The Outsider: Hard Knox Part 23

"s.h.i.+t," Knox panted, gripping the arm of the lounger so hard it looked like he was going to break it. "You virgins really are everything you're cracked up to be."

I would have laughed if I wasn't just barely able to breathe. "Technically, I'm not a virgin anymore." I couldn't tell if it was Knox or me or both of us trembling.

His hand buried deeper into my hair. "Yeah, but . . . this is still your first time . . . It might . . . If I hurt you . . . tell me. I'll slow. I'll stop. I'll hop in a cold shower. Just tell me if I hurt you, okay?" Knox was watching my face with concern, but what he was interpreting as pain was the opposite.

"If it hurts, I'll probably just tell you to do it harder. I'm not a sweet girl who wants to be f.u.c.ked all slow and controlled, remember?" Sliding off of him almost as slowly as he'd entered me, he was in the middle of a low groan when I thrust myself back on him. My gasp was drowned out by the next crash of thunder. When I'd recovered enough to form words, I looked at him. He still looked like he was a long ways away from forming words. "I'm the other girl."

This time, it was Knox's hips that rocked away from mine before pitching back against mine. The motion made my head fall back and my toes curl. His mouth found mine, and our kissing became as frantic as our love-making. Every other moment, our mouths separated and our gasps and moans mixed together, timed to the pace of our hips. Somewhere along the way, Knox did break the arm off of the lounger, but he didn't miss a beat. His grip moved to my hip and he braced himself there, moving in and out of me like there was no end to his hunger.

"Charlie?" his voice broke.

Mine was gone, so I nodded.

"Are you okay?"

Okay seemed like the worst possible description for how I was, but since words weren't in a hurry to come and I knew what he was really getting at, I answered with another nod.

"I'm waiting for you. Let me know when you're there." His voice was so low and tight, a tremble rolled down my back.

I had to swallow and concentrate before I could speak. "Waiting for what?" I curled around him when his pace slowed just enough to be agonizing-especially with what I felt building inside me.

His body came to a standstill as he looked at me with a mixture of amus.e.m.e.nt and disbelief. "Really?" He grinned, breathing so heavily it was almost panting. "Another indication pointing toward the innocent theory."

When my body pulled back just enough that my mind could operate properly, what he'd said clicked. "My G.o.d, I'm not really that naive, am I?"

Knox's hand left my neck, his fingers trailing down until they skimmed the slopes of my chest, slowing to circle each nipple. "About most things, no, you're not . . . but about some things, yes. You're as naive as they come."

My neck arched back, my eyes closing. I felt like I should object, but that was when he buried himself deep inside me right as his mouth nipped one of my nipples. The sensation that had been slowly building suddenly thundered toward me, about to rip my body apart.

"But I love being one of the only people in the world to know the naive side of Charlie Chase. The vulnerable side." The warmth from his breath made my nipples even harder. "I love having a piece of you that most others don't."

When his mouth covered me again, his tongue tracing my nipple before he sucked it deep into his mouth, my arms wrapped around his head as my fingers wove through his hair.

"Plus, you've got that whole virginity piece of me now that no one else has," I got out in the span of five labored breaths.

His tongue circled me one last time before his head lifted. "Plus that." One hand still braced at my hip, his other went behind my head, cradling it carefully. "But there's one more piece I want to take tonight, one more piece of you I want to have."

"Greedy," I said as my eyes opened. "What piece?"

He started moving into me again. "Only all of them."

I was so close this time I was about to break an arm off the lounger. "I'm there." I felt myself tighten around him instinctually.

"But right now, I'll settle for this one," he whispered, picking up his pace until my sighs turned into cries and his cries joined mine.

As my body came undone around him, my eyes opened. As I felt his climax join mine, I realized the sky was clear, the stars s.h.i.+ning through the pa.s.sing clouds.

At last, the storm had pa.s.sed.

IT HAD SEEMED like the night would never end, but as the sun was starting to think about making its debut, I wished the night really wouldn't end. It had been a night of firsts and so many highs and lows it could have put an entire amus.e.m.e.nt park of roller coasters to shame. It was the greatest night of my life . . . and it wasn't over. Yet.

"Wait, I get to see your room? Like from the inside and everything?" I teased as Knox rounded the hall into his room.

After collapsing around one another outside in that lounge chair I'd never look at in the same way-the one with two broken arms now-I found that once a certain set of needs had been met, others made themselves obvious. Like the need to get out of the elements and warm up. And let's not forget the need to get sleep because, even though it may have been the best night of my life, this girl knew it had to come to an end sometime. My body wouldn't give me much more time before it shut off automatically.

I'd barely had time to s.h.i.+ver before Knox had scooped me up and carried me inside. We were a couple of naked, rain-soaked messes that left more than a few puddles on the kitchen floor, but neither of us seemed too concerned about leaving a mess behind us. The only thing we were concerned with was diving into bed.

"You know full well why I never invited you into my room. Or why I never stepped foot in yours for that matter." Knox snagged a couple of towels from the hall closet before moving inside his room.

