“Probably Valerie or Victoria.”
“They’re mine now.” She says it with a smirk on her face. You’d think at this age the three of them wouldn’t be fighting over clothes, but here they are still doing it.
“Wait, what are you doing! We have to hide, not pull right in!” Vanessa explodes.
“Right.” I throw the truck into park. “Stay here,” I tell her as I exit, slamming my door behind me. I see Knox’s chopper sitting outside, and I have to resist kicking it. Even with my sister carrying on in the car, my mind has been whirring with possibilities. What is he doing here? Why?
Feelings of jealousy that I’d never felt bear down on me. I keep telling myself it’s irrational, but here they are. I know this can’t be club shit or I’d know about it. So then what the hell is it? Never has Knox cleared my phone call.
I push open the door, and the bell sounds.
The office is pink. All the walls are covered in a soft pink, and different kinds of chandeliers hang from the ceiling. Three desks with computers sit there, and written on the back wall is, “Perfect Match”.
Is this like a fucking dating match-up place? I see red just as Knox comes out from the back. He stops when he sees me.
I’d always thought if something like this ever happened, I’d be on him. That I’d be cutting his dick off like I always joked, but for the first time in my life all I want to do is run. Maybe vomit.
“Baby?” He starts coming towards me, but I don’t want him to touch me.
I turn and bolt for the door.
I almost make it to the truck before I’m spun around by Knox. I swing, and he dodges it, grabbing both my arms and pinning me to my truck, his big body caging me in.
“Don’t play rough here, baby. I can’t fuck you in this parking lot. Save that shit for the bedroom.” His tone is teasing, and he leans down, kissing between my ear and neck. I jerk against him.
“I’m going to show you rough, you cheating bastard.”
Knox pulls back, looking down at me. The horn of my truck goes off, and Knox’s face goes hard.
“Who’s in the truck, Violet?”
“None of your business,” I snap at him.
“Baby, I can’t be going to prison for murdering someone in the broad light of day, so there better not be a man in that truck.”
“I’m more than okay with you going to prison, you cheating asshole. That way I don’t have to kill you, and I know you can’t be giving out your dick in prison,” I throw back at him. “You are pretty though, so you might take a couple.”
Knox ignores my words, picks me up by my hips, and turns, placing me behind him before flinging open the driver side door.
“You’re terrible at this spy stuff, Violet,” I hear my sister say. All the tension in Knox’s body drains away.
I poke my head around Knox to see my sister. “You honked the horn. That’s real spy-like.”
“It was a distraction! Like a…a…a diversion!” she defends.
“Is everything all right?” I turn around to see an older woman standing in the doorway of the mystery office. She’s smiling at us.
Knox just shuts the door on Vanessa, grabs my hand, and pulls me back towards the door.
“Hey, stop.” I yank on my hand, but he doesn’t let go. He just keeps walking. I have to run to keep up with him.
“Oh, you brought her!” The older woman gets all excited when we get closer. It’s like she knows who I am. “I hope you like everything I’ve come up with.”
“Mrs. Ware, this is my wife, Violet.” The woman reaches out to grab my hand at Knox’s introduction. I shake her hand and just stand there dumbly.
“Can you give us a moment?” Knox asks her.
She nods. “I’ll be in the back. Just bring her in and show her when you’re ready,” she says before turning and going back into the office.
Knox doesn’t waste time dropping down to his knees in front of me. His hand goes to my hips.
“I was going to surprise you at the barbecue this afternoon, but I should have known you’d catch me.” He smiles when he says it. “I don’t like that you thought I might be fucking around, but hell, it turns me the fuck on to see you still get so worked up over me.”
“What’s going on? Why haven’t you answered your phone?”
He looks at me in confusion and reaches to his side clip where he keeps his phone.
“Fuck, baby, I’m sorry. I must have accidently put it on silent.”
“Oh,” I say as I feel the heat hit my cheeks. I’m a little embarrassed that I went crazy. This place is clearly not what I thought it was.