Fight for Me (9 page)

With so much uncertainty in her world, this was one thing she was certain of.

He leaned down to kiss her as he lowered her panties, slipping them off. Their recent urgency was replaced by a tender slowness.

But the heat remained.

His fingertips ran the length of her body, lingering at her hip, then lightly pressing on her inner knee until she opened them for him. He settled between her legs, still content to take things slow.

And she loved him for it. Since the moment he’d first laid eyes on her, he’d done nothing but put her first.

He pressed against her center, and she breathed deeply and tensed. He went no further, just continued kissing her to allow her time to get used to the sensation of his body between her legs, against the most intimate part of her.

He reached his hand down between their bodies to rub her clit.

So good.
It felt so good. How could anything feel better than this?

Her hips instinctively began to rock against him as the heat continued to build inside her.

He brought his hand up and cradled her head as she continued to move against him. Each arc of her hips made the pressure of him against her more gloriously intense until she took him in.

She gasped and her eyes opened wide, meeting his. There was raw tenderness in his gaze, but also a question. She raised her lips to his and ran her hands down his back, her answer to his question.

She shifted her hips to open fully for him, and he accepted the invitation, slowly pushing into her. When he was all the way inside, he paused.

She kissed him, sucking lightly on his lower lip, before resting her forehead on his and nodding. She was ready. She’d been waiting for him her whole life.

He set the pace slowly at first, and she closed her eyes, concentrating on the feel of their bodies working together. She shifted a little, bringing her knees closer to her chest, and he groaned, immediately increasing the pace.

She took that as a good sign and shifted more. His breathing became shallow and the pace increased yet again.

She pressed her face into his shoulder, riding the wave of pulses shooting through her, releasing a muffled cry into his skin.

As his body went rigid, he brought his lips to hers.

After dealing with the condom, Knox returned to bed and wrapped Natalie in his arms. There was an unusual feeling in his stomach. It took him a minute to realize it was nerves.

Aw, hell. He was nervous about Natalie’s reaction to their having sex.

Except that wasn’t what it was. The realization slammed into him as hard as any hit he’d taken in the cage.

He’d been with his fair share of women, but he’d never made love before.

Because that’s what it was—not fucking, not having sex.
Making love.

It was a first for him.

She snuggled her face into his chest and let out a breath that sounded suspiciously like a purr. A smile played at the edges of his lips as he kissed her forehead.

That was exactly the reaction he’d been hoping for.

He’d been Natalie’s first, and he’d wanted it to be a good experience for her. No matter how many men she was with after him, she would always remember.

A pang shot through his gut, replacing the nerves, and he tightened his arms around her. He didn’t want there to be any other men for her.

But that was ridiculous. She was high society and he was nothing more than a common street thug. Sure, they were in this thing together, but it would end eventually. And when it did, what then? Would she take him to her garden parties?

The image of himself rubbing elbows with the elite of the city ran through his mind and he almost snorted. Yeah, right. That would never happen. Natalie might accept him, but they never would.

He ran his fingers along her spine and down to her ass cheeks, and she arched her back, pressing her warm body closer to his.

She was his. That was all he knew. He didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, or the next day, but he knew that she belonged with him. Someway, somehow, she did.

And he belonged with her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She tilted her head back so she could look in his eyes. “I’m more than okay. Are
you
okay?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m okay.” He suddenly turned shy. “I was just asking because . . . you know . . .”

“Because I was a virgin?”

If he didn’t know better, he thought he felt a blush creeping onto his cheeks. God, she undid him.

He cleared his throat. “Well, yeah.”

“I appreciate your concern.” She paused to kiss him. “And I’m fine. I’m also glad that I’m not a virgin anymore.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

“Yes. Now the next time we do this, you don’t have to worry.”

He was totally fucking undone.

Natalie selected a donut out of the box sitting on the kitchen counter. “Thanks, Amelia. You really didn’t have to go to the trouble.”

“Don’t thank me. I’m just using you as an excuse to break my diet.” Amelia licked her fingers.

“Either way, thank you.”

Natalie opened the laptop at the kitchen table, wanting to take another look at the documents they’d found yesterday. Though she’d read them thoroughly not once, not twice, but three times already, it didn’t hurt to quadruple check.

A rustle at the kitchen door caught her attention.

Knox leaned against the door frame, his thumbs hooked in jeans pockets that rode low on his hips. His faded navy T-shirt stretched tight across his biceps.

He yawned. Never before had Natalie considered a yawn sexy, but Knox could probably pull off sexy during a root canal. There was something innately male about him, something primal that drew her in.

