Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
BLAKE
I didn’t even go home after work before picking Harper up. I can’t stand being away from her for even one more minute, especially after so much time was stolen from us last night.
I never resent my job, but I was there after that phone call last night, and it’s something I need to think about.
But first, I’m going to spend as much time as possible with a certain brunette who tastes like sugar and makes my cock hard as fucking granite.
When I saw her at the clinic this morning, I thought for sure I was imagining things. That she was something I conjured out of my sleep-deprived mind.
But she was real.
And I’m about to see her again.
I pull in front of Xander’s house and climb the steps to the massive doorway to ring the bell.
When it opens, it’s not Harper who greets me .
It’s Xander himself.
“I hear you want to date my sister,” he says by way of greeting, and I immediately grin.
“Fuck yes, I do.”
His lips twitch, but he folds his arms over his chest.
“Xander! Don’t be a dick. I’m coming downstairs. I just have to grab …” I can’t hear the last part of that statement because it sounds like she’s running around upstairs.
“She’s not a fucking toy,” he says, lifting his chin.
Xander’s a big man. He’s also strong as fuck, thanks to hockey.
The thing is, I’m the same height as him, and I’m just as strong. But he’s her brother, so I get it.
I have a baby sister, too.
“No, she’s a woman,” I reply. “A beautiful, intelligent, amazing woman.”
“Why are you standing like that?” Harper demands, scowling up at Xander. Christ, she’s stunning in a flowy black skirt with a cropped green blouse that shows me a sliver of her tight abdomen. It makes me want to lick her there. To start. “You look like an idiot.”
“I do not.” He lowers his arms and frowns at Harper, making me chuckle. It seems my siblings and I aren’t the only ones who give each other shit. “It’s my whole job in life to make sure no one dicks with you, and I failed last time.”
“No, it’s your whole job to put a puck in a net.” She pats his arm. “Now, get out of my way and don’t wait up. ”
“Wait. What do you mean, don’t wait up?”
Harper turns to face him. “You’re thirty-two, X. Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“Oh my God, if you touch her, I’ll skin you alive.”
“Goodbye, Xander,” Harper says, her voice sounding bored.
But I step up to him and hold my hand out to shake.
“I get it. I have a sister. I won’t do anything she doesn’t want me to do.”
His eyes narrow. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“It should.”
Reluctantly, Xander shakes my hand, and I join Harper at the car, opening her door for her.
“This is like déjà vu,” she says as I pull away from the house. “Maybe I should have met you there. Just in case.”
“I’m taking you home with me,” I reply after reaching over to take her hand and link my fingers through hers. “I’m going to cook for you, and we’ll see where the night takes us.”
She lifts an eyebrow. “What are you cooking?”
“Shrimp scampi. The pasta has carbs, sorry.”
“Yum.” She bounces in her seat. I love her enthusiasm for food. “I would have brought something had I known.”
“You already fed me today.” I bring her hand up to my lips and nibble on her fingertips as I drive into town. “It was delicious, by the way. Not as delicious as you, but a close second. ”
I hear her breath catch beside me, making me smug as hell.
Oh yeah, sugar, I’m going to nibble on your entire body tonight.
And we will not be fucking interrupted.
“So you like to cook?” she asks.
“Yes, actually, it’s a hobby of mine.” I turn off the highway and into my neighborhood on the edge of town. It’s a quiet neighborhood of newer homes, spread apart enough so we’re not on top of each other.
I pull into the garage and turn to her.
“Wait for me.”
After she nods, I get out of the car and circle to open her door. When she climbs out, I cup her jaw and cheek, run my thumb over her soft skin, and kiss her. Her response is immediate. Her hands clutch my sides, and she lets out that little moan that never fails to make my cock hard.
And when I pull back, I tuck her hair behind her ear.
“I have to shower,” I whisper. “And then I’ll make you dinner.”
“Sounds like a plan.” She presses her lips together, then licks them as if she’s searching for my taste. It almost makes me kiss her again.
But I really do need a shower.
So I grab the groceries from the back of the car, then lead her inside through the mudroom off the garage.
“This is a nice neighborhood,” she says as she follows me in and kicks her shoes off by the door as if she’s settling in to stay a while.
Fuck yes, get cozy, sweetheart.
“I like it,” I reply, leading her into the kitchen. “Most of my neighbors are older, so it’s really quiet. I don’t mind kids, but it is nice when I have to sleep during the day, and there isn’t a bunch of yelling outside in the summer.”
