“Ah, the good old days,” she says, smiling. “And for your information, I know who “The Ghost” is too. He’s a great fighter.”
What? She knows Lucas? This is so weird. I guess, at this point, it’s pretty clear that this girl is either a real fight fan or she trains herself. “No shit? How do you know Lucas?”
“Believe it or not, I was there when he won his title. It was a great fight.”
“So, you’re a fan? Don’t take this the wrong way, but you know a lot more about fighting than your average woman—and usually that either spells fan or fighter, and you look too delicate to be a fighter.”
“Excuse me? Delicate? I’ll have you know I have a pretty good left hook—at least that’s what my brother always told me.”
“Yeah, probably because you beat him up your entire life ‘cause you were older.”
“That’s true. At least it was until he got bigger than me. I miss those days when I could still kick his ass. He’s actually the reason I’m here. He’s inside now. Back injury.”
“Those are the worst. Hope he gets better soon. But you didn’t say—fan or fighter?”
“I’m a big fan of MMA, let’s put it that way. And I don’t like to fight unless I have to, but if it came to it, I could hold my own. I’m scrappy.”
I believe it. I’d love to see you scrap. Fuck, Damien, get your mind out of the gutter! “I bet.”
“You have a fight coming up?” she asks.
“Not at the moment. I just got back from Southeast Asia and I’m a little hobbled at the moment. That’s why I’m here. I’m itching to get back in there, though. I just need to heal up first.”
“Is it bad?” she asks, looking down at my leg.
“No, thank God. Just a little battered. Nothing crazy, but enough to make life annoying.”
“What happened?”
“I took too many kicks to the calf. Fucked my leg up good.”
“Gotta check those kicks, right?”
“You sound like my coach right now, you know that?”
“Well, if I was your coach, you would have defended those kicks better and probably wouldn’t be here. Just saying.”
I love how this girl takes no shit and isn’t afraid to joke around with me. And the fact that she’s a total smoke show doesn’t hurt either. I seriously can’t stop staring at her or picturing her naked, but then I start to worry that she’s another fight groupie. Those exist, and I’ve been with my fair share of them. That shit never works out—they’re the girls who just love the idea of a fighter, until they have to live with one. Most women aren’t about the kind of lifestyle a professional MMA fighter has to live—especially one who’s trying to make it into the biggest organization in the world.
“My brother’s texting me he’s almost done in there, so I guess we have to cut our little convo short. Shame.”
“It is. Now that you mention it, I’m going to see why it’s taking so long for me to get called.”
“Good luck,” she says. “The secretary’s a little bit of a bitch.”
Great. That’s just what I need. You know, because I’m so patient of a human being.
I excuse myself for a second and go the receptionist’s desk. “Excuse me,” I say. The lady—who’s scrolling through Instagram and clicking gum—doesn’t even look up from her screen. I wait a few seconds and call her again. Nothing. Then I decide to step it up a notch. “Yo, lady.”
That gets her attention. She’s an older woman, and one that looks like she hates her job more than I hate waiting to be called for my appointment. Not sure that’s even possible, because I’m pretty pissed off right now, but she’s pulling it off somehow. When she finally makes eye contact, she practically rolls her eyes at me. This is the last thing I need right now.
“What do you want?” she asks. Somehow, she sounds exactly how I thought she would.
“To be seen by the therapist before we elect a new president? That, and for you to drop your attitude.”
“Name?” she says, not even noticing my insulting her.
“Reyes. Damien Reyes.”
“I don’t have you down.”
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. “No, there has to be some kind of mistake.”
She looks up from her phone again when she hears my voice getting louder. “Sir, you’re going to have to calm down.”
“No, lady. You’re going to have to get your face off of your screen and look back in that book again, because I definitely have an appointment.”
She does what I ask, and I watch her to make sure she’s not messing with me, but even upside down I can see that my name isn’t there. So basically, I’ve been waiting for nothing.
