Touched Page 12

  “The reason for your rules.”

  My head swings around at his voice and I smiled sadly. “Yes. No sex, never again.” I started to walk towards him as he starts to rise, but he quickly embraced me before I could get very far.

  “I love you, Jade. You remind me so much of… Never mind. Just know that you have me now. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  My arms move around his neck, my head on his shoulder, and I intend never to let go.

  “Knox, this is silly. What are you up to?” Without saying a word, he leads me blindfolded, and I follow as quietly as I can and a little nervous with not being able to see, but I trust him. We finally stop, and he removes the blindfold. I blink a few times and gaze upon an empty room. I turn my head to him in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

  He leads me into the middle of the giant room. “This is your room to do whatever you want to do.” He turns to me, taking my other hand, and we stand there gazing into each other’s eyes and holding hands. “I want you to have a place that’s yours, somewhere you can be alone when needed, a place to spend time doing whatever your heart desires.” Leaning closer he kisses my nose then leans back. “I want you to feel like this apartment is your home.” I don’t think I could love this man any more than I do right at this moment.

  “This is so sweet and so special. Thank you.” I lean into him and we turn as I look around.

  “What do you see for this room?” He releases the hand he’s still holding, walks to the window next to a set of French doors and opens the blinds. Since this is the penthouse, we’re really high up but when I walk closer to him, look out the window and then look down I gasp. “Your own garden that you can nurture, add to or rip it all out and start over if you want. It’s yours.”

  Two steps out the doors is a beautiful garden with cement seats that surround a cement table, an umbrella in the middle and a couple of other chairs placed around the beautiful paths of flowers. I throw my arms around his neck as I turn into him, my mouth crushing his so hard that I feel as if I bruised them. “Damn. If I knew I was going to get this kind of reaction I would have done it right after I first got you to my apartment.” We both laugh as he leads me outside. There’s a warm breeze and from here no one can take our pictures without our consent. It’s perfect.

  “Ok, so what do you see for your new special place?” I turn around, his arms are around my waist, my hands covering them as I lean back against his chest.

  I sigh. “Out here? I wouldn’t change a thing but I would love taking care of it.” Turning my head, I kiss him quickly, then look back out at the garden. “In the room? I want to paint the walls, get a big rug for the floor, get bookcases to line the walls and my big comfy chairs with my small table into between them and a tall reading lamp that I have, so I can read and relax.”

  I look up at him, and he’s smiling at me. “Done.” His mouth finds mine, and I’m lost in him. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve this amazing and wonderful man, but I thank God for him.

  Once he measured the walls in my room, we spent the next hour on his computer looking at shops that are close for the perfect bookcases. We found the perfect ones, and he called to order them demanding they be delivered by this evening. After paying an extreme amount of money they agreed. My things arrived a few hours later, and I spent most of the rest of the day going through boxes while Knox worked in his home office. I literally had to threaten him to let me do it myself, so he finally relented to give me a little bit of alone time. A few of the boxes I hadn’t gone through since I moved into my apartment. I sat on the floor and pulled out my old high school yearbook, several pictures of when I was younger and my baby album. I set those aside to look through at another time. I’m exhausted and want to get cleaned up before dinner.

  When I finally arrived in the kitchen, I’m stunned when I see the lights are dimmed. The table is set for two and almost looks like a picture out of a posh magazine. There are lit candles on the table next to a bottle of chilled wine. The warm feeling of his body moves in behind me as he encases me in his arms, and his teeth are nibbling on my upper ear, careful of my diamond earrings. One of his hands makes its way to my breast, cupping it over my shirt and bra but enhances the feelings stirring within me. “Mmmm,” I moan, his fingers tweaking my nipple as his other hand rubs over my stomach.

  “Are you hungry?” he whispers in my ear. I turn around, my fingers immediately threading through his hair as my mouth crushes against his. “Mmmm,” his moan is quiet as his tongue roams into my open mouth, gliding with mine.

  My lips leaves his and kiss the corner of his mouth, his jaw, up his cheek, his nose and then over to his ear. “Not for food.”

