WORDS THAT BURN

SERA

I didn’t turn around right away.

I couldn’t.

His voice was still in the air behind me, thick and low, like the kind of smoke that clung to your skin and sank into your lungs.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve been running from me all night.”

Who the hell speaks like that?

I swallowed and forced a small breath, followed by a small polite smile over my shoulder at him.

“I wasn’t aware I needed to be chased.” I joked.

“Good,” he said, closer now. “Because I’m not one for chasing.”

Damn it.

He literally just turned my own words against me.

I turned then slowly, carefully. He was leaning against the counter, arms folded across that broad, bare chest like he owned the room.

His eyes were hooded and unreadable, but he still managed to rake over me like a fire strip-tease. His jaw was sharp, dusted with the kind of stubble that practically begged to be scraped across inner thighs.

God.

I tore my gaze away before it could fall again to his mouth, full, sinful, and curved into that same arrogant smirk that had followed me through dinner.

“You followed me in here?” I grabbed a dish towel to keep my hands busy.

“Sure did,” he said, shameless. “Didn’t seem fair to leave you all alone in here, doing the dirty work.”

I gave a hollow laugh.

“Thanks,” I said, drying the same glass for far too long. “How thoughtful.”

He took a slow step forward.

“Thoughtful isn’t the word most people use for me.”

“Then what do they use?” I asked, regretting it as soon as the words slipped out.

“Intense. Unfiltered,” His gaze dropped to my lips. “A little much, sometimes.”

You don’t say.

I turned toward the upper cabinet, standing on my toes to place the stack of bowls back in. It wasn’t even a conscious choice, I just wanted something to focus on that wasn’t him and his magnetic, dangerous energy.

But the moment I stretched, I felt it, his presence, suddenly behind me.

Too close.

“Let me,” he said, voice brushing the shell of my ear.

Then his body was pressed to mine, warm, hard, and unmistakably male. His chest moulded against my back, and I stiffened, breath catching as he reached above me, arm brushing against my cheek as he grabbed the bowls with ease and slipped it into the cabinet.

I felt everything, his heat, his scent, the thick bulge that nudged against the swell of my ass like it had a mind of its own.

Is that his… fuck!

The moment dragged.

God help me, I didn’t move.

When he stepped back, I turned slowly, already knowing the mistake I was making. My face landed right at his chest, smooth, firm muscle with a single bead of sweat trailing down.

I looked up.

Bigger mistake.

He was staring down at me with eyes that could melt glaciers, heat and danger swirling behind the dark brown. His mouth quirked as he lowered his head a little, and I could’ve sworn I stopped breathing.

I tried to sidestep, but he caught me, palms braced on either side of the sink, arms caging me in.

My pulse hammered.

“Knox—” I started, but the word came out thin and breathy.

“Do I make you nervous, Sera?”

The way he said my name… like he tasted it.

I licked my lips, instantly regretting it when his eyes flicked there.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I tried to form a bit of bravado.

That earned me a soft chuckle, like he could see right through me.

And in truth, he could.

I was pinned, between the sink and the sheer heat of him. And the worst part was…I didn’t want to move. Every nerve ending in my body was lit up like a fuse waiting to explode, and he hadn’t even touched me yet.

Knox’s eyes dropped to my lips, then lower to the dip of my neckline like he could already imagine peeling the dress off me with his teeth.

Then he murmured, more to himself than to me, his voice thick and slow:

“How the fuck did Jared manage to snag you…”

Snag.

The word wrapped around my core like a fist, hot and filthy, and I felt myself clench so hard it stole the air from my lungs.

I sucked in a breath, but it didn’t help, not when Knox’s body was still caging me in, heat rolling off him like smoke from a fire I couldn’t put out.

His voice dropped again, rough, reverent, and dripping with heat.

“There’s something about you,” he said. “Something I can’t ignore. The way you walk… like you don’t even realize how goddamn fuckable you are,”

Did he just say that?

“The way your lips part when you’re turned on,” he went on so casually, words flowing like water. “I noticed that over dinner, by the way. You kept crossing your legs, trying to stay still… but your thighs were twitching.”

Fuck!

“Stop,”

My hand flew to his chest to push him back, but it was weak, a half-hearted defense, fingers spreading over solid, warm skin and staying there.

His heartbeat was steady beneath my palm, unbothered, like he knew exactly what he was doing to me.

“You shouldn’t be saying things like this,” I said to him, my voice a wreck of nerves and heat. “I’m… I’m supposed to be your brother’s fiancée,” I added,

“I know,” he said casually, like I’d just reminded him of the weather. “And yet here we are. You, backed against the counter. Me, close enough to taste your goddamn thoughts. Don’t lie to yourself, Sera. You like it. You want it. There’s something about that forbidden fruit, isn’t there?”

“This is… This is inappropriate,” I stammered, hating how weak I sounded.

“Sure,” he said, then leaned closer, lowering his voice until it wrapped around me like smoke. “But if it really was so wrong, why aren’t you pulling away? Why haven’t you called for Jared?” His hand brushed the counter beside my hip, knuckles grazing me. “You’re not exactly screaming no. In fact…”

He dipped even closer, lips brushing my temple now.

“You’re trembling like a girl who’s about to cum just from being looked at.”

God.

I should’ve pushed him. Slapped him. Run. Anything.

But I couldn’t move.

His hand came up, slowly, as if giving me a chance to stop him. One I didn’t take, and his fingers brushed the side of my neck, thumb grazing the pulse pounding wildly there.

“There’s something about you, Sera,” he said, his voice a slow seduction, dripping with sin. “Something tells me you’re not the sweet little porcelain doll everyone thinks you are. Not prim and proper. Not like the good little fiancée they all applaud. Not like the girl Jared brags about.”

He paused, eyes flicking down to my mouth.

“Nah… there’s a part of you dying to be wrecked.”

My lips parted, breath shallow. I hated that the word wrecked did something to me, sent a ripple down my spine and straight between my legs.

Knox leaned in, eyes dark, intense, and my knees buckled.

“It’s written all over you, baby. He’s not fucking you right, or at all.” His gaze dipped lower, like he could see through my dress. “You walk around like a woman trying to pretend she’s not starving, but I know what that looks like. I know what it sounds like.”

“That’s not true,” I managed, though my voice was high, tight, and full of all the wrong emotions.

“No?” he countered smoothly. “So that wasn’t you trembling at the dinner table every time our eyes met? That wasn’t you shifting in your seat because your panties were soaked?”

“I- Jared and I-”

He chuckled darkly, the erotic sound cutting me off.

“Don’t lie for him, Sera. You’ve been trying to convince yourself you’re satisfied. That this perfect image you’ve built is enough. But your body tells the truth. It’s been telling me all night.”

He leaned in again. Close. Too close.

And then, his lips brushed my ear, and his voice dropped into a growl that shattered the last of my control.

“I bet you like it rough. I bet you’d let me bend you over this sink and fuck you until you scream.”

My gasp was instant, guttural, sharp, and entirely involuntary.

And just like that-

“Sera?”

Jared’s voice, calling from down the hallway.

I jolted like I’d been electrocuted, hand shoving hard against Knox’s chest this time.

He let me go easily, too easily and his lips curving in a lazy, victorious smirk as he stepped back.

“You should go,” he said, casually licking his bottom lip. “Before he comes in here and finds out what his pretty little fiancée’s been up to.”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

I bolted, practically ran from the kitchen with my breath still hitching, my thighs wet, and my world tilted off its axis.

What the fuck just happened?