Once he'd set me down, I motioned at my clothing-impaired body and raised a brow. "Because you were afraid we'd have s.e.x?" He stepped behind me and began toweling my soaking wet hair. I added, "And to think it was that b.a.s.t.a.r.d lounger you should have been worried about this whole time."

Knox chuckled as he ran the towel down my body, lingering on certain parts. "That 'b.a.s.t.a.r.d' lounger is now my favorite piece of furniture in the whole world. When it finally gives out or we manage to break the rest of it . . ."-he cleared his throat-"I'm going to build a shrine to it."

When he was done drying me, I took the other towel and returned the favor. When I made it down his arms, I stopped. "Your hands. I forgot all about them." A pang of guilt hit me when I realized I'd been so one-track-minded I'd forgotten he'd cracked open every single knuckle.

Knox examined them with me. "Don't worry. I forgot all about them too. And they're fine. I've split them open so many times they're pretty well used to sealing shut again."

Once I finished drying him off, I headed for the bathroom to grab the first-aid kit. I considered grabbing my robe and throwing it on as I hadn't been raised nudist. I wasn't used to doing everyday things like putting on bandages or having conversations while naked. I barely gave it a second thought before leaving it behind and traipsing back down the hall. Those nudists knew what was going on.

Knox smiled at the kit in my hand. "If you start babying me, I'm going to go all soft and my reputation will go to s.h.i.+t. There may come a day when students hear the name Knox Jagger and, instead of trembling, they'll giggle like little girls. Is that the kind of life you want for me?"

I rolled my eyes, relieved that having s.e.x hadn't seemed to change anything about our relations.h.i.+p. I'd been worried that when and if we ever did do it, awkward and unsure would be the tone of our relations.h.i.+p afterward. His giving me a hard time while I did my best to do the same had to mean we would be okay. It had to mean we'd figured out a formula to beat the morning-after awkwardness. Maybe our months-long friends.h.i.+p had been the key. Or maybe it was something else, but whatever it was, I was thankful.

Ringing my fingers around his wrist, I led him to his desk and pushed him into the chair. "No, that's not the life I want for you, but I would like you to have one that is free of infection and excessive blood loss. Is that too much to ask?"

With a sharp huff, he did as instructed, but he made sure his expression let me know he wasn't excited about any of the "babying." "Nurse Ratched has nothing on you."

Setting the kit on his desk, I opened it, grabbed the tube of ointment, and straddled his lap to tend to his wounds. I might have straddled him a little closer than ointment application required, but that was part of the fun of playing doctor naked with the man I'd just lost my virginity to.

His head fell over the back of the chair, his forehead creasing in a familiar way. "Nothing on you." His voice was rougher this time.

I smiled as I piled some gauze across his knuckles.

"By the way," he said a few moments later-his face and voice mostly recovered, "how are you feeling . . . you know . . . down there?"

If I wasn't sure about the no-awkwardness thing, Knox inquiring about the wellbeing of my lady business had just secured it. "I'm feeling quite well down there, thank you very much."

He squinted as he worked up his next question. "It doesn't like . . . hurt or anything?"

I bit my lower lip to keep from smiling as I wound a cloth bandage around one of his fists. It wasn't that I didn't think he was thoughtful for being so concerned, but if word got around that Knox Jagger ran through a list of twenty questions pertaining to his conquest's v.a.g.i.n.a's wellbeing, that would devastate his reputation as well.

"It's a little sore, I guess," I started, thinking about it for the first time. "But the good kind of sore. Other than that, it's fully functional and ready for an encore whenever you are."

When my hips flexed against him, he almost instantly hardened, but he gently moved my hips away with a firm shake of his head. "Let's not get to that encore thing too soon and risk making a good sore a bad one, okay?" He tried to hide his smile when I glared at him as I finished bandaging his other hand. "I'm as eager for an encore as you are, but let's take our insane s.e.xual compatibility slowly. You know what they say about too much of a good thing."

"I know what I say about too much of a good thing," I said, making a Tada! motion toward Knox's cut hands.

"What do you say?" he asked as he inspected his bandaged hands with an impressed expression.

I arched an eyebrow at him. "More please."

That made him laugh so hard I was practically bouncing on his lap, which did nothing to make me stop thinking about, wanting, and scheming ways to get s.e.x. So I stood and backed away a few steps. Sleep first. s.e.x second. That was Charlie Chase's new-and-improved hierarchy of needs.

"Tired?" he guessed, popping out of his chair and leading me to his bed.

I hadn't noticed at first, but Knox's bed wasn't like any other I'd seen. Instead of being raised off the ground or even sitting right on it, it was level with the ground. It looked like he'd built the bedframe into the floor. I could have walked right across it.

"What's the deal with your bed?" I asked, unable to stare at Knox's bed without smiling. I'd imagined so many times what it would be like to fall into it with him, and I was seconds away from that actually happening.

Knox shrugged as he threw the covers back. "It's different. I like sticking to a theme."

