Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“You owe me for this,” I tell Knight, showing him who’s calling before finally hitting accept and lifting the phone to my ear. “Hey.”
“Hey? That’s all I get?” my brother, Jonah, demands. “What about a sorry for not answering any of the thousand texts that I’ve sent over the past six hours? I mean, fuck, Harper! What the hell happened? Knight said you got stabbed in a fucking parking garage.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up.”
“I . . . uh . . . The fuck? That’s all you’ve got to say about it?”
“Well, I mean, no. But it’s not as though you’re really giving me a chance to talk. You’re too busy being offended by my lack of texting. Though, to be fair, I only just got a phone. My old phone got a little drenched in blood.”
Jonah huffs as Knight makes his way around the room and drops into the empty armchair. “Fine. Whatever. Just tell me what happened.”
“It’s just as you said,” I tell him. “Some random guy jumped out at me after my shift and got me straight in the guts.”
“Fuck’s sake,” he mutters. “Do you have to put it like that?”
“I don’t know how else to put it. That’s what happened.”
He lets out a sigh, and I can just picture the scowl stretched across his face right now. “Just . . . Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“And have you told Mom?”
“Fuck no. Why would I go and do something stupid like that?”
“You’re so fucking impossible,” he says. “Do you want me to let her know? I thought things were getting better between you guys.”
My face scrunches, and I consider it for a moment. Things were kind of getting better after I was jumped and put in the hospital. She would sit by my bedside and attempt to keep her snide comments to a minimum, but as soon as I was back home and no longer a tool to use for sympathy from her hoity-toity country club friends, all bets were off.
“Ummmm . . . nah. I don’t need her hanging around and pretending to play the hero. I already have one of those.”
My gaze flicks to Knight across the room to find his dark stare already locked on mine, and the moment our gazes collide, a wave of goose bumps spreads over my skin.
A dorky smile pulls at my lips, but when Jonah’s next words fly from his mouth, my fluttering heart drops to my feet. “Wait. A hero? Who?”
Fuck. I’ve said too much.
My eyes widen in horror, and I stammer out an awkward response. “I, ummm . . . Izzy,” I say. “She’s here with me. Totally rescued me from the hospital food. She’s my hero.”
Jonah scoffs, not buying my bullshit for even a second. “You know, it’s peculiar,” he says, a deep suspicion in his tone. “Knight was the one who told me you’d been attacked. But he’s the head of the SWAT team. They take active shooter and hostage situations. He wouldn’t have been responding to your case, so how the fuck did he know about it?”
Panic surges through my chest, my eyes wide as I frantically search for something to say. “I, ummm . . . ahhhh. Oh shit, the doctor’s here. I gotta go.”
“Holy fuck. Harper! What the hell is wrong with you? Mom is going to murder you when she finds out that you’re screwing Knight. He’s your fucking step-uncle!”
“Byyyyyyye.”
“Don’t you fucking dare ha—”
I end the call and toss the phone as far across the bed as I can possibly manage and simply stare at it as though it’s about to grow little phone arms and legs and attack me in my sleep.
“The fuck is wrong with you?” Izzy mutters as Knight watches me through a narrowed gaze.
I glance up at him, a cringe stretching across my lips. “So, uhhh . . . Jonah knows about you and me.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah,” I say with a pained sigh. “That’s exactly what I thought.”
5
KNIGHT
Making my way up the hallway, I stop by Harper on the couch and lean down to press a kiss to the top of her head and watch the way she melts into my touch.
It’s been two weeks since she was attacked in the parking garage, and a little over a week since I’ve had her home, and fuck me, she’s a goddamn menace when she’s bored.
Harper lifts her chin, silently asking for more, and I don’t hesitate to drop my lips to hers and kiss her deeply. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how fucking incredible it is to have her living under my roof, to be the man she comes home to every day, to be the person she gives herself to night after night.
Harper reaches up and locks her arms around my neck, softly moaning into my mouth as she kisses me back. And fuck, everything inside me crumbles. There’s nothing sweeter than the feel of her lips on mine, but those goddamn little moans? Holy fuck. They ruin me.