Chapter 100: Two Choices

NORA’S POV

My brain completely stalled out.

Every drop of blood in my body rushed straight to my face, burning so hot it felt like my skin was about to peel off.

Then why were you moaning my name into my sheets?

His words hung in the air between us.

I looked up at Knox Sheridan, towering over me against the locked bedroom door, his arm braced beside my head, and that dark, wicked smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.

Mortification washed over me, and before I could stop myself, pure panic took over. I shoved both hands against his chest, trying to push him back but it was like trying to shove a brick wall.

"You were listening?!" I hissed, clutching the front of his oversized number nineteen hoodie tightly around my bare thighs. "You were standing outside that door eavesdropping on me?!"

Knox didn’t budge an inch. His jaw tightened, his gaze dropping to where my trembling knuckles were digging into the cotton of his sweater.

"Nora..."

"Wait," I gasped, the sudden realization hitting me like a slap to the face. My eyes darted to the door behind him. "If you were standing outside the door the whole time... then who the hell just slammed the front door downstairs?!"

"Bear," Knox muttered. "He just got back from the rink with his gym gear. He’s down in the kitchen making a shake right now."

A cold jolt of fear shot through my stomach.

Bear is downstairs.

I glanced toward the bed. Muffled beneath Knox’s mountain of dark pillows, that tiny, persistent motor was still vibrating away into the silence.

Bzzzz... bzzzz...

My stomach twisted into a knot. I looked back at Knox, the embarrassment boiling over into defensive anger.

"Why did you buy that, Knox?!" I whispered fiercely. "I told you something vulnerable last night. And your first thought was to rush-order a sex toy to your frat house like I’m some pathetic charity case?! Like I’m broken?!"

Knox’s smirk vanished instantly.

A flare of emotion flashed across his handsome face... not anger, but genuine, agonizing regret.

"Bennett, stop," he said in a deep voice, sounding completely serious.

Before I could pull away, Knox reached out and gently caught both of my wrists. He didn’t squeeze or hurt me; he just held me firmly, lifting my hands and pressing them flat against the hard, rapid thump of his own heartbeat.

"Shut up for two seconds and look at me," Knox commanded softly, leaning down until his eyes were level with mine.

I clamped my mouth shut, blinking rapidly against the hot sting behind my eyelids, my chest heaving against his palms.

"You are not broken," Knox said. "And you sure as hell aren’t a charity case, Nora. Don’t you ever say that about yourself."

"Then why..."

"Because I’m a complete idiot," Knox cut in, letting out breath. "I ordered it at midnight because I wanted you to have something good. Something that was yours, with zero pressure and zero expectations from me or anyone else. But the second I woke up this morning, I realized how bad it looked."

I stared at him, my breath catching in my throat.

"I panicked, Nora," Knox admitted, his thumb brushing lightly across the inside of my wrist where my pulse was racing. "I shoved the box under the nightstand when you woke up because I didn’t know how to give it to you without making you feel weird. Then I got in my truck, drove three blocks, and had a total meltdown. I pictured you finding it and thinking I was some depraved, manipulative creep."

"You... had a meltdown?" I whispered, totally thrown off.

"I pulled an illegal U-turn in the middle of the road, killed the engine down the street, and jogged back up the driveway in my socks," Knox said, shaking his head. "I sneaked into the house to snatch the box before you found it. But when I got up here, the door was locked."

He paused, his gaze searching my face with an intensity that made my knees feel weak.

"And I wasn’t eavesdropping, Nora," Knox murmured. "I turned the knob, it was locked, and then... I heard you. I heard the... And I heard my name."

Heat rushed back into my cheeks, but this time, it wasn’t anger. It was a dizzying, breathless warmth.

"I was literally walking away to give you your space," Knox continued softly, stepping half an inch closer. "I was halfway down the stairs to let you have your privacy when Bear kicked the front door open. I knew if he came up here and heard that buzz, you’d be mortified. So I bolted back up and made a scene with the playbook to cover for you."

Everything clicked into place.

The heavy footsteps, the rattling door handle, the absurd story about Coach Brennan... it all made sense now.

He hadn’t been spying on me, nor was he mocking me. He had sprinted up those stairs to protect me from being discovered by his teammate.

"Oh," I breathed, my fingers relaxing against his chest.

"Yeah. Oh," Knox echoed quietly, a faint, crooked smile returning to his lips.

Downstairs, the blender suddenly whirred to life, grinding ice and protein powder in a loud, rhythmic hum that masked every sound on the second floor.

Knox’s gaze drifted down from my eyes to my mouth, lingering on my swollen, parted lips, before trailing lower to the collar of his hoodie hanging loosely off my bare shoulder.

His pupils were dilated and filled with a hunger he wasn’t even trying to hide anymore. "You were so close, weren’t you?" Knox murmured, his voice dropping to a low, husky rumble.

A shudder rippled straight down my spine.

"Knox..."

"I heard your breath hitch through that door, Nora," he whispered, leaning in until his lips brushed the sensitive skin just below my ear. "I heard you begging. In my bed. Wearing my jersey number."

My knees nearly gave out beneath me. I gripped the fabric of his shirt to keep my balance, fighting with everything I had to sound defensive instead of completely wrecked.

"Because I thought I was completely alone in the house!" I breathed, my voice trembling as his hot breath scorched my neck.

Knox let out a chuckle that vibrated right through my chest. His large hand slid slowly down my arm, his warm, calloused palm coming to rest on the bare curve of my hip, sending an electric jolt straight through my blood.

"That explains why you weren’t trying to be quiet, Bennett," he rumbled softly, tracing his thumb along the dip of my waist. "But it doesn’t answer my question. Why were you moaning my name?"

I swallowed hard, my heart hammering against my ribs.

I could have lied, or simply made up an excuse.

Instead, I looked up into his honest, devastatingly handsome face and told him the truth. "Because I closed my eyes," I whispered in a trembling voice. "And all I could picture was you."

Knox went completely still and took in a deep breath.

For three agonizing seconds, neither of us moved. The house downstairs faded into white noise.

Then, Knox looked past my shoulder toward the bed, where the blush-pink rose was still quietly buzzing beneath the dark pillows.

He looked back down at me, his eyes burning with pure, unadulterated fire.

"Bear’s going to be in that kitchen for at least ten minutes," Knox murmured as his fingers tightened around my hip. "So you have two choices, Nora."

"What... what choices?" I breathed, barely able to speak.

Knox leaned down, his lips brushing against mine in a hot, agonizingly slow tease.

"You can get dressed, and we can pretend this morning never happened," Knox growled softly against my mouth. "Or you can get back on that bed, and let me help you finish what you started."