Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
A few minutes later we’re settled on the floor in front of her coffee table eating. “Holy hell, this is good.”
“It’s my favorite,” she says. “I have a lot of favorite places around the area. North is one of the few places that has been here since you were here. This place is new.”
We sit and chat about the neighborhood and all the places we both know and love, until we’re both done with our food. As we sit back and turn toward each other, the air is thick, the pull between us palpable. She reaches out and catches my arm, tracing the rows of numbers randomly placed between a clock and a skull with an anchor.
“What do the numbers mean?”
“Numbers are how I process everything. If I’m thinking about anything, anything at all, there are numbers in my head.”
“Even me?”
“Yes. Even you. It’s a part of my life in all ways. It’s how I make money. It’s how I negotiate. It’s how I brush my damn teeth. It’s how I saw mission paths in the SEALs that no one else saw.”
“SEAL Team Six,” she says, running her finger over the skull and anchor before looking up at me again. “That’s intense. You saw blood and death. I’m sure you had to take lives.”
I cover her hand where it rests on my tattoo, and I don’t even think about denying who I am. I’ve been done with that kind of self-doubt a good decade ago. “Is that a problem for you?”
“Of course not. You’re a hero. I just hate that your family drove you to that life. You could have died. You have to have nightmares and just stuff—baggage.”
“Less than you might think,” I say. “I compartmentalize extremely well.”
“I don’t,” she says. “I’m pretty all-in emotionally when I’m in. You should know that about me.”
All in.
I want her all in.
I lean in closer, my hand on her cheek. “I want you all in.”
Her hand covers mine on her face. “Until you leave again.”
“Let me clarify what I just said. Yes, I compartmentalize easily, and yes that means I shut people and things off easily. But not you. Never you.”
“I didn’t see you for six years, Eric.”
“I told you. I thought of you often.”
“As one of them.”
“As the woman who wouldn’t just fucking get out my head.”
She pulls back sharply, bristling a bit, as she says, “Well, you wouldn’t fucking get out of my head either.”
“But you didn’t come to me, did you?”
“You left in a way that made it clear you were done with me.”
I lean back and hold out my right forearm, running a finger along a line of numbers with a crown at the end of it. “Do you know what that is?”
She sucks in a breath at the crown and covers it with her hand. “Is it bad? Is it something bad about me?”
“It says Princess in the numbers that correlate to the alphabet. I added it two full years after our night together.”
“You tattooed the nickname you gave me on your body?”
“Yes, princess, I did. Now do you believe that I didn’t forget about you?” I cup her face and her hand settles on my chest. “Now isn’t then, it’s not the past. You know that, right? I didn’t come here to walk away. Not from you.”
“Eric,” she whispers, her voice trembling with emotion and I want those emotions, I want to know how they taste on my tongue. How she tastes right now, this night, in this room.
I lean in to kiss her, right as the doorbell rings, followed by pounding on the door. “Open up, Harper!”
At the sound of Isaac’s voice, my jaw sets hard and Harper launches herself to her feet. This can’t be good.”
I’m standing with her by the time she’s fully straightened. “Relax, sweetheart,” I say, my hands settling on her arm, “He’s a gnat that needs to be swiped. Nothing more. I’ll handle my brother.” I start to turn away and Harper grabs my arm.
“Wait,” she says, pulling me around to face her. “Let me talk to him. Obviously, my mother told him you’re here. He’s going to make a big deal out of this. I can shut it down.”
I drag her to me. “You mean deny we’re together?”
“No. That’s not what I meant. Of course, that’s not what I mean.”
“Good. Because we’re together now. That means we don’t hide. And if that makes the Kingstons uncomfortable, fuck them. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No,” she whispers. “You’re right. Fuck them.”
“Then I’ll handle Isaac, sweetheart. No one has my brother’s number like I do.”
Chapter twenty-eight
Eric
“Oh no,” Harper says, catching my arm as I try to leave her to answer the door again. “I’m fine with Isaac knowing about us, but you’re shirtless and commando with your pants unzipped. That screams ‘we’re fucking’ not ‘we’re together.’ I draw the line there.”