Page 9 of Hot Chicken (Sunday Brothers #6)

“Knox.” I arched against him wantonly, blindly, proving the truth of his words, and the leather of the sofa creaked beneath us. I could feel every inch of Knox’s cock as it slid between my cheeks and… fucking damn, it felt good. My own cock was throbbing in Knox’s grip, leaking like a faucet.

“I love how generous you are,” Knox continued relentlessly. “With your time, your friendship, your brilliant mind. You bring joy to every person in this town, and you never run out.”

My throat went tight. I wanted to tell him to stop, but the other part was soaking up every sweet, perfect word.

How could you not be over-the-moon in love with a man who cared enough to know what you needed—even the things you didn’t realize you needed—and make sure you got them?

Knox ground against me, and his cock caught on my rim, which was still loose from earlier. I pushed back, needing more.

His hand disappeared for a second as he levered up, reaching for the end table. Before I could utter a protest, his mouth was back at my ear, calming me.

“I’ve got you,” he murmured, stroking lube-coated fingers over my hole, working them inside me. “Yeah. Fuck. Let me take care of you. I love how you trust me to take care of you, baby.”

I inhaled a stinging breath through my nose. “Knox, I need… I need?—”

“I know, baby,” he whispered. Strong hands maneuvered me exactly where he wanted me—legs splayed wide, one knee hooked over his thigh—and then he slid inside me.

I cried out, overwhelmed, and not just by the physical pleasure. Knox spoke to me, held me, like I—snarky, happy-go-lucky, mildly cow-phobic Gage Goodman—was unbearably precious. Like I was the most important thing in his universe.

“Yesss,” he groaned, setting a slow, deep rhythm that made kaleidoscope colors appear at the edges of my vision. “So good. How is it so fucking perfect, every fucking time?”

I wanted to say because I love you, because you love me, because somehow, despite all the bullshit vagaries of life, our two slightly dented souls found their way to each other, but unfortunately, all I managed was some high-pitched, inarticulate panting.

Still, I was pretty sure Knox understood.

Knox’s fingers wrapped around my cock again. “I love your laugh,” he said, his words tumbling over themselves in a rush. “Love how you make everything better just by being there. I love—” He broke off in a moan as I clenched around him.

“Please, Knox. Please,” I begged, not sure what I was begging for—more, or less, or both at once.

“I’ve got you,” he promised, fucking me harder, jerking me faster. “Always, Gage. Always.”

My body bowed back Alien -style as my orgasm hit me like a freight train.

I came with a cry that probably echoed around the Hollow and shot all over my chest…

and quite possibly the couch. Knox’s hands clamped around my hips hard enough to leave bruises as he thrust up into me once more and emptied himself inside me.

We collapsed like shipwreck survivors, both of us trembling, chests heaving, and absolutely soaked with sweat.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the sofa gave another plaintive squeal.

I laughed—well, as much as a person can when they still haven’t caught their breath—and beneath me, I felt Knox’s body shaking as well.

“You know,” I said, my voice sounding a little bit drunk. “I think… maybe this sofa’s not so bad. ”

“After today,” Knox managed, giving the sofa a fond pat, “I’m having it bronzed.”

I found myself grinning, though I wasn’t sure how I had the strength. “A monument to commemorate my sexual prowess? I approve.”

Knox’s arms tightened around me, and he pressed a gentle kiss to the side of my head. “No, dumbass. A monument to commemorate our love.”

I laughed again, wilder now. Definitely sex-drunk.

I couldn’t think of a single thing in the entire universe better than this—being naked, filthy, and sweaty as fuck, sprawled on top of the man I loved.

There was not a single career aspiration or far-flung adventure that would ever compare.

All I wanted from the universe was more of this exact same thing.

A whole forever of this. That was something worth commemorating.

I stopped laughing abruptly.

“Gage?” Knox asked, concerned. “Are you…?”

I wriggled slightly, and his softening cock fell out of me, making all kinds of mess. My sweaty limbs flailed a little as I tried to turn over, and Knox let out an ooof when my elbow slipped and wedged itself into his ribs.

“Sorry!” I said, reaching for his neck at the same time he tried to sit up. My hand met his face in the middle.

“Goodman!” Knox clapped a hand over his eye. “Are you trying to assault me? What in the?—”

“Marry me, Knox!” I blurted. I grabbed him by the shoulders and held on tight. “I mean… I mean…”

I swallowed hard. Knox’s eyes—well, the one eye that wasn’t red and watery—went wide and shocked, which wasn’t exactly encouraging.

