Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Sighing, he smoothed his hand over his jaw. “I’m not used to this.”
“What?”
“Having someone who cares.” He liked it, but he didn’t like being unsure in any situation. “Or having to explain myself to anyone.” Settling his hands on her shoulders, he drew her close. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you straight away. If Crow makes another move, I’ll tell you instantly.”
“Even if it doesn’t seem worth mentioning to you?”
“Even then.”
After a moment, she nodded. “Fine. Back to the original subject… where’s Carla?”
“At home. She’s been checked out; she has no infections or major blood loss. Her body is healing at an accelerated rate. She’s simply not awake yet. If you want to see her —”
“Her family aren’t going to let me in their house.” And Harper couldn’t blame them for that.
“We’re their Primes. They’ll do what we tell them to do.”
“But it’s not fair of me to barge in there when they’re worried about her. I’ll wait until she’s awake. If she asks to see me, I’ll go.” It needed to be Carla’s decision, because Harper wasn’t going to just walk into the woman’s home like she had every right to be there. Not that she thought for even a second that Carla would ever request to see her, but still.
Knox kissed her forehead. “All right.”
“Do you think she’ll blame me?” Harper asked, not even sure she wanted the answer. It shouldn’t even matter, but it did.
Not wanting to hurt her but not willing to lie, Knox said, “I’d like to say no, but I have no idea. It doesn’t matter if or how many people blame you, it will never make it your fault.”
“I know that.”
“But you feel guilty.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to work out why the guy removed her reproductive organs. It was a punishment for giving birth to me, for ‘putting things in motion.’”
“Because his mind is all kinds of fucked up right now. Not because of you.”
Intellectually, she knew that, but the guilt was there all the same. Especially because… “If he’d known that she tried to abort me, maybe he’d have taken pity on her.”
The lair only knew the story that Harper had grown up believing: that Carla dumped Harper on Jolene’s doorstep when she was just a baby. Harper, being such a private person, had chosen to keep the truth quiet. The only people within the lair who knew about it were Levi, who had uncovered most of it himself, and Carla’s mate after she confessed it to him.
Harper tried to step back, but Knox’s grip on her shoulders kept her in place. “I have to get to work,” she told him. She hadn’t yet closed what she was beginning to think of as “the old studio” and she had clients coming in.
“Maybe you should take the day off.”
She shook her head. “I can’t do that. I —”
“Baby, you’ve had a shock,” he said, cupping her face. “A shock you’re not sure how to process. Take the day off,” he coaxed.
“No, really, I’ll be fine.”
“Take it off. I’ll do the same.” His demon really liked that idea, loathed to leave her. “I can work from home.”
“I can’t stay home. If I sit here all day, I’ll think about it. Over and over. And I have no right to do that, Knox. It didn’t happen to me. It happened to her. I’m not her family.”
“But you get to feel how you feel.”
“I don’t know what I feel.”
Seeing his usually decisive mate so unsure of herself… it pissed Knox the fuck off. “If you need a distraction, fine.” He could understand that. “Go to work. But if you need a break, take it.” He kissed her. Softly. Gently. Thoroughly. “I love you.”
She smiled, surprised. He didn’t say the words often, because they didn’t come easily to him, but he always seemed to know when she needed to hear them. “And I love you.” Harper gave him one last kiss before grabbing her purse and heading outside, where she hopped into the Audi. His expression unusually soft, Tanner started to speak, but she shook her head. She didn’t want to talk about Carla. Didn’t have the right to worry or anything else. They didn’t spend the journey in silence, though. They talked about general things, just like they did most mornings.
In the studio, Harper threw all her attention into her work. She smiled and talked and was glad of every distraction – hell, even Belinda’s appearance later that day was a distraction she was happy to use.
Washing her equipment, Harper listened as the cambion chatted on and on about the shindig. Belinda had eventually admitted defeat and dropped the idea to separate the Primes and VIPs from the rest of the demons at the event. She’d also fallen in line with Harper’s idea to jazz up the combat dome and use it as a large social area on the night. Now she was reading out the list of appetizers that would be served at the dome. Most of them sounded similar to the foods Jonas served at his mansion.