Burn (Dark in You 1)

“Good idea,” said Raini. “Our Harper’s creative, but she’s also too self-conscious to plan a decent event.”

Devon nodded. “We can come up with something better ourselves.”

“I’m right here,” Harper ground out.

Devon patted her hand. “We know, sweetie. Now you just stand there and look pretty – we have this.” A loud hiss escaped her as she glanced behind her. “Back off, pooch.”

“Hackles down, kitten,” said Tanner.

Leaving the hellhound and the hellcat to exchange barbs, Harper went to her mate and stepped right into his arms. The sentinels melted away, giving them some privacy. “I have no idea why they’re all here,” she told Knox.

He kissed her forehead. “They had a scare when you were taken. You’re important to these people, Harper.”

She looked at the male arguing with Jolene. “Maybe not to Lou.”

Knox shrugged. “No one’s all that important to Lou. He just came here because he’s nosy and wanted all the details about what happened.”

“If I did have OCD,” Lou said to Jolene, “it would bother me that the letters aren’t in alphabetical order, wouldn’t it?”

“Be honest, admit that it bothers you,” dared Jolene.

“What bothers me is that health professionals give fancy names to conditions or learning difficulties that will irritate the patients; like OCD not being in alphabetical order, putting an ‘S’ in ‘lisp,’ and making dyslexia a word that no one can spell. It’s just mean.”

Harper turned to Knox. “I still don’t quite know how to process that guy.”

“Ignore him.” Knox pulled her flush against him, smiling to see that her gaze was the same warm-honey color it had been when they first met. “Ignore them all. Let me take you home.”

“Will you ravish me if I do?”

“You know I don’t like rhetorical questions.”

She smiled, lightly scoring her nails over the brand on his nape, knowing how much he liked it. I love you, Knox Thorne. His eyes shone with an adoration that warmed her all over, inside and out. She knew if he could articulate what he felt, he would. She also knew it bothered him that he couldn’t. It’s enough that you look at me just like that – like I’m all that matters to you.

You are all that matters to me. She was everything to him. Meant more to him than he thought anything could.

Then take me home and ravish me, archdemon.

He did.