“Saw Troy at LaGuardia,” she gestures towards her discarded hoodie, “the shirt’s for you. He said you need to worship more than the Cowgirls.”
“Hey, hey,” Trevor said. “Them’s fighting words in this house.”
“Yeah?” Harper says with a smile before looking over to me. “Looks like I’m in the right place.”
“Wrong, thanks for bringing it by, but there was no need to hand-deliver it. Mail would have done just fine. And don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”
“Gloves up, asshat, I’m not fighting one of your cows.”
“I’m not throwing a punch at a woman. You’re being ridiculous.”
“I love her,” I hear Trevor say to Tony.
I do too. And at this point, I’m close to hating her because of the way she keeps making me fall for her, every single time I lay eyes on her before she rips my soul away from me. Tony grins over at him with just as much a fucked-up reply. “I’m getting hard just watching this.”
“I can fucking hear you both.” They both grin and shrug as Harper steps up to me in the center of the ring.
“Come on, champ, dukes up.”
“You can pack it up, Harper. I’m done fighting with you.”
“Punk,” she says, stepping forward and landing a jab on my chin. I roll my eyes.
“This isn’t cute,” I growl.
“I agree. Your behavior right now is deplorable. Not to mention what you did back in New York.”
“What I did?”
“You come to New York after two—” she lands another blow and another, and I don’t flinch. It’s like being hit with a pillow, “—years and expect me to just jump into your arms like a willing pound puppy.”
Gloves down, I stand there taking her in, her solid body toned to perfection, her skin porcelain, twin braids hanging loosely from her beanie, dancing over her shoulders with her movement. All I want is to grab her and fuck her up, with my lips, my tongue, my cock, the way she’s fucking with me. I’m in the mood to punish her, and it’s apparent she feels the same.
She lands a solid right to the mouth, and the force of it without my guard takes me by surprise. Copper melts on my tongue as she attempts to unleash my beast. She’s happily playing with fire, like I’m a joke, like we’re a joke.
“Ahhhh,” she says, crossing her gloves like she’s in a karate fight. This time my lips turn up briefly as the guys chuckle in the corner. My smile only angers me further.
“You underestimate me,” she says, landing another to my chest and stomach. I stand there completely limp as she dances around me, taking potshots.
“As I was saying, you come to New York after two years, ask me to spend Christmas with you, start a fight in a department store that turns into a street brawl, make these grand declarations and tell me you want me to just drop everything and come,” jab, jab, jab, “back here, for what was it?”
“Harper, this is personal,” I grunt, taking another right to the temple.
“Oh, well, you went BIG in New York,” she turns back and winks at the guys, “quite often.” She lifts a glove mimicking a puppet, “Commit to me now. I know I haven’t seen you in over seven hundred days, but if you don’t say exactly the right thing in my time frame, I’m leaving, and I’m taking my big dick with me.”
She winces, tossing a look over her shoulder, “Sorry, Trevor.”
“Don’t be,” he quips, “just so you know, that runs in the family.”
“What the hell?” I protest as my entire corner snickers. “That’s so not how it went down.”
“Sorry,” Harper pipes, “foggy memory. It must still be a blur because of how fast you came and went.”
I step into her next jab. “You should talk.”
“I deserved that, two years ago, when it was relevant to our relationship, now I’m just pissed.” Another punch, this one lands squarely, and I have to give her a little credit, it had some pressure behind it.
“You’re delusional.”
“And you’re still a caveman. You might as well have thrown me over your shoulder and slapped me on the ass,” jab, jab, “oh wait, you did do that the first time we got together.”
“Is this some fucking joke to you?”
“Should it be?” She asks, lifting a brow. “You come to my city, turn my life upside down, demand once again that I commit without once letting me catch my breath.”
“That’s not how it—”
She lands another right on my lips, and it stings.
“You deserved that.”
Eyes blazing, I feel my anger brimming again. “You made your point yet?”
“Nope, gloves up, champ. You said you can’t fight without something to swing for, well, here I am.”
“Well, your time is up,” I say, throwing my own invisible punch, I see it land, but instead of giving in to her quivering lips, her eyes light fire.
“Wow, that was fast. And you expect me to believe a word you say?” she throws a right, and I lift my glove to avoid another blow to the face.
“Ah, there you are,” she says, too pleased with herself.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve.”
“Touché, Lance. Get your freaking gloves up.”
“I’m not fighting you.”
“You love fighting me.”
“I did.”
“You do.”
“Dancing, that’s where you need to be. Not here.”
“I am dancing,” she says, doing a perfect impression of a boxer’s footing around the ring.
“And she’s better than you,” Tony laughs.
This time I bite. “Why don’t you guys fuck off and give us some privacy?”
They all reply in unison.
“No fucking way.”
“I’m not missing this.”
“Sorry, man, no can do.”
“Dinner!” Mom calls from the house.
“Oh, good, I’m hungry,” Harper chimes in, throwing another jab.
“You can sit next to me,” Trevor spouts.
I’m too pissed at everyone in my life at the moment to see anything but red. “You sure you’re staying? I mean, I wouldn’t want to blink while we’re saying grace and miss seeing that beautiful ass of yours walking out the door.”
“Lance,” Trevor protests as Harper holds up a glove tossing a look over her shoulder.
“I’ve got this, little brother.” She turns to me. “And just how long do you plan on punishing me for that?”
“Not long after you see yourself out.”
“Well, good thing we all agree, don’t we, boys, that your grudges are getting old?”
All three of them speak up.
“This isn’t fucking funny,” I grit out.
“You’ve got issues.” She taps me again with her glove.
“I’ve got issues?” I press a glove to my chest. “You’re the coward. Sure you aren’t going to tuck your tail between your legs again? I think we both know I’m the fighter here.”
She shrugs. “Not much of one at the moment.”