I shook my head and whispered, “No.”

“I didn’t think so. I hated watching the way they treated you”

“Me?” I sputtered. “What about the way they treated you? I felt so ashamed of myself for not saying anything, not stepping in or telling them to leave you alone.”

“I’m glad you didn’t. You know I didn’t want you to say or do anything, right?”

I stared up at him, knowing, but still feeling crappy. As if sensing my continued guilt, he sent me a soft smile and returned his attention to my breasts.

“Besides, it turned out fine, didn’t it? And we’re here together now.”

A sudden cool gust blew across us, chilling my exposed breasts. I shivered and felt my nipples pearl into tight buds. Knox sucked in a breath and cupped them in his hands, immediately warming them.

“I saw you looking at them,” he said. “Earlier, when I was out here waiting for you to come out and get your picture taken, the curtains to your room were open. I could see in as you changed, and you paused to look at them in the mirror.”

“Oh my God.” I moaned in absolute horror and tried to cover them with my hands, but he caught my wrists. “You saw that?”

He nodded, and his eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “It was so fucking hot, City. I got so hard so fast I ached. I wished I were there with you, touching you while you looked at yourself.”

His naughty admission made something deep in my stomach clench. I pressed my legs together and trembled out a long breath. “I was thinking about you kissing them, and I wished you’d do it again.”

“Fuck...me.” He groaned and dipped his face to take the right breast into his mouth before sucking it in deep.

Whimpering, I clutched his head and gloried in his fevered assault.

“I know it’s probably asshole-ish of me to go straight for your boobs,” he admitted when he came up for air, making me frown because I didn’t think he’d gone for them quickly enough, actually. “But just a quick hi, okay? I don’t want them to feel left out. Hello, ladies. Have you missed me? Yes, I missed you too.” He nuzzled his face between them and pressed a quick kiss to the side of each one before taking the left nipple into his mouth and sucking languidly.

Digging my fingers into his shoulder, I swam in the sensations he drew from me. But something Garrett had said earlier caused a niggle of doubt. “You don’t think they’re too small?”

Knox pulled away from them to straighten and send me an incredulous gape. “What?”

I covered myself with my hands. “My breasts. I know they’re not the biggest.”

“So?” Catching my hands and gently drawing them open, Knox shook his head. “You think size is the most important thing?”

I flushed and ducked my head self-consciously. “Well, yeah.”

With a chuckle, he studied my chest. “Not even by a long shot. Or maybe I’m just a nipple man, because I love the way yours respond to me. All I have to do is look at them, and they get hard and tight and pert, like they’re happy to see me. It makes me hard and tight right back, very happy to see them. And size...hell, all I need is a mouthful.”

He bent his head down and sucked me in, proving it. It was some kind of breaking point for me. “I want you so much,” I sobbed, clutching him.

“I know,” he muffled around his mouthful. “I want you too.”

“No.” Grasping his hair, I pulled him off my breast and made him look at me, dead in the eye. “I mean, I really want you. I want to be with you, Knox. Tonight.”

I stared after City as she finished filling her napkin holder and moved to another table. Feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of me, I wondered why the hell I’d agreed to go anywhere with her, especially Bentley’s grave, where we’d probably bond.

She needed to stay away from me.

And I needed to keep her away from me.

Except, it just wasn’t my damn night. As the club opened, she didn’t avoid me whenever she came up to the bar to fill her orders. Sometimes she took her business to one of the other two bartenders, but if I was right there, she rattled off whatever she needed as if I were any other coworker. But I could see it in her eyes. She was rocking some serious pity.

What made matters worse was that I knew she wouldn’t push me away if I went to her. If I sought comfort, she’d comfort me.

Yet, I refused to touch her, even made sure our hands didn’t brush during money exchanges.

The only distraction that kept me from going insane with how there she was—right fucking in front of me, touching distance away—was the small issue Asher had. About as soon as the doors opened, women began to pour in.