Chapter 88: Because of You

NORA’S POV

My fingers trembled slightly against the cold brass handle of the door.

Knox stood in the hallway of my dorm, towering over me at six-foot-three.

His dark leather jacket was drenched, water dripping from the shoulders onto the carpeted floor. His dark curls were soaked from the downpour, plastered against his forehead in messy waves, and his eyes were bloodshot and completely stripped of his usual cocky armor.

He looked like a man who had walked through a storm just to reach my doorstep.

"Tell me the truth, Bennett," his voice broke in a low, gravelly rasp that vibrated straight through my bones. "Look me in the eye... and tell me what happened on that dock."

My breath caught in my throat, hot tears immediately burning behind my eyelids.

Before another student walking down the corridor could see us, I reached out with both hands, grabbed the wet leather lapels of his jacket, and yanked him across the threshold inside.

Knox stumbled forward into the room, his boots tracking damp footprints across the linoleum entryway.

I kicked the wooden door shut with my heel, reached up, and turned the brass deadbolt with a sharp click.

The room went dead, suffocatingly quiet except for the sound of our ragged breathing and the rain lashing outside against the windowpane.

Knox spun around to face me.

His chest was heaving under his damp black henley, his large hands clenched into fists at his sides. His skin was pale, his lips slightly blue from the freezing rain, but the heat radiating off his body was so volatile, so intense, that the air felt charged with static electricity.

"You’re soaked, Knox," I whispered, reaching out with shaking fingers to touch his jacket. "Take this off before you freeze."

"I don’t give a damn about the jacket, Nora," Knox rasped, stepping back half an inch, refusing to let me deflect.

His jaw was locked so tight that a muscle twitched under the dark stubble along his jawline.

"Did you kiss him?" Knox asked, his voice cracking at the last two words. "Did you leave Briar on Wednesday just to run back into Drew Miller’s arms?"

A sob tore from my throat.

"Yes, Knox!" I shouted, the tears finally spilling over my lashes and tracking hot paths down my cold cheeks. "He kissed me! Drew leaned down on that dock and he kissed me!"

Knox flinched as if I had physically struck him across the face. His broad chest rose and fell in a jagged, violent inhale, his knuckles turning bone-white.

"And if you had stayed on that trail for five more seconds instead of running away like a coward," I cried out, taking a furious step toward him, "you would have seen me shove him off!"

Knox froze.

The color completely drained from his face, his eyes widening in stunned, disbelieving shock.

"What?" Knox breathed.

"I pushed him away, Knox!" I yelled, my voice cracking with all the agonizing pain of the last twenty-four hours. "I pulled back after two seconds! I looked Drew Miller dead in the eye and told him it was over! I told him that there was zero chance of us ever being together!"

Knox stared down at me, his chest rising and falling in quick, shallow gasps.

His shoulders trembled beneath his wet clothes. His hands relaxed as he searched my face, looking at me with desperate intensity.

"Why, Bennett?" Knox rasped, taking a step closer until his boots brushed mine. "Why did you push him away?"

"Because of you, you idiot!" I cried out. "I spent the last three weeks trying to convince myself that what we had was just an academic arrangement. I told myself you were just a hockey captain who needed to pass economics, and I was just a tutor trying to save her mother’s bakery."

I stepped into his space, pressing my flat palms firmly against the center of his damp chest.

Beneath my fingers, his heart was pounding fast against his ribs, racing at the exact same frantic rhythm as mine.

"When Drew asked me to come to Oakhaven, I thought going home would fix me," I whispered, looking straight up into his eyes. "I thought Drew was the safe, familiar harbor I needed. But the second his lips touched mine, it felt completely dead. It was hollow. Because kissing Drew felt like reading an old textbook I had already memorized."

A tear slipped from my chin, splashing onto the fabric of his shirt.

"Safe is nothing compared to you, Knox," I breathed. "You set my entire soul on fire. I couldn’t be with him because I am in love with you, Knox Sheridan. I love you."

Complete silence descended over Room 304.

Knox stared down at me, completely paralyzed.

It was as if the words had knocked the breath clean out of his lungs, shattering every defense mechanism, every stone wall, and every bitter ghost of his past into absolute dust.