His hair was sweat-slicked and sticking up on one side, and I couldn’t imagine what mine was doing, and I was pretty sure there’d be too much cum on the sofa to bronze it, assuming Knox hadn’t been kidding about? —

Focus, Gage. You got the man to fall in love with you. You can make this happen, too.

“Look, I know we haven’t talked about it in a long time.

Years. Several years, actually. And it’s…

it’s okay with me if you don’t want to anymore!

I mean, obviously, people don’t have to be married in order to be committed.

And I know lots of people think marriage is heteronormative and…

and… they don’t need the government to sanction their partnership…

and if you feel strongly about that, then I…

I understand. But if you don’t feel strongly either way, then…

then I do. Feel strongly, I mean. About you. About us. About… getting married.”

Knox stared at me like I was speaking some dialect of English he didn’t know… which was silly since he’d learned to speak fluent Goodman years ago. But I couldn’t turn back now, so I soldiered on.

“I didn’t think I cared,” I told him. As I perched in his lap, the fan blew on my sweaty skin, making me shiver.

My fingers nervously carded Knox’s messy hair back into place.

“I didn’t think I wanted the rings and the cake and the ceremony of it all.

But I… I do. I want all of it. I want to stand up in front of our friends and families and promise to love you every day for the rest of our lives.

I want to tell you, in front of the whole world, that I am yours, and I always will be.

I want your ring on my finger because… well, because it’s more convenient than carrying this couch around as a symbol of our love.

” I tried for a smile. “So, um. Will you, Edwin Knox Sunday, do me the honor of?—”

Knox silenced me with a kiss, his lips crashing into mine with a kind of desperate intensity. When he pulled back a moment later, his eyes were shiny. And then, to my shock, he wrapped his arms around me, buried his face in my chest, and laughed so hard he made the sofa protest some more.

I blinked. “Uh. Baby?” I said after a moment.

I put my arms around him and patted his back gently.

“I’m not sure what’s happening right now.

This particular Knox-ian stress response is kind of hard to read.

The tears are giving ‘I’m trying to let you down gently’…

or possibly ‘My eye injury is worse than I let on’… but the laughter is?—”

Knox lifted his head and cupped my chin in both of his hands. “Yes. Yes. Goodman. Gage . Of course I’ll marry you.”

It was only when I was able to suck in a full breath that I realized I hadn’t been breathing normally. “Oh! Right. Good.” I swallowed. “Wait, really?”

Knox’s smile was brighter than the summer sun. “Yes, really. In fact?—”

He stood quickly, nearly dumping me off the sofa and onto the rug before I scrambled to my feet. “Wait here,” he said before running up the stairs.

“You’re really giving a guy mixed messages,” I called after him.

Knox thundered down the stairs seconds later, holding a small velvet box that made my heart stop completely. He skidded to a stop in front of me.

“I’ve had this for three years,” he began. Then he opened the box to reveal a simple, elegant platinum band.

“Oh my God,” I breathed. “Is this actually happening?”

“Yes. Finally.” Knox’s hands were shaking, which was more of a reality check than his words.

Not even in my wildest dreams could I imagine Knox with shaky hands.

“I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to surprise you.

Some grand, romantic gesture. The sunrise hike, the fireworks last summer…

none of them felt right. Not special enough. ”

I winced. “Ah, shit. And then I come along and ask you the first moment it pops into my head, on a random Sunday, after acting like an asshole the day before, and when both of us are…” I gestured to my stomach, which was covered in cooling jizz and low-key starting to itch, and then to his crazy, sweat-mussed hair. “Ouch.”

Knox laughed shakily even as he shook his head. He cupped my jaw in one palm tenderly. “And then you came along,” he agreed, “and reminded me that every day, every fucking moment, is perfect when I’m with you.”

He dropped to one knee on the rug, right there by our unspeakably dirty sofa, and smiled up at me.

“Gage Goodman, will you marry me? I want to spend all the rest of my moments with you, whether they’re here, or in Boston, or anywhere else you ever want to go.

I promise to make you coffee every morning?—”

I sniffed a little but rolled my eyes. “Hardly an inducement since you don’t trust me to use the machine.”

Knox’s smile widened. “And I promise to let you fill our house with…” He shot a glance at the mantel over my shoulder and curled his lip a little. “Weird, possibly sentient, decorative poultry that may or may not be trying to murder me through an overabundance of sex.”

