Page 44 of Hear Me Roar

“Why would you want to risk inking my name on your body? What if something happens to us, Knox? I mean, I know coverups are a thing,but-”

I’d never found myself on my back so fast, his large hand curled around my throat, keen blue eyes holding mehostage.

“Shut up,” he growled, “and listen to me. Are youlistening?”

I nodded, wrapping a hand around hiswrist.

“I love you.Whether you’ve come to terms with it or not, you’re mine, Hazel. All of you, mine,forever.I’m proud of every single piece etched on my skin, regardless of the memories attached to them. And your name, right above my heart, will be the one I wear with most pride,always.”

“You’re crazy,” I mumbled, and he chuckledsoftly.

“We established this already, baby. Movingon…”

As much as I wanted to simply forget he’d mentioned Brie, after I thought she wasn’t going to an issue, I couldn’t push past it. Ihadto know what the fuck happened in that tattooshop.

“So, she flipped out about myname?”

“In her own way,yes.”

“And what exactly is her own way?” Ihedged.

Easing away, Knox laid back on the couch and pulled me into his lap. “She climbed into my lap just like this, and tried provoking a reaction in her favor by bringing up thepast.”

This. Fucking.Bitch.

My blood was boiling, but I forced myself to keep a lid on it, at least until I heard it all. “Is thatall?”

“Basically. The more I pushed, the more she pulled, but I didn’t tolerate it for long. I ended up storming out of there before Pun finished with hisclient.”

“All I’m going to say is that she’s lucky I wasn’t there,” I growled, my lip curling in asnarl.

Chuckling softly, he pulled me closer still, locking his arms around my waist. “Funny enough, I thought the same thing shortly after she walked into theroom.”

“Do I wanna know what she said toyou?”

“No, probablynot.”

“Then let's just forget thishappened.”

“Deal.” He pecked my lips. “I told Pixie the next time I called to schedule an appointment, she better be certain she penciled me in on a day Brie wouldn’t bethere.”

Running my thumb along his cheek, I hesitated with my next question, but only because I didn’t want to seem like Brie had opened a massive can of insecurities. He watched me silently as I worried my lip between my teeth and contemplated how to get this out right without sounding like whinygirlfriend.

“Is Brie going to be a steady problem?” I finally asked after a few minutes. Not the best way to phrase it, but it was just one of those things you had to rip off like a band-aid.

“I sure as hell hope not, but with Brie, you just never know. She’s stubborn and she does what shewants.”

“Well, she needs to stay far the fuck away. I won’t be held responsible for what happens to her if she keeps soliciting her skanky ass around where it doesn’tbelong.”

Knox howled, literally howled, at my possessive admission, his head falling back against the couch as his body shook through a bout of laughter. It was impossible not to laugh right along with him. I wanted to be mad – no, furious – but his laughter was contagious. My shoulders bobbed up and down as I giggled in his lap, the anger that’d briskly consumed me thanks to a certain ex, easing away like water to afire.

“Now that we havethatout of the way. There’s something else I have to tell you,” he said, wiping amused tears from under hiseyes.

I stopped laughing almost instantaneously, and went rigid once more, eyeing him inalarm.

What else could have possiblyhappened?

“I got Amari,” he said with a beamingsmile.

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