The Perfect Spiral (by Ashley Constantine) novel Chapter 39

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After a while, I felt an arm brush against mine. She must be back. I wondered how her mission to make Kyle jealous had gone. The arm inched closer until a hand slipped into mine. My eyes snapped open in

surprise.

Knox.

I pulled out my earphones but didn’t pull away from his touch. “What are you doing?” I asked, bewildered by his sudden intimacy.

“I’m holding your hand,” he replied nonchalantly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Why?”

“Because I want to.”

“Why?”

“Because I missed you.”

“You’re so weird.” I withdrew my hand, only for him to place his on my butt, causing me to gasp softly.

I didn’t want to draw attention to us.

“Knox! What are you doing? Get your hand off me! Go bother some other girl–there are plenty around,” I hissed at him. He turned his head to face me, grinning widely.

“It’s either I hold your hand or I grab your ass. The choice is yours!”

“You’re doing neither. Now get your hand off me, Knox!”

“No can do, baby doll. Pick one or it’s staying like this. You can get sunburned with my hand on your ass or you can let me hold your hand.”

“Ugh, Knox, you’re so annoying! Go bother someone else.”

“Alright, hand on butt it is. I’m not complaining.”

“Ugh, fine! Give me your stupid hand.” We intertwined our fingers once again. I glanced back at him. He was lying on his back, looking at me with a triumphant smile. It was starting to get on my nerves. 1 tried to ignore the warmth of his skin and the tingling sensation his touch sent through me.

“Stop smirking, you’re so annoying.” He ignored me and continued to smirk. Turning his head to face the sky, he asked, “So are you going to tell me why you cried and never called me back?”

I groaned loudly and ignored him. I wasn’t about to discuss this with anyone.

He squeezed my hand and continued, “Hey, you can tell me. I won’t say anything-”

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“It was nothing, Knox. I was on my period and stressed from college, that’s all.”

“Lie. Andy told me you finished yours three days before the Super Bowl. Don’t lie, baby doll. You know I don’t like liars. Tell me.”

“Whatever, there’s nothing to tell. The fact that you asked her is a little worrying.”

“Alright, if you won’t tell me, I’m going to guess and judge how right or wrong I am based on your reaction. I know you too well, baby doll. I will find out.”

“Knox, I’m not asking you, I’m telling you–leave it alone.”

“Was it because you weren’t there and Andy was?”

I stayed silent, not moving a muscle. Shit, he’s going to figure it out.

“Was it because I called you?”

Staying still was proving to be more difficult than I thought.

“Was it because I was talking to the cheerleaders?”

What? He was talkin― I felt myself tense slightly. I hadn’t even noticed until my eyes widened. Crap, I hope he didn’t notice.

“Ahhhh, so I’m close! Was it because I went out that night?”

Why was I sitting here, letting him interrogate me?

“Getting warmer… hmm, let’s see… Was it because you saw me with Lauren?”

I tensed up again, and he must have felt it because he whipped his head back to look at me in disbelief.

“That’s it, isn’t it? You saw me with Lauren! You’re jealous!” His grin widened with each word. He was hitting the nail on the head, but I wasn’t about to let him know that.

I wasn’t jealous, per se. It just didn’t feel good watching that scene unfold.

“No, why would I be jealous?”

“You’re jealous, baby doll! I’m guessing you saw her kiss me? I remember you mentioning something about me being with a girl and then you mentioned Lauren when I called you.”

“I didn’t see anything. Don’t flatter yourself, Carter. I’m not jealous, nor will I ever be. I don’t do jealousy. I couldn’t care less if you two kissed-”

“Correction, she kissed me, for the cameras. I stopped it immediately. But let me guess, you turned the

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TV off?”

“Damn right I turned the TV off. I’m not about to watch you play tonsil tennis with Miss USA.”

“So you did see her kiss me. I knew it.”

“Yes, fine, I saw you kiss. But that’s not the reason

“It is. I know when you’re lying, baby doll. You can’t lie to me. Just admit you were jealous. You wanted my lips on yours.” His statement caught me off guard, and I sat up slightly, hovering above him but not close enough to touch.

“Goodbye, Knox.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you admit it.”

“Well, I guess you’ll be sitting here for the rest of your life then.” I tried to pull my hand out of his, but he tightened his grip and leaned in until his lips were lightly brushing against my ear.

“Admit that you were jealous, baby doll. I wouldn’t blame you.” He kissed my ear and smacked my ass. “Damn, I love your butt.” He lay back down and waited for me to say it.

I was stubborn, and he knew that I wasn’t going to admit it. Not by a long shot. Then it clicked, remembering what Andy said during our girl talk.

He must’ve been jealous of Caleb then. I smirked to myself and leaned into his ear, causing him to tense slightly.

“If you touch me like that again, I’ll have to bring you to the hospital to get my foot removed from your ass… I’ll admit it when you admit you were jealous of Caleb on New Year’s.”

