate94:
Long time no see! It's been a hot minute. I've got a mini campaign today. You in?
GemsNlace178576:
Hell ya! I could use a distraction.
