Harper turned and lifted her hair up off her neck.He fastened the necklace for her, kissing her briefly on the neck.
She went to the mirror by the door to look at it, turning from side to side.It looked like fire was encased inside the crystal.
Running back to the bed, she launched herself at Trent and knocked him back to the bed with a loudumph.
“I.Love.It.”Harper punctuated the words with loud kisses against Trent’s smiling lips.“Love it.Love it.Love it.”Harper continued to kiss Trent’s face all over as he tickled her to get her off him.She focused on Frankie’s training.Hard to soft, hard to soft.Pressing her elbow gently against his neck, she laughed when he lifted a hand away from tickling her and gripped her wrist.Flicking her arm outward, she broke his grasp and tightened her thighs around his.
“Playing dirty, huh?”He laughed, putting some muscle into it.“I guess I have Frankie to thank for this.”He sat up quickly, wrapping his arms tightly around her to pin her arms by her sides.She pretended to bite his cheek before licking it quickly.
Finally rolling them over, Trent loomed above her.
“Glad you like it, darlin’.”He smiled before lowering his lips to hers for a drawn-out kiss.
Harper lifted her legs up and wrapped them around his waist.
“I love it,” she murmured against him as he ground himself against her.
“Not as much as I do,” he practically groaned.
Gripping his hair in her hands, she lifted his head from her neck and met his lips with hers.
Chapter Twenty-three
“It’s untraceable, Ms.Kennedy,” Detective Lopes told her on the phone.“There’s no way of pinning down where the initial message is originating from.”Harper opened the sliding door to Trent’s balcony, inhaling a deep breath of the humid sea air.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s not Nathan though, does it?”Detective Lopes had been good at updating her over the last five days, but he rarely had anything useful to tell her.
“No, it doesn’t.I have nothing to go on.His probation officer speaks very highly of him.He’s in full-time employment and is attending all of his anger management classes.And he’s still in Chicago.He’s abiding by all the rules of his parole.”
Harper ended the call.The information Lopes had given them at the station about the malware nagged at her.Lord knows Nathan had been a genius when it came to computers.On one occasion, he’d hacked into her professor’s computer to download her final-exam questions in a gesture he thought was romantic.He was stunned when she refused to look at them.
There was something else bothering her too.Harper marched into the kitchen and fired up Trent’s laptop, entering the quote that had been spray-painted on Trent’s studio.It was definitely a powerful quote, and Harper needed a refresher on why.Used to research, she didn’t need to look long to find what she sought.It was another message.
She took a few minutes to send Lydia and her parents a quick note to have their computers checked for malware.It was only a thought, but maybe Nathan was getting his information from them as well as her.
It was nearly six, and Trent was expecting her soon.He was taking her out for her birthday to Salt, an upscale restaurant in Coconut Grove that faced the water.She walked back into the apartment and pulled out the green-and-black underwear she had bought while shopping with Drea, laying it on the bed next to a black dress with narrow straps that hugged tight in all the right places.With Trent threatening to seduce her with oysters, she needed a little ammunition of her own.
She pulled out her makeup, determined to blow Trent away.Halfway through applying her mascara, Harper stopped, frozen.Her life had become a roller coaster, highs and lows of events and emotions that ran together in a high-speed blur on a daily basis.But she wasn’t panicking.Her hands weren’t flicking.She wasn’t drowning in a flood of dark thoughts.She was scared but not freaking out, taking control and getting on with her life.
The thought made her smile.
***
“Not sure how she’s gonna take all this.”Trent lifted one foot up on the small ledge against the window of the studio, which vibrated to the sounds of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.”
“Well,” said Pixie, looking down the street, “you’re about to find out, big guy.”She tapped the side of his cheek good-naturedly and walked back into the studio.
Trent turned his head and watched Harper walk toward him.She’d obviously been home to change.A fitted black sundress with a thick, emerald-green belt showed off her tiny waist and incredible figure.Black patent platform pumps gave the impression her newly tanned limbs went on for miles.She had a sexy swing to her hips as she moved.
Pushing off the window, he moved to stop her before she got to the studio.
“I swear you just stopped my heart, darlin’.”Taking in her smile, he pulled her toward him and allowed his lips to brush across hers.Those beautiful green eyes fluttered closed as he took her deeper, and it amazed him just how much she responded to him.How they fit.
Pulling back, he gave her a little space and grinned as she found her balance again.
“Do you think that will ever get old?”Harper asked with an embarrassed blush.
“Christ, I hope not.Just remember how you feel right now because you might be really mad at me in about one minute.”