His dark eyes softened, glistening with a raw, overwhelming emotion that made my knees weak.

"Say it again," Knox whispered.

"I love you," I choked out, a watery laugh breaking through my tears. "I love your stupid hockey diagrams on whiteboards. I love the way you remember my exact coffee order. I love how you protect everyone around you while pretending you don’t give a damn about anything. I love how you care for your loved ones even at your own expense. There is no fake contract, Knox. There never was. It’s only ever been you."

Knox let out a low, ragged sound that was half-laugh, half-groan.

His restraint completely detonated.

He shrugged his wet leather jacket off his shoulders, letting it drop to the floor with a thud.

Before I could breathe, Knox hooked his calloused hands around my waist, lifted me clean off the linoleum floor and hoisted me onto the edge of my wooden study desk, scattering a stack of notebooks across the floor.

Knox stepped between my knees, crowding into my personal space until there wasn’t a single millimeter of air left between our bodies.

He reached up, his large, warm hands framing both sides of my face, his thumbs gently wiping the hot tears from my cheeks.

His fingers were trembling against my skin.

"I drove ninety miles to Oakhaven yesterday morning, Bennett," Knox murmured with reverie as he looked deep into my eyes. "I bought those almond biscotti you like from the café near campus. I brought you an iced vanilla latte. I lasted twenty-four hours without you before I completely lost my mind."

My heart swelled with such overwhelming tenderness that it felt ready to burst.

"You brought me biscotti?" I whispered softly.

"I threw them in the trash when I saw you on that dock," Knox admitted, a self-deprecating, bitter smile touching his lips before his gaze went serious again. "Because I thought I had lost you before I ever had the balls to tell you the truth."

He leaned down until his forehead rested gently against mine, his warm breath fanning across my lips.

"You’re mine, Nora," Knox growled softly against my mouth. "No more fake rules. No more contracts. No more bullshit."

"No more contracts," I breathed.

Knox crashed his mouth down onto mine.

The kiss was fierce, hungry, and all-consuming. A loud gasp tore from my throat as Knox parted my lips with his tongue, deepening the kiss with a desperate, breathless intensity that set every nerve ending in my body ablaze.

His mouth tasted of mint, rain, and pure, intoxicating fire.

I wrapped my arms tightly around his broad neck, tangling my fingers deep into his damp dark curls, pulling him flush against my chest as I leaned into him.

Knox groaned, his large hands sliding down from my cheeks to grip my waist, pulling me so tight against his solid frame that I couldn’t tell where my heartbeat ended and his began.

This wasn’t a stunt for the cameras or a show for the tabloids. This was real... raw and consuming.

Knox broke the kiss for a fraction of a second, his breath mingling with mine in ragged, shallow gasps as he trailed his lips down the curve of my jaw to the sensitive spot beneath my ear.

"I love you, Bookworm," Knox rasped against my throat, his hands tightening possessively around my waist. "I love you so much it’s tearing me apart. I’m never letting you go."

A breathless laugh broke from my chest through my lingering tears.

"You better not, Sheridan," I whispered, threading my fingers through his hair and tilting his face back up to mine.

"Is that a threat, Bennett?" Knox murmured, his eyes sparkling with that familiar, wicked glint.

"It’s a promise, Captain," I smirked despite my flushed cheeks. "You ever run away to pout in the trees again, and I’ll make you rewrite all four Chapters of macroeconomic supply and demand curves on the ice with a dull skate."

Knox let out a low rumble of laughter against my collarbone, his teeth grazing playfully against my lower lip.

"Deal." His hands slid up my sides to settle beneath my sweater, warm and possessive against my waist. "But only if you’re in the penalty box to grade my spelling."

"Deal," I breathed.

"Good," Knox whispered, his gaze dropping to my lips with intense heat. "Because from now on, you’re wearing my jersey to every single game. No media excuses. No fake PR. For real this time."

Knox captured my mouth again, slower this time, savoring every second as if he had all the time in the world.

Suddenly, a loud jingle of keys rattled against the lock from the outside hallway.

The brass door handle violently jiggled.

"Nora?!"