Her past boyfriends—if they could even be called that—were rich, pretty boys. They were nice, sure, but they didn’t possess the rawness that Knox did.

Looking at him made her body tingle.

Knox wandered over to the coffeemaker and poured himself a cup. Natalie focused on the computer screen again.

“Anything new?” Amelia asked.

Natalie shook her head. “No. It would have been nice if they had used an actual name instead of just ‘Board Director.’ Or if I could talk to the lawyer who drafted the document.”

Unfortunately, the law firm was now defunct, and that particular lawyer had moved out of state from what Natalie could tell. But where exactly, she had no clue. And with a name like John Smith, it would take weeks to figure out which lawyer was the one she was looking for.

Knox took a seat next to her, placing a pile of donuts on the table in front of him. “Do you have any idea who your mother might have appointed?”

“No.” Natalie sighed. “The only person I can think of is Amelia.”

“And it’s not me, honey.” Amelia patted her hand. “I wish it were.”

“It says here that the only person who can call a meeting of the board is the director. Though there are four other board members whose votes hold equal weight, none of them can put anything to a vote. Only the director has that power.”

Amelia rested her chin in one hand and drummed her fingers on the table. “It has to be someone she knew. Anna wouldn’t appoint just anyone.”

“Or maybe she would,” Natalie said slowly. “If my father wanted to find the director, he would look for someone she knew, just like us. So maybe she chose someone she didn’t know well.”

Amelia pursed her lips. “I don’t see her doing that. But then again, I hadn’t seen her for years before she died.” She pounded her fist on the table. “Fucking Gerald Kent. I could kill that man.”

“Get in line,” Knox muttered.

Amelia shook her head, her lips drawn in a thin line. “Sorry, dear, I know he’s your father . . .”

“Don’t apologize,” Natalie said firmly. “He hasn’t been a father to me in a long time. If ever.”

The silence stretched on as the three of them looked at one another. One of the dogs whined, breaking the quiet.

“They want their morning walk.” Amelia drained her coffee mug, then rose.

“This is so frustrating,” Natalie said after she had left. “None of this information will do us any good if we can’t find the director.”

“Maybe you were on to something before,” Knox said. “Maybe both you and Amelia are right and she chose someone she knew, but not someone so close to her that your father would know them.”

“If my father doesn’t know them, then chances are neither do I.”

Knox reached over and ran his fingers down her cheek. “You’ll figure it out.”

Her heart palpitated at the feel of his fingers on her skin. “You’re so sweet,” she whispered.

He dropped his hand instantly and pushed his chair back with a screech, then stood and crossed to the sink. “I’m really not.”

He put his hands on the counter and leaned forward, staring out the window. Natalie walked over and wrapped her arms around him, resting her cheek on his back.

“You’re a good person,” she said simply.

“I’ve spent my life fighting in an underground ring for X. I’m not—”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person. If our pasts define us, then what does that make me? A meek society girl under her father’s thumb.”

He turned so he could wrap his arms around her. “That’s not you.”

She cupped his face in her hands, looking into his eyes. “And your past doesn’t define you, either.” She touched his lips to hers, willing him to stop being so hard on himself. He was so much more than he let himself believe.

Amelia had said to make themselves at home, but Knox still felt like some sort of trespasser as he and Natalie explored the house.

What did one person need with seven bedrooms? Granted, Amelia hadn’t always lived here by herself, but still. Even for a family, it was excessive. As a foster kid, he’d often shared a bedroom with two or three other boys. A whole football team’s worth of foster kids could fit in this house.

Though most of the rooms didn’t seem to be in use, each one was lavishly decorated. From what he’d gotten to know about Amelia, he doubted that was her doing. It was most likely left over from when her parents ran the house.

Natalie opened the door to what appeared to be another sitting room and flipped on the lights. She stood in the doorway with her hand on her chest, like she was trying to keep her heart from leaping out of it. “This room seems so familiar.”

“Your mother probably brought you here,” Knox said.

She stepped through the doorway and slowly turned in a circle to take it all in. “My house is architecturally similar to this one, so I thought that’s why some of the other rooms seemed familiar, but this room . . . I feel like I’ve been here before. I
know
I have.”

Knox watched as she knelt next to an old wooden chest and opened the lid. She pulled out several Barbie dolls all in various stages of undress.

“Susannah,” she whispered. “This one’s name is Susannah. And the redhead is Lucy.” She reached into the chest again and brought out a plastic game with four hippos. Hungry Hippos? Something like that. One of his foster homes had had one, but the marbles were all missing, rendering it useless. In her hand, though, she held a fabric pouch that looked like it held the marbles for the game.

