Page 41 of Gio

He grunted and groaned, kissed my collarbone. “I love the sound of my name on your lips. Not sure I’ll ever tire of hearing that sound.”

My fingertips danced along his jawline. “I think we should test out that theory,” I teased as he collapsed on top of me.

“Challenge accepted,” he grinned. As soon as Gio caught his breath he grabbed me in his arms, carried me upstairs and we started all over again.

And again,

And again.

It was an exhausting sort of satisfaction, and I fell asleep with a smile on my face and his chest pressed against my cheek. It was peaceful all around.

Until the sound of broken glass woke me from a deep sleep.

Chapter 24

Gio

The sound of breaking glass woke me in an instant. I jackknifed up and looked around the dark room where I found Harper sitting straight up. “Harp?”

She swallowed hard and then nodded before her hand reached out to touch me in the dark. “It woke me up. It’s them, isn’t it?” Her whispered words were calm, not full of the fear I expected.

A long breath rushed out of me. “Probably.” More glass shattered downstairs, and I realized just how vulnerable we were, naked with nothing but a sheet covering us. “Get dressed.”

Harper paused and exhaled deeply. “Okay. Dressed.” She jumped from the bed and bent over, giving me a glimpse of her perfect heart-shaped ass in the moonlight. She stood up quickly and slipped my t-shirt over her head. “Good enough.”

Her words spurred me into action, and I snatched my boxers from the floor and stepped into them before I stood and grabbed my gun from the nightstand. “Stay here.”

“Fuck that,” she said automatically.

“Harp,” I sighed. “We don’t have time to argue about this.”

“Exactly,” she snapped. “You taught me to shoot for a reason and that reason is downstairs, probably to kidnap me or worse. Now give me a damn gun and let’s go scare these assholes off.”

I love you.

The words came to my mind instinctively and I bit the inside of my jaw to keep the words to myself. Harper wasn’t ready to hear it any more than I was ready to say it. “Fine. There’s another gun in that nightstand. It’s a nine-mil just like you shot at the range.”

She smiled but it dimmed as she pulled out the gun and checked the clip.

I got my phone and sent a nine-one-one text to my club brothers while I kept an eye on Harper. She inhaled for several long seconds and gripped the gun tighter before giving herself a mental pep talk. “You okay?”

She looked up with big, guileless blue eyes and nodded nervously. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

“Stay behind me and don’t shoot me.”

That made her smile. “Don’t give me a reason to and I won’t.”

“Noted.” I crept to the door with Harper at my back and opened it as quietly as I could. The sound of glass breaking, of utter fucking distraction intensified when the door was open, but she gave me a gentle shove towards the stairs, a subtle reminder to keep moving forward.

“The living room,” she whispered.

I nodded and urged my feet to move. Halfway down the steps the Blood Reapers came into view. There were three of them ripping shit apart, breaking things. Like my fucking flat screen. I raised my gun and went down a few more steps until my aim was perfect, and I squeezed the trigger with a smile as the bullet hit him right in the back of the thigh. “Get down,” I shouted a second before they started shooting back.

“Shit!” Harper’s foot slipped and she slid down the stairs.

My heart pounded as bullets flew in her direction and my legs moved on their own, pumping bullets out like a factory worker, to protect her. “Harp,” I shouted over the gunfire.

“I’m good,” she called out and shot in the direction of the Blood Reapers as they dragged the third man out. “Fuck!” The gun fell from her hand and both of them went to her thigh.

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