Page 30 of Knight
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Gwen
It was Saturday night and Tara and I had decided that we needed a night out. While clubbing wasn’t really my thing, I felt like we both needed to do something different. And since Iron told me to take Sunday off because he was closing the bar for the day to do some repairs, I thought it was perfect timing. It seemed like Tara didn’t have a lot of friends and I felt like I was either studying or hanging out with the brothers when I wasn’t with Tara. The chance to go somewhere and blend in had the kind of appeal I was looking for right now.
“So what’s up with you and Knight?” Tara asked.
She was lounging on my bed while I dug through my closet trying to find us both something to wear. It seemed that Tara didn’t own much other than jeans and t-shirts. Or so she had mentioned when I told her we were going out. I didn’t mind helping her out though. She was a sweet person and I was hoping that tonight was the perfect excuse to help her up her confidence a little. I knew if she’d be more outgoing that she wouldn’t lack for friends or anything else.
“What?” I said as I buried my face further into the closet.
Knight was something we hadn’t really talked about, mostly because I didn’t want to. It was a subject that was off limits for a few reasons.
One, I hated thinking about the past and how much he’d hurt me.
Two, I didn’t want to think about the feelings I’d been holding in for so long.
Three, I was selfish, I guess. I wanted to keep my Knight times to myself. Hell, I wanted to keephimto myself, but I knew I couldn’t.
And four, if I talked about it then I would have to think about it. If I thought about it, I would have to try and define it and that was something I just couldn’t deal with right now.
“I mean, the guy follows your every movement. Have you not noticed? Whenever you two are in the same room, his eyes are on you the entire time.” I couldn’t tell by her tone if she was a bit annoyed or being a little catty. I did my best to brush it off thinking that it was all in my head.
“We’ve known each other a long time,” I said with a half-shrug. “I’m sure my dad asked him to look out for me, so that’s why he may seem a bit…protective, I guess.”
I chewed on the side of my lip. So far, I’d done a good job walking through the day to day, not indulging in the little things that I may or may not have noticed. Now, it was all threatening to crash down on me and the more Tara pushed, the more I’d be forced to admit it.
“What about this?” I asked as I whipped around and held up a short, black dress that had a bit of lace around the hem. I was desperate to brush off this conversation and determined to distract her from bringing it up again.
“Um, for me?” She sat up cocked her head. “I don’t know. I think that will look better on you.”
“No,” I said with a smile. “This is perfect for you. Try it on.” I tossed the dress at her then turned around and continued to dig through my clothes.
I reached for the deep, red bodycon dress that was hidden in the back. I wasn’t even sure why I’d bought the thing. While I was in no way self-conscious about my body, in fact, I didn’t even mind showing off my assets at all, but there was something about the dress being tight and revealing at the same time that always made me hesitate to wear it. But hey, it was a night out so why shouldn’t I, right?
“I don’t know,” Tara said and I turned to look. She played with the sleeves awkwardly. “My bra straps stick out. Maybe if they weren’t pink it wouldn’t look so bad.”
“So take it off. The top should be tight enough to keep you from flopping around too much.” I laughed as I went over to help her maneuver the bra out. “See. Looks good!”
“Yeah?” she asked sounding a little unsure.
“Hell yeah! Now you need shoes. Oh, there’s a sapphire pair of strappy heels in the closet. Get those while I put this on.”
Once I had the damn thing on, I started to rethink the whole thing. Sure I felt sexy as hell but did I really want to call that kind of attention to myself? It wasn’t like I was going out because I wanted to pick someone up. Truth was, I wasn’t really the boy crazy kind of girl. Maybe because there had ever only been one guy to overtake my mind.
With a sigh, I shifted the fabric around until it felt like it was sitting right.
“Wow,” Tara said with a whistle. “You look amazing.”
“Thanks. I hope it’s not cold where we go tonight,” I said with a giggle.
“These?” Tara asked as she held up the heels with more straps than I could count.
“Yes, those will be perfect. And I have some sapphire earrings you can wear. Look in that jewelry box on top of the dresser.” I pointed as if she wouldn’t have understood my direction.
“Oh, you should wear these.” She pulled out a satin black pair of retro, platform heels. They were one of my favorites and I loved the huge bow on the back.
“Now we need makeup.”
