Page 13 of Sunrise

She doesn’t look at me. No matter how hard I will her to fucking look at me before she says another word, she doesn’t fucking do it.

No, no, no, no—

“I want a night with you.”

Knox looks like he’s king of the fucking world.

“Bothof you,” she clarifies, and he freezes, mid-air fist bump.

Fuuuuck. He’s going to deny her. As he damn well should. She and I talked about a plan, but seeing how things went so goddamn wonky earlier, I figured therest of our idea was up in smoke with it. Guess I was wrong.

He’s not going to agree to it. No fucking way.

Knox turns to me and glowers. “You okay with that?”

It was my idea… but I don’t have the guts to admit it. “Y-” I have to clear my throat. Twice. “Yeah. If you are.”

I’ve never been so terrified in my life.

After everything we’ve been through. Everything we left behind. Our past will be unburied and it’s because I’ve pulled out the shovel.

I’m ready, I think to myself while he eyes me like I’m an alien.It’s time to fix what I broke. Don’t chicken out.

His throat bobs when he gulps. Gaze falling to the table, he stares at nothing at all while I hold my breath. Knox finally looks over at Sophie, who hasn’t moved a muscle since making her request. No emotion shows on her face. No hope, no fear, no desire.

“Are you sure about this?” he whispers to her and something in me cracks because I know that tone. I know that look. They’re up to something just as sure as I was planning this whole night out with Sophie.

What the fuck is going on? Is she a double agent?

“I want this more than anything,” she admits and my heart plummets because it sounds like the truth.

I want it to be.

“Then you get us both,” Knox says with finality and directs his attention back to me. “Until sunrise.”

Chapter 5

Knox

I’m so fucking fucked. We leave Midnight Run with Sophie sticking close to Vault, being his backpack when she should be mine. It’s fine. I’m not going to pout. Something shook her up tonight and the only way to find out what happened, is to let her relax. If holding onto Vault’s waist and snuggling up against his back while we drive through the summer night will help her, so be it. There are other chances for me to get my turn.

Once home, I pull off my helmet and run my hand through my hair, scratching my scalp. Vault pulls in behind me with Soph, and we head inside my place.

“Ladies first.”

My girl sighs the instant she steps into my home. “I love it here,” she says dreamily.

Vault keeps his mouth shut and kicks his shoes off at the door. It’s a habit he was raised with. If you were caught wearing shoes in his house growing up, his mom would not only lecture you but give you a mop and make you wash her entire first floor. At my house, my pops didn’t give a shit—he’d pass out on the couch or bed with his dirty boots on often.

“I’m going to freshen up,” Sophie says,immediately making herself at home. I love that about her.

Once she slips into my bathroom and shuts the door, I pour Vault and I each a glass of water. “We need to talk.”

He nods, draining his glass.

“We need clear boundaries.” Sipping my water, I wait for him to process. He’s crazy smart, but not always great at social cues. Dude’s logical and unemotional with most shit in life. “I’m willing to put aside what happened at the Shibari thing, for—”

“Knox, let me just explain what I—”

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