Hard Knocks: An Ultimate Novella. Lori Foster

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СКАЧАТЬ how to make it his fight, not anyone else’s.

      “Sucks that you have to sit this one out,” Harper continued. “But since you do, I know you’d rather be brimming with confidence, instead of moping around like a sad sack.”

      Folding his arms over his chest, he glared down at her. “I don’t mope.”

      She eyed his biceps, inhaled slowly, blew the breath out even slower.

      “Harper.”

      Brows raised, she brought those big blue eyes up to focus on his face. “What?”

      He dropped his arms and stepped closer, crowding her, getting near enough to breathe in her unique scent. “How do you figure we’d fake things?”

      “Oh, yeah.” She glanced to one side, then the other. “People are looking at us.”

      “Yeah?” Currently the only people in the gym were the guys helping to set it up for the party. Armie, Stack, Denver, a few others. “So?”

      “So...” She licked her lips, hesitated only a second, then came up against him. In a slow tease, her hands crawled up and over his chest. Fitted against him, she went on tiptoe, giving him a full-body rub.

      Without even thinking about it, Gage caught her waist, keeping her right there. Confusion at this abrupt turnaround of hers stopped him from doing what came naturally.

      Didn’t bother her, though.

      With her gaze locked on his, she curled her hands around his neck, drew him down to meet her halfway and put that soft, lush, taunting mouth against his.

      Hell, yeah.

      Her lips played over his, teasing, again provoking. They shared breath. Her thighs shifted against his. Her cool fingers moved over his nape and then into his hair. The kiss stayed light, slow and excruciating.

      Until he took over.

      Tilting his head, he fit his mouth more firmly against her, nudged her lips apart, licked in, deeper, hotter...

      “Get a room already.”

      Gasping at the interruption, Harper pulled away. Embarrassed, she pressed her face against his chest before rearing back and glaring at Armie.

      Gage just watched her. He didn’t care what his dipshit friends said.

      But he’d love to know what Harper was up to.

      “Don’t give me that look,” Armie told her. “We have high school boys coming over tonight.”

      “The biggest kids are already here!”

      “Now, I know you don’t mean me,” Armie continued, always up for ribbing her. “You’re the one having a tantrum.”

      Gage stood there while they fussed at each other. Harper was like that with all the guys. She helped out, gave as good as she got, and treated them all like pesky brothers that she both adored and endured.

      Except for Gage.

      From the get-go she’d been different with him. Not shy, because seriously, Harper didn’t have a shy bone in her hot little body. But maybe more demonstrative. Or rather, demonstrative in a different way.

      He didn’t think she’d smack any of the other fighters on the ass.

      But he wasn’t stupid. Encouraged or not, he knew guys were guys, period. They’d tease her, respect her boundaries, but every damn one of them had probably thought about sleeping with her.

      For damn sure, they’d all pictured her naked.

      Those vivid visuals were part of a man’s basic DNA. Attractive babe equaled fantasies. While Harper hustled around the rec center helping out in a dozen different ways, she’d probably been mentally stripped a million times.

      Hell, even while she sniped back and forth with Armie, Gage pictured her buck-ass, wondering how it’d feel to kiss her like that again, but without the barrier of clothes in the way.

      “You need a swift kick to your butt,” Harper declared.

      “From you?” Armie laughed.

      Fighting a smile, she said, “Don’t think I won’t.”

      “You wanna go?” Armie egged her on, using his fingertips to call her forward. “C’mon then, little girl. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

      For a second there, Harper looked ready to accept, so Gage interceded. “Children, play nice.”

      “Armie doesn’t like nice.” She curled her lip in a taunt. “He likes kinky.”

      In reply, Armie took a bow.

      True enough, if ever a man liked a little freak thrown into the mix, it was Armie. He’d once been dropped off by a motorcycle-driving chick dressed in leather pants and a low-cut vest, her arms circled with snake tattoos. She’d sported more piercings than Gage could count—a dozen or so in her ears, a few in her eyebrows, lip, nose. The whole day, Armie had limped around as if the woman had ridden him raw. He’d also smiled a lot, proof that whatever had happened, he’d enjoyed himself.

      Unlike Gage, Armie saw no reason to skip sex, ever. Not even prior to a fight. The only women he turned down were the ones, as Harper had said, that were too nice.

      “Come on.” She took Gage’s hand and started dragging him toward the back.

      “Hey, don’t leave my storage closet smelling like sex,” Armie called after them. “If you’re going to knock boots, take it elsewhere!”

      Harper flipped him the bird, but she was grinning. “He is so outrageous.”

      “That’s the pot calling the kettle black.” Just where was she leading him?

      “Eh, maybe.” She winked up at him. “But I just act outrageous. I have a feeling it’s a mindset for Armie.”

      Ignoring what Armie had said, she dragged him back into the storage closet—and shut the door.

      Gage stood there watching her, thinking things he shouldn’t and getting hard because of it. Heart beating slow and steady, he asked, “Now what?”

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