“Okay. Fine. Whatever.”
“And whatever I left at your place you can keep. I don’t need it anymore. Your memories are worth shit to me.”
Brian’s jaw dropped.
He had never seen this side of me.
I had never seen this side of me either.
“You’re fucking crazy, Harper. You’ve lost your mind.”
“Maybe I have. But for the first time in a long time, I’m happy. Now leave.”
Brian rushed out of my apartment.
I let out a yelling scream that was part laughter, and part anger and pain.
Tears streamed down my cheeks.
I didn’t care what he was going to do either. If he was going to beg Daisy to forgive him or not.
I knew what I wanted and what I needed.
That was Tyler.
I needed to tell him how I felt and how to make everything work.
I packed a bag with more than enough clothes to last me more than a few nights at his place. I packed up my laptop and all my work too.
He wanted me to live with him, so be it.
This wasn’t ending like this.
It would take more than jealousy to end us.
When there was a knock at my door, I tossed my bags to the couch.
“You better not be begging me,” I called out as I opened the door, thinking it was Brian.
It wasn’t Brian though.
I recognized who it was.
Joey.
The guy who had been flirting with me the day I went to the police station to get back at Tyler.
“Harper,” he said with a frown.
“What…”
My heart sank.
This was the moment. The one anyone married to a cop feared.
Joey reached for my arm. “Something happened to Tyler…”
28
(Tyler)
I opened my eyes and I already knew I was in the hospital. Hell, it was either that or whatever came after dying. But I wasn’t dead. Yet. I just ended up on the wrong side of a real messy and long night.
The machines around me beeped and made other noises as they did their job.
I couldn’t tell you what any of the machines did.
The bed was uncomfortable. The pillow felt like it was stuffed with computer paper and the sheets made from the same.
The room was dimly lit.
I stared at the ceiling, trying to replay everything that had happened with CK. Where it went wrong. Why it went wrong. What I could have done better so this situation wouldn’t happen again.
I knew I took a bullet to my right leg.
That, I definitely remembered.
Now the question was whether my leg was still there or not. Or if I would be able to use my leg ever again.
Those questions were obvious, but I pushed them away, knowing only time would give me those answers.
With those questions fading away, guilt rushed forward.
I had put myself in that position.
But if I wasn’t there…
“Tyler? Are you awake?”
That’s when I wondered if I was dead.
The voice was soft and angelic.
I perked right up, a couple machines speeding up with their beeping.
I pushed my hands to the bed and forced myself to sit up.
As I pulled my legs back, I realized I had both legs.
I also realized the pain in my right leg was damn horrible.
I gritted my teeth as I looked to my right and saw Harper in the corner of the hospital room. She had two chairs facing each other with a thin, fuzzy blanket thrown off her. She scrambled to get to her feet as she reached for me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her.
“Joey came to get me,” she said. “I guess he was told to tell your wife you were shot.”
“Shit,” I whispered. “Yeah. Right.”
I shut my eyes for a second, cursing Joey. “Look. I’m fine. Just a little…”
“You were shot in the leg, Tyler,” Harper said. “You almost…”
Her chin quivered.
“Ah, darling, it’s okay,” I said.
She shook her head. “Tyler…”
The hospital room opened and in came a nurse.
She insisted on interrupting myself and Harper, needing to check my vitals and ask me a thousand questions about my pain level. Which was smart because if she asked me about my annoyance level, I would have made her cry.
Then again, she was just doing her job.
She moved from one side of the bed to the other, bothering the hell out of me as I stared at Harper. She stood in the corner, biting her nails, looking scared and tired.
Before I could ask what time it was, I saw the first flicker of sunrise through the slits of the blinds.
It was morning.
“You need to get some more rest,” the nurse said. “Dr. Dougherty will come talk to you in a bit. If you feel any pain, anywhere, just buzz me.”
“Thanks,” I said in a rough voice.
The nurse left the room.
Harper came to the edge of the bed again. She grabbed my hand.
At the exact same time, we both said the same thing.
“I love you.”
Silence then fell between us.
Those were the three words that lingered in my mind as I stared up at the dark sky in the middle of the night as the bullet threatened to end my life. Those were the three words that played over and over as I rode in the ambulance. Those were the three words that last played before I went unconscious.
I opened my mouth to tell Harper everything I should have told her before she left my house before everything got messy.
The hospital room door opened again… with more visitors.
“You look like shit,” Joey said as he stirred a coffee.
“Shit, brother, you good?” Kordell asked as he touched my shoulder. “I should have been there with you.”
“Did we get him?” I asked Cap.
Cap laughed in his deep voice. It was rare to hear Cap laugh. “We got him, Tyler. The entire operation. It went… almost smooth.”
Cap glanced at Joey.
“What?” I asked.
“Hey,” Joey said. He swallowed hard. “You saved my life.”
