Page 118 of Knight

“What did she say?” he asks, glancing back at the kitchen with a sexy little half-smirk.

But I change the topic. “What do you think of the food?” Willow gets a harder kick from me under the table and she stuffs a spoonful of rice in her mouth.

Damien smiles, meeting my eyes as if he’s searching them for an answer. We both know neither of us is forthcoming with our feelings and discussing how we feel in the middle of a crowded restaurant isn’t the best idea. “It’s pretty fucking amazing, I’ve been eating here all week.” He leans back in his chair, an arm swooping behind me. “You grew up with this stuff?”

Nodding, it’s hard not to cozy up to him. “Mhm. My dad’s Jamaican. Was.”

“Irish mom,” Willow informs with a full mouth.

His eyes narrow, moving to the watch on my wrist, my palm on my chin before he meets my gaze again. “There’s a lot we’re still learning about each other, huh?”

“Mhm.” It’s kind of scary. This connection we have. It’s all-consuming yet there’s still so much to discover.

“You two should go for a walk,” Willow pipes up again. “You know, show Damien more of our old home. Our rags to riches story.”

Is she wing-manning me? Wing-womaning? “It’s cold,” I say, glancing at her. There’s no way I’m leaving her alone in The Grove.

“He’ll keep you warm,” she counters. “You want to go for a walk with her, right Damien?”

God, she sounds like one of Lea’s minions, trying to thwart a position in her favour. What’s her plan here?

“A walk sounds enlightening,” he says, his hand coming to my thigh. “I’ll keep her warm.”

“Oh, will you?” I ask, already lost in his icy-hot touch.

His voice lowers into the growl of a sex god. “Do I have to prove that?”

“Ew.” Willow pulls the rest of our meals towards her. “I’ll be fine here. Now, go. Please. For my sake.”

“Fine,” I give in, wiping my bare lips with a napkin. “Let me show you around.”

After making sure Willow’s okay, Damien and I bundle up and take a stroll around my old hometown. This is even more surreal than sitting in Anansi’s. I never imagined things would turn out this way. Never thought my parents would be gone. Never thought I’d be dating Damien King, one of the richest guys on the east coast.

Damien and I walk by my old elementary school, my old high school, and the diner I used to work at. All the while, I’m filling him in on our little tricks and schemes that the guys and I used to get money. I show him where I got that little scratch under my ass from hopping a fence and where I even had my first kiss.

“In an alley?” he asks.

“Sorry we’re not all so privileged to have our first kiss in a pool filled with melted gold,” I say. “Or angels carrying harps playing Marvin Gaye.”

That gets me his rolling chuckle, deep and piercing. “I had my first kiss behind my elementary school but in an alley … that’s very—”

“What? Trashy?” I’m defensive and I don’t know why. Blame the weeks of having rich assholes bully me.

“You,” he says. “It’s very you.” The way he bites his lip makes me think that this is a good thing. “Should we reenact that?”

I snort, “My first kiss?” He looks down the alleyway, nothing but a light shining on a dumpster, cardboard on the ground. It’s empty. Dark. And I’m sure it creates the perfect wind-tunnel. “Here?”

He leans into my ear, “Yeah, here.” I give him a look before he takes my hand, leading me down the alley.

“You jealous that someone else kissed me here first?” I ask before poking my tongue through my lips. “You want to mark your territory?”

He smirks, leading me past the light before my back presses against the wall, “Yeah, I do.”

Twenty-Seven

“Is there a problem with that, Rowland?”

Damien’s finger trails down my thigh and even in the chilly air, it sends hot tingles firing through me. He’s using that voice he knows I like and it isn’t helping my protest. Neither is his hand slipping into the front of my jeans.

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