Finding Us (6 page)

“You hungry?” Knox asks me. He walks over to the fridge and starts shuffling things around.

“No but I’ll take a bottle of water if you have one please.”

He hands me the bottle but doesn’t let go. I look up, waiting for him to say something, but he doesn’t. He’s just staring intently at me like he wants to devour me. I pull the bottle a little harder but he still doesn’t let go. Instead he jerks the bottle towards him and I collide right into him. Chest to chest, stomach to stomach, legs to legs, the only thing separating us is the water bottle that’s between our bodies.

I hear Cade bark a laugh, “Alright, alright, I got it man. No need to piss on your territory.”

I immediately let go of the bottle and take a step back from Knox who’s still staring at me. I feel my cheeks start to burn and I turn to walk away but he grabs my wrist.

I turn towards him, “Go up the steps we passed when we walked in, second bedroom on the right.”

I have no idea where he is sending me but I don’t give it another thought. I start to walk back down the hallway when I hear Cade say something about a nice ass.

Pig.

I follow Knox’s directions and I run into a couple walking down the steps. I slide to the side so they can pass. I wonder who that was and if they know Cade was down here just a few minutes ago screwing some girl on the couch. They seem nice enough as they both said hi when passing me. The girl was cute, a tiny little thing. She’s burnt to a crisp, skin glowing red. Her blue eyes popping out against the reddened skin, her long poker straight hair has brown and blonde highlights throughout. The guy is similar to Knox’s height. Jet black hair, green eyes and a scruffy looking face that just made him hotter. His skin is bronzed and he is very muscular, maybe even more so than Knox.

I walk up to the second door and peek my head into the open door, not really knowing what to expect. I sigh in relief when I notice Summer and Rex sitting on the bed talking. I walk in and take a seat next to Summer. Rex nods at me.

“Okay look, you’re going to get pissed but I don’t know what else to do.” Summer starts whining.

“What’s going on?” I truly don’t know what it could be. The vacation so far is going well.

“You have to sleep in Knox’s room.” Summer rushes out.

Knox walks in before I can even decipher what she just spit out.

I glance up and he holds the water bottle out to me that I never got downstairs, I take it and smile at him.

I squint at Summer and ask, “What did you say?”

“You have to sleep in Knox’s room. With everyone else here there isn’t any room for you and me to share. Rex refuses to sleep with his brother so I’m going to stay in here with him. The only other option is for you to sleep on the couch which…” she doesn’t need to finish because we are all aware of what we walked into.

Well this just sucks, so much for trying to stay clear of Knox. No way can that happen now that I have to share his room with him. I’m going to have to play this cool for now and figure something out later when we go to bed. “It’s fine. I think Knox can behave himself, right?” I look over at Knox who is, of course, smiling cockily at me.

He reaches up and rubs the back of his neck, “I’m pretty sure I can behave myself but can you?”

“You’re not my type stud.” I say with a wink.

Knox walks out of the room laughing.

Summer flops back on the bed, “I’m so sorry I dragged you down here Jas. I needed to get away but I thought this would have been fun for us. Now I feel like I trapped you.”

I lie back on the bed next to Summer and grab her hand, “Don’t worry about it. I know you didn’t do this on purpose. It’s fine, we’re supposed to be down here relaxing.”

She turns her head in my direction, “Are you really going to be ok with this?”

I muster a smile, “I’ll be fine.”

I really wasn’t sure if I would be but I wasn’t going to add this on top of everything else she has going on lately. I talked myself into going on this vacation so there is no one else to blame but myself.

Rex has been quiet the whole time, I sit up and he’s looking at me. “What the hell have you done with Jasmine?”

I reach around and grab a pillow off the bed and throw it at him. “Asshole,”

He catches it, and snuggles it to his chest while laughing.

Knox ran out to the store to pick up burgers for the grill, he insists on cooking when all of us told him to just order a pizza. He drove ten hours today, one would think he’s exhausted but he says he’s fine.

The couple I met earlier is Tanner and Rhea. They’ve known Knox and Rex since they were all in diapers. Tanner is Knox’s age, twenty-six, and Rhea is my age, twenty-two. Tanner is the only guy in their small knit group that has a girlfriend and he takes a lot of shit from the guys about it. Rhea just sits back and laughs at them all, she’s really laid back and doesn’t seem to have a care in the world, and Tanner is just the same.

While Knox is out at the store and Summer and Rex are up in his room I take a stroll down to the beach to watch the sunset. It’s absolutely breathtaking. It’s peaceful, no city noises, no awful subway smells. The only noises are the seagulls squawking and the waves crashing. I take a seat in the warm sand and bury my feet. The sun is just touching starting to touch the ocean. I close my eyes and take everything in but my peace is disturbed by Cade minutes later.

“Yo JJ,” He yells.

Sighing, I turn towards his voice, and yell, “Yeah?”

“Knox is back, he said to get your fine ass in the kitchen where you belong.” He’s laughing and I know he’s only joking around.

I stand, brush the sand off and make my way back, missing the ending of a perfect sunset.

Knox is out on the huge deck that’s off the kitchen, standing shirtless at the grill. My mouth goes dry. Yeah, there is no way that I can sleep in his room, it just can’t happen.

“You need help?” I ask.

He smiles, “Yeah. Come over here.”

