“You sure you’re okay with this?” he asked.
“I don’t think I’d sleep otherwise.”
He smiled.
“You like being the protector, don’t you?”
His cheeks flushed, which made me want to pinch them as much as kiss him.
“I guess I kind of do.”
I got up and walked around him so I was on the side of the bed farther from the door. Knox smiled again before turning off the lights and climbing in beside me. He held out his arm, and I shifted closer to him and rested my head on his bare chest.
“I like having you in my arms.” When he bent down and kissed me, I could taste the toothpaste he’d just used like I had. “I want to know everything about you, Tara.” He kissed my forehead. “That wasn’t supposed to make you tense,” he added a few seconds later.
“I hope you like what you find.”
Knox turned on his side so he was facing me. “You are bright and beautiful and talented and smart. I’ve learned so much from you in the last few days. You fascinate me. The only thing I don’t understand is why you don’t believe all of those things about yourself. In fact, I think once you get to know me better, you may discover you are way out of my league.”
I leaned forward and kissed him. “I doubt that.” I closed my eyes, not surprised by how tired I was, but by how quickly I felt myself falling to sleep.
“Thank you, Knox,” I murmured.
“You’re welcome, Tara.”
When I woke the next morning, Knox was still asleep. I reached out and ran my fingers over the definition in his abs. What did it take to maintain a physique like his? He must spend hours every day in the gym. Although, where would he workout here?
I giggled when Knox grabbed my fingers with his hand and brought them to his lips. He pulled me so the top half of my body rested on the top half of his.
“I kept waking up, making sure you were still beside me.”
“Did you really think I’d leave?” I asked.
“There’s a good chance I snore.”
I smiled and nodded. “You do.”
The phone on the table beside the bed vibrated; he reached over and picked it up.
“Sorry. I need to take this.”
I got up to use the restroom. Knox had a loud voice, so the fact that I couldn’t hear him, meant he was intentionally speaking quietly. I eased out of the bathroom door, went downstairs, and filled a teapot with water. While it heated, I looked around for coffee, relieved when I found a French press and some espresso already ground.
“Where did you run off to?” I heard Knox say from the stairwell.
“Making you a cup of tea.”
He didn’t say anything else, and I didn’t hear him come down the stairs. A few minutes later, he did. He came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. “I was really hoping I wasn’t dreaming.” He kissed my cheek while I dunked the tea bag into the hot water in his cup.
“Am I doing it right?”
He laughed. “Hard to do it wrong. How would you feel about going up to the villa for breakfast?”
“You did tell Lucia that you would talk to Pia.”
“That was Lucia who called actually. Pia is none the wiser about what went down at the casina.”
“Oh. Then, we could stay here.”