Page 30
Gathering Knights
I ncluding covering their tracks, then just relaxing in some incredibly comfortable seats, they spent almost two full hours in the owner’s box. Two full hours, in which someone could have happened upon them inside the suite, found Liam buried to the hilt inside of Avril Knight, her body shivering with pleasure.
Two minutes was what they had left to spare.
Because upon finally recuperating enough and deciding to depart, they bumped into two members of Avril’s family just fifty steps out from completing their journey to the owner’s box. And that probably would not have helped Liam to make a good impression on one of them. With the other, he’d been doomed from the start. After all, the man’s younger sister had gotten her grandpa to give her the family’s spare private jet.
Clearly, based on the sound of his voice as it echoed toward him and Avril, full of complaints and attempts to change Rory Knight’s mind, he remained unenthusiastic about the apparent favoritism that Avril had received.
They shared a look. Avril smirked, winked, and motioned for him to head toward the voices, not away from them. After fucking her three times in the family suite, it was apparently time for him to meet her brother and her grandfather.
Casey Knight was just about everything Liam might have expected, based on the descriptions of his personality that he’d been given. He was tall and lanky, had a few tattoos visible on his forearms, and messy red hair. His face was pinched with displeasure as his grandfather staved off his complaints, refusing to budge on who got to use the second private jet. Beside him, Avril smiled.
If not for that obvious character flaw, Liam recognized that, like Avril, he wasn’t left wanting for good genes. He could see how a younger Victoria, not yet as wise and aware, could be charmed by him. Yet, a decade later, he could just as plainly see why she’d broken it off. The complaints didn’t end, the sighing and the whining and the abrasive pleading. If he was Victoria’s age, he was in or near his mid-thirties. But here he was, pestering his wealthy grandfather to change his mind, sounding like an eleven-year-old who didn’t want to suffer through dressing up and attending the funeral of a distant relative he barely remembered.
As if anyone could suffer in a private jet. Liam didn’t know anything about them, but he imagined that the 7500—the jet Rory and Casey would be using—was probably nicer and larger than the 6500 variant.
Compared to his grousing grandson, Rory Knight was well into his seventies, yet clearly hadn’t let age slow him down. He was the shortest of the four people meeting in the hallway, back slightly stooped but otherwise thin and relatively fit. He wasn’t dressed to the nines, wearing a minimalist outfit of pleated pants and a blazer over a white tee. Balding, his hair had turned entirely white, both the wisps on his head and the stubble on his face. He looked pretty fed up with his grandson, beginning to snap at him to be quiet, only to still his tongue. Finally, one of them had noticed Liam and Avril.
Green eyes twinkling, the man smiled at Avril, hastening his step. Avril did the same. Liam brought up the rear, wondering how this meeting would go, especially as Casey finally noticed him and his sister. Much like his first meeting with Trent Alden, he barely received a glance. All of Casey’s ire jammed itself in a funnel toward his sister.
But he stopped complaining. At least for a few seconds.
“Avril, you didn’t say you’d be swinging by,” Rory Knight said. Unlike his grandchildren, his voice had a slight inflection, a small tinge of an Irish accent in it. “How long have you been here?”
“Not too long, Grandpa,” Avril said, all smiles as she accepted a hug from the shorter man. “I’m just wowing my guest, who, until a little while ago, didn’t have a clue about our family.”
Just throw me out into the deep end, thanks, Liam thought.
“Really?” Rory asked, looking toward Liam. “No idea?”
“No idea,” he admitted. “She got to see me flounder about in the dark for three months.”
“Three glorious, glorious months,” Avril agreed. “This is Liam Carr, by the way; he’s Anna’s boyfriend. Liam, meet the king codger himself, Rory Knight, and”—she glanced dismissively at her brother—“the village jester, Casey.”
Casey sneered at his sister, a loaded response on his tongue, but Rory spoke before he could.
“Ah, so you’re the one that has the Royces and Aldens in such a tizzy,” he said, extending his hand for a firm handshake. “Good on you. Annabelle’s sweet as a button. Wear that privilege proudly.”
“She’s great,” Liam agreed, glancing at Avril. “They both are, in their very distinct ways.”
Rory chuckled and nodded. At almost the same time, Avril’s gaze fell from his face. Momentarily, an unusual panic flashed over her expression. Moving slightly, she bumped into him, which turned his right side slightly away from the two male members of the Knight family.
“No sense for baseball, but plenty of sense when it comes to women,” Avril remarked, smirking. “Makes him a good match for Anna, I guess.”
“I’ve heard you're attending college pretty far away?” Rory said. “Long drives to and from each weekend?”
Liam nodded. “I’m currently at Perrymont.”
“Currently?” Rory raised an eyebrow.
