Page 90 of Ruthless Edge

"Let me know when you're ready for more," he says, into my shoulder, "and I'll give it to you."

I laugh. It comes out of me without warning, and I feel his chest shake against my back.

"I can’t believe," Knox says, in a tone of profound wonder, "that I actually got to do that. With Emma Lawson." A pause. "I'm the luckiest person on this planet."

I open my mouth to say that I'm the lucky one, and then I reconsider, because that was the old Emma.

"You are very lucky," I tell him. "You should remember that."

"I'm going to have it tattooed somewhere," he says. "I'm serious. I'm going to be the best boyfriend you've ever had. I'm going to make up for every piece of this I did wrong, everything you felt because of Laura, everything you had to carry for three years. I'm going to make sure none of that matters anymore." His arms tighten slightly around me. "It's just you now. Just us. That's it."

I turn over and look at him. His hair is a disaster and his expression is soft in a way I have never once seen on Knox Carter in a public setting. He's looking at me like I'm something he can't quite believe is real.

I kiss him.

When I pull back he's looking at me with that same expression, amplified, slightly stunned, like the kiss landed somewhere he wasn't prepared.

"Is it too soon to say I love you?" he says.

I laugh so hard I have to press my face against his chest.

"Yes," I say, when I can talk. "It is too soon."

"Okay." A beat. "For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure I⁠—"

"Knox."

"I know, I know." He's quiet for a second. Then adds, "Are you pretty sure too? Just ballpark."

I consider this. The elevator and the door and everything before that. His voice saying, good, and the way he carried me, the way he's holding me now, and the boy who went to tutoring with me every week, in a class he was acing, and brought coffee without being asked.

"Pretty sure," I say.

His exhale is enormous. "Thank God," he says. "I have been so stressed."

I find this so funny that I can't stop laughing, and Knox is laughing too. Eventually we settle as he pulls me back against his chest. I listen to his heartbeat and think about who I would’ve told, three years ago, that I thought I would end up with Knox Carter.

Nobody. I would have told nobody, because nobody would have believed me.

I'm beginning to think it might be the best thing I never saw coming.