“Hey!” I laughed a little. “No such thing. And no dissing the Cock of Good Fortune, or all bets are off!”

“And I promise to love you… every perfect, ordinary day… for the rest of our lives.”

“Well, when you put it that way.” My eyes were distinctly leaky, and my vision was blurry, but Knox’s hand on mine anchored me, as usual. “Yes, I will. Fuck, I love you.”

Knox snorted a little as he lifted the ring from the box and slid it onto my finger. It fit exactly right, because of course Knox had made sure it would.

“I love you, Gage Goodman,” he said solemnly. Then he tugged my hand until I was kneeling on the rug beside him and kissed me until we were both breathless for the fourth time that day.

“Just remember,” I told him later, when my head was nestled on his shoulder and I’d lifted my hand so the dying sunshine struck bright sparks off the metal. “Who asked who first. ”

It was a sign of just how tired—and, okay, blissfully happy—Knox was that he didn’t even argue.

“You’ve been surprising me since day one,” he said.

“Frankly, I should have anticipated that you’d surprise me in this, too.

” He pulled back and gave me a mock glare.

“But don’t try surprising me with a wedding, understand?

I want something gaudy as fuck. White doves, prissy wedding colors, the whole nine. ”

I snorted. “Maybe next summer, in the orchard. No doves, just apples. And the cows can watch… but only if they maintain a respectful distance.”

He laughed… then yawned. “Deal.”

“And in the meantime…” I hesitated. “Maybe… Boston? I think I might like it. Temporarily. As long as we’re back in plenty of time for Hawk and Jack’s wedding.” I frowned. “Unless you think they’ll need our help?”

Knox closed his eyes and laughed sleepily. “Hawk’s been planning his wedding since he was four, I think. He’ll be fine without us. Besides, Webb and Luke are here. Assuming they haven’t combusted from stress by then.”

I made a considering noise. Webb had been wound tighter than a spring lately, which wasn’t totally off brand for him. But these days, his normally easygoing, laid-back husband was getting in on the act.

“Luke nearly bit my head off yesterday at the science booth,” I told Knox. “And then apologized profusely a second later, but still.” I traced a finger up Knox’s chest. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Knox’s shrug made my head bob up and down. “Webb loves sharing his deep feelings with me about as much as he ever has. If I had to guess, I think it’s about them having a baby.”

I nodded. Webb and Luke had first talked about having a brother or sister for Aiden nearly as long ago as Knox had first mentioned marriage to me. But as far as I knew, they hadn’t done anything about it. “Do you think they need money? Because we could?—”

“I offered once before,” Knox admitted. “A few years ago. Webb said he had it covered. You know how stubborn he can be.” He shrugged again, but I noticed that his eyes were open now and thoughtful.

“He and Luke will work things out. They love each other too much not to. Just think how much those bugle-blowing fools have overcome already.”

“I know. I wish we could help, that’s all.” I held my ring up again. “I’m pretty fucking happy right now. I want all my people to be happy, too.”

“I know.” Knox kissed the top of my head. “But without a magic wand, I’m not sure we can conjure them up a baby.”

I froze. “Knox. I don’t have a magic wand, but I do have a possibly magic rooster…”

“Goodman,” Knox groaned. “Baby. No. You really don’t.”

“But you said yourself that Pecky inspired you,” I reminded him.

“I don’t care how inspiring your sex chicken is. Webb can’t get Luke pregnant!”

“Pecky’s not a sex chicken,” I said reproachfully. “He’s the Cock of Good Fortune. He makes dreams come true.”

Knox opened his mouth to protest further, but I waved the ring on my left hand in his face—all the evidence I needed, really—and he shut his mouth with a clack.

“You’re seriously suggesting we pass the sex rooster to Luke and Webb?” he asked instead.

“Yes. Or, if you’d prefer…” I laid my head back down on my boyfr—my fiancé’s —shoulder. “Pecky could stay on our mantel and keep an eye on us permanently.”

I didn’t have to turn my head to know that Knox had opened his eyes and glared at Pecky… or that he’d noticed Pecky’s golden eyes positively glowing in the setting sun.

“On second thought,” Knox said a moment later. “You might have a point. ”

“Uh-huh.” I grinned. “Stick with me, Sunday. I have all the best ideas.”

I did turn my head then and found Knox watching me, his green eyes soft and crinkled at the corners.

“I’ll stick with you, Gage Goodman,” Knox vowed softly. “Always.”