  I’m lifted up quickly and am thankful I wore jeans so my legs could move easily around his waist. His mouth is pressed against mine, but leaves long enough for him to blow out the candles and then is back once again as he kisses me all the way to our bedroom. We make love until I’m so hot with desire I’m about to explode, and then he does something amazing, something I’ve never felt before. He sweeps his finger through my wetness making it coated in my juices, then slowly penetrates the one place no one I’ve loved has been. My eyes are wide as he fills me from both ends, his finger following the rhythm of his cock, in and out until finally both are deeply inside me.

  “Tell me if that’s too much but oh my God you feel heavenly. You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever known. You feel incredible. How does it feel being entirely full of me, baby? I just want to crawl inside you completely.” His mouth latches on to mine before I can speak, my nails are digging into his shoulders as we keep up our rhythm. “One day soon, my Angel, my cock will be inside there instead of my finger. One day soon.”

  “KNOX!” I can’t hold my scream in when my orgasm overtakes me so hard, so fierce that I swear I’m blinded by the intenseness of it. Then I watch his face contort with sheer pleasure from his own. The most beautiful face in this world. I’m still in a state of blissfulness when his cock and finger pull out of me, but the warmth of his body envelopes me, his arm laying over my waist, and I’m in heaven. It’s not until after he cleans me with a warm washcloth that I notice his back when he climbs off the bed. By the time he’s leaning over the bathroom sink, rinsing out the washcloth, I walk up behind him and touch the scars gently with my finger. His back jerks as he raises his head and looks at me in the mirror. “I never noticed. I had no idea,” I whisper. I look back at him in the mirror, his face looks of worry, and I bend down, my lips softly kissing each one of them and I hear him sigh.

  “My body isn’t as perfect as you thought.”

  I step back when he turns, and I rush into his arms and look deeply into his eyes. “You are perfect. So perfect.”

  His mouth lands on mine instantly, his arms squeezing me so tightly it’s hard to breathe. I’ll take his oxygen because I don’t ever want to stop. Finally, he does, though, and then takes my hand and leads me back into our room, grabs his dress shirt from the chair and helps me into it. “Dinner. I’m starving so you must be too. We worked up rather a large appetite.” No more words were spoken about his scars. They’re in the past now, in his stepmother’s grave where they belong and where they will remain.

  § § § §

  “No! Oh, ok! Fine!” I try to stifle my laugh as I make Jade crazy with wanting to help paint her room. I know I told her she could do what she wanted to it, but if she paints it by herself, she may not get to enjoy it until she’s ninety. Ok, that may be a small exaggeration. We had moved all her boxes and things to the center of the room and covered them with tarps, so they won’t get ruined. She’s painting the trim work as I use a long handled roller brush to paint the rest of the wall. Actually, we work pretty great as a team.

  She stands up and places her hands on her hips. “Dammit. I’m going to have to get some more paint for that last wall. I’ll go into town tomorrow and get it.” She bites her fingernail, studying the wall.

  “With Emerson, my
body guard and yours now as well.” I remind her.

  “Can’t Ralph go? I really haven’t met Emerson and I’ll feel strange,” she whines. God, she looks so adorable.

  I walk over to her, take her painted up hand and kiss the top. “You’ll meet Emerson tomorrow when he takes you into town. He’s a nice man whose job is to protect me and now you. Ralph needs to go with me to the office for a while so this way we can both get done and be home together sooner.” I move closer and slide my hand around the back of her neck, pulling her in for a kiss. “I love you. I want you to be safe.” Her head nods and then smacks my butt with her paint brush. My brows raise high as I release her. “Oh! You’re on!” She starts running out of the room, but I catch her with my arm around her waist and begin rolling paint up and down the front of her shirt, the whole time she’s squealing and laughing. She manages to paint my face with her brush in her struggles, the laughter in our home giving me such happy feelings soaring through me, and again, I can’t believe we’re together at last.

