Page 34 of In the Long Run

KNOX

‘Let them watch,’ Gen says when I pull my mouth away from hers. ‘I want everyone’—she presses a quick kiss against my lips, then another—‘to see.’

‘Halliday—’

‘Do not call me that right now.’ Gen grabs the sides of my hydration vest, her hands curling around the fabric, fingernails scratching at my skin through my sweat-soaked shirt.

‘I thought you liked it?’ My head spins as her touch leaves a trail of fire behind it.

‘I like it too much.’ No need to unravel the hidden meaning in Gen’s words. Her eyes flare with heat. ‘Call me that again and I won’t be able to stop.’

My heart thumps. ‘Is that so?’

She shoots me a stern look that I’m going to need to see again later. Preferably while we’re both naked.

‘You want to try your luck, Knox?’

I smooth my fingers along her jaw, tracing the line of her neck. Her pulse is racing. My mouth finds her ear and I whisper, ‘Let’s get out of here.’

Her gaze darkens and she nods, prising her fingers away from my vest, running them down my front, settling them against my stomach. ‘Please.’

Probably we should talk to the rest of the crew from Croissants and Kilometres who journeyed up here and ran as well.

Probably we should get her ankle checked out by a professional.

We should definitely rehydrate and refuel.

‘Um, excuse me?’ a timid voice says behind me, popping the bliss bubble we’ve been caught within. ‘Did you want your medals?’

Gen snickers, a hand covering her mouth like she’s coming back to herself after an out-of-body experience.

Please don’t change your mind about me. Not now you know the real me.

‘Thanks,’ she says to the man wearing a neon orange volunteer bib and a wide-brimmed hat. She accepts two medals and loops one around my neck. ‘Hmm.’

‘Hmm?’

‘Something doesn’t look right.’ She shrugs, twisting her mouth into a puzzled expression. ‘I think this would look better if you were shirtless.’

I snort. It’s not attractive, but it makes her smile stretch wider, her eyes sparkle. ‘That was a terrible line. Is that the best you got?’

Gen slides her arm around my waist, snuggling in against me, as she waves goodbye to Violet and the rest of our crew. ‘Oh, I’m barely getting started, Knox.’

‘Here’s how it’s going to work,’ Gen says, pushing open the door to our cottage.

I swallow a laugh. ‘I have done this before, you know.’

She slaps my arm and I catch her hand, holding it against my skin. I can’t stop touching her.

‘We’re going to start by agreeing to be better at giving ourselves grace.’

Those are my words from the other day. From right before I kissed her. Right before she tilted my world on its axis or – more correctly – she rebalanced it.

Gen moves until she’s right in front of me. The line across her forehead from her visor hasn’t faded fully yet and her cheeks are still flushed. The hours we’ve spent in the sun are the most likely cause, but I hope my kisses contributed.

‘Because, Knox, we deserve nice things.’

The persistent melancholy that I’ve carried for so long, the one that normally manifests as an ache, disappears.

‘And we’re going to live in the moment. We’re going to enjoy what’s happening right now.’

My hands grip her hips so tightly they’re going to leave a mark. ‘I’d like that.’

Her gaze drops to my lips and God, I need to get her naked.

Stretch her out on that big-ass bed and show her how good I can be to her.

Do my best to give her everything she asks for.

I breathe in deeply and my nose reminds me that I’ve just run/walked thirty-five kilometres.

A shower’s required. Gen’s gone still in my arms, and I wonder if she’s had the same realisation or if she’s having second thoughts.

‘How about we hit pause for five minutes. Get clean,’ I murmur, keeping my arms locked around her.

Her nose brushes against my shirt as she nods and her breath warms my chest. ‘But what if I don’t want to let you go yet?’

My head tips back as my emotions short out all the barriers I tried to put in place.

‘Can I?’ she asks, toying with the bottom of my shirt.

I don’t answer her with words. I just lift my arms. Laugh when the neck gets caught in my mouth.

‘You’re so damn tall,’ Gen huffs. There’s a noise and I realise she’s standing on the bed now. She yanks my shirt off my face and the swell of her breasts is all I can see. ‘Oh,’ she squeaks.

‘I have no complaints,’ I say, pressing my face into her chest. Her nipples harden through her sports bra and it’s suddenly imperative I get her clothes off. ‘You good?’

‘Could be so much better,’ she breathes, her fingers threading through my hair.

My hands slide underneath her top, coasting up her sides, chasing the goosebumps that appear as she shivers.

I pull back long enough to push her top over her tits. My hands fumble with the back of her sports bra. If it’s the kind you need an engineering degree to undo, I might cry. My cock definitely will.

