Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 111986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Knox gestured to the glass wall behind her. “Waiting for us.” Giving them some private time while also guarding them.
As a yawn crept up on Harper, she did her best to suppress it. She failed.
“You went back to work too early,” he admonished. “You should have taken the day off to fully recover.”
She gave a soft snort. “Says the guy who’s probably never taken a day off in his life.”
“There have been a few.”
“I don’t mean days where you worked from home. I mean days of no work whatsoever – no calls or texts or emails to business associates. Can you honestly say you’ve ever had one of those days?”
No, he couldn’t. “Point taken. But you still should have taken the day off instead of pushing yourself.”
“Those bastards aren’t disrupting my life.”
He sighed. “So stubborn.”
“Proudly.”
Tapping his fingers on the table, he said, “I want to ask you something. It’s probably not fair of me to ask this of you – it’s not a customary thing among demons and is more of a human convention, but I’d like you to do it.”
Dubious, she frowned. “You’re not going to ask me to get married in a church, are you?”
Mouth curving, he took her hand. “No. These rings say we’re bound.” He smoothed his thumb over the black diamond, adding, “I’d like you to take my surname.”
Her brows almost hit her hairline. “Well, that wasn’t something I’d have ever expected you to say. Maybe I should have. Your possessiveness knows no boundaries.”
“I won’t deny that.”
“At least you’re admitting it. Changing my surname doesn’t seem necessary. I mean, it’s not like people are under any doubt that we’re together.”
“It’s important to me.”
“No, it’s important to your possessive streak.”
It was more than that. “I want my mate to share my surname.”
“Keeping my surname doesn’t mean I’m not fully invested in this relationship or that I don’t believe it will last,” she assured him.
“I know that. And I fully admit that I want you branded in as many ways as it’s possible to brand someone.” Knox didn’t even care that that was unhealthy. He’d made his peace with it long ago. “But this isn’t about taking possession of you.”
“Then what is it about?”
“I understand that your family name means something to you – the Wallis imps supported and loved you while your maternal family rejected you.” For that reason, they’d always have his respect and backing. Well, all except for her father anyway. “I don’t have a family to welcome you into. We’ll be making our own family, and I want us to do that with one name.”
Her chest tightened. “Did you really have to put it that way? I don’t know how to argue that.” It was too sweet.
“So don’t.” He leaned forward. “At least think about it.”
“I’ll consider it.”
“Thank you.”
The waiter then reappeared, and Harper took the bumpy waffle cone with a wide smile. “Thank you.” She licked at the piece of art and groaned; the salted caramel ice cream was smooth and cold on her tongue. “You’re totally missing out,” she told Knox.
Eyes on her mouth, he said, “Oh, I assure you, I’m not.” He barely took his eyes off her mouth the entire time she ate. By the end, he was so damn hard he knew it would hurt to walk.
When she was done, she cleaned her sticky fingers with a lemon wipe. “Ready to go?”
He was ready to get her home where he could take her as he’d wanted to since the previous night. He let her see that in his expression, and he had the pleasure of seeing her pupils dilate and her cheeks flush. “I’m ready to go. Are you ready for me?”
“If it involves me coming multiple times, I’m totally ready.”
His cock twitched. “You’ll come as many times as I want you to.”
“I don’t know… maybe I’m still a little too fragile for you.”
He snorted, rising to his feet. “Fragile is never a word I would use to describe you.” He kept possession of her hand as he guided her out of the parlor. Levi and Tanner fell into step with them as they walked down the long hallway, toward the exit.
Up ahead of them, the door to the hotel’s restaurant opened and a bunch of people filed out. Harper recognized three of them: Thatcher, Jonas, and good ole Alethea. The males were both Primes, and Alethea was Jonas’ sister. She also happened to be a pain in Harper’s ass and liked to flirt with Knox – as if shaking the sheets with him in the distant past gave Alethea some rights to him.
For a while, a whole lot of females had flirted with Knox, but the majority had recently stopped. They’d seen the black diamond he gave Harper and had accepted that it meant there was nothing at all temporary about her place in his life. She suspected they’d ceased to be bitches to her as they’d rather not make an enemy of Knox. Smart move on their part.