Page 40 of Love Me
Dread hit me. “Knox, please,” I pleaded.
The papers on his desk crinkled as his hands fisted. “We should stop.”
“Why?” I didn’t ask to pressure him. I asked to understand.
Before he could answer, Knox’s office phone began ringing. A red light blinked in sync with the ringing next to a button that saidFront Desk.
Knox let out an exasperated sigh and hit the button. “Yeah?” His tone was curt, but held a lot less annoyance than I was currently feeling.
“Did I interrupt something?” I could hear the smile in Creed’s voice.
“Yes,” I answered at the same time Knox said, “What do you want?”
Creed laughed. “Sorry, Shi. Knox will have to make it up to you later.”
No, he won’t do that.That bitter thought clanged through me, hammering the feeling of rejection around the walls of my heart.
Knox stood straight, giving his full attention to Creed. I let out a very, very frustrated sigh.
“Your next interview is here.” Creed continued to talk to Knox as I worked to calm my body down.
“Which one is it?” Knox asked.
Creed laughed again. “It’s hard to think when all the blood has left your brain and gone straight to your di—”
“Creed!” Knox barked, which made Creed laugh some more.
“What are you laughing about?” I heard Colt ask distantly through the phone.
“Nothing,” Creed responded to Colt. With his laughter gone, but mirth still riding his voice, Creed finally answered Knox. “Katrina Mills. She’s interviewing for assistant manager.”
Knox’s eyes lit up with recognition. “All right. I’ll be out in a couple of minutes,” Knox said and hung up.
Knox helped me sit up and watched intently as I put my boobs back into my sports bra. “You’re hiring an assistant manager?” I asked, ignoring the whiplash he was giving me.
He nodded. “It’s very hard for all four of us to have a day off together and when we do, I constantly get calls or messages from staff covering us that day. It’s even worse when we take a vacation.”
I did notice Knox on his phone a lot. “You’re hiring one in case Mr. X shows up, too, aren’t you?”
“We’ve wanted to hire one for a while, but the possibility of X did incentivize us to do it sooner rather than later.”
I retightened my ponytail that he had tugged on, and I hopped off his desk. My whole body was still buzzing from what we’d done—or hadn’t finished. I was going to have to take my sexual frustration out on my run. That, or take a really cold shower.
Knox stuffed his hands into his pockets as he watched me dig through my gym bag for my earbuds and water bottle.
“I’ll come up with a schedule to start working on strength training,” he said, as if what we’d just done hadn’t happened.
I nodded and headed for the door.
* * *
I pushed myself hard for the hour that I ran. Sweat slid down my neck and back, soaking my sports bra. I tried to cool down with one last walk around the track. A few runners passed me as I did.
By the time I made it to where I’d left my water bottle in the cubbies by the stairs, I wasn’t panting as hard and the air conditioning blowing on my sweat caused my skin to break out in goosebumps.
As I began to chug my water, I caught a male runner, passing by on the track, doing a double take at me. I didn’t think much of it until two women running by did the same.
Frowning, I glanced down, and quickly covered my boobs with my arm. “You have got to be kidding me,” I snapped. My soaked sports bra was see-through. What made it worse was that the air conditioning was making my nipples hard.
