The Billionaire's Secret Kink Box Set: Knox: Secret Alpha Billionaire Romance Bundle (Rosesson Brothers Book 1) (24 page)

Mica's head drooped farther and she sobbed, hard enough to make Knox's heart break for her. He kissed her hair and ran his hands over her shoulders until her tears dried up.

Mica wiped her eyes with her napkin. "You know what was in the envelope, right?"

Knox

Knox spoke without thinking. He had at least this part figured out.

"Her driver's license."

Mica nodded. "Her driver's license, her birth certificate, and her social security card. Plus a note. It only had three words on it.
Sorry. Love you.
"

Knox held Mica in silence for a long time. "So she was Mica Nichols?"

Mica raised her eyes to him, pure fear stamped across her features. "Yes," she whispered, waiting for his response.

Knox cradled her face in his hands. "Baby, I don't blame you, not for a second. You did what you had to do. You didn't hurt her. She wanted you to have it. She wanted to help you."

Relief filled Mica's face and more tears followed. Knox held her close. He meant what he'd said, every word.

Mica talked into his chest. "I've thought about it a hundred times over the years. Should I change my name? Should I admit what I did and take my old name back, even if it means I go to jail? What's right? What do I owe society? What do I owe Mica? But I've never been able to make the first move. It's haunted me for longer than you can imagine. But I guess it's time to make a decision now that Bailey has found me. I don't have a reason to hide behind the name anymore."

Knox pulled her face up again. "You don't owe anyone anything. Do you like the name?"

Mica nodded, wiping away another tear.

"Then keep it. It suits you. Your friend wanted you to have it and you don't ever have to tell anyone. If circumstances had been different, you never would have done it. That's what happens, Mica. Life takes you prisoner and forces your hand. But don't ever think you have to pay for it. You don't."

Mica nodded and smiled at him.

A question popped into Knox's mind that would get her off the subject and hopefully get her talking about happier things. "How did you meet Ruth?"

"You know about Ruth?"

"I looked you up before I came over to your house the first time. She just gave you the company?"

Mica smiled then. "That's a crazy story, but then all the stories that Ruth is involved in are crazy."

She focused on Knox, her blue eye calling to him first, then her green. He looked at them both, alternately, not sure which he loved more.

"One day at work I had just finished a room and I was heading to the next one when a guy with no shirt on came running out of one of the rooms at the far end of the hall. A woman followed him, screaming at him. It was Ruth. When she saw me she yelled at me to stop him, that he had just stolen all the money in her purse, plus her credit cards. I acted without thinking. I shoved my cleaning cart in front of him as he ran and he went sprawling, knocking the whole thing over. Ruth jumped on top of him and tore all of her stuff out of his pockets. He grabbed her and pulled her hair, then slapped her across the face and called her a whole string of swear words. She slapped him back and he jumped up, then pulled his arm back to punch her. I sprayed him in the face with window cleaner and he took off, screaming."

"Ruth thanked me and helped me right my cart, but my boss showed up and fired me on the spot. She was a sixty-year-old lady who always wore a bun in her hair and who probably should have been a nun. She said I shouldn't have done that to a customer. Ruth chewed her out, saying
he
wasn't a customer,
she
was the customer and
he
had just been some guy she picked up at a bar and normally she had better judgment about who was a criminal and who wasn't. My boss was horrified and looked at Ruth like she was some sort of a devil, then she ordered me out of the hotel at once. I left, not feeling too bad. I had Mica's I.D. by that time but I hadn't had the guts to use it. Now I knew I would be forced to and that made me excited in an awful way. I knew I could finally get paid a decent wage and maybe I could even find a place to live."

"Ruth followed me downstairs and offered me a job on the spot as a paid intern in her office. She said the job paid sixteen dollars an hour to start and I knew I had to take it, no matter what. I spent a good chunk of the money I had on clothes and walked in her office the next day, feeling scared and vulnerable. She was always friendly to me though, from day one, totally grateful for me stopping that guy from stealing her stuff and then from punching her in the face. She had me doing personal errands for her and eventually I became her assistant. When we figured out I was actually good at fashion, no one was more surprised than I was."

Mica stopped talking, a light grin on her lips. Knox leaned forward and kissed them, thinking he finally knew the whole story. She'd been through hell and clawed her way out the other side, successful and whole. Admiration for her filled his soul and he poured it into his kiss, telling her without words that he loved her, trusted her, adored her, and that he'd never had anything to forgive her for.

***

Knox

Knox held Mica close, stroking her hair, letting his hands knead the tight muscles in her back and shoulders, then travel up to her hair and pull long strands of it between his fingers until she shivered.

Soft sounds of pleasure from her had his cock raising its head again and he tried to talk it down.
Just wait.

"I've never told anyone that story before," Mica said, raising her head and looking him in the eyes. "Well, the part about what happened to me when I lived in the shelter. I told Justin about how I met Ruth."

"Justin?" Knox asked, the word coming out harsher than he'd intended.

"My assistant."

"You have a male assistant?"

Mica looked like she might laugh. Knox didn't understand what was so funny.

"I do. You sound jealous," she said, her voice light.

Knox pressed his lips together. "Not jealous. Just curious. Has he ever been
more
than an assistant?"

Now Mica did laugh. Knox took a deep breath, knowing he was being ridiculous, but completely unable to help himself. Suddenly, he felt sixteen, confronted with the prospect of another male who had asked his girlfriend to the prom.

"Sure, he's my friend too," Mica said.

