Page 35 of Obey

Knives tenses, and for a fraction of a second I see something vulnerable in his expression. It’s replaced by his usual disdain.

“Right. Never mind. I’ll take the shower. Pay the guy in cash when he delivers the pizza.” He gets up and elbows his way past me into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

I flinch, sighing as I go to the bed and flop down. I should get dressed, but instead I find my hand going to my already half-hard dick. I stroke it for a moment, wondering if Knives is doing the same in the shower. Probably not.

I reluctantly pull my hand from my cock and grab my boxers and t-shirt, pulling them on.

The pizza arrives right as Knives—wearing only his boxer briefs—comes out of the bathroom. The pizza guy’s eyes keep going to Knives behind me, even though I’m the one with the money.

“You want your tip or not?” I ask, irritated.

The guy startles and mumbles his apologies. I give him the cash and shut the door, although I’m more than aware of Knives sitting half naked on the bed behind me.

“My contact is going to meet us at a club in New Valence,” Knives says. He’s checking his phone now. “Somewhere nice and public so we can’t pull any shit, but not so public that people are going to overhear us.”

“Tell me more about your contact,” I say, joining him on the bed and trying not to look at his chest. It’s just the right level of hairy, not too much and not too little, which is a hard balance to find in partners. “I need to know these things,” I add before he can try to dismiss me again.

“She’s the girlfriend of one of the Demon Gator guys.” Knives scowls at the phone. “Nice to know she’s got loyalty to her man, I guess. But my friend Thunder vouched for her.”

“Thunder,” I repeat with a snort. He gives me a look, and I hold a hand up. “Sorry, sorry. Just ridiculous names in the biker scene sometimes. Same for ours, I guess, but bikers take the cake.” I smirk at him. “Then again, I guess it’s not any worse than Forks or Spoons or Knives.”

“Funny,” Knives says, deadpan. “Either way. Thunder’s trustworthy. If he says this woman has information, she’s got information.”

“I know, I’m hysterical.” Well, Lance is hysterical, but I’m not going to tattle on him to Knives. Knives would probably try to beat him up on principle. “But okay,” I say. “Do we know anything else?”

“I got a picture of her.” Knives shrugs. “Not much else. She didn’t want to say anything over email or text.”

I can’t say I blame her for that, but I wish we were working with more information. “Has Lily said anything else to you?” I ask, trying again. I grab one of the pieces of pizza, realizing how hungry I am when I take the first bite.

“Just some info on the Demon Gators. They got new leadership recently, and this Boar guy doesn’t mind stepping on a lot of toes. We aren’t the only guys they’ve pissed off.” Knives reaches for his own slice of pizza. “They probably think we won’t do anything because we’re so far away.”

I chew and swallow, using that time to think. “Well, if they hadn’t fucked with such an expensive shipment, we might not have,” I admit. “But they were really fucking dumb if they thought we were going to let something like that slide.”

“Biggest issue will be finding their hideout.” Knives puts his phone down on the bedside table and eats with more gusto.

There isn’t much more to talk about.

I nod, and we finish off both of the pizzas in silence.

I’m exhausted by the time I’m done eating. I toss the boxes onto the desk on the other side of the room before I lie down on the bed—facing away from Knives. I make sure to take up half. I’m not going to let myself be intimidated into sleeping on the very edge of the bed.

And fuck, it feels strange to have someone in the bed with me. I haven’t stayed the night with anyone or had anyone stay the night with me in years.

The problem is that Knives is big. He fills his half of the bed easily, and I can feel his warmth radiating against me. Every time one of us moves, skin brushes against skin. His hairy arm drags against my back.

“Stop,” I growl, squeezing my eyes shut.

“I’m not doing anything on purpose,” Knives retorts.

“You’re in my personal space,” I snap back at him. “Move over. I get half the bed. I can’t help it you’re a fucking gorilla.”

“There’s nowhere for me to move!” Knives rolls onto his side. Even in that position he’s too close, and now it’s his feet that are brushing up against my ankles.

I make a frustrated sound. If it wasn’t for the fact that the floor was absolutely gross, I’d lie down there. “You’re just trying to get close to me.”

“No, I was trying that earlier,” Knives growls. “Now I’m trying to respect your fucking space, so just shut up and let me sleep.”

Ugh.

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