She nods. “I get it. Xander’s house is super quiet, too. Here, let me unload, and you go get in the shower.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. It’ll also give me time to snoop around your house.”
I smirk, kiss her cheek, and wrap my arms around her chest from behind so I can hold her against me. “Snoop away, sugar. I don’t have any secrets.”
“I was kidding.”
“I’m not.” I press my lips to her head and breathe her in. “Nothing is off-limits. Open drawers, look under the bed, and check out the closets. Whatever you want. Oh, don’t judge me if you find some dust bunnies.”
She looks around and then cranes her neck to look up at me. “It’s spotless in here, Blake.”
“The housekeeper does an excellent job.” I let her go and walk through the kitchen. “I’ll be twenty minutes.”
“Take your time.”
I’d invite her to join me, but I haven’t had her naked and writhing since Thanksgiving, and I want to take my time with her.
I want to fucking savor her.
Just fifteen minutes later, I walk out and find Harper curled up at the end of my sofa, a book in her hands, chewing on the cuticle of her thumb, crying.
The fuck? Absolutely not.
“What’s wrong?”
Her gaze jumps up to mine, startled, and she laughs and wipes her eyes. “Oh, it’s fiction. Stupid books make me cry sometimes. I went to one book club meeting and got hooked. I’m reading this for the next one, and I’m a mess.”
“What is it?” I ask her as I squat in front of her and wipe the tears from her soft cheek.
“It’s called Camera Shy by Kay Cove, and it’s just so good. ” She sighs, tucks the bookmark in to hold her place, and sets the book aside. “Okay, how can I help? What do you need?”
“Just the pleasure of your company.” Taking her hand, I pull her to her feet and lead her to the kitchen. “Have a seat. This won’t take long.”
I get a pot filled with water on the stove to boil and pull ingredients out of the fridge and pantry. When I turn back, Harper’s leaning on the counter, her chin in her hand.
“Who taught you to cook?” she asks.
“My mom. She’s an excellent teacher, and I paid attention. Actually, all of us can hold our own in the kitchen. How about you?”
“I just figured it out with time.” She shrugs. “I was pretty young when I started cooking, actually.”
The reminder of how she started out in life makes me frown. I hate that she had shitty parents who didn’t take care of her the way she should have been.
My phone rings, and my eyes meet hers as I reach for it.
“Déjà vu,” she says with half a smile.
I glance down and see that it’s my sister.
Rather than answer, I shoot her a text.
Me: Emergency?
The dots dance on the screen as she answers.
“It’s my sister,” I tell her. “Just making sure it’s not urgent.”
Harper grins.
Billie: Nope. Just wondering if you want to come over for dinner on Sunday. Dani’s comfortable bringing Bryce for everyone to meet and celebrate.
Me: I’ll be there.
With that, I power off the phone and set it on the opposite end of the kitchen, on the charger.
“Did you just turn your phone off ?” Harper asks, her eyebrows raised in surprise.
“Yes. I refuse to be interrupted tonight. I’m not on call, and my family is fine. I want time with you , sugar.”
She watches me for a moment, then pulls her phone out of her pocket, powers it off, and sets it next to mine on the counter, making me smile.
“Deal.”
“Okay, now I’m embarrassed,” Harper says after she finishes eating and pushes her plate away.
“Why?”
“Because you made me something I would get in a Michelin-rated restaurant, and I made you a breakfast burrito. What was I thinking?”
She covers her face with her hands, and I laugh as I take one of her hands and pull her over into my lap.
She curls her arms around my neck as she buries her face in it, too.
“No hiding,” I say, nudging her chin up so I can see her. “You make a fucking good breakfast burrito, sugar.”
She wrinkles her nose, and I kiss it.
“It’s not a competition.”
That makes her gray eyes sparkle. “I like a little competition.”
I smirk and nuzzle her neck, then nibble my way over her collarbone. “You taste better than that meal.”
“Not possible.”
My hand slides under her cropped shirt, over the bare skin of her back, and it breaks out into goose bumps under my touch.
“Do you have any objections at all to me propping you on this table and having dessert? ”
There’s a little moan in the back of her throat, and she shakes her head. “No. I don’t mind.”
I pick her up and move down one spot where the table is empty, set her on the tabletop, and sit in the chair in front of her.
Her legs widen so I can move in close, and I scoot her skirt up her smooth legs. She lifts her ass, and when the skirt is bunched around her waist, she sits again and pushes her hands into my hair.
“Shirt off.”
With her eyes on mine, she grabs the hem of the blouse and pulls it over her head, and I lean in to pepper kisses over her sternum and upper stomach.