  We both stop suddenly, our mouths colliding and our breathing already heavy from our fun as we both drop our paint weapons to the floor. Her hands are quickly all over my back as mine are on her breasts, my hands sliding over the wet paint covering her shirt. “Ungh!” she moans loudly. We lower to the floor, on our knees then soon I am hovering over her body laying on the paint splattered tarp. Our mouths kiss hungrily as my hand moves down to the hem of her shirt, burrowing underneath, then rising up and pushing her bra up, freeing her breasts. My mouth leaves hers and targets her nipple, nipping and sucking as my other hand moves down into her yoga pants, under the waistband and her panties. She moans as her body starts wiggling underneath me when I insert one finger, then another, causing her hips to buck, and we begin to create a rhythm.

  “Oh, my Angel. What you do to me. Fuck! I need you so bad!” I mouth against her wet nipple. Quickly, I rise, tear off my clothes and pull her pants along with her panties from her body and plow inside her in one fast move, both of our breaths taken away with the sensation. “Damn, you’re so wet for me already. I can’t… God, I love the feel of you. Your taste. This is gonna be a quick fuck, baby. I’m so ready for you. I can’t wait.” My hard cock moves in and out of her at a fast pace, but she meets me with every movement. We both start panting, and my mouth covers her breast again as my thumb finds her swollen clit. Her moans take over the room, echoing in its vastness. “ANGEL!” I scream as I reach my high then hers follows as our bodies shudder together with our bliss. I kiss the hell out of her as we both try to regain reality together. “You have the most beautiful cum face I’ve ever witnessed and no I’m not comparing. Ok, maybe I can’t help it. You’re my beautiful angel and can’t be surpassed by any other.” I stroke her hair as I whisper in her ear, and her hips start moving again. Round two here we go! We’re not gonna get much else done today.

  After round three in the shower, well, we did need to clean up, we head to the kitchen to start lunch/dinner. I turn my iPod on and a sweet, slow song erupts from the speakers. Taking her hand off the skillet, I pull her into my arms, and we start dancing, her hands wrapping around my neck as her head lays against my heart.

  “I can hear and feel your heart beating,” she whispers.

  “Only for you, my love. Only for you.”

  We move around the kitchen slowly until the smoke alarms start blaring. I run over to the skillet while Jade heads to the back door, opening it to help clear out the smoke. She turns around and bursts out into laughter. Jogging over to her, I lift her up in my arms, spinning us around as our laughter becomes muffled with my kiss. I stop us fast, looking into her eyes, her body slowly moving down mine as I guide her, so she can stand. “Marry me.” Her eyes widen, and I get a smack on my upper arm.

  “I only just moved in,” she laughs.

  My eyes grow serious. “Promise to marry me.”

  Her eyes scan mine, a small smile gracing her beautiful face. “Yes.”

  I lift her up again, my mouth crashing against hers. I don’t think we can get any closer, but hell if I’m not going to try. “Now that our dinner’s ruined, I think it’s time to call in reinforcements.” She smirks at me and shrugs. I set her down, walk over and pick up my phone from the breakfast bar, scroll through my contacts and hit call. “Yes, your numbers 5, 8 & 10 with a number 2 on the side. Yes. No, make it twenty minutes. Dunway. Fine.” I end the call, walk steadily over to Jade, pick her up and walk towards the bedroom with her cradled in my arms. I think we need round four before our food arrives.

  Our dinner is lovely. We decided to eat in the living room on the floor, picnic style. I turned on the gas fireplace, although it’s rather warm out, it’s more for effect. The wine is delicious as we eat our Chinese food, and Jade looks radiant in the glow of the fire. Of course, her face was already glowing from our lovemaking. We decide on a movie after dinner so once I cleaned up our mess, I threw some pillows on the floor, turned on the TV and with her luscious body in front of mine, we lay sprawled out, our legs entangled and watched until we both fell asleep. After carrying her to our bed, our bed, getting her comfortable in her sleepwear and covering her up, I lay there watching her sleep for a while until I finally fell back to sleep.

  When I awoke this morning, I again watched her sleeping peacefully until I had to tear myself away and take my shower. Once I get to the office, I’m swarmed with calls, emails and interruptions and lose all track of time until my phone rings, and I hit the speaker.

  “Stop! Leave me alone! Get away from me you scumbag!”

