Page 38 of Deal with the Devil

She smirked, “If you want me to wear it, you just need to tell me.”

He leaned over the couch, their noses brushing. She didn’t back down. Knox reached between them, snatched up the zipper and ripped it closed. “Don’t ask me what I want, pet. I can’t say what I want because there are minors and your sister present.”

Amelia let out a bark of a laugh. “Coward.”

“We’ll see if you still feel that way when I have you crawl across my office floor wearing nothing but the collar.”

Amelia’s cheeks reddened but there was a mischief flickering in her eyes as she twirled away from him. “So, you do want me to wear it? Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Knox huffed, snatching up her bag and shoving it into Maevin’s stupid, shit-eating grin covered face. “Put that in the trunk.”

Maevin giggled wickedly, frolicking to the car where Zavros loaded up the teenager’s bag. Amelia packed up a tote bag of other items from the bathroom and kitchen before joining the rest of the family at the front. Penny locked the front door. Knox seethed under his skin as the family packed up into his car.

It’s not that he didn’t want to tell her what he wanted...it’s that he wanted so much it was cruel.Knox wanted her to crawl for him, beg for him, kneel before him and lay that beautiful chin against his knees. Knox also wanted her in his lap, laughing with him, bickering about books. He wanted in that moment to put that collar on her and to also have her fight him on it. And, however small, there was a desire in him to have her ask him to put it on her. It was so many things at once it was overwhelming. Because when Knox confessed what he wanted, people could use it against him. When he begged her to be his and stay, she could disappear and destroy him. So, Knox kept everything deep in his chest.

If he never told her what he wanted, then she could never tell him no.

Amelia slid into the seat shortly before he dropped inside. Zavros and the others were driving in the ogre’s four door car, and ahead of the extended limousine. Amelia sat hip to hip with him and stole his breath away with a whisper. “If it helps...I want you to put it on me...when we’re not in the presence of a minor or my sister, that is.”

His heart skipped a beat as he leaned into her warmth. The car lurched forward, and the group pulled down the street.

Chapter sixteen:

Amelia

Penny was seething, readyto bite someone’s head off. Brayden was having a good time. Maevin was tickled pink. And Knox was suffering from whiplash. Amelia wasn’t sure what she’d done, but she’d done something, and he kept looking at her like she’d both punched him in the gut while also kissing him hard on the mouth till he couldn’t breathe. Whatever his deal was, it left her swirling in a whirlpool with all the other high emotions. Penny’s disappointment for her decisions was palpable and stung. Then, learning of the danger was bringing her back to the day her father found her punching in a classmates face.

You make these decisions, Amelia, that are dangerous even for you...you might be able to survive the blow, but is it worth your soul?

Sitting on the mat, blood on her knuckles, panting for air, Amelia stared at the dwarf who’d said something to her. It no longer mattered; she didn’t remember what it was. However, she saw red. He’d said it in her ear, sneered it. She ripped aroundand beat him to a pulp. While her father talked with the healer putting his bones back together.

You don’t think. You just dive off the deep end and I hope you have a safety net...but some day you won’t have a safety net.

Amelia knew that Knox was off the deep end. She’d made up her mind. Penny knew Amelia wasn’t a safety net person. They’d been vinegar and water all their life. Penny was careful until the one time she did something reckless and she’d learned her lesson. A by-the-books ballerina who tested the waters of fun and found it just as dangerous as she imagined. Amelia was the nose-breaking, fist-swinging, jump first and ask questions later, feral sister.

It stung that Penny couldn’t comprehend this was what she wanted.

“We’re here.”

The group looked up together to a massive fence. She didn’t see it the first time as she was a little distracted. However, there was a massive arch made of glistening, purple pulsing wood that swung open before the car. Two guards in all black stepped out of shadows of the gate, nodding to the driver, and disappearing back like they had been figments of her imagination. The car crept down a gravel driveway through the smaller fence and up to the garage. Brayden let out an amazed gasp.

“Sick,” he breathed.

Penny looked peeved that the house was impressive. Amelia peaked at Knox, staring down the driveway like it personally offended him. The doors to the car were opened by John and another fiend, both in fully black suits.Knox had a theme.Penny, Brayden, and Maevin peeled out of the car, but Amelia waited for her fiend to move.

“Are you going to sit in here all day? I know we’re not hanging out in the car because of the conversation.” She twisted to him in her seat.

He smirked, gaze still glued to the house. “I’ve been enjoying it.”

“We didn’t talk at all!” she huffed, tossing her arms out.

“Not all communication is verbal, pet,” His purple gaze crackled with golden magic as he snapped his attention to her. “As an author, you should be well acquainted with that.”

“Well, then your body language is telling me you’re thinking something hard.” She quirked a brow, crossing her arms under her chest.

“Your body language tells me you’re hiding something,” he retorted.

They sat there, both not willing to budge, both not willing to speak it. Not until the other did first. So, Amelia took the dive. “I’m hurt my sister hates that I want you, that I want this, that I want to try this with you...because she got hurt. I’m not sure if she blames herself for me meeting you and is taking it out on me. But I always do this. I drive my head through a wall forehead first and I don’t hesitate, and we’ve been attached at the hip all our lives and yet...she hates this, and I think she hates me a little for it.”

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