Page 76 of Twisted Steel
“Bossy after sex.Shocking.”She rolls her eyes.
“Harper.”
She sighs.“No.I’m not hurt, just aware I made athletic choices while sleep deprived.”
The knot in my chest eases one notch.She pushes herself up, dragging the sheet with her.I keep my eyes on her face because I am not a teenage prospect with no control.Because if I look lower, I’ll want her again.I already want her, that never stopped.
Her gaze flicks over me, lingering on bruises I told her weren’t injuries.Her mouth tightens.“You need those ribs need to be checked.”
“No.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
“Neither was I.”
She exhales through her nose.“You are a medical nightmare.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“I believe that with my whole heart.”
Silence settles.Not awkward but weighted.
Her fingers curl in the sheet.“Last night happened.”
“Yes.”
“We’re acknowledging that?”
“Yes.”
“Good.Because I don’t do the thing where people pretend sex doesn’t change everything.”
“It did,” I admit, honestly.
Her eyes lift to mine.Brave woman.Terrifying woman.
“What did it change for you?”she asks.
A thousand wrong answers sit on my tongue.Everything.Nothing I can safely give you.
I choose the cleanest truth.“The threat level.”Her face stills.
Wrong answer.
No.Not wrong.Incomplete.
She pulls the sheet tighter around herself.“Of course.”
“Harper.”
“No, that makes sense.I become more of a liability after you sleep with me.Very romantic.”
I sit up.“That’s not what I mean.”
“Then use your words, Steel.I know you have at least twelve.”
“Reaper wanted me wild before last night.Now he will...”