Great. Some fucking asshole close to her every day, convincing her he's her friend, when he's really just waiting for the right time to try to fuck her.

"Has he ever hit on you?" Knox asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Mica shook her head, her blonde hair flying, her eyes sparkling. "Never, Knox. He's not interested in me."

"What, he's married?"

"No, he's not married, you'll see, if you meet him."

"Is he gay?"

Mica laughed out loud at that, making Knox hopeful it was the case. "Yeah, I think he is. You tell me what you think when you meet him."

Knox nodded darkly. Gay was good. He could handle gay.

Knox reached out a hand, intending to pull Mica close to him and kiss her, but she surprised him, turning in the booth and swinging a leg over him. She dropped her hands to his cock, making it swell and thicken immediately.

She dipped her hands inside his pants and pulled out his erection, her soft fingers making him crazy.

"I don't have any more secrets to tell," she whispered. "So I thought maybe I'd take you up on your earlier offer."

Knox groaned and dropped his head to the wall behind him. "What offer?"

"To fuck me in your shirt," she said, raising up and pressing him into her softness, her wetness. Knox spanned her hips with his hands and lowered her onto him, sheathing himself as deeply as possible, watching her face as the sensation and his cock filled her. He would never say no to that.

No condom again, and he couldn't bring himself to care.

Mica

Mica woke up with a start on Tuesday morning, a cold sweat on her forehead, her teeth clicking together rudely, making her jump.

The images that had been playing through her head in her dreams stood out starkly, scaring her. Bailey had been chasing her down a long hallway, a gun held in his hand, his fingers broken and sticking out in all directions, his face strangely blurred and morphed. She kept turning around and looking at him as he chased her, until she finally realized it wasn't Bailey at all, it was her father.

Mica pushed her hair back on her forehead and took a deep breath, trying to dispel the images. She looked around in the bed, but it was empty. Knox was gone.

Mica rolled over onto his pillow and smelled it, letting his scent wash over her, calming her, bringing her back to reality. They'd spent almost all of Sunday night having sex all over the big house, then ended up in the shower at around five in the morning, then slept until the afternoon. Knox had made a few phone calls and Mica had checked on Justin, then they'd gone right back to each other's bodies, exploring, teasing, giving and taking pleasure, until Mica was sore but still unable to stop. When he looked at her with those golden eyes that said he would stop at nothing to have her, that she was the most beautiful woman in the world and all
his
, at least for that moment, she couldn't even think about resting. She felt like she had to have him, to consume him, to use him up, in case these were the only days they ever had together.

Mica flung her arms wide on Knox's bed, feeling every ache and twinge in her body and loving them all. She wouldn't trade the last thirty-six hours of love-making with Knox for anything, not more sleep, not a pain-free body, not a billion dollars. Everything about the man made her say yes, more, whatever you want, I'll do it, I'll say it, I'll try it. She'd never felt so adventurous and agreeable and sex-starved in her life.

Thinking of him made her want to be near him. She stood up, bypassing her overnight bag in the corner and heading straight for his closet. She found another of his business shirts and put it on, covering her naked body, then ran to the adjoining bathroom to brush her teeth before heading out to look for him.

Mica padded down the hall, following the sound of Knox's voice, passing the laundry room, a guest room, another guest room, then finding his office, the last door on the left. He'd left it open for her, and when he saw her his smile lit up his face, making heat rush to her core.
When would she be able to finally look at him and not think about sex?

Knox waved her inside to a chair and continued speaking into his computer, wearing a pair of blue sweatpants, bare feet, and a blue shirt that stretched maddeningly over his chest.

"Thanks Dax, I'll talk to Mica and let you know what we decide."

Daxton's voice filtered out of the computer. "Sounds good. Later."

"Bye."

Knox pressed a button and turned to Mica. She got up immediately and went to sit on his lap, showering his face with kisses.

"I missed you when I woke up," she told him. "I had a bad dream."

Knox's face darkened immediately. "What about?"

"I thought it was about Bailey, but really it was about my father."

Knox nodded then, bringing her hand to his lips. "Interesting. Daxton and I were just talking about him. The police have turned nothing up on Bailey, not even finding that police car he used. They say his house outside of Portland is empty and has been for months. He's disappeared completely and we think the police are just going to sit back and wait for him to make his next move."

Mica felt fear stir inside her at the thought. "But you don't think we should do that?"

Knox shook his head. "I think we should search out your father. When we find him, I'll send someone to go talk to him wherever he is, see if he knows where Bailey might be."

"How, though? I don't even know his name."

"Your mom has a sister and an uncle that are still alive, right? Or at least she did. We look for them. One of them has to know who your father is. All we need is his name and I have friends who can find him."

Mica nodded, her brain spinning. Her father? She was twenty-eight years old and she was finally going to find her father?

Knox twirled a lock of her hair in his fingers. "Do you know your mom's sister's name or her uncle's name?"

Mica shook her head no.

"Let's start with your mom's name then."

Mica bit her lip. She trusted Knox, but saying her mom's name out loud seemed hard for her still. She pushed past it, giving him the name, knowing he would treat it with care. "Marylyn Scott."

Knox pushed her hair back behind each ear and gazed at her deeply. "You were Marjorie Scott?"

Mica nodded. She had been. A lifetime ago.

Knox kissed her, then pulled back. "Let me get this name to a friend of mine, and then I'll give you a proper good morning kiss."

Mica scrambled to her feet, nodding, knowing what it would lead to, and glad. Touching Knox, being taken by Knox would push the last of the dream and all of her doubts away.