Page 9 of Apple of My Eye

“Thinking of your to-do list? Well, don’t stop on my account.” I winked to lighten the mood.

She rolled her eyes. “Get out.”

“Do you really want me to leave? Or do you want me to stay and help you forget everything else for a while? You practically propositioned me last night.” I called her bluff here. I had heard what I heard as I came upon the cottage tonight. She was pleasing herself. The name she moaned was mine.Mine.

“That was the wine talking,” she insisted.

“And tonight? I don’t see any wine around.”

“Knox—”

“I told you last night, Daisy.” At the risk of her punching me, I reached out and fingered the strands of her red ponytail. Goosebumps broke out across her chest. I couldn’t leave now. “If you need anything, you call me. I heard you needed helping hands for the harvest, so I told Ash and we brought the guys.As I came upon the cottage just now, it sure sounded like you needed more help. From me, by the sound of it. And I’m right here, Daisy. For you.”

She swallowed hard. Her “no” was imminent; I could tell. Probably had a list of ten good reasons she couldn’t proceed.

“Between my job, this place, my sisters, putting food on the table, paying bills, I have nothing left to give to you or anyone. Barely to myself.” She shook her head. “Which is why stealing a few minutes in a bath for me is a freaking luxury. So if you don’t mind…”

I listened, and I didn’t move, didn’t argue. One look at her and I knew exactly what she needed—someone to take the weight off for a minute. A man’s touch now and then. I could provide it all.

“I see you, Daisy Wylde, how hard you work to take care of your family. But no one takes care of you. I could be that man for you. Giving you what you need whenever you need it?—”

She snorted. “What I need is for my sisters to turn out okay after everything we lost. Until then, my needs just don’t matter.”

“They matter to me. If you let me, I’ll prove it.”

She chewed her cheek and searched my face, like the answers to everything would be there. “I don’t want a relationship, Knox. My sisters come first. All I can give anyone is friendship, okay? And even then, I’d probably not be a very good friend.”

Friendship. Then why did this attraction between us feel like anything but?

It hit me like a boot to the chest. The woman I’d been circling and teasing and fantasizing about for the better part of the past year, the one I’d rearrange my entire world around ifshe’d let me, was turning me down, or at least turning away from anything like a real relationship.

She sighed, and her shoulders fell. “If you’re going to insist on being here, please at least get the towel for me so I can get out and cover up?”

The room went quiet. I should walk away, but there was absolutely no fucking way I’d leave her now. Because I’d take anything she gave me. Even if it wasn’t enough.

Her legs shifted in the tub, and my eyes went right there, to her creamy thighs, squeezing together like a woman on the edge with an immediate, very specific need, right the fuck now.

My cock stood at stiff attention, but this wasn’t the time or place to let him out. Not when Daisy’s face had ‘we’re just friends’written all over it.

To think I could have taken home several women over the past few months on those nights me and the boys went out to drink in town. Or at the Cowboy Nights Ivy had arranged at the Sapphire Saloon for singles in the area to meet. But I didn’t, because Daisy always factored into things for me, when she had no clue.

I unhooked her towel, and held it out for her to step into. She hesitated. “You weren’t so shy in a bikini this summer when we all went to the lake.”

She clicked her tongue. “Not the same.”

I turned my head, averting my eyes. She stood, her back to me. My hands gripped the towel a little harder at the sound of water sluicing down her body. Oh, to be a drop of it caressing down her skin… The idea did nothing to calm my cock.

She wrapped the towel around her, snug in it, and stifled a yawn. “Long and tiring day,” she breathed.

“I’ve got you, relax. Can you trust me?” I didn’t wait for an answer; I picked her up bridal-style and carried her to the couch.

“Knox! You did not just do that,” she laughed and yelped, and hung on with an arm around my neck.

“Yep, you’ll find out soon enough I’m a pretty attentivefriend.” I laid her on the sofa. She quickly pulled a quilt around her and maneuvered out of the towel, yawning again as I took it.

I backtracked to the bathroom and hung the towel. Had to give my cock a stern warning with a whisper, “Patience, man.”

When I returned to her, she’d drifted off. To see her face one more time like this, sleeping like an angel, I couldn’t leave yet. I sat my ass on the floor and propped my elbow on the cushion at her feet, thinking way too much about the situation between us.