Intimate knowledge? Did that asshole seriously just publicly accuse Harper of sleeping with me? My blood boiled. For starters, I’d never laid a hand on her, and secondly, she was going to be mortified. She was incredibly private from what I’d seen when we were in Sweden.
“I’m sorry, Gregory?” Harper snapped, and my glare changed to eyebrow-raising surprise.
I’d never heard that tone from her before.
“Well, it’s true, and if the way you’re looking at him is any indication—”
“If you had an ounce of common sense, you’d shut your mouth.” She got right up in his face. “Of course I don’t have intimate knowledge of Nathan Noble. Look at him.” She flung her arm in my direction. “Now look at me. Do you think someone like him would ever be interested in me?”
Okay, now that was an asinine thought. I mean, I’d never allowed myself to think of Harper sexually—she was Faith Gentry’s best friend, and therefore pretty much Shark family, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t all fuckable curves underneath that ridiculously oversize lab coat.
I’d just kind of always thought of her like a little, book-crazy kitten—all fluffy and cute.
“Harper,” I hissed.
“You shush,” she chided me with a pointed finger. “I can handle this.”
I put my hands up, and Eric started laughing.
“Is there a problem here?” a doctor asked—I checked his nametag to be sure. Yep, Dr. Lewis, head of neurology for Seattle Brain Health.
“I think I need a new med student,” Lukas answered, then pointed to Harper. “She’s about to break mine.”
“No problem, Dr. Lewis,” Harper assured him with a sugar-sweet smile.
Dr. Lewis glanced between Gregory and Harper, clearly conflicted, but he took her word for it. Once he returned to Porter, Harper started back on pre-med boy.
“And come on. Intimate knowledge? It’s called sex, Gregory. Go ahead, say it with me. S-E-X. Just because you’re not having it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know what it’s called.”
Dayum. Kitten had claws.
“You’re such a—” he started.
I stepped forward, putting myself right next to Harper, but not in front of her.
Gregory swallowed, looking up at me.
“A smart, successful, driven woman?” I suggested. “Because last time I checked, Harper here is twenty-one and about to graduate with her second doctorate, which already makes her a doctor, right? While you’re…” I shrugged.
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Let’s go, Vestergaard.”
“Oh, joy,” Lukas answered, but followed.
“I could have handled that,” Harper said to her clipboard, red all the way to her ears.
“Point was that you didn’t have to,” I answered. “You’re Shark family, and in case you didn’t notice, you’re also in the Shark house. That guy is walking, talking chum.”
A slight smile lifted the corners of her mouth.
“So, you want to get intimately acquainted with my brain, or what?”
She shook her head with a wry little smile and led me to an exam table.
“Okay, we’re going to do an array of physical tests first, and then we’ll move on to the electrical.” She scribbled something on her clipboard.
“Let’s do it.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but she turned even redder. Damn, but I found that insanely cute.
She looked up at me, and those hazel eyes punched me in the gut again. Harper didn’t even need makeup to enhance those suckers. Green to gold to brown to blue and back again, every time she moved, the overhead lights brought out a different shade of color. I’d known she had pretty eyes while we’d been traveling together with Lukas, Faith, and Langley, but how had I missed that they were this...captivating?
Probably because I'd spent eighty-five percent of the trip making sure she didn't wander into oncoming traffic or stumble into a priceless exhibit.
“Okay, we’re going to test your range of motion and balance,” she instructed me, and I followed her directions.
“I can stand here all day,” I told her as I balanced on one foot.
“I’m sure you physically can,” she answered with a raised eyebrow. “I’m sure with a body like that you can do a lot of things all day. All night, too.” Her eyes widened. “I didn’t mean it like that. Oh shit.”
I laughed, but still held my balance. “You trying to mess me up, Harper?”
“What? No! I just meant that in your physical condition, which is…” her eyes scanned my body like she couldn’t help it, “...in good shape, you can probably withstand a lot of physical activity.”
“That’s true. I can definitely go more than a few rounds of...physical activity...before tiring.” I said it just to see if that blush would deepen. It did.
She started the checks on my vestibular system, and I felt Gregory staring at us from the next bed over.
“Hey, Pre-Med Gregory,” I called over.
“Yes, Mr. Noble?” he answered clearly perturbed.
“In case you were wondering, this,” I motioned between Harper and myself, “still isn’t sex.”
Harper semi-snorted a little laugh.
Gregory most definitely did not laugh.