Lou was always saying that actions had consequences, and I was a firm believer in learning one’s lessons. Harper still had yet to learn the most important one.
She belonged to me.
* * *
Harper looked sobeautiful sprawled out across my bed with her red hair fanned out over my pillows. I’d been staring at her for a while now. Listening to her quiet little snores, then snickering when she woke herself up for a split second.
She’d even taken the time to change into one of my shirts. There was nothing sexier than the sight of my girl wrapped up in my clothes. She swam in it, but every time she moved the blue fabric would ride up a little more.
Best strip tease ever.
I crawled up on the mattress, over her sleeping form, then reached down to graze my fingers up her leg. “You’re so fucking cute.”
Harper grumbled something and squirmed, while popping her bottom lip out in a grumpy little pout. Guess she tired herself out with that tantrum. The nice thing to do would be to let her sleep, but then I ran the risk of her clamming up again, and we weren’t done talking.
Folding over her, I brought my lips to her ear and whispered, “Wake up, Freckles.”
There was that pout again. If she wasn’t careful she’d wake up to me biting her lip.
“Come on, baby,” I coaxed while caressing her cheek with my thumb. “Open those pretty eyes.”
Finally her eyelashes fluttered as her lids rolled open. “Mason?”
“Hi.” I couldn’t stop my mouth from curling as the moonlight sparkled off her big doe orbs.
“Are you still mad at me?”
That made me chuckle. “I wasn’t the mad one.”
She was the one who lost her shit. I had a couple bruises to prove it. Not that I minded. I kinda liked seeing her like that.
Harper, however, didn’t see it as a good thing. Her eyes dropped guiltily away from mine as she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“Hey.” I pressed my finger under her chin, forcing her to look back up at me. “What did I say about sorry’s?”
“No more.”
“That’s right.”
“But I hit you?”
“Yeah,” I said, “and I told you I was gonna kill your old man.”
Her mouth clamped shut and I could see a spark of anger flash through her eyes.
“It’s okay, Freckles. I get it.” Regardless of how much of a piece of shit I thought Ned Callaghan was, he was still her dad. “I don’t accept it, but I get it.”
I was the one who felt like a piece of shit when her face brightened up.
“So you’re going to leave him alone?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I’m still gonna kill him.”
It wasn’t that I wanted to squash her hope. It was that I didn’t want her living under any false delusions. We’d both put up with enough falsehoods. Reality was a bitch sometimes. That, I couldn’t change. But I could make sure that hers didn’t include bruises and broken bones.
When she rolled her head away I sighed and rolled it back. No more avoiding each other.
“Let me ask you something, Freckles. Do you want me?”