  Jade’s voice blasts through the speaker and I pick up the phone quickly. “Jade! Jade, where are you? Who is there?”

  “Bitch, don’t mess with me but I know you like it rough. Come on. How about for old times sake?” A man’s voice I’ve heard before comes in clearly, and I stand as I grab my office phone and dial Emerson. As the phone begins to ring I hear what sounds like scuffling on Jade’s phone, then, “OW!”

  “Hello?” He answers, his voice sounds like he’s still asleep.

  “Dammit, Emerson! Where’s Jade? Are you not with her?” I scream into the receiver.

  “Um, no. Not supposed to pick her up for another hour. What’s up?” His voice is clearer now, and I hear shuffling.

  “Fuck! She’s out on her own. Track her phone and get to her. Let me know sooner than ASAP! NOW!” I slam my phone down and start walking out of my office. “Jade. Jade, can you hear me?” Dead. I look at the phone, and it’s been disconnected. My heart is beating so hard, and I can’t breathe as I bump into Amber’s cube.

  “Mr. Dunway?” I look at her, and I know I’m showing the fear I’m feeling but can’t stop myself. “Knox?”

  “Jade,” is all I can manage to get out as I turn and start jogging to the elevators with Amber hot on my heels. The doors open right when I press the button, and I hurry inside and when I turn around Amber has hit the main floor button, standing next to me while the doors close. My phone goes off and I quickly swipe it without looking to see who it is.

  “I’ve got her. She’s at McCurty’s hardware. I’m almost there.” Emerson sounds out of breath as he should be.

  “Knox, what the fuck is going on? Dammit! Tell me.” Amber is panicking now the same as myself.

  I turn and look at her wide eyes and shake my head. I swear I’m having a heart attack and trying to keep my anger at bay, so I don’t lash out at Jade, my concern winning over at the moment. “She went to McCurty’s without Emerson. God damn stubborn woman! I told her she can’t go out alone anymore, not since she’s with me now and all the paparazzi. Why? Why won’t she listen? I want to yell at her, but I want to hug the shit out of her!” I would pace the floor, but there isn’t enough room in here. Raising my head to look at the floor number change too slowly I look back down at her when I feel her hand on my shoulder.

  “She’s Jade. Stubborn to the core, but she’s also used to doing what she wants, when she wants to. It’s a new world for her. And
most of the time, she can take care of herself. But then other times, she gets herself in a whole heap of trouble. Have some patience, yeah?” Her face softens as she smiles at me, and I relax a little.

  This is the longest elevator ride of my life.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  There’s a police officer holding the asswipe who’s still bent over holding onto his nuts, as another nice officer tries to talk to me. My head spins around to the sound of tires screeching and a black SUV’s front tire bounds over the curb next to us as it comes to a halt. Emerson emerges from the driver’s side, but before he gets over to me, my head jerks over at the street again. I see a black Jaguar squealing right behind, and it actually bumps the tail end of the SUV when it stops abruptly. My eyes follow Knox as he runs over, scoops me into his arms and is patting me down like a criminal. Finally satisfied I’m unharmed, he cups my face with both hands, his eyes wild as is his hair and his face is contorted in fear.

  “Jade. Oh. Thank God, Jade.” He pulls me into his arms and quietly begins weeping, his face buried in my neck. My arms move around his muscular back, and I stand here in shock at his reaction.

  “Shhh. It’s ok. I’m here,” I whisper, trying to comfort him while the adrenaline is still racing throughout my body from the fight I just had.

  His face rises, his hand quickly wiping away his tears and searches my eyes. “Why did you leave without Emerson? I thought you were dying, that I’d lost the one thing in my life that I love and makes me happy. Why?”

  Shit! I hadn’t thought about him at all, in fact, I hadn’t thought about anything. There I go being an idiot again. I bring up my hand and rest it on the side of his face, my thumb rubbing softly against his soft skin. “I’m so, so very sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to get the paint so I could get done and just left. I didn’t think…” My head turns when the officer steps towards us, but I notice out of the corner of my eye that Knox is still looking at me. I watch as he slowly moves his head to the officer.