Meet Me in the Penalty Box (Orchid City, #1)(34)

I nuzzled my face in the crook of her neck. “I can’t get enough of you, Harper Jensen. I need you to know, there’s no one but you.”

She paused her search for a show and turned in my arms to face me. We were lying on the bed, face to face as she slid her leg over my own. “I know we haven’t talked about it because I don’t know what this even is between us. But I would like it if we didn’t see other people while we’re doing this.”

A smirk played on my lips. “And what are we doing, exactly?”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and I pulled it back out with my thumb. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I can’t put a label on it. I told you I wanted to take the risk, but it can’t be anything official, you know? If we’re ever questioned about it, I don’t want to feel guilty denying it.”

“So, you don’t want a label, but you at least want it to be something exclusive?” I asked her as a spark of hope lit inside my heart. It was more than she had given me so far and I was willing to take whatever it was that Harper would give me.

She nodded. “I don’t think I could handle it if I saw you with someone else.”

I couldn’t fight the smile that consumed me. “And why is that?”

“Because you’re mine and no one else’s.”

My heart pounded erratically in my chest. “The same goes for you then, too. You’re mine, Harper. I don’t fucking share.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” she told me with a soft laugh. “You weren’t even supposed to happen. I might have told you I wanted to forget about him, but you’ve done more than that already. You wiped him out of my memory completely.”

“Sometimes life just has a way of inserting people into our lives without us asking for it.” I rolled onto my back and pulled her close to me as we both looked at the TV. “I wasn’t expecting you, Harper. You know the lifestyle that I live with my career. Yet, here you are, stuck in my fucking head. I’ve tried to get you out and I don’t know how to.”

“You’re not the only one with that problem,” she murmured, her lips brushing against my chest. “I think it’s time we both stop trying to fight the inevitable.”

I held her closer and traced invisible patterns on her back. “I promise I’ll figure out a way so we can be together.”

“Until then, no one can know but us.”

“Well, I think Wes and Ava might have an idea if they don’t already know,” I reminded her as she slid her leg over my thighs.

“I forgot about them,” she admitted quietly. “I know Ava won’t say anything to anyone. Can Wes be trusted too?”

I nodded. “Absolutely. He’s my best friend. I trust him completely.” I paused for a moment. “You should know that I told my sister about you too, but she would never say anything to anyone.”

Harper froze in my arms and she let out a breath before slowly pulling away from me. She sat up and turned to look at me with her eyes slightly wide. “Why did you do that?”

I didn’t move from where I was laying in her bed. “Because my sister and I are close and I needed someone to talk to.”

Harper’s face softened and I watched the sympathy pass through her eyes. “I’m sorry. I just worry and if all these people know, it’s only a matter of time before it gets out to more people. Stuff like this spreads like wildfire and then it’s destroying an entire city.”

I reached for her and wrapped my hands around her arms. She didn’t fight me as I pulled her down on top of me and she propped her elbows on the bed as her chin hovered above my chest. Her eyes bounced back and forth between mine.

“What did your sister say?”

A soft chuckle rumbled in my chest. “That I better not fuck up your life and that you must be pretty special if I was talking to her about you.”

A shy smile pulled on her lips and I grabbed the sides of her face as she tried to hide. She swallowed as she looked at me. A touch of seriousness shifted across her expression and I softly stroked her skin as I held her on top of me.

“It’s true, Harper,” I told her, my voice quiet. “I don’t know what it is about you or what makes this different… but it is.”

She folded her lips in between her teeth and slowly released them. “You know this is all going to blow up in our faces, right?” She let out a sigh and folded her hands on my chest before lowering her chin to rest on top of them. “Something like this is always too good to be true. We talk about how no one will find out, but there’s a part of me that just refuses to believe that. The truth always comes out.”

“It will all be okay. I will do everything to protect you. I will lie to whoever I need to, to make sure no one finds out.” I stared directly at her crystal blue eyes. “You know that, right? I would never let anything happen to you or your job. I might not be able to stay away from you, but I can keep this a secret. I can make sure no one else will ever find out.”

“But the people who already know… how can we be so sure they won’t say anything?”

A smile pulled on my lips. “Because they value their lives.”

Harper’s eyes widened slightly. “You wouldn’t do that.”