Taking Chances (Blackrock Book 2) (19 page)

I
slap him playfully. “No it’s not.”

He
runs his fingers up my leg. “Nice shorts,” he whispers in
my ear and kisses me.

“Go
to work.” I kiss him back before he leaves.

“So
dark sexy is your lover?” Cara asks, watching Knox as he walks
out to collect glasses.

“Yeah every dark sexy
inch,” I reply, watching him too.

“Does he have a brother?”
Cara asks and Paige coughs.

“Yeah
my boyfriend, Max is his twin.”

Cara
looks at us. “I am so transferring to school here.”

Paige
and I laugh at her, shaking our heads. Cara fills me in on all that
has been happening in Grove over the last year, telling me about Brad
and Emily calling off the engagement but then got back together at
Christmas. She also tells me that Roger and her hung out when he was
home after being here.

“I
totally kicked his ass for hurting you, Bails,” she says
shaking her head.

“Thanks,
but we are good.”

I
actually miss Roger. It’s been ages since we talked and I
should give him a call soon.

“Hey
are you coming home for spring break, cuz?” Cara asks, hopping
up and down like she just had an amazing idea.

“I
don’t know. I wasn’t planning on it.”

She
pouts at me. “Paige, tell her she has to come home. We miss
her.”

Paige
shrugs. “It could be fun. I’d come too.”

Cara
hugs her. “See, it will be fun. We can go to that new club they
opened in the North side.” I shrug because I don’t know
if I want to go home again, especially with all this drama
surrounding me and I wanted to spend time alone with Knox. “So,
who wants to sing?” Cara asks us.

“No,
go for it cuz. The last time I sang a fight broke out.”

Rolling
her eyes, she pushes me. “You liar.”

I
wave Knox over to me. “Hey, babe.”

He
smiles. “Hey darlin’,” he answers, leaning down on
the bar in front of me resting his chin on his palm; I just want to
kiss him so much.

“What
happened the last time I sang?”

He
groans. “Don’t remind me why?”

Cara
looks at me then Knox. “She said a fight broke out.”

He
nods. “Yep.”

She
holds her hand up so I high five her. “Hell yeah, cuz! Total
badass move. Now we are still singing tonight.” Groaning I let
my head fall against Knox’s shoulder.

His
arm moves to hug me and he kisses my temple. “Sing if you want
darlin’. I will even stand at the stage and protect you.”
He winks at me smirking.

“Gee
thanks, babe.”

He
kisses me quickly. “You’re not as drunk as I thought. So
go sing and I will wait for you.”

Cara
claps. “Yay, hot sexy boyfriend!” She takes off to the
stage to put our names down.

“Your
cousin is a crazy, darlin’.” He watches her run off.

“Yeah,
just like Bailey.” Paige laughs at me.

Knox
smirks brushing his fingers through my hair. “No, darlin’,
you are worse.” He jumps back before I even get to punch his
arm. “Okay, this corner is too violent. I’m going back to
work.” He laughs, walking away.

“God,
I miss Max,” Paige sighs, resting her elbow on the bar.

“I
know but he should be home soon.” She nods, sipping her drink.

“Okay ladies, we are all
set,” Cara announces. Standing beside me she puts her arm
around my shoulders and hugs me.

“What
is that for?” I ask, hugging her back.

“I
just miss you, Bailey. Grove is boring without you.”

Paige
frowns at us. “You really do look like sisters, except for
Cara’s eyes. They are not as blue and your faces are a bit
different, but from a distance, yeah.” She nods, deciding that
was a good explanation.

“Thanks
Paige.”

We
get called to the stage after about five minutes; all three of us but
Paige won’t budge, so we get Chase to carry her over kicking
and screaming.

“This
is an easy one,” Cara tells her.

The
DJ looks at me, and smiles. “Hey, no fighting tonight. I had to
get a new computer.” Nodding, I step back a bit to stand behind
Paige and Cara when the screen rolls the words,

“It’s raining men”
begins to play and I can’t help laughing. We get into it and a
few girls from the dance floor join in the chorus, even Paige sings
along. When we are done we climb off the stage and stay with the
group of girls on the dance floor. It’s been so long since I
had a real girls night out and this is actually fun.