“Not here, sorry. You can schedule a new appointment right now or you can call.”
“I did call.”
“Apparently not.”
I’ve had enough of this, and I’m about to lose my shit right here in the waiting room, so instead of that disaster I decide to swallow my pride and leave. Physical therapists are a dime a dozen—I don’t need this place.
I step away from the receptionist’s desk, angry and sore, and remind myself where I am. Don’t flip out, Damien. Just take a deep breath.
Before I walk out, I go over to my new friend one last time. “It was really nice meeting you. . . “
“Harper. And it was nice meeting you too. I’m guessing you’re leaving?”
“I have to. Otherwise I might break something. Apparently, they messed up their books. If they can’t get scheduling appointments done correctly, I’m not going to trust them with my leg.”
“That’s sound logic,” she says.
“Who knows,” I say. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”
“You mean like at another PT’s office? That would be unlikely.”
I laugh. I didn’t think it was possible, but she brought me out of a funk with a simple comment. Who is this girl, and why does she seem to have this effect on me? Who knows? “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“But hey, you never know. Maybe you’ll see me sooner than you think.”
I don’t know what she means, but I hope that she’s right. I’m not sure why I didn’t act—normally I would have asked her for her number and been a little more aggressive, but I just walk out instead.
I’m annoyed that I came all this way for nothing, but it was worth it just to spend a few minutes with her.
I hope she’s right.
And I really hope that I run into her again.
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Also by Christopher Harlan
Secret Keeper
#1 on Goodreads Most Anticipated
romances of May 2020!
A sexy, exciting, edge of your seat HEA contemporary romance, SECRET KEEPER is a standalone story inspired by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s STUCK UP SUIT, published as part of the Cocky Hero Club, a series of original works, written by various authors, inspired by Keeland and Ward's New York Times bestselling series.
* * *
Blurb
“She was the fruit of a forbidden tree, but nothing in this world was going to stop me from tasting her.
My name is Dylan Murphy, and I work for the rich and powerful of an exclusive Manhattan building. Graham Morgan was my first boss, but soon after I was working with some of the most famous entrepreneurs, business moguls, and movie stars in the city. They trusted me because I always followed the cardinal rules:
Never betray secrets. And never, under any circumstance, get personally involved.
I’d never dreamed of violating my professional mantra. Not u
ntil she walked past me.
The look we exchanged that night set my body on fire, and I knew right then and there that no matter the consequences, she was going to be mine. But she was one of them—off limits and out of my league, but she was the kind of woman who I was willing to risk everything for.
I keep other people’s secrets for a living, but the biggest secret of all might be my own.”
The Three Kiss Clause:
An enemies to lovers romance
#1 on Goodreads Best Books of February 2020!
#9 on Goodreads Most Anticipated
Romances of February 2020!
“The writing was engaging, flawless and full of humorous banter, as well as scorching chemistry.”—Totally Booked Blog
Cormac Delaney was everything I hated about men—arrogant, smug and condescending, but he was also everything my body responded to—gorgeous, tall, brooding, and confident. Oh, and he happened to be a partner at the publishing company I was trying to get signed to. My book—“Fu*#$@Boys”—about how men are selfish, sex-crazed pigs—was one vote away from being published—his vote. But not only did he hate my book, he asked me a question that would change things between us forever:
“How can you be an expert on men when you’ve never been in a real relationship?”
He had a point, but I wasn’t about to let him know. Instead I did what any self-respecting writer and podcaster would do—I proposed a radical social experiment. Cormac and I would live together for one month as boyfriend and girlfriend. If he could change my mind about men I’d withdraw my book. If not, he’d agree to publish it.
My only condition? No sex, or anything physical, whatsoever.
