Worth It (Forbidden Men 6)

I glanced back, already wincing because I knew what I’d find. I’d felt the forceful suction of sloppy mud claiming my slipper as soon as I’d lifted my foot. And yep, it was mostly submerged in a marshy puddle.

“Aww, fuck.” When Knox looked back at me, he winced. “I am so sorry, Felicity. I shouldn’t have taken you this way.”

“It’s okay,” I instantly assured him. “I’ll just—” But oh crap, I had no idea what I’d just do. No way was I going to walk around the woods with only one shoe.

“I got it.” Knox bent past me and reached for my slipper.

“Oh, you don’t have to—”

But he’d already plucked it from the mud. I gulped as I took in how absolutely covered in sludgy, smelly grime it was. Eww. I did not want to put my foot anywhere near that thing.

Knox read the disgust off my face and sent me a helpless shrug. “Want me to loan you my shoe?”

The little cut in my breathing was my heart too busy expanding about five sizes larger because I think I fell flat in love with Knox Parker in that very second. I couldn’t believe he was offering to go without a shoe so I’d have one, even though his feet had to be twice as large as mine and I’d probably lose his sneaker faster than I’d lost my ballet flat.

“Of course not.” I sent him an incredulous glance. “I am not making you go barefoot, you crazy loon. Just...” I reached for my ballet mud flat. “Hand me my—”

“No, don’t,” he warned softly, holding my shoe out away from me. “My hand’s already dirty. Let me.” When he knelt in front of me and murmured, “Put your hand on my shoulder,” I have no idea how I remained upright and didn’t melt into a puddle in front of him, or at the very least, shout out my undying love.

Gulping hard, I set my hand gingerly on his solid shoulder. Wet mud encased my foot as he slid the slipper on, but all I felt was the amazingly supportive shoulder and the brush of his hair against my bare knee as he bent over my foot. When he looked up from where he was still kneeling in front of me, I lost myself in his brown eyes.

“Thank you,” I think I said.

He grinned and straightened as he wiped his dirty fingers on the leg of his pants. “No problem.” Then he hitched his chin toward a different direction. “But maybe we should go this way now.”

“Okay,” I murmured, still caught in my I-think-I-love-this-boy daze. We could go any direction he liked.

He clasped my hand again and off we went. The squishy sound of mud gushing between my toes with every step notwithstanding, this was turning out to be the best afternoon walk of my life.

A minute later, Knox finally broke the silence between us by chuckling and shaking his head. “Seriously, what in the world were you thinking to wear such flimsy shoes into the woods?”

I flushed hard and hot. I’d been thinking I’d wanted to impress him with my girlishness. But I’d only shown him how senseless and impractical I was.

“I can’t believe you were raised right next to these woods. You act like such a city girl.”

That felt like an insult, so I scowled. “I do not.”

His chuckle only grew louder as he paused and took the time to help me step over a log I definitely could’ve stepped over myself.

With another irritable frown, I yanked my hand from his and leapt the log all on my own. “This is the first summer I’ve ever really come out here. Excuse me for not knowing there was a freaking swamp around.”

When I took another step on my own, my muddy shoe stuck to something I’d stepped in and it once again came off without me. Without the support of his hand in mine, I began to tumble to the ground, but he caught my elbow.

As he helped me upright and then back into my shoe again, he winked. “Well, I practically live in these trees, so I should’ve paid attention to what you were wearing on your feet and not taken you this way. I totally owe you new shoes.”

Mollified, I sighed. “No, you don’t. I’m the idiot who wore them, so—” I gasped out a short scream when I almost ran into a spiderweb...with a huge furry spider hanging in it. With it inches from my face and staring me in the eyeball, I lurched against Knox, clutching his hand hard. “Oh my God! Spider!”

He laughed and steered me safely around the web. “You really are a city girl...Felicity Girl.”

“That’s a stupid name,” I muttered, even though I kind of liked him coming up with a special name for me.

“Spider!” he warned suddenly and ran his fingers up my ribcage, making me leap away, screaming.

He laughed, so I slapped him on the shoulder.

“That was so not funny.” I slugged him again, but he only laughed harder. “Jerk.” I started to stomp around him, only for my slippers to get caught up again, making me stumble.

Grr. Why did this only happen when he wasn’t holding my hand?