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“Four, five, six…”
She grins. “Seven, eight, nine.”
“Are you sure you can handle that?”
“I can handle whatever you can,” she shoots back, then her expression falters. “What about the fight?”
I nod. We can’t ignore the bad aspects of this, even if the good, theright, and the destiny-driven perfection are too tempting.
“I went to Adam and told him how I felt. I told him I wanted to date you. I explained I’d be honorable and respectful, and if you chose me, I’d always do my best to support and protect you.”
Her mouth falls open. I fight the urge to lean over and kiss her. It’s not because I don’t want to—need to—but I know I wouldn’t be able to stop.
With all the closeness we’re sharing, my need is expanding, flooding my balls with fresh seed… like I could get hard with the snap of my woman’s fingers, with one suggestive breath from her.
“He punched me in the face,” I say.
Harper gasps. “Seriously?”
I nod. “What else was he supposed to do? He didn’t know how to process it. I hardly did. I barely understood it myself. I still don’t, except I know it’s the purest and most real thing I’ve ever felt. The truest thing. Being on the West Coast, away from you, I thought I could get control, but I can’t Harper, not ever.”
“That’s when he asked you to move away?” she murmurs.
“I couldn’t pursue you without his blessing,” I say, “but when I returned… I couldn’t resist. It was like all this… thisfireinside of me was burning. It had gotten even stronger the year I was away, not weaker.”
“Oh, Bryson,” she whispers, releasing my hand to wipe a single tear from her cheek, then clinging onto me again. “This is everything I ever dreamed of.”
“That’s what worries me,” I say, forcing the words out.
I have to say the next bit. I don’t want to, but it would be a mistake to leave it unspoken, to cower from the responsibility.
“Worries you?” she asks.
I’m about to tell her, but then they bring the food out. I sit back, summoning my manners when all I want is to flip the table and drag my woman into my lap.
Once the waiter leaves, Harper looks at me with concern.
“What worries you?” she asks.
Looking directly into her beautiful, captivating eyes, I say, “You.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Harper
Despite the darkness in his tone when he tells me I worry him, I can’t get rid of this light feeling, this fluttering of joy bubbling up within me.
He wants it all. The family, the future, presumably the marriage, the happiness.
Adam stares from my mind, a specter who could tear it all to pieces.
Nevertheless, Bryson wants it, wantsme, us.
Even as I ask him what worries him, my tone is light. My heart hammers warmly when he intensely saysyou, despite knowing it shouldn’t, but his expression mirrors my heart. He’s smiling, his eyes brighter than I’ve seen them, and then it’s like he tries to correct his expression, frown, and pushes away the lightness.
“It’s what you told me yesterday,” he goes on, picking up his knife. “About your obsession. That’s the best word for it. I’m obsessed with you. ThesecondI saw you after your eighteenth birthday, I became obsessed like you were a new woman. I knew… IknowI had to have you.”
Fireworks erupt over my skin, sparkling and sizzling throughout me.