I sealed the statement with a kiss on the lower part of his ear, making him groan. Andy taught me well. I can tease when I want to tease. My powers are being put to good use to find out if he was jealous of

Caleb.

“I wasn’t jealous of that dimwit. Why would I be?” I just smiled down at him and settled myself back onto the sand–covered towel. We continued to stare at each other, riling each other up to see who would

cave first.

I took off his glasses when he took mine off. The intensity of his stare was making me hot. I could feel the heat rise up between my legs and I subtly closed them over to stop it from being noticeable.

My other hand played with the sand above my head. I felt him lean closer to me, our lips were millimeters apart. Feeling his hot breath on my lips sent tingles everywhere around my body.

“I don’t get jealous, baby doll.”

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I smirked up at him, causing my lips to brush his. I saw his jaw clench. “Good, I wouldn’t want you to be upset if I went out with that guy over there.” He closed his eyes and let out a grunt.

“Stop trying to piss me off, baby doll. It’ll backfire. He’s not good enough for you.”

“Is someone jealous?” I teased and backed away from him, although all I wanted to do was to press my lips to his and pull him on top of me. But I couldn’t, for so many reasons.

But you don’t like him, Alex.

“Like I said, I don’t get jealous.” He turned to face the sky once more with a squeeze of my hand. I could see his jaw was tense. Then I saw him look over at Matt, the guy who gave me his number.

He stared hard at him. Not jealous my ass. He doesn’t like you, Alex, this is him being protective again. The more logical side of my brain was being a little more active today.

I closed my eyes back over and felt him stir after a while of just lying there. His face was away from me every time I opened my eyes to look at him.

I felt his breath once more and I was about to open my eyes when I felt his lips on mine. It was light and a peck, but I froze. He just kissed me, on the beach, in public, where people could see us. I pulled away

from him.

“Are you crazy? What if the media were here?” I hissed quietly at him.

He had a wicked smile on his face like he was plotting something. “I don’t care. Let them see.”

“Knox, you’ve lost your damn mind! I’m going back into the water.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not!”

“Yes, I am.”

“Knox-”

“I can do what I want, baby doll!”

I walked away from him, rubbing the sand off my legs in the process, and got to the water, standing in it up to my knees.

“Are you Knox Carter?” A pretty brunette came over to him, stroking his shoulder. I smirked over at him and continued to play with my feet in the water.

I spotted Adam and picked him up. He still had my hat on him, although it was soaking wet. He nodded

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at the brunette and she thrust a pen

“Can you sign my swimsuit? I got the one with your name on the back.”

“Sure.” He took the pen and looked at her, unsure as to where exactly he was expected to sign her bikini. This made me laugh, and I turned to face Adam who was playing with my hat. “Uh, where

exactly

“My butt, across your name if you don’t mind.” She bit onto the end of her finger in a seductive manner. She twirled herself around and plumped her butt up while he squatted down to get his face as close as possible.

“I like seeing you from this angle,” she seduced.

Adam did not need to see this. I did not need to see this.

“Okay, kids, let’s go play over here.” I brought them over to another section of the water, away from the slutty admirer. I played with Adam who was sitting on my hip and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

I started to walk further into the water, letting it go up to my waist. Playing with him in my arms and squeezing him tighter to my body.

“Alex?” Adam asked.

“Yes, baby?”

“Could you be my first kiss?” His question sent me into a fit of laughter. I looked back into his adorable doe eyes.

“You’re quite the charmer, aren’t you? You want me to be your first kiss?” As he bobbed his head up and down, I leaned in and placed a peck on his small lips. He grabbed each side of my face.

“There you go, sweetie. I’m officially your first kiss!”

“Yay! I had my first kiss! I had my first kiss!” He chanted, his voice filled with joy.

“I leave you alone for two minutes and you’re already kissing my nephew?” Knox teased, while Adam giggled, waving my hat around in the air.

“I got my first kiss from Alex! I like kissing you! Can I kiss you again?” Adam asked, his eyes sparkling

with excitement.

“Woah, hold your horses, little man. I think you’ve had too much sun today. Your mom is calling you over, buddy.”

I gently put Adam down in the water. He swam over to the shallow end with his floaters attached to his arms and ran out to his mom, who scooped him up in a towel, releasing a squeal of laughter.

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I couldn’t help but smile at him. I wanted my kid to be just like him.

“He’s so in love with you,” Knox observed.

“I’m so in love with him. He’s such a great kid. If only he was older,” I replied, my eyes still on Adam.

“Take it from me, that means you’re so in love with me. You know, some people say he’s the younger

version of me.”

“Not even close! Who said that? You telling yourself in the mirror doesn’t count. Did you know he uses you to get to me?”

“What? Who told you that?”

“Mila. She says that he uses you so he can come to see me because you’re always around.”

“My hero! I don’t blame him. If you treated me like that, I would want to see you all the time too. Maybe you should work on that.”