We
dance together to the house music and I realize I actually have
classes with two of the girls in the group; Brittney is my English
and Abbey in my social studies class. I do my best to dance with my
knee throbbing from getting off the stage and Paige keeps banging off
of it. The whole group of us sings, “I will survive” from
the dance floor because the stage is too small for eight of us, but
mostly we laugh and make up our own words. By one thirty Knox is
calling out closing time. Paige slips off to the bar while Cara and I
say goodbye to the other girls then go sit at the bar. Chase hands us
each a bottle of water and hits on Cara with his superman powers.

“Damn Clark Kent, is going
for it.” I nod over at him and Cara standing by the door. Chase
has his arm above his head on the frame while running his fingers up
and down Cara’s arm. Paige cackles at him, drawing Knox’s
attention.

“Hey
dude, I don’t pay you to flirt!” he shouts at him then
winks at me from across the room. I grin at him as a thank you.

The
bar is empty by two o’clock and Paige is yawning. “Let’s
go girls. Time for bed,” she announces.

Standing
up Knox, follows us outside locking the door of the bar. Taking my
hand, we walk across to the apartment.

“Hey
babe, we have no where for Cara to sleep. Maybe we should go up to
dads. I have to meet Ryan there tomorrow anyway.” I suggest and
he nods, yawning himself. “Awe you tired, babe?”

“Yeah,
I could do with a good nights sleep without worrying.” He rubs
his eyes with the heel of his hand.

“Worrying
about what?” I ask, leaning closer to him.

“You.”
A simple answer, that has so much behind it.

We
continue the rest of the walk in silence, making sure Paige gets home
okay. Knox runs up to the apartment to grab some clean clothes while
Cara and I wait in my car.

“Man,
I am tired,” she tells me.

“Yeah
well, you drove here today and partied too so no wonder,” I say
craning my neck to look at her. “Why are you fighting with your
dad?”

She
waves me off but I know she wants to talk about it so I will try
again tomorrow. Knox jumps into the car and we take off up the hill.
He takes my hand lacing our fingers together.

“So
why did uncle Frank buy a house up here?” I don’t want to
explain my dad’s motives so I just say he wanted privacy.
Pulling into the driveway I see a white box standing on the porch and
groan.

“I’ll get it,
darlin’. You go inside.” We climb out, and Knox goes to
retrieve the box as Cara and I go inside.

“Nice
house.” She smiles and I tell her how to get to the guest room.

Giving
her a hug, I tell her goodnight and watch her walk up stairs. I then
go out to Knox.

“So
what evil this time?” I ask, finding him sitting on the porch
step. I sit beside him as he turns the note in his hands staring off
into the distance. “Babe.”

Wrapping
his arm around me, he pulls me to him. “It’s okay,
Bailey. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I
want to read the note yet I don’t because I know I will either
be pissed or scared. “Bed, babe.” Standing, I pull his
arm for him to join me. Taking the hint, he carries me up to my room.
Climbing into bed, Knox holds me tight kissing my neck.

“Night
darlin’,” he yawns.

“Night
babe.”

I’m
running as fast as I can but my feet are not taking me anywhere. It’s
dark; I can’t see as I reach out in front of me. Running I keep
running, checking over my shoulder but its too dark. I can hear him
laughing behind me.

“
I
coming Bailey,” he sings out. Fear grips my heart as I continue
to try get away from him. Dead roses fall from the sky all around me
cutting my feet as I crunch on the thorns.

Run!
I scream at myself. Just run, but my legs are throbbing as my knees
buckle from under me. I fall and scramble to get back up only to have
more thorns cut deep into my palms as blood pours ou.t I cry out,
help! Help! But all I hear is his sinister laugh.

“
I
am here Bailey,” he whispers in my ear. Spinning I see him
standing over me arm raised ready to strike me down. I scream and
scream using my hands to claw his face but I can’t stop him.
He’s on top of me. squeezing my neck, squeezing my life out of
me……

“Bailey,
wake up!” Gasping, I flail around in the bed and scratch at my
murders face screaming for help. “Darlin’, stop.”
Hearing a desperate plea, I open my eyes looking around. Breathing
hard, I sit up in my bed. “Darlin’, please.” I look
at Knox who has blood on his face and tears in his eyes. I don’t
understand what’s going on.

“Knox,”
I croak, reaching out to him.

“Bails,
Bailey?” I can hear Cara shouting then she bursts into the
room. Reaching the bed she looks between Knox and me. “What
the fuck did you do?” she shouts at him, climbing on the bed
beside me.