“You did,” Cap said. “You’re a hero.”
“Not me,” I said.
“You took a bullet for me,” Joey said.
“What?” Harper asked.
I reached for her hand and squeezed it tight. “It’s nothing.”
“Bullshit,” Joey said. “Take some damn credit.” Joey looked at Harper. “He and I had our target locked in. We were going to take it all down. I failed to see the corner door on the building. My eyes were locked tight somewhere else. This was my fuck up. I should have seen the other door and either secured it or called for help to secure it. That’s where someone else came out. The guy had a wild shot, but accurate enough to come after me. I heard Tyler’s voice and I turned. The gun went off and next thing I knew, I was on the ground. But I wasn’t shot. Tyler had knocked me to the ground as he dove through the air. He took the bullet to the leg that could have got me in the stomach.”
Harper gasped. She looked down at me. “You are a hero.”
“Well, he saved Joey,” Kordell said. “I mean… you know… it’s only Joey.”
“Hey, fuck off,” Joey called out.
Kordell laughed.
I laughed.
Even Cap laughed.
“I mean it,” Joey said. “You saved my ass. I love you, Tyler.”
Joey’s voice cracked a little.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Cap said. He put an arm around Joey. “We’ve been here all night, Tyler. Needed to see you awake and okay. I think Joey’s had too much coffee and watched too many late-night TV show reruns.”
“Get some rest,” Cap said.
“When can I come back to work?”
“Never,” Harper said.
He patted my shoulder.
I shook hands with them all, Cap being last.
“Don’t do any of the hero shit for me,” I warned him.
“I’m ordering balloons and a cake,” Cap said.
I shook my head.
He laughed again, and they all exited the room.
“I wish I could lock that fucking door,” I growled.
When I looked at Harper again, she had tears running down her cheeks.
“Darling…”
“I can’t lose you, Tyler. Ever. I can’t lose you to a pretend marriage. I can’t lose you to you being jealous of someone else. I can’t lose you because of what someone else did to you. I can’t lose you to a bullet…”
I pulled her hand to my lips and gently kissed. “You’re all I thought about, Harper.”
“Tyler…”
“Did you get what you wanted last night?” I asked.
Harper wiped the tears off her cheeks. “There was nothing there to get, Tyler. I had been with him for a long time. I only went because of you.”
“Me?”
“Because of how you made me feel. Telling me I was beautiful. Telling me I was strong. I had to face him. Alone. And he begged to get back with me. So, I made him text his fiancée that he hated her. Then I made him leave. Oh, and I hit him in the face.”
I laughed.
My leg throbbed in pain.
I winced.
I stared at Harper. “I fucking love you, darling. I mean it.”
“I fucking love you too,” she said. “I mean it. Everything we’ve done has been crazy. But I like crazy with you, Tyler.”
“What about the job?”
“What about?”
“I won’t stop,” I said. “Ever. I’m going to push hard to get back out there as soon as possible.”
“I know,” Harper said.
“And you’re okay with that?”
“Tyler, I want you to be happy. I want you to be you. Because of who you are, you showed me who I am.”
That was the last thing I needed to hear.
She was pushing at my heart, making me feel like a mush like Joey.
I curled my lip and unlocked my fingers from hers. I reached for her waist and slid my hand to the small of her back.
I pulled her to the edge of the bed as my hand moved under her shirt to her warm skin.
She let out a gasp as she leaned over the bed.
I looked up at her, grinning.
“Tyler…”
“I want to see how fast this heart monitor can go. Make that nurse think I’m having a heart attack. Then let her come in here and see me kissing you in all the right places.”
“Tyler…”
I moved my hand around to the front of her shirt and up.
The heart monitor started to beep faster and faster.
“Tyler…” Harper sighed. “Fuck it.”
She grabbed the front of her shirt and bra and pulled it up for me.
I cupped her bare skin and had a taste I wasn’t sure I’d ever have again.
That’s when I realized I didn’t need to die to be in heaven.
29
(Harper)
MONTHS LATER
Tyler’s hands moved over my ass and he pulled me back down.
I cried out at the feeling of him sinking deep into me.
“This is crazy…,” I said in a breathless voice.
Tyler grunted as he fucked up at my body with more force and speed. “Yes, it is.”
I pumped my ass and hips against him, knowing things were never going to be the same for us after today. Not that it really mattered in a way, but it was the realness of it all.
His hands moved up my back and around to my chest.
I put my hands to the bed and lifted up.
His hands were like magnets to my chest.
Touching, squeezing, teasing my nipples until it annoyed me because I couldn’t figure out how he could touch my nipples and control what happened between my legs.
“We’re not supposed to…”
I lost the last few words and whimpered.
“Shut up and finish me,” Tyler ordered. “Or else I’ll take care of myself.”