“For as long as my grades stay good enough for my scholarship,” he lied, knowing he didn’t want another accidental reveal of his transfer plans to come up. At the rate he was going, he wouldn’t have anyone left to surprise in the fall.
“If you study anything like Anna does, that won’t be a problem,” Rory said, chuckling. “Is that what she’s doing now?”
“Almost certainly,” Avril said. “She won’t be satisfied until she sees the words in her textbooks on the back of her eyelids when she closes her eyes. So, I got to spill the secret to Liam on my lonesome. She was pushing me to finally reveal things, so I relented.”
“I can only imagine,” Rory said. “I assume you just finished showing off your secret, given the direction you’re coming from?”
“Yep, he got the full tour of the suite. Even got to imagine what it was like to sit in the best seat in the house.”
“No need for imagining. If you ever want to come to a game, Liam, the box is open. I’m sure Avril will bring you and Anna along for at least a game or two.”
Avril immediately nodded.
Liam blinked, but he supposed such generosity shouldn’t surprise him. “Thank you, that’s very kind.”
“But it’ll have to be after your all’s trip, yes?” Rory noted. “That’s just next week, isn’t it?”
“Leaving Sunday night,” Avril confirmed.
Finally, refusing to be silent even a moment longer, Casey hurled his voice into the ring. “Yeah, about that, Avril. I know you could just rent a jet and—”
“Not a chance,” Avril cut in. “My group’s using the jet in a week, just like Grandpa said we could. You’re going to have to deal with it—and stop bothering him about it, too. I could hear your whiny complaints bouncing off the walls as I left the suite.”
Casey scowled venomously at his sister. “That isn’t fair. My trip’s been planned for months.”
“So has mine,” Avril shot back. “The destination wasn’t, but the trip’s been around since winter break. Suck it up. You don’t get to invite any bimbos on the plane with you; we all know that’s why you’re pissed about it. Grandpa’s not going to let you slut up his plane, so you’re throwing a hissy fit.”
Casey flushed with heat. For some reason, that was the moment he decided to mention a woman who was about as far from being a “bimbo” as one could be. “I can’t believe you’re taking Victoria with you. It’s ridiculous; you just love to twist the knife.”
“Why not? I’ve gone to plenty of places with her. She’s always wanted to go to Fiji. Now she can. I’m sure she’ll be happy about it. More so since I’m the only Knight who’ll also be there.”
A moment before Casey could snap back, his grandfather loudly cleared his throat. Both grandchildren grew silent and still. Avril was even willing to look slightly abashed. Casey didn’t even put on an act of seeming chastised.
“I’d say this isn’t the norm,” Rory said, addressing Liam, “but I’d be lying. I hope you won’t think too much less of our family, seeing them act so churlishly.”
“Every family argues,” Liam said. “I overheard my dormmate and his sister getting into a shouting match on the phone over something silly—a missing jacket or something—just last week.”
“That they do, unfortunately. That they do.” Softening his sternness, he nodded. “I hope you and Avril enjoy the rest of your time here, then the trip you have planned. Come, Casey.”
“Bye, Grandpa,” Avril said, giving him a side hug before he passed, which served to hide her hickey from the two men.
Casey, however, didn’t follow in Rory’s wake. It was clear he still had more to say. And just as he was about to say it, all while glaring daggers at his younger sister, a voice barked at him from farther down the hall.
“If you want to find yourself flying on any plane next weekend, you won’t ignore my words, Casey.”
Face shadowing darkly, though embarrassment finally appeared on his expression, Casey shoved himself past Avril and hurried after his irate grandfather. At that moment, he understood Avril’s earlier words. Rory Knight was the only true billionaire of the family. He clearly had complete control over what he owned, and his grandchildren weren’t free to run amok quite as much as they might have wished. One liked to run a little more amok than the other, based on how the conversation had gone.
That meant Liam was left standing in the hall with the responsible Knight grandchild. Billionaires really were a different breed.
“Hate him,” Avril grimaced, watching until the curve of the stone hallway blocked Casey and Rory from view. “God, how miserable would Victoria be if she’d somehow married that jackass?”
“Probably very,” Liam thought, aware that he’d probably feel the need—that burr in his conscience—to mention that he’d finally met the person who’d almost become Victoria’s worse half once he saw her in a little while. The much, much worse half.
“Well, come on,” Avril said. “Talk about a mood killer. Blech.”
“I could try and fix that on the ride home,” he offered.
Avril swept her gaze toward him, then looked again at his neck. “That much is obvious. Come on, Boyfriend. If I have to introduce you to my family as Anna’s boyfriend, I get to have some fun with you on the car ride home.”
“Deal,” Liam said, though Avril quickly but playfully reminded him that it was a demand, not a deal.