“What?
She was having a nightmare, screaming and clawing.”

Cara
glares at him then looks at me. “Bails, did he hurt you? Tell
me the truth. Don’t protect him.”

Knox
gets out of bed, walking into the bathroom.

“No,
Cara. He would never touch me. I’m okay. Promise. It was just a
bad dream.” She looks at the bathroom door then back at me. “I
swear it was a dream. Go on go back to bed.”

Nodding,
she leaves looking worried. I run into the bathroom to find Knox
sitting on the edge of the bath holding a wet towel to his face.

“Knox,”
I gasp, seeing what I did to him. “I’m so sorry, babe. Oh
my god.”

He
has four deep scratches across his right eye and cheek all bleeding.
I feel tears on my face as I walk over to him.

“I’m
so sorry.”

He
shrugs, pulling me onto his lap. “I’m fine, darlin’.
You frightened the shit out of me though.” He snorts a laugh,
wiping his face with the towel. Taking it, I press it to his face and
hug him.

“I’m
sorry your face.”

“Hey,
I’m fine Bailey. It was an accident. Are you okay?”

I
nod, resting my forehead against his. “Yeah for now.”

Wetting
the towel again, I press it on his face to stop the bleeding. We get
back into bed but I don’t want to sleep out of fear that I may
attack him again; that dream was so real. I could feel hands on my
throat squeezing the air out of my lungs. Knox wipes my tears away
with his thumbs. Kissing me softly, he starts to hum a song against
my lips, then he pulls me down to him singing a song of the moon and
stars and children’s dreams.

I
wake to find the sun shining on my face and my body wedged against
Knox and the mattress, his arms like a vice around me. Moving is
proving to be difficult, so I shimmy down the bed to get out of his
hold. I am almost free and my shoulders are now by his waist.

“Darlin’,
while you’re down there?” He chuckles sleepily. Opening
his arms, he looks down at me smiling. I kiss his stomach and crawl
back up to his face. I kiss my way up, planting my lips on his.
Groaning, he slips his tongue into my mouth. I pull back kissing his
scratches softly.

“I’m
sorry, babe.”

Gripping
my hips, he pulls me down flipping on top of me. “I said I am
okay. I have gotten worse before.”

He
trails kisses down my neck as his hand slides under my t-shirt to cup
my breast. Moving his hand, he grips behind my knee and raises it up
as he presses his hardness against me. He continues to tease me with
his fingers through the fabric of my panties. The door to my room
bangs against the wall, making us both jump. Knox rolls to the side
hiding his arousal at my leg as Cara stumbles in.

Her
eyes are only half open. “Hey, Bails.” She crawls onto
the bed on the opposite to Knox and wraps her arm around my stomach.
Knox looks a little put out as he raises an eyebrow at me, making me
laugh.

“Hey
Cara, you know we are grown up now and you can’t just come in
to my bed,” I say.

Brushing
her hair off of her face she looks up at me then over to Knox, who is
glaring at her. “Oops sorry, I forgot you had company. If you
were making out, I’ll let you get back to it.” She sits
up then pouts at me. “What is for breakfast?”

“Can
you give us five minutes?” Knox asks.

Cara
laughs standing up. “Wow five minutes! Bailey, I think you
need a younger model.”

Knox
opens his mouth but I clamp my hand over it, silencing him. When
Cara closes the door I take my hand away and Knox dives on me.
“Younger model huh? Wouldn’t know what to do with you.”
I laugh as he grabs my waist tickling me. “What would you like
for breakfast darlin’?”

I
smile, sliding my hand down to his boxers. “Well my first
choice is off the menu.” Laughing I roll out of bed grabbing my
shorts from the closet. Shaking his head he grumbles something about
Cara killing his mood and his breakfast appetite.

Standing,
he pulls on his jeans. Grabbing me, he kisses me. “Jump on
darlin’.” I climb onto his back and he takes me down to
the kitchen where he inspects my knee and rubs his fingers around the
injury. “It looks worse today,” he tells me, putting me
on the counter top.

“Yeah,
it will be okay in a few days.”

Knox
starts making pancakes and I watch from my perch.

“Eh
hem.” Turning, I see Cara sitting at the table watching us. I
smile at her then hop over. “Morning,” she laughs. “He
cooks?”