He took a step toward me. “If you’re talking, baby, I’m listening.”
God, he had the words to unlock me. He’d always been the key, and I’d fought him for so long. No more. I would never fight what felt right again. Never with him. “That look is almost identical to the very first time I met you.”
“Oh?” he asked. “How is that?”
“Well,” I started. “A year ago I decided to walk into your tattoo shop. I was so nervous that I had to give myself a pep talk at the door. So nervous I almost didn’t even want to turn around. I thought for sure I was going to say screw it and walk right out. But I told myself to at least turn around, just see what I was dealing with and then I could decide what to do. So I turned around, and boy, was I not ready for you.”
His eyebrows dipped. A questioning ‘V’ splitting his forehead. “Me?”
“Yes,you!” I laughed. “Harper, it sounds weird to say, but I swear, when you looked at me I had the strangest feeling. It felt like youknew me,right then and there. Like I was meant to find you and I was in the exact right place.”
He blinked. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. And it seems so stupid because I didn’t know you and you didn’t know me, but I got my hopes so far up.” I shook my head. “In a single second I felt more akin to you than an entire lifetime with anyone else.”
“But then you—” my head dropped and I started to play with my fingers, embarrassment suddenly slipping over me. “You asked if I was‘lost or something’.”
He remembered this, I could tell by the way he sucked his teeth, wincing. Slowly, he began to move closer. “Don’t tell me I lost that much progress after one stupid line.”
“You lost that much progress with one stupid line, Harp.” I still felt it a little even now. Even as I laughed at myself. “It made me feel stupid. Silly for jumping to conclusions after just a single glance. And after that, I made it my personal mission to prove something to you, I think.”
“Prove what?”
“I don’t know; that I was strong? Capable? That I belonged somewhere near you. It made me pretty sensitive around you, and for a while, it felt like every joke you made was a jab at me and every smile was you not taking me seriously. I wanted to strangle you half the time because I wanted to impress youallthe time, and I guess I got comfortable showing you more than just the parts of myself I showed to everyone else. The strongest part of myself, yeah, but I guess the not so nice parts too,” I sighed.
He was quiet, listening to me with rapt attention as I let him in on my petty secret.
“So when you asked to get closer to me—when you said you wanted to help me…” I shuddered, my voice wobbling. “When you said you wanted to kiss me and let me kiss you back and that you wanted me—I thought that maybe there was a chance I might fit with you after all. I knew it was a long shot, but I wanted to try it anyway.”
His brow knit but he said nothing, letting me continue.
“That’swhy I said yes to you, Harper. Not because I wanted to use you to forget my problems. Not because I needed you to boost me up even though you always have. But I said yes to any opportunity to get closer to you because you’d already seen sides of methat no one else had. And I liked who I was with you,” I explained.
“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.
I held his eyes. “Because, you said something the day we fought. About me smiling at everyone else, and it’s never occurred to me that you didn’t know that all I’veeverwanted to do was smile at you. To fit with you, just like I thought we would when you first looked at me.”
“Baby,” his gravelly voice groaned. His body ate up the remaining distance between us. He crowded me gloriously, his hands coming down on either side of my thighs, his forehead leaning forward to press against mine. “Did you let any of these fuckers mark you?”
I giggled, my chest filling with genuine happiness at him—him being here, being ridiculous or otherwise. “Is thatreallyyour only response to my story?”
“Your story has got me wanting to carry you out of here over my shoulder,” he clarified, and I scoffed out a laugh. He leaned his face even closer, his voice going down dangerously low. “But before I can do that, I need to know if anyone has marked my girl.”
“And what if they have?” I laughed.
“Then they’re dead,” he said simply.
“So possessive, Mr. Harper. Didn’t you hear, you’re not my client anymore?”
He dipped his head so that we were nose to nose, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Are you trying to torture me?”
“Yes,” I answered, even though I knew it was rhetorical.
“Why?”
Pulling back, I looked into his warm brown eyes for long moments, trying to find the truth in them. Trying to understand his reasoning before I gave him mine. “You left.”
His eyes stared deep into my own. “I did.”