"Yeah, but your landlord's cool with that? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing most homeowners would be okay with."

"Well, this homeowner is." He stuck his thumb into his chest and looked at me, already knowing he had some explaining to do.

"Are you saying you're the homeowner?"

He nodded.

"And you didn't tell me this before why?"

Knox was still kneeling, turning down the blankets like he'd been wis.h.i.+ng for this night almost as long as I had. "How many college kids do you know who own their own homes? It's just easier to let everyone a.s.sume I rent it to avoid the stream of questions."

"Like you're getting from me now?"

"For you and you only, I don't mind running through the questions this once."

I s.h.i.+fted. "How were you able to afford it?"

Knox smiled at the floor, lifting his arm. "What can I say? The arm wrestling-slash-s.h.i.+t-kicking business has been good to me."

I shook my head. "You are unbelievable, Knox Jagger. Un. Believable."

Jacking his brows at me, he flashed a cheesy smile. "Why, thank you. I get that a lot."

Grabbing a pillow from his bed, I tossed it at him. "Unbelievable comes with two frames of reference, you know."

"Yeah, but I have a feeling the kind you were moaning about out back is the same kind of unbelievable I'm talking about now." He gave me that smile that made my throat go dry.

I pretended to be immune to it. To wipe it from his face, I grabbed the other pillow and flung it at him.

"Come to bed. Enough arguing and pillow throwing for one night." Knox patted the mattress. "Come to bed with me."

I was one step in that direction when I remembered something. "Hold that thought." I lifted my finger and rushed back out of his bedroom.

"Where are you going now?" Knox shouted, followed by what sounded like a sigh.

I was already opening the slider and stepping back outside. Now that the storm was over, it seemed far more risky to step outside naked, but I'd be quick. Rus.h.i.+ng over to the lounger, I scooped up the abandoned necklace, smiled at the lounger, then hurried back inside. The necklace was wet, so after drying it with a dishtowel, I headed back to Knox's room.

He was lying on his bed with the covers sitting just below his waist, his hands folded behind his head. "What was that about?" He leaned up on his elbows.

Padding across the room, I let the necklace dangle as I held it out for him. "I didn't think you could sleep without this."

A flash of pain rolled across Knox's face before he blew out a slow breath. Like he was saying good-bye to it, he took one last look before turning away. "After the oath I made on it that I just broke to s.h.i.+t tonight, I'd probably burst into flames if I slipped that thing back on."

"Knox-" I started to argue, although I wasn't sure what I was going to argue about.

"No." He shook his head adamantly. "I can't wear it anymore."

I stared at the necklace hanging between us, wondering what kind of magic or perceived magic it held to have such power over him. "I've never seen you without it. It's like your security blanket. You don't have to stop wearing it because I pretty much tricked you into having s.e.x with me."

Knox lifted his eyes to the ceiling when I said tricked, but he never stopped shaking his head. "I can't wear it. But you know who can?" He motioned me closer. When I crawled onto the mattress beside him, he took the necklace and placed it over my head. "There. It fits you better than me anyway." His fingers brushed where the necklace ran along my neck.

I rested my hand over his, twining our fingers together. "Why's that? Because I'm more religious than you or because I'm more likely to encounter a vampire?"

He tugged on the necklace, drawing me closer to him. When I was close enough, he kissed me. "It fits you better because it's a woman's necklace."

Another piece of Knox's past fell into my lap. Dozens had been dumped there over the past few months, but they made as much sense on their own as they did when I put them together. It was all disjointed and didn't shed any light on the whole picture of what Knox's life had been like before I'd entered it.

"Let me get this straight. You've been wearing a woman's necklace around campus for years, and you're worried that getting bandaged up by a girl will ruin your reputation?"

"Come here, funny girl. Time for bed." Knox wrestled me onto the mattress.

Almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, I felt a wave of drowsiness come over me.

"s.e.x makes me tired and you, apparently, a chatty little thing," he said.

I rolled onto my side, nestling into him. His arm wove around me and pulled me close.

"Knox?"

"Uh-huh?" The lights were still on and dawn was threatening to crack through the windows, but he sounded like he was one yawn away from falling asleep.

"Thank you for the necklace. I'll return it to you one day, if . . . well . . . you know." I wrapped my hand around the necklace, not quite sure what to think of Knox giving me something he so obviously cherished. "Thank you for not just the necklace, but for everything. Tonight was . . ." So many words to choose from, so few words that actually summed it up. "Tonight was immense."

"You're welcome." He nuzzled the back of my neck. "Thank you for your virginity . . . and for everything else too."

When I nudged him with my elbow, he chuckled.

"Okay, so before we fall asleep, can we just take a moment to acknowledge that I am sleeping in your bed, naked, with you?" Saying it seemed to make it more real.

"You've spent plenty of naked nights in bed with me," he replied, his tone feigning indignation. "At least in my imagination."

I flipped around, giving him a look that said Go on.

He continued, "In case you haven't noticed, I've been a bit . . ."

"Less promiscuous?"