When she had opened her mouth to ask for the raise, Diamond had cut her off, giving her a nice raise and benefits, too. The surprised woman hadn’t known what to say, so Diamond had given her a hug and told her to go to lunch.
She heard her front office door open and then saw Knox walking into her office, coming to a stop when he saw her behind her desk. She could tell from his face that he was going to try to walk away again. He didn’t say anything, just stood there and stared at her. Diamonds eyes watered as she stood up from her desk, going to him. Sliding her hands tightly around his waist, she placed tiny kisses along his taut jaw.
“Please don’t, please don’t, please, baby, please...” Diamond pleaded.
“Dammit to hell!”
Diamond found herself backed across the room until her desk was at her back. Pressing her backwards onto her desk, her briefcase and cell phone fell to the floor as Knox swept them out of the way with his hand before going to her knee, bringing it up to his hip.
His fingers slid underneath her panties, finding her warm and ready for him. Tugging her skirt to her hips, he yanked at the material of her panties, tearing them apart. Diamond watched as he unzipped his jeans, bracing herself on the desk as he pulled out his cock.
“Knox?”
“What?” His disgruntled voice brought a tender smile to her lips.
“Could you close the blinds?”
* * *
Knox’s boots crunched on the late spring frost as he got off his bike, parking it near the old fireplace on Cash’s homestead property. He started the walk up the mountain path that had been made through generations of Cash’s relatives. The steep path was kept clear by either him or Cash.
At the top of the mountain, he paused a second, looking down at the huge trees, seeing Treepoint in the distant valley below. Taking a deep breath, he released it, seeing the vapor in the cold morning air. He was glad he had made Diamond put on her coat as she left the clubhouse to go to church with Beth, Winter and Evie. The sunny day was deceptively cold and she would have frozen her ass off before she would have been able to get inside the SUV.
Knox turned, walking forward into Cash’s family cemetery. The older tombstones mixed with the newer ones and told the amount of time the cemetery had been in existence. He stopped in front of a pink marble headstone, staring down.
Cash had offered a final resting place for his young wife. Like him, she had no family, so he had accepted Cash’s offer.
“Sunshine.” His aching voice filled the silence of the cemetery.
He dropped to his knees beside her grave, not feeling the coldness of the frozen grass through his clothes. Knox’s voice broke as he talked to her.
“I promised I’d love you forever, that no one would ever take your place. And, Sunshine, I tried not to love her. I tried to stay away and break it off, but I couldn’t. When I realized that I loved her, I tried not to let her have my soul. To keep a part for you; to keep a part of me with you. Always, Sunshine, that’s what I promised you on our wedding day and the day I buried you here on this mountain.
“But I have to give someone else those promises now. I love her, Sunshine. She’s become a part of my life, and when I look into her eyes, I see the same promises I gave you. Promises I need to give her now. I’m not leaving you behind me; you’ll always be with me, a part of mine and Diamond’s life.”
Knox felt a warm touch on his shoulder; the warmth flowed through his body as he turned to see who was behind him.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to startle you.” Rachel Porter stared down at him, her hand still on his shoulder. Her gaze went to the tombstone before coming back to his. “My parents are buried over there. I like to bring Mom flowers every Sunday after Church, catch her up on what’s going on in our lives. She wouldn’t be very happy with my brothers carrying on the family business. She never cared about how much money it provided, she always said ‘God may not give you what you want, but he will provide for your needs’.” Rachel removed her hand, stepping back. Without another word she walked to the end of the cemetery to stand in front of two graves, laying the flowers down on one.
Knox sat there with the sunshine on him, feeling the guilt he had felt for the last months melt away like the frost on the grass, removing the final barrier from giving Diamond his love.
Chapter Twenty-three
Diamond came out of church with Evie, Beth and Winter and each of them took their turns complimenting Pastor Dean on his service as they left.
“You’re becoming a regular at my services and I haven’t heard any Adele lately. I take it you’re doing well?”
Diamond blushed with the other women listening. “Yes.”
Pastor Dean laughed at her reaction, however Diamond managed to evade further questions when another parishioner came up behind her.
They walked to Beth’s SUV in the church parking lot, each of them climbing inside except Diamond.
“I’m going to go to my office to do some paperwork I need to get done before court tomorrow. I’ll call Knox when I need a ride home.”
“You sure?” Beth asked.
“Yes, I’d rather get it done in an hour instead of having to do it tonight.”
“Want us to give you a lift?”
“I think I can manage the walk,” Diamond said, smiling.
“See you later then,” Beth said, closing the door as the other two women waved.
Diamond walked across the parking lot, crossing the empty street to go inside the quiet office building. As she went to unlock the building, she found it already unlocked. She wasn’t terribly surprised because there was usually someone always was in the building that had four offices; two on the bottom and two on the top. Her office faced the street and the insurance office that shared the top floor with her had the part that faced the back. Someone had probably had an accident, which was why someone was ordinarily in the insurance office.
Diamond went up the steps to her office only to find the insurance office’s lights were off. Frowning, she went to her office door starting to unlock it, when the door suddenly opened and she stood facing her secretary.
“Holly, what are you doing—” A sudden push against her back cut her off and had her falling forward into her office. Holly tried to catch her, but a hand pushed her back out of the way. Diamond heard her office door slammed shut as she landed on her hands and knees.
“Stop it, Mitch!” Holly screamed as Diamond was lifted off her feet and dragged from the front to her private office.
“Shut up, Holly.” The man Holly called Mitch flung her forward. Diamond fell against her desk which looked like it had been ransacked.
“I don’t understand,” Diamond said, looking at Holly who was staring at her with frightened eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Diamond. I didn’t mean for this to get so out of control.”
“Get what you need, Holly, so we can get out of here.”
Holly ignored Mitch. “I’ve tried talking to you several times, but either you were too busy or I got scared and chickened out. I didn’t know what to do,” Holly began.
“Holly?” A small child’s voice from the couch drew Diamond’s attention.
“It’s okay, Logan. Just sit there, we’re going to leave in a few minutes,” Holly said.
Diamond looked at the little boy and recognition dawned. “Oh, God, is that…?”
Holly nodded, her eyes pleading for understanding. “Vincent Bedford hired me to be Logan’s nanny. He rented a house for us in Jamestown, but when he was arrested, Samantha moved us here to Treepoint to be closer to her. She ran out of money when her father went to jail, so I quit taking a salary from her and got a job