I go over to where he is standing, he puts down the lid on the grill, turns towards me and starts to lean in. I’m stunned, my feet rooted to the deck. My brain is screaming at me to take a step back. He places a kiss on my cheek, very softly. Actually, I’m not even sure you can call it a kiss, more like his lips brushed my cheek.

He whispers in my ear, “You can’t wear those shorts again.”

I’m dumbfounded.

He pulls back and intently looks into my eyes, “That perfect ass of yours is out on display and it’s going to cause a lot of trouble around here.”

Huh?
I look over my shoulder towards Cade who is licking his lips and staring at my ass.

“My ass is covered.” I protest. I know for a fact that it’s covered, I’m not one of those girls that walks around with their ass cheeks hanging out.

He chuckles, “I know baby but the way your ass looks in them wants me to rip them from your body with my teeth.”

My breath catches. I’m shocked and surprised by what he just said.

I’m not really sure how to respond and I’m not really sure that I could even if I wanted to. I glance back at him before sliding the glass door open and stepping into the empty kitchen. I’m glad it’s empty; I need a few minutes to myself.

Thankfully I’ve had a minute to collect myself before Rex comes into the kitchen. He walks into the fridge and grabs a beer.

I hand him to bottle opener that is sitting on the counter next to me. “Thanks.”

“Welcome.”

Rex narrows his eyes at me. “Why are you in here by yourself?”

I feel my cheek flush. “Oh nothing just waiting for dinner.”

Rex lets out a laugh, “Knox hitting on your again?”

I fiddle with my fingers, “No.”

“Yeah I’m sure he’s not.” Rex throws his arm around my shoulder “He likes you Jas.”

I scoff, “You’re shitting me?”

Rex drops his arm from around my shoulder, “Such a smart ass.”

“Always.”

Rex walks outside to go see what his brother is up to while I continue to stand here and figure out how I’m going to make it through this weekend without wanting to hang myself.

Knox walks in a little bit later and sits the burgers down in the center of the table, then goes about grabbing everything else that he plans on serving us for dinner. Once everything is set, he grabs his phone and a few minutes later everyone suddenly appears for dinner.

I try to ignore the looks that Knox is giving me and concentrate on what’s going on around the table. Cade is growing on me slowly but surely. He seems like the wild one of the group but as the stories start flying around the table I’m beginning to think this isn’t true because I haven’t met Jeremy yet.

“I lost that asshole last night and I haven’t been able to find him.” Cade laughs, “I left him with some girl giving him a blow job outside the bar.”

“Classy,” I mutter under my breath. Rhea and Summer who are both seated next to me start laughing.

The conversations carry on, I glimpse at the clock and notice it’s nearing midnight and I still haven’t got my bags from Knox’s car and I’m getting sleepy.

Summer catches on to me and fakes a yawn, “I don’t know about you guys but I’m calling it a night. I’m going to go grab my bag from the car.”

I’m so glad she can read me like a book.

Rex and Knox follow suit. The four of us leave the others to clean up dinner. I haven’t even seen Knox’s room to figure out where I can sleep at this point. I’m really hoping there is a couch, or hell even a chair at this point, to sleep on. I haven’t said much to him since his comment back out on the deck and it’s becoming a little awkward.

“The bags are already in our rooms.” Knox tells us as we are walking down the hallway.

“Thanks man,” Rex says to his brother.

When we reach the second floor, Summer and Rex go into their room and I follow behind Knox to the last door on the left.

Knox opens the door, flips the light switch and waits for me to walk in. I’m astounded, his room is massive. It’s literally about the entire size of my apartment. His California king size canopy bed with all black bedding, with accents of red, is pushed up against the wall the door is on. Opposite his bed is a wall of floor to ceiling windows. I walk over to the windows and gaze out over the ocean, watching the waves crash onto the shore. If I lived here I don’t think I would ever want to leave this room.

Knox taps me on the arm with his elbow, “See, it’s not so bad to share a room with me now is it?”

He has that smug look on his face again.

“The bathroom is right through that door on the left. I’m going to go grab a couple bottles of water while you do your things and get ready for bed.”

He walks out of the room and I wander to the bathroom. I turn the light switch on and again I’m shocked. It’s sparkling white and everything shines. There is a corner bathtub that looks like heaven and calling my name.

Hmm, that gives me an idea.

I run back out to Knox’s bed, grab all his pillows and his comforter. I quickly make my way back into the bathroom and throw all the pillows and the comforter in the tub. This is the only good idea I have since I don’t want to be walking around like an old lady tomorrow from sleeping on his hardwood floors. I turn the light off but leave the door cracked open so that I can still see out. I climb into the little piece of heaven that I made and cover myself with the blanket. Snuggling into the down comforter I can smell Knox, it’s faint but it’s there. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all but it’s too late to change my mind because I hear Knox curse loudly.

“Fuck.”

His footsteps grow louder the closer to the bathroom he gets. He flips the switch and laughs long and hard. I keep my eyes shut, ignoring him, praying he thinks I actually fell asleep.

“I knew you were entirely too easy agreeing to stay in my room.” He says when he finally stops laughing.

I give him the finger and he laughs again. Next thing I know the covers are being ripped away from me. I sit up about ready to start bitching when he yanks the cloth shower curtain down and throws it at me.

“Two can play that game, baby.” He flips the light switch off, shuts the door and that’s the last I see of him.

“What a douchebag.” I mumble to myself before getting situated with my shower curtain that’s now my blanket.

There is just no way I can sleep next to him. I know he said he could behave himself but I’m not sure I can. Ugh.