I don’t like how we left things.
After another glance in the window, I walk to the cabin door.
So then let me in.
I wait until I hit send to knock, and a few seconds later, Leighton swings the door open. She grabs my arm and drags me inside, looking around before closing the door.
“What the fuck?” she says, turning around. “I tell you I don’t want people to see us together, so you show up here? Where every single staffer can see you?”
“Hard to talk and figure shit out without us in the same place,” I growl. “Plus, everyone’s at the beach. Where you should be.”
She swallows and folds her arms over her chest. It pushes up her cleavage, showing at the top of her low-cut tank. “I asked someone to cover.”
I nod and tuck my phone back in my pocket. “Cole. I fucking noticed.”
Leighton shakes her head. “Why are you here, Knox? Did you think about what I said about waiting until the end of summer?”
Why am I here? Other than the fact I can’t go five seconds without thinking about this woman. Really, I just want to be around her, even if it means fighting with her about us not being around each other.
I walk farther into the cabin, stop by her cot, and imagine all the ways I could take her on the thin and narrow mattress before I face her. “I thought about it, still not interested.”
“Why?” she hisses, following me in. “All I’m asking for is space over the summer. If I meant anything to you—”
“If you meant anything,” I interrupt. “Fuck, Leighton, you mean everything. I waited four years so that when I got you, I wouldn’t have to let you go again. Which is why I’m not screwing around with this shit. We’re not a movie you just hit pause on and come back to later when it’s convenient. If you don’t want to be with me now, then don’t expect me to be waiting like a little puppy for you at the end of the season.”
The second the defiant look hits her eyes, I know what she’ll say, simply because it’s the opposite of what I want. Stubborn. Impossible. And even right now, the spark between us begs to catch fire.
She huffs out a breath and reaches for the door handle. “Then don’t wait.”
I stride to the door with every intention of heading straight out of it, but the closer I get, the hotter we burn. At the last second, I swerve into her, crashing my mouth down on hers. She gasps as I press her back, so the door latches behind her. My knee spreads hers apart, and as my fingers circle her clit through the fabric of her shorts and panties, she whimpers, fiercely kissing me back.
When I drop my mouth to her neck, tasting her skin, I slip under the material until I feel her bare pussy. My cock strains against the front of my dress slacks, aching to sink into her tight heat, but I slide my fingers inside her instead. I rub her clit with my palm and coax her to the brink. It only takes a minute for her breathy mewls to break into a moan.
“That’s right, baby. Let go. Come for me, beautiful.”
I move my mouth back to hers, swallowing every sweet sound she makes. Her pussy clenches around my fingers, and then she’s coming, throwing her head back and gasping for air.
Leighton sags into me, breathless and still shaking from her orgasm when I bring my fingers to my mouth. I suck them clean before I kiss her again, slowly moving her away from the door.
“I won’t wait, Leigh,” I growl against her lips. “But something tells me I won’t have to.”
She breaks her mouth away from mine, scowling as I jerk open the door and leave her a sexy, panting mess in the doorway.
Chapter Fifteen
Leighton
I won’t lie, between Knox storming out the door earlier and him showing up at my cabin, I’ve questioned what happened in his office a million times. Wondering if I was missing an option—if we could get away with sneaking around for the summer.
It’s why I’d texted him.
But as I watch him stroll away, my body still humming from him, I know the two of us staying away from each other is the only way to keep people out of our business. We’d get caught over and over again if we tried any other way because Knox has no intentions of keeping his hands off me, and as I demonstrated thirty seconds ago, he has a way of making me lose control. One second, I’ll be focused on a task, and the next, I’m drowning in him, not caring if I ever breathe anything but him again.
I want that with him. Really, I do. But if Knox and I confirmed the rumors, staffers would be relentless, working overtime to make me miserable. Sure, I’d build up a tolerance like last year, but Knox would retaliate against each and every townie or ivy who looked at me wrong.
Then, I’d end up only being known as Knox Cabot’s girlfriend—talk to me and die. It would be no different than if everyone knew I was the owner’s future stepdaughter. I want people to respect me because I deserve it, not because they’re afraid to be fired if they exhale near me because of who I’m with or know.
In the morning, I can still feel Knox’s breath on my skin.
Before my first shift in the dining room, I take the back door into the employee break room to avoid Knox’s office. I know we’ll run into each other eventually, and he’s not usually even on the grounds yet, but I don’t take the chance. A few people lounge around, some ivies in teal at one table and townies at another.
I open my locker to find a folded up piece of paper on top of my apron. Since the only person who has my locker combination is the staff director, I sigh and drag it out to read whatever note Knox left me. Except, it’s not from him. It’s a locker number written down along with an offer of five hundred dollars for whatever I can get for it.
Crumpling the paper in my fist, I grab my apron and close my locker. Someone must have slid it through the slats at the top. I glance around, but no one in the room seems to be jumping up to claim responsibility. You’d at least think they would stick around for my reaction since they went to the trouble.
As I rush down the hall past Knox’s office door, I have a fleeting thought that my day can only get better from here. I mean, being propositioned by some spineless asshole, who doesn’t have the balls to say it to my face, should be the low point, right?
So, so wrong.
I reach the service area at the front of the kitchen, and everyone parts like the Red Sea to let me through. Once I have my setup finished, I check my phone. My mom texted, already making plans for the weekend in an attempt to not suck anymore—her words not mine.
The familiar feeling of everyone watching and talking sets in. Luckily, Cole saves me, sliding down a counter so he bumps into me. “There. Now I have leprosy too.”
I roll my eyes at him, but I’m so glad he’s staying on A shift with me. “Something tells me the locals would be more forgiving over a number of skin-eating diseases than a shitty rumor about me screwing the boss. And the ivies would love if I were covered in boils. Then I wouldn’t be a threat at all.”
Cole shrugs. “The rumors about you and Cabot will go away as long as you don’t feed into them.”