Chapter 34 CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 34
KNOX
What the hell just happened?
I was halfway down the hall, still breathing like I’d sprinted a mile, my mind running in tight, violent circles. Her taste was still on my tongue. Her scent still in my head. And her voice—God, her voice when she’d whispered my name—wasn’t something I’d be able to forget if I lived to be a hundred.
I stopped walking. Leaned against the wall. Closed my eyes.
What the hell was I doing?
She was supposed to be off-limits. Aaron’s sister. My rival’s sister. The girl who argued with me like it was a sport. The one person I had no business touching.
And yet—
All it took was one stupid spark, and I lost every ounce of self-control I’d ever had.
I should’ve never gone back to her room. Should’ve never stayed. But when she’d looked up at me, eyes wide and vulnerable after that whole scare earlier, I just… couldn’t walk away.
Now I wished I had.
My pulse wouldn’t calm down. My hands wouldn’t stay still. I clenched my jaw and forced myself to start walking again.
When I got to my apartment, I kicked the door shut and threw my phone on the couch. The room was dark, quiet, and yet my thoughts were loud enough to choke me.
I sat down, elbows on my knees, and ran a hand through my hair.
“Get a grip,” I muttered.
Didn’t help. Because every time I closed my eyes, I saw her again—standing in that oversized shirt of mine, hair damp, eyes wide when she caught me holding that thing. The way she’d turned red from her ears to her neck. The way her voice broke when she yelled my name.
And then the kiss.
Holy hell, the kiss.
I tilted my head back, exhaling sharply. “You’re so screwed, Knox.”
A notification pinged on my laptop from across the room, snapping me out of it. Work. Good. Something normal. Something that didn’t smell like her perfume or sound like her breathing.
I opened the screen and stared at the lines of code for my current project. An AI debate simulator I’d been building for the university’s tech grant. Something I usually loved tinkering with. But now, I couldn’t even focus long enough to type a sentence.
I groaned and dropped my head against the back of the chair. “Focus. Work. Not women. Especially not her.”
Still didn’t work.
Because my traitorous brain kept replaying everything—how soft her lips were, how warm her skin felt under my palms, how she’d trembled just a little when I whispered her name.
“Shit,” I muttered, slamming the laptop shut.
This wasn’t helping. Nothing was helping.
I stood, pacing the room like an idiot. I grabbed a bottle of water, drank half of it in one go, then stared out the window. It was dark out—campus lights glowing faintly in the rain. And somewhere out there, she was probably lying awake too, thinking about what just happened.
Or maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she’d already decided it was a mistake.
The thought made my chest tighten.
“Good,” I muttered to myself. “She should think it’s a mistake. Because it was.”
But my voice didn’t sound convincing, not even to my own ears.
I threw myself onto the couch and covered my eyes with my arm. I should’ve known better. Getting close to anyone always ended badly. That’s why I kept people at a distance. That’s why I never mixed anything real into all the chaos.
And yet, with her, it was already too late.
A low laugh escaped me—tired, humorless. “Of all people, it had to be Aaron’s sister.”
Then I noticed something—her hairband. It must’ve fallen into my pocket when I carried her earlier. I held it up, turning it between my fingers. Simple black, stretched at the edges. Still smelled faintly like her shampoo.
And that was the final straw.
I dropped it on the counter, grabbed a towel, and muttered under my breath, “Cold shower. Now.”
Because if I didn’t, I was going to do something really, really stupid.
I walked straight to the bathroom, slammed the door shut behind me, and turned the water on full blast.
Cold. I needed cold.
As it hit my skin, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.