Chapter 68 CHAPTER 68
CHAPTER 68
KNOX
I stepped inside and pulled her into my arms before she could say anything else.
Yael hugged me back tight, her hands fisting in the back of my shirt. “Knox… what the hell happened to you?”
I didn’t answer. I just held her, breathing her in. She smelled like vanilla and that coconut shampoo she always used. My ribs hurt like hell, my lip was split, and my eye was already swelling, but right then none of it mattered.
She pulled back just enough to look at my face. Her eyes were wide and worried. “Who did you fight? Tell me.”
I shook my head.
“Knox.”
I shook my head again.
She sighed, but she didn’t push. Instead she took my hand and led me over to her bed. “Sit. Don’t move.”
I sat. She disappeared into the bathroom and came back a second later with her first aid box.
She knelt between my knees and opened the box. “This is going to sting.”
“I can take it,” I said.
She dabbed alcohol on a cotton pad and gently pressed it to the cut on my lip. I hissed.
“Baby…” she whispered, voice soft. “Talk to me. Please. Who was it?”
I just looked at her.
She switched to my eyebrow, cleaning the blood there. “You know I’m not going to stop asking, right?”
“I know.”
She smiled a little, even though her eyes were still worried. “Stubborn.”
“You like it.”
“I do.” She put a small bandage over the cut above my eye. “But I also like knowing you’re okay. And right now you look like you went ten rounds with a truck.”
I chuckled, then winced because it pulled at my lip. “Truck hit back.”
She rolled her eyes and kept working. “You’re impossible. Hold still.”
She cleaned the split on my knuckle next. Her touch was so gentle it made my chest feel tight.
“Does it hurt a lot?” she asked quietly.
“Not anymore.”
“Liar.” She taped a gauze pad over my knuckles. “There. That should help.”
I flexed my hand. “Thanks, princess.”
She stood up and put the box away. “You should shower. You’ve got blood all over your shirt.”
I smirked. “You gonna join me?”
She gave me the look. The one that said she was trying not to laugh. “No. But you can shower. And you’re sleeping in your boxers. That’s it.”
I grinned even though it hurt. “What if I sleep naked? It’s more comfortable.”
“Knox.” She pointed at me. “Boxers. Or you sleep on the floor.”
I laughed for real this time. “Bossy tonight.”
“Someone has to be.” She tossed me a clean towel from her closet.
I stood up, grabbed the towel, and headed for her bathroom. Before I closed the door I looked back. “Hey.”
She glanced up from her phone.
“Thank you,” I said.
Her face softened. “Always.”
The hot water felt like heaven on my bruised ribs. I stood under the spray for a long time, letting it wash away the blood and the anger and the day. When I came out I had on just my boxers like she said. My hair was wet and dripping on my shoulders.
Yael was sitting on the bed with a pizza box open on her lap. She held up a slice like a trophy. “I ordered it before you got here. Just pepperoni. Thought it was only for me, but there’s plenty. Lucky you.”
I climbed onto the bed beside her. “Lucky me.”
We ate straight from the box. She handed me a slice, then took one for herself.
“You’re really not going to tell me who you fought?” she asked after a minute.
I took a bite and shook my head.
She nudged my knee with hers. “One day you’re going to have to let me in, you know.”
“I know.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder while we ate. “I hate seeing you like this.”
“I hate making you see me like this.”
We finished the pizza in comfortable silence. She wiped her hands on a napkin and looked at me. “You okay?”
I nodded.
“Really okay?”
I nodded again. “Yeah. I’m okay.”
She smiled, small and tired but real. “Come here.”
I lay down and she curled into me, head on my chest, leg thrown over mine. I wrapped my arm around her and pulled the blanket up over us. Her fingers traced one of the bruises on my ribs, light as a feather.
“Does it hurt when I touch it?” she whispered.
“A little. But don’t stop.”
She kept tracing it anyway. “I’m here, you know. For whatever you need.”
“I know.” I kissed the top of her head. “That’s why I came here.”
She snuggled closer. “Good. Because you’re stuck with me now.”
I smiled into her hair. “Wouldn’t have it any other way, princess.”
We lay there in the quiet. Her breathing slowed. Mine did too. The bruises still ached, b
ut the weight of her against me made everything feel smaller. Safer.
“Night, Knox,” she murmured.
“Night, baby.”