I never thought he’d go for it, but I guess I was wrong about him, in more ways than one. Don’t get me wrong, I hate Cormac Delaney, even if he is easy on the eyes. . .fine, he’s good looking. . .alright, he’s hot as hell, but still! To do this I’m going to have to remind myself of a few things: we’re only an experiment, nothing more. He’s not the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen in my life, he absolutely does not have a body that makes me tingle in all the right places, and I’m never, under any circumstances, going to let myself fall for him. . .
Right?
The Wordsmith Chronicles
A 5 book HEA contemporary romance series about a group of aspiring romance writers struggle with trying to make it big in the indie publishing world while navigating their love lives.
Knight (book 1)—> http://a.co/iBcVaK5
Colton (book 2)—> http://a.co/dy2Ojmq
Grayson (book 3)—> http://a.co/d/43MNyLS
True North: A Wordsmith Chronicles Standalone MC—> http://a.co/d/iSlpvVo
North: A Wordsmith Chronicles Standalone—> My Book
Standalone HEA Contemporary Romance:
The Me That I Became
Synopsis:
We were destined to never end up together. You an empath, and me the woman who can’t feel anything. It never should have worked. Then, our hands brushed together. It was serendipity—a happy accident that made me experience the world like I never had before. You said all the right words, and for a time I remembered what it felt like to be alive. But, my shadows have returned, threatening to extinguish the light you brought into my life, and I’m terrified that our future together is slipping away. I need you now, Brandon. I need you to chase away the demons, to make me whole, and to teach me once again what it means to love. Now only one question remains. . .Will you?
Away From Here: a young adult novel
Synopsis:
When I was seventeen years old there were only three things that I knew for certain: I was a mixed-up mixed kid, with weird hair and an unhealthy love of comics; I wanted to forget I’d ever heard the words depression and anxiety; and I was hopelessly in love with a girl named Annalise who was, in every way that you can be, a goddess. What can I say about Anna? She wasn’t the prom queen or the perfect girl from the movies, she was my weird, funny, messed up goddess. The girl of my dreams. The reason I’m writing these words.
I’d loved Anna from a distance my junior year, afraid to actually talk to her, but then one day during lunch my best friend threw a french fry at my face and changed everything. The rest, as they say, is history. Our History. Our Story. Annalise helped make me the man I am today, and loving her saved my teenaged soul from drowning in the depths of a terrible Bleh, the worst kind of sadness that there is, a concept Anna taught me about a long time ago, when we were younger than young. So flip the book over, open up the cover and let me tell you Our Story, which is like Annalise, herself - complicated, beautiful, funny, and guaranteed to teach you something by the time you’re through. Maybe it’ll teach you the complexity of the word potato, something I never understood until the very last page.
Our Story: an Away From Here Prequel (Amazon FREE download)—> http://a.co/fYScly5
#1 bestseller—Away From Here: A Young Adult Novel
Amazon —> http://a.co/di866wQ
Goodreads (4.61/5 stars)—> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38212508-away-from-here
The Impressions Duet
(HEA Contemporary Romance)
This duet follows the interrelated stories of two best friends, Mia and Dacia, as they encounter the Marsden brothers—two mysterious, handsome, and intriguing men whose family has a sordid history that they must discover together:
Impressions of You (book 1)—> http://a.co/786mkFA
Impression of Me (book 2)—> http://a.co/4MI4gw3
The New York City’s Finest
HEA contemporary romance—My 5 book series, a blend of contemporary romance, action, suspense, and adventure—each book features a different sexy NYPD detective and takes place in a different borough of New York. Follow these NYPD detectives as they meet the women of their dreams while trying to solve the crimes of their careers!
Calem (book 1)—> http://a.co/hEyPn3Q
Jesse (book 2)—> http://a.co/eyTkL7I
Quinn (book 3)—> http://a.co/gO9YJ7m
Noah (book 4)—> http://a.co/2xvrb7p
Riley (book 5)—>http://a.co/5YRvjxv
A Savage Redemption (A Series of Savage Gentleman Book 3) Page 14
