“The police aren’t likely to question you any further. Not unless that report comes back with poison, which we both know it won’t. That’s a non-issue that lets Isaac, and Gigi if she’s a part of the murder, walk. The mob, on the other hand, isn’t going away like the police.”
“The mob and Isaac will wait until tomorrow. What else?”
“Grayson is losing his mind wanting talk to you.”
“I’ll call him.”
“Then I’ll leave,” Blake concludes, eyeing me. “You were brave, Harper. That was a lot of shit to get unloaded on you. And you stood by your man. Respect. You have my respect.” He turns and leaves, and Eric and I watch him as he exits the apartment.
Once the door shuts, we turn to face each other and then it’s just us, me and this man who has changed my life. This man that I love. “You’re not the bastard anymore,” I whisper.
He pulls me to him. “I’ll always be that family’s bastard. And you’ll always be the princess.” His mouth closes down on mine, and in that moment, in this place and time, I know that the bastard and the princess coming together, has changed lives. Changed me. Forever.
He has changed me forever.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Eric
Kissing Harper, I turn her and press her against the island, and I can feel those moments when her mother was talking to her and I was listening in. When I feared that Harper would be like everyone else in that damn family who turned me into the enemy. In those moments, I wasn’t thinking about my father. I was thinking of her. I was afraid of losing her. And I kiss her right now, I touch her right now with that fear on my lips. I don’t hide it from her. I don’t hold back. It’s all or nothing with Harper.
“I knew you didn’t know,” she says, tearing her mouth from mine. “I never once believed you knew the truth and were trying to inherit. Tell me you know that.”
“I had a moment. I did. A moment where I feared losing you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. And every time you doubt me, you doubt us. Stop doubting us. Let me see all of you. Let me love the savant and the man.”
“You’ll have to because I’m not letting you go.” My mouth closes down on hers and everything that has happened in the past week explodes inside me but I’m not consumed by the numbers that I would be at any other time. I’m consumed with Harper. I’m consumed with need and I can’t undress her fast enough. We can’t undress each other fast enough. We’re both shirtless, and she’s braless, her breasts high and full, her nipples puckering beneath my fingers when I pick her up and carry her to an oversized chair, laying her down, dragging away her shoes and pants. Wasting no time undressing.
I’m thick and hard and she’s naked and waiting on me. I have a moment when I think about a condom, when I think about how much I don’t want my child to be a Kingston, but then I look at Harper. I sit down next to her and I pull her into my lap, straddling me, and I know, I know something is different. I know that I’m not a Kingston. I’m a Mitchell. I will always be a Mitchell, and one day, when I know she’s ready, Harper will be, too. And God willing, if she gets pregnant again, we’ll have a baby that will be as she once declared: Mitchell.
I lift her, pressing into her, the wet tight heat of her body taking me, pulling me close.
“Use me,” she whispers, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Use me to deal with all that this day made you feel. I can handle anything.”
My hand settles between her shoulder blades. “I know you can. You’ve proven that over and over, but I all I need right now is to make love to the woman who has become my everything.” I roll her over, lay us side by side, the ottoman under our feet. Her leg is over my hip, and I stroke her face, even as my cock presses deep inside her. And then I do just what I said. I make love to her. I revel in the sweetness that is this woman and what I share with her, and there are no numbers attacking my mind. There’s just us. There’s just the sanctuary of this woman. I don’t rush. I don’t want to rush because right here, like this, intimately buried inside her, no one can touch us. No one can take her away.
When we both collapse, melting into each other and the cushion, we lay there staring at each other for long minutes until I whisper, “We’ll make our own family and we’ll make that family special.”
“I thought you didn’t want a family.”
“I want everything with you, Harper. I’m going to show you that.”
“Good, because we’ve been having a lot of sex without a condom. Not that I think I can get pregnant, but if I did—”
“We’ll be parents this time. If you don’t, we’ll get a dog.”
She laughs. “A dog?”
“Yes. I’ve actually never had a dog.”
“Me neither. Maybe we should get a dog.”
“A dog it is,” I say, kissing her temple. “Hang tight. I’ll get you a robe.” I pull out of her and walk to the bedroom, pull on pajama bottoms and grab a towel and her silk robe.
A few minutes later, we sit on the couch, wine glasses in our hands in place of the whiskey. “We’ll start looking for a dog right after we get you moved. What do you think?”
“I don’t want to go back there, back to Denver. I don’t want anything I left there. Of course, that means I have to spend money. I guess I’ll get my trust fund now. I can feel like I contribute then. Or will that just make Isaac want to kill me?”