Page 9 of Knight
It wasn’t a lie. Driving gave me time to think, time to plan. I wanted to get a jumpstart on some research proposals before my first day of work next week.
Dr. Rose had given me a list of potential topics to explore, and I was most drawn to the ones with a focus on rural health care. I’d grown up in rural areas, and they didn’t get nearly the attention that big urban metropolitans did, so I was lookingforward to digging into some core issues that could intersect with surgical outcomes.
“How are Seb and Iris?” Flynn asked Bailey before laughing at something his boyfriend said. “Ah, well, you should invite them down for a weekend, babe. Aiden wants to get his own place before his job starts in a couple of weeks, so we’ll have the spare room available.”
I bit my lip and turned up the radio a fraction, trying to tune out their conversation. I knew my brother was a little disappointed I didn’t want to live with them, but they’d thank me later. Their relationship was new, and they didn’t need me all up in their business.
Flynn ended the call and shifted toward me. “So, Dr. Donovan. We should be back in town in time for lunch. How would you like to try a MoonShake?”
“A Moon…”
“Shake,” he said. “It’ll make you want to stay in Riverton forever. We can stop at Jerker’s Soda Shoppe before unpacking you and getting settled in. Bailey says his brothers want to take us out, but I figured you’d be too tired tonight. Maybe in a few days, once you’ve settled in?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” I wasn’t sure I was up for a big welcoming committee. I’d met Bailey’s brothers—all three of themandtheir boyfriends—when I’d visited for Thanksgiving. They were great, but they could be alotwhen they were all together.
I’d also gotten a hell of a shock when I’d run into Knight, the guy I’d hooked up with months ago at a nightclub in Omaha. His eyes had just about bugged out when he saw me, too.
“Angel?” he’d whispered.
“My name is Aiden,” I’d said, annoyed he didn’tremember right. Had our hookup not been as memorable to him as it had been to me?
He’d shaken his head, as if he had something else to say, then reared back. “Holy shit! Aiden, as in Flynn’s brother?”
“Yeah, and you’re…oh my god, you’rethatKnight.”
The door had opened then, interrupting us before we could say anything more.
In retrospect, I really should have put it together sooner. But the Knight I’d met in Omaha had been months before Flynn ever brought him up to me—and he’d become wispy and dreamlike in my memories, almost as if he’d never been real.
But after seeing him again? He was a little too real.
My stomach tied itself in knots at the thought of running into him again. He was practically Flynn’s best friend. There would be no avoiding him, no forgetting what he’d done to me in that nightclub, the way he’d made me burn for him, moan and cry and beg. I never let go like that. Never gave someone else control.
Not like I did with him.
And no matter how good it felt, it couldn’t ever happen again.
I stayed in control. That’s who I was. When I didn’t, people got hurt.
CHAPTER 2
KNIGHT
I cruisedinto the Lucky Strike parking lot, taking care to avoid pits in the pavement. Redemption Road didn’t have the funds for its own meeting space, so we met here every Sunday when it was relatively slow on business.
I slid into a parking space and cut the engine.
“That’s bullshit!” Hollywood’s voice exploded through the night.
I looked over in surprise. Hollywood and Tex were standing on the other side of a beat-up pickup, heads close together, an intensity to their faces that spelled trouble.
“What did you do now, Tex?” I called, keeping my voice light as I climbed off my bike. “I hope I don’t have to help Hollywood kick your ass. That would make living together a little awkward.”
Tex said something in a low voice that made Hollywood tense with fury. Then he turned to me with a shit-eating grin. “No worries there, Knight. There’s been a change of plans.”
“What change?” I asked, instantly wary.
Tex had agreed to move in with me, and I was counting on getting his share of the rent tonight.