She looked up at Knox. “I used to play this. Right here, with both of them. And my father took that away. From all of us.”

Knox knelt next to her, his fists clenched. He wanted to hand her father to her on a platter. He’d love to gut the man himself, but he knew firsthand that to truly be free of him, Natalie would have to deal with him herself.

The ghost of his own father followed him everywhere.

“Tell me more about your mother,” Knox said.

“I used to love the Disney princesses. So did she. One year for Halloween, we both dressed up. I was Ariel, and she was Cinderella.” Natalie laughed, tears glistening in her eyes. “I think she got more candy than me. She was so beautiful. She was a romantic at heart, always reading romance novels. She used to read to me before bed every night. Fairy tales. Life was a fairy tale for her. Until it wasn’t. Looking back, I see now that my mom changed. She used to be so lighthearted and carefree, but the older I got, the more serious and withdrawn she became. Not with me. Never with me, but I could see it with other people. I think my father must have cut her off from everyone just like he did to me.” Her fingers tightened around the legs of one of the Barbie dolls. “God, he’s such a bastard.”

“He can’t hurt you anymore,” Knox said.

Natalie blinked, trying to clear the tears out of her eyes, but one fell anyway. “He’s already done so much. Now that I’m away from him, I see things so clearly. He killed her. I know it in my gut. And unless I can figure out this thing with my trust, he’s going to walk away with everything.”

When Natalie walked into the kitchen with a stack of children’s books in her arms, Amelia stood at the stove stirring something in a huge pot.

Natalie did a double take. “I thought you didn’t cook.”

“I don’t,” Amelia said briskly. “This is for the pooches. Chicken and rice.”

Natalie and Knox exchanged a glance, and Natalie put a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. This was exactly why her mother must have loved Amelia. Natalie only wished she could have had the other woman in her life longer. It may have made all the difference.

She cursed her father silently, losing count of how many times she’d done that in the past few days.

Amelia wiped her hands on her apron. “There. That just needs to cook a bit.”

“Amelia, I was wondering if I could have these,” Natalie said, holding out the books she’d found mixed in with the toys. “Not now, obviously, but if you could set them aside for me.”

Amelia took a look at them. “Ah, yes. The fairy tale books. Your mother read those to you every time you two visited. They were mine when I was a girl.”

“Then I can’t take them. I’m sorry for asking.”

“Don’t be silly. What am I going to do with them?” Amelia came closer so she could look at the titles. “Ooh.
Cinderella.
That was your mother’s favorite.”

“We had a copy at home, too, but I don’t know what happened to it. She read it to me at least once a week. The fairy godmother part was her favorite. She always used to tell me my fairy godmother would help me when I was in trouble.” Natalie chuckled. “What I wouldn’t give for . . .”

A fairy godmother.
She didn’t have one of those, but she did have a regular godmother. Her name was Eleanor Simmons, and she’d been a friend of her grandparents. Her mother had not been close with her at all, and they only saw her on the rare occasions when their visits coincided at her grandparents’ house.

“Do you know Eleanor Simmons?” she asked Amelia.

“That woman is more of a hermit than I am. It’s been at least a decade since I saw her. Why in God’s name are—ah.” Amelia nodded knowingly. “Smart girl.”

“What?” Knox asked.

“I think she could be the board director,” Natalie explained. “She was a friend of my grandparents and my godmother. My mom wasn’t overly religious, but she had me baptized at their church. I’ve seen the pictures.”

“How do we find out for sure?”

“I don’t know. Ask her, I guess. But it makes sense for it to be her.” Natalie started ticking off the reasons on her fingers. “She was my grandmother’s closest friend, but my mom wasn’t close to her. So she wouldn’t come to my father’s attention. It’s like you said, Knox.”

“Do you know how to get in touch with her?” Knox asked. A vibration sounded and he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Natalie snorted and opened the laptop that was still sitting on the kitchen table. “Everything is on the Internet these days.”

Twenty minutes later, she pushed it away. “Okay, maybe not. The only mentions of her I could find online are random society page snippets and an obituary for her husband. No phone number, but I did find a street address.”

Knox checked his phone again. “Tony came through. I need to go.”

Natalie closed the lid on the laptop and stood. “I’m going with you.”

“It’s safer for you to stay here.”

She put a hand on his arm. “We’re in this together, remember? And besides, while we’re out, we can swing by Eleanor’s house.”