‘There isn’t a clasp,’ she moans, removing her hands from my hair and yanking off her own top. It falls somewhere. I don’t know or care where.

She’s too tall standing on the bed, but I’ve never backed down from a challenge. I grasp the elastic bottom of her bra and tug it up as gently as I can, groaning when her tits pop free.

They’re spectacular. Plump and pink and fucking perfect. More than a handful. An exquisite example of more is more.

‘Knox,’ Gen whispers, and I drag my attention to her face. Or what I can see of it, at least, given half of it is covered by the millions of straps that were previously looped over her shoulders. ‘Please don’t laugh at me,’ she groans.

‘I would never. Let’s try this.’ I band an arm around the back of her thighs and lift her down.

Her hard nipples slide along my chest and we both inhale sharply.

It’s going to be so good. Not because I’m arrogant enough to assume I can make it good for anyone.

Or because she’s so pretty it almost hurts.

It’s going to be good because it’s her. It’s us.

Slowly I untangle her hair and trapped arm from her sports bra straitjacket.

‘Thank you,’ she breathes when she’s finally free.

‘No, thank you,’ I say, loving the way her lips part and her tongue appears, wetting them.

Gen laughs. ‘We’re so polite.’

‘I can be less polite, if that’s what you’re into.’

She bites her bottom lip and pulls my pants down in one motion. ‘So can I. Oh, wow. That’s …’

Her eyes glaze over and it might make me a caveman, but pride bursts in my chest, flowing through all my limbs.

‘I thought you felt big this morning, but that’s … baguette was right.’

‘Did you just compare my dick to a bread stick?’

Gen steps into the space between my legs and my hard cock brushes against her stomach. ‘But like the biggest one. It’s a compliment.’

I hiss when she runs one finger along the shaft tentatively, my eyes closing as heat races through my body.

‘How do you like it?’ she asks, voice quiet. Simple questions usually require simple answers, but right now even saying my name would be a struggle.

I need to get clean so I can give her whatever she wants.

I cup her jaw and kiss her so tenderly that I need a second when I pull away. To catch my breath. Let my heart try to find a normal rhythm. It’s never been like this before. ‘Can we continue this in the shower?’

Gen doesn’t answer, just hooks her thumbs in the sides of her tights and pulls them and her plain black panties off.

‘I’d like to do that next time,’ I say, enjoying the way her nipples tighten when I cup her breasts.

I release her only long enough for us to make our way over to the spa bath and overhead shower.

Because I’m a gentleman, I step into the cold spray first, fiddling with the taps until the water heats up.

Gen presses her front to my back, hands wandering, and I yelp when she finds a ticklish spot on my hip.

Her laughter floats around us, mixing with the steam. I jerk away when she does it again. ‘You’re going to get in trouble,’ I warn her, loving that it’s so easy, so natural to be here like this with her. There’s no first-time together awkwardness. I spin us so Gen can stand under the water.

‘Ow!’ Gen screeches, leaping away and knocking all the fancy soaps and hair stuff off the ledge built into the marble wall.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘My back,’ she cries, spinning to show me. It’s covered in red welts where her bra has rubbed against her leaking hydration pack. ‘Oh my God. This is so not sexy,’ she groans, burying her face in her hands. ‘And it really hurts.’

‘How about this? If you stay here’—I position her so her back is against the cool, tiled wall—‘I’ll block the spray from hitting you.’

Gen heaves a big sigh, which does wonderful things to her tits, but I do my best not to notice because she’s hurt.

‘I wanted us to have shower sex and now I can’t even shower. This is so embarrassing.’

‘Hey, hey. There are no expectations here. I’d be very happy to help you get clean. Spending time with you is always the best part of my day.’

Gen peeks at me from between her fingers. ‘I really like you.’

‘You keep saying that.’ I’ll never tire of hearing it. ‘And we can have shower sex any time you want. I’ll clear my schedule.’

She wipes her eyes and smiles at me. It’s a bit wobbly but I’ll take it.

‘Let’s try this again,’ I say, before adding a hefty dollop of soap to a wash cloth. ‘Hands on my shoulders, Halliday, so I can take care of you and get us out of this shower as quick as possible.’

She complies, which is more arousing than it should be, and I make sure my body’s blocking the water.

I enjoy soaping her up, sliding my hands all over her slippery skin, memorising the bits that make her gasp, like when I move the wash cloth between her tits, purposely avoiding them.

The way she says my name like an admonishment spurs me on, and I drag the cloth lower, transfixed by the bubbles sliding down Gen’s tanned skin.

I stop shy of where I’m desperate to touch her, and her groan echoes around the tiles.