“How’s the investigation going?” I keep my voice casual and even. It’s probably not a good thing that he’s back here, after he questioned us and didn’t get what he wanted. It makes me nervous that he came back, and I wonder what the fuck he wants this time. But it’s not like I’ve never lied before. I’ve made acting like I’m innocent into an artform over the years, so I can do it again for this man.
“It’s going,” he tells me, and there’s enough finality in his voice to tell me he doesn’t really want to talk about it.
“Do you have any leads or anything?” I ask him.
“That would be classified.”
It’s a shut-down, plain and simple. It also begs the question, why the fuck did he come here if he doesn’t want to talk about the investigation?
His eyes are on me, and I keep my face neutral and impassive, not giving him anything. “I am glad I caught you here alone again,” he says after a beat of silence.
“Why is that?”
“I’m not sure what your real involvement with these men is, or your reason for being here. But if you need help…” He draws that out like he’s waiting for me to fill the silence with something, but I just blink at him. He shakes his head and continues. “If you need help, and you’d be willing to help me, then we could come to some kind of arrangement.”
“An arrangement,” I repeat, not putting any inflection on the words.
Carter nods. “Yes. I don’t believe these men are on the up and up, and I don’t think you really want to be caught up with them in whatever game they’re running.”
It’s hard not to laugh at that, or tell him to go fuck himself, but I keep the neutral smile on my face. “Agent Carter, I promise you I’m here because I want to be. Whatever you think about what’s going on with me and these men, I was honest with you the last time. I’m here of my own free will, and I’llstayhere of my own free will. So I don’t need your help. There’s nothing else I can do for you, anyway.”
Outside, I’m all pleasant and at ease, but inside my head, I’m telling him to fuck off and picturing myself slamming the door in his face after I kick him out. I don’t like his assumption that he could get me to turn on the guys, like I’m the weak link in this group, the one most likely to betray them. Maybe that would’ve been true once, but it’s not now, and his implication raises my hackles.
Carter looks disappointed. I’m not quite sure what he thought was going to happen. That I’d start singing like a bird about all the terrible things the guys have done and rush into his arms, begging him to protect me?
I don’t know what he sees in me that would make him think I need his help, but better to shut that idea down right now.
“Alright,” he says, relenting when it’s clear he’s not getting anything else out of me. “I just… wanted to extend the offer. You can reach me anytime if you get any new information or remember anything that you think would help.”
He hands me his card, and I take it. I even manage not to rip it to shreds and throw the pieces in his face. So, points for me.
“Thanks,” I tell him. “I’ll be sure to do that.”
Carter nods and heads for the door, and I don’t relax until he’s gone.
I give a little sigh and drop his card on the table, mentally debating whether to dig out my lighter and burn it as a symbolic gesture.
But before I can indulge my pyromaniac leanings, strong arms wrap around me from behind, and someone’s nose skims over my neck. Without even turning around to look, I know it’s Knox. There’s just something about the way he touches me that immediately stands out as him.
“Did you sneak into your own house?” I ask him, not pulling away. “Because I know you weren’t here before.”
He snorts with amusement, the sound low and gruff. “I saw his car and snuck in the back while you were talking to him. I heard what you said.”
“Which part?”
“The part about you being here because you want to be. I like that, little fox. You’re ours now, and you basically just confirmed it.”
I roll my eyes, but there’s no heat in it. “That’s not exactly how it happened. I just had to tell him something to make him leave.”
“Right,” Knox murmurs. Rather than calling out my fairly obvious lie, he kisses my neck and keeps me in his grasp, rocking against me.
His dick is getting hard just from having me so close, and I can’t help the little rise of heat in my chest from that. Knox is so reactionary. He responds to stimuli more genuinely and immediately than any of the other guys, so of course this has him hard. Just the two of us being close has him getting off on his own possessiveness.
There was definitely a time when that would have pissed me off. It wasn’t even that long ago. Just a week or two ago, I probably would have wanted to cuss him out and tell him to leave me alone because I don’t belong to him or any of the guys.
But now, it doesn’t feel like a noose tightening around my neck to hear it. Now it makes my heart speed up as I think about fucking Ash in this kitchen, and Gage bending me over my bed, and Priest’s watchful stare, and Knox and his… everything.
I turn around in his arms and meet his dark eyes, seeing the heat that I feel in my body echoed in his gaze. He looks hungry, and he drags his hands down my body, going right to my ass and holding on tight.
There’s a little growl in his voice when he speaks again, and I shiver at the sound and the way it vibrates through me.
“You like it,” he says. “Being ours. You fight it because that’s what you do, who you are. You’re a fighter. But you still like it. It gets you right here.”
He moves one hand between my legs, gripping at my pussy through my jeans. My breath catches, and I rock forward, unable to hold back from seeking more.
Once again, he’s not wrong. I don’t even bother to deny it.
Instead, I just yank him down into a heated kiss.
He drags my body closer to his and wedges his thick, muscled thigh between my legs. My clit grinds against his leg, and my back arches as I hump his thigh shamelessly. Knox chuckles against my lips, reaching down to palm my ass and help me grind against him as I chase the orgasm I suddenly want more than anything in the world.