Page 24

Harper

Don’t! Get! Distracted! By! Eve!

Eve kissed me, and the world stopped.

Her mouth on mine was as fraught and feverish as the arguments we’d fallen into again and again.

She demanded everything, and I gave it eagerly, yanking her hard against me.

She gripped my face with both hands, kissing me harder, deeper.

Kissing like she knew tomorrow would never come and she only cared about this very moment.

Only cared about me .

I want you so badly I burn with it, Harper.

I knew exactly how she felt. Knew, in one searing moment, that every other kiss I’d shared before had been some lukewarm facsimile of the real thing. This would have scared the hell out of me if my brain was able to comprehend anything other than the words more, yes, please .

Eve was moaning with every slide of her tongue against mine—throaty and husky, curling my toes in my boots and sending my hands around her back to grip her ass. Drag her close, grinding against her like I could will the clothes on her body to disappear through my desire alone.

She dove a hand into my hair and twisted, tipping my head to the side.

Exposing my throat to her clever mouth. She pressed kiss after deliberate kiss down to the ball of my shoulder while I whimpered.

My shirt was still on, but it didn’t stop Eve from pressing her mouth to my breast through the fabric.

Palming, squeezing, one hand skating beneath my shirt to find my nipple through my sports bra.

My spine arched off the wall. My nails dug into her scalp as I held her in place, practically climbing her body from the onslaught of pure sensation.

“I can’t stop thinking about you, Harper,” she groaned against my throat. Her tongue traced a path up to my jaw. She nipped it lightly, with her teeth. Caught my mouth again for another passionate kiss. “I haven’t had a moment’s fucking peace from the second you stepped into my store.”

I flipped our positions with a soft growl.

Her back hit the wall, and my palms slapped down on either side of her face.

Our chests were heaving. Eve’s lips were already swollen.

She wasn’t wearing a bra, so I hooked a finger in her tank top and gently tugged down.

Her breasts were small and perfect, and I already couldn’t get enough.

Rolling her tight nipples against my palm, nuzzling the skin between them.

I sucked her left nipple between my lips with a greedy sound I didn’t even bother to hide.

“Fuck, I love that,” she whispered, hands fisted in my hair. “Please don’t stop.”

“Never,” I murmured and meant it. I sucked and pulled on her taut flesh, unbearably turned on by her reaction. “I could do this all night, Eve. You’re so beautiful I have to remind myself to breathe around you. I just—”

Eve tugged me up and crashed our mouths together. I closed my teeth around her bottom lip and tugged. “I could just devour you.”

She hissed in a breath. “I want that.” Tipped my head back and scraped her teeth along the side of my neck. “So fucking badly.”

Eve flipped us again. I breathed out a laugh, up for the challenge.

Then we were kissing again, hands grasping at clothes, our lips in constant motion.

She hooked my knee around her waist again and pressed her thigh between my legs.

The pressure was so right, so specifically perfect, I would have moaned loud enough to startle the dancers if Eve hadn’t pressed her hand to my mouth.

“God, you’re sexy like this,” Eve whispered against my ear as my eyes fluttered shut. “I should get down on my knees right in this hallway and devour you , Hendrix.”

I groaned into her palm, rubbing myself against her thigh.

“Let everyone watch,” she said. “Let everyone see how goddamn lucky I am.”

We were starved for each other. We gasped, we trembled, we burned like a wildfire.

Eve Bardot was about to make me come in this random hallway—and I wanted that more than anything else in the world.

Would happily grind against her leg in the dark, the heavy bass of the music pulsing between us, while she kissed me senseless.

I’d avoided this attraction for so long because deep down I knew it would be like this between us, a lit match tossed into a dry field. A passion that scorched and destroyed if it wasn’t controlled.

“Oh my goodness… sorry. ”

We froze in place, panting and wide-eyed, our hands tangled in each other. Marla was standing just a few feet away with her eyes covered, trying hard not to laugh.

“I didn’t see anything, I swear,” she said, backing away. “And I don’t think anyone else in the restaurant did, either. Though you wouldn’t be the first people to use this space for…lascivious reasons.”

“Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed,” I groaned, dropping my face to Eve’s chest. Her shoulders were shaking with quiet laughter.

She held the back of my head, keeping me close, her lips in my hair.

The sweet protectiveness of the gesture was almost as overwhelming as our electrifying kiss. I felt frazzled, flushed.

Completely overwhelmed.

“You okay?” she murmured.

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” Rearing back, I tucked all of my clothing back into place and straightened my glasses. Pulled my hair up with a tie and secretly longed for a handful of pencils to stab into it.

“Sorry about that, Marla,” Eve said, managing to look adorably sheepish and incredibly hot all at the same time. “We saw our competition and didn’t want him to know we were on his tail.”

“That’s why I came to find you.” She cocked her head back toward the bar. “Is your competition an older white man, balding, cigarette behind his ear?”

Eve and I shared a look.

“That’s him,” she said. “Jensen. Are they still out there?”

“They ordered a bunch of shots, but then that man got a call, appeared even more excited, and they all ran off together.”

Eve tensed in my arms.

“You wouldn’t have happened to catch which way they went, did you?” she asked.

Marla’s brow rose. “Haven’s Bluff, of course.”

Eve was already on the move, pulling me along by the hand. She paused to wrap Marla in a hug. “Thank you for that. It really helps.”

“And I never saw you here,” she said, glancing between the two of us. “Certainly never saw you back here , either.”

My cheeks burned. I mouthed I’m so sorry as Eve hustled us past, but Marla only grinned and waved.

“Happy hunting,” she called back.

We were on the move, weaving through the glittery crowd and back out into the parking lot. The rain had stopped, and the clouds were clearing, leaving the air cool and clean. The foothills glowed a soft pink in the afternoon light, the road ahead long and empty.

Eve hopped into the car, and I joined her, rolling down the windows. For a moment we just sat there stunned—still breathing hard, our hair mussed and clothes wrinkled. We’d been interrupted, but I was still clenched and aching between my legs, every nerve ending wide awake.

Eve and I made shy eye contact across the console. The part of me that craved order and routine wanted to say, Tell me what just happened and what it means for us exactly .

And I already knew that was the worst possible thing to say. It couldn’t mean anything. Not to Eve, who kept things light and casual. And not to me, either, who had no desire to uproot my carefully constructed life for a woman who didn’t even trust me.

So I buried this urge down deep and went for a joke instead.

“Just to circle back for a moment,” I said, “it seems like you were jealous back there, correct? I was right all along?”

Eve’s answering grin was cute and crooked. I actually felt my heart wobbling in my chest—and not in a good way.

“You’re a real pain in the ass, Hendrix,” she said.

“Only around you.”

She chuckled, but I could sense tension in the way her hands gripped the steering wheel. She peered out down the road as the car hummed beneath our feet.

“What if that call Jensen got was about them finding it?” she said, barely more than a whisper. “What if it’s already gone? What if we never find out what really happened to Priscilla and Adeline?”

Heart still wobbling, I hooked my pinkie finger around hers. Eve stared down at where our hands met, a soft smile playing on her lips.

“Well, you know what they say… A bust is a bust ’til it ain’t.” I squeezed my finger against hers. “I don’t want to assume we’ve lost when we’ve only just started.”

Eve was nodding. She bent down, pressed a sweet kiss to the knuckle of my pinkie finger. “Thank you, Harper.”

My wobbly heart toppled over, and I felt the crash inside my rib cage.

She reached over and turned up the volume of the music—some upbeat and jangly garage rock that filled the small space. Then she tossed me a wink before sliding her aviators back on.

“Let’s hit the road then, shall we?”