Tyler hurried to sit up and pressed his body to mine. I leaned back a little and put my right hand down.
“No,” I said. “You can’t. My hair…”
“Then let’s get this going. Don’t want to keep the masses waiting.”
I bit my lip and shook my head.
I refused to look at the clock. I knew we were late.
But honestly… What. The. Fuck. Ever.
I had Tyler inside me. There was nothing better than that.
He hugged me tight as I rode him. And no matter how fast I tried to go, he was right there with me. I lost track of how many times I had come. There was no point in ever trying to count or keep up. My body was made for his. There was nothing else to it. The second the tip of his cock entered me, it was an explosion in my core that didn’t stop until he was done. And even then, my body would throb and ache and crave for more.
I put my head back and Tyler kissed my neck.
“I fucking love you,” he growled as he moved me up and down against him.
The back of my legs tightened once again and I started to freeze up.
Now I was succumbing to Tyler.
I didn’t really care.
He kissed down my chest, carefully tugging at each nipple before reversing back up my chest to my neck and finally seeking my mouth. I met him with maybe the sloppiest kiss of my life. I tried to devour his face like I didn’t know how to kiss but I knew exactly what I was doing.
Tyler loved when I kissed him like that.
He loved when it was wild, sloppy, and he loved when it was the worst time possible.
Then again, this was Tyler.
He loved me anytime, anyplace.
Last month we both came down with a nasty head cold.
We ordered food, stayed in bed, and spent the entire day and night sweating. And it wasn’t from the fever either.
The fact that he could get hard looking at me with a pale face, greasy hair, and feeling half dead really meant he loved me.
Or he was just that horny.
Whatever.
He was with me.
He was in me.
Tyler grunted and pumped up with a hard thrust.
I gasped as I clenched tight against him.
“Oh, fuck me,” he yelled out.
I looked into his eyes. “I am, Tyler. Now come.”
I pressed my hips down hard and he gritted his teeth.
We tried to kiss as he came.
He held me down against him as I felt every inch and every throb.
Our lips touched, but we didn’t kiss.
The moment was one of the most explosive between us.
I wanted to stay there forever, but we couldn’t.
I had no choice but to climb off him.
Tyler started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
He pointed to the wedding dress on the floor next to the bed. “I think we did this entire thing backwards.”
“You think?” I asked.
I stood there naked, thinking about Tyler showing up the morning of our wedding, with his tux tossed over his shoulder. Me standing in my wedding dress, gasping because he wasn’t supposed to see me. I had sent Cara and Joanie for coffee because they were annoying me. Tyler told me to text them and tell them to get to the wedding hall as soon as possible to keep the guests calm and waiting.
Then he took the wedding dress off me and…
“It’s been that way since we met,” I said.
Tyler smiled big. “That’s true.”
He got out of the bed and in typical strange but crazy hot Tyler, he helped me put on my wedding dress. I shivered the entire time.
He was naked the entire time.
“Are yo
u going to get dressed or marry me naked?” I asked.
Tyler looked down at himself. “Would you complain?”
I looked down and growled like a hungry animal. “I wouldn’t complain a bit.”
It was a small but perfect wedding.
I told Tyler to wear his police uniform, but he wanted to wear a tux.
I didn’t argue.
I didn’t care what he wore.
I was fine with him naked.
The only thing I cared about was becoming his wife… again.
We were still technically married but agreed to take the rings off and have an actual wedding. That meant the crazy decision we made that night was going to get the test of time.
We showed up to the wedding an hour late.
Hand in hand, we entered the room to a collective gasp as we walked down the aisle together.
I figured everyone expected us to announce we weren’t getting married. I’m sure a lot of people there figured it was the logical and right thing to do. And it probably was. But then again, how the hell did the other side of it work? I had been loyal to Brian. Through ups and downs. I did love him. I wasn’t sure when I stopped, but it was before he dumped me the night before Valentine’s Day. By then I was just going through the motions. Like Tyler had been doing. So, we understood what it felt like.
And one thing we did was challenge each other every day.
I made coffee in my coffeemaker and he made coffee in his.
He was too stubborn to get rid of that little one.
Just to annoy me.
He would do crazy things like have flowers delivered to his own house because that’s where I worked, and he wanted me to have flowers.
So, I would buy cookies from the grocery store, put them in a container, and show up to his police station to deliver them with a handwritten love note.
We messed with each all the time.
We loved the hell out of each other.
It was absolutely crazy, but it worked.
And then we stood there, facing each other, still holding hands.
Tyler looked at Jeff, the guy who was there to marry us.
“Keep it short,” Tyler said. “We know we love each other. Our vows aren’t written but shown each day we’re together. So, save the speech. You got paid already. Just spit out the words that we’re married so I can take my bride back home and finish what I started a little while ago.”
Under Your Influence Page 13
