One Timer: An Nashville Assassins Novel Read online

  Harper and I can be what my parents are. I just need her to get on board.

  When I push open the side door that leads to the players’ parking lot, I feel a slow grin cover my lips when I see Harper leaning against my car. She’s wearing a tight gray sweater dress and heeled black boots. She hasn’t put the purple color back in her hair since we’ve been talking, and I don’t think I miss it. I love her hair, dark and styled to perfection. When she smiles, though, everything else fades away.

  Every single word I said from before about Harper rings true. I love her.

  I love her so damn much.

  I don’t say anything as I close the distance between us. When I circle my arms around her waist, she comes up against my chest, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck. “Hey, you,” she says against my lips just as I drop them to hers. I kiss her, feeling every single emotion well up inside of me. I don’t know what she is doing here, and to be honest, I don’t care one bit. I’m just glad she’s here. She pulls back first, grinning as she runs her thumbs along my cheeks. “Well, hot damn, I’ll wait for you more often if that’s the way I’m greeted.”

  Ah, I love her country accent. Elli’s is way more out there, but Harper’s hits me in the feels. I squeeze my arms around her, kissing her top lip. “I want it to be every day.”

  She giggles against my lips, leaning into me. “Stop. You’re making me blush.”

  “Good,” I say, kissing her cheeks that have filled with color. “Tell me you’ve come by to go to dinner with my parents?”

  She laughs against my nose. “No way. Came to make you take me to lunch, and you said you’d replace my coffee table. It broke the rest of the way today.”

  I grin before reaching out to my Jeep to open the back. She tears her gaze from mine to look inside and find the exact coffee table we broke the first night we were together. She looks up at me with a dreamy expression. “Or we can get takeout and go back to my place to put this together.”

  “And maybe break it again?”

  Her eyes darken and sparkle with desire. “Maybe.”

  “I love that word.”

  “Yeah?” I nod, and she bats her lashes at me. “Maybe I’ll do that thing you like.”

  My groin tightens, and I am well aware what she is speaking of, but I need more. “Like come to my game tomorrow?”

  I’d say she is surprised by my question, but she recovers well. “Your game?”

  “Yeah, tomorrow at seven. I can get you tickets—”

  She moves her fingers through her hair. “Elli has tickets. She’s been begging me to go to a game.”

  I lean into her, pressing my nose against the side of hers. “Can I beg you?”

  She looks at me through her lashes. “Maybe.”

  Ah, that word. From those lips. “I want you there. I want you to see how passionate I am about my work. When you showed me your photos, I was amazed by your talent. Let me amaze you.”

  She takes a deep breath. “You already do.” Oh, the grin on my face is unstoppable, and she smiles shyly as she slides her fingertip along my jaw. “Which is why you’ve woken up beside me with that awful breath.”

  I laugh. “And I appreciate you for dealing with my breath. But let me show you what else I can do.”

  Her eyes meet mine, and she nods slowly. “It doesn’t mean anything if I go. Like I keep saying, we aren’t together.”

  I roll my eyes. Yes, she has said this a time or two, and no, I don’t believe her at all. “What did I tell you about that? I don’t want to hear your lies.”

  “I’m not lying. We’re not together. We’re just dating.”

  “So, does dating mean we spend every night together for a week?”

  She looks away. “Sure does.”

  “And it means that I hold you for hours on end while we watch all those weird, scary shows you like?”

  She won’t look at me. “Supernatural is not scary.”

  “It is too, which is why I hold you.”

  She shrugs. “Fine, yes.”

  “And tell me… Dating means we stay up all night talking and learning more about each other, naked, in bed.”

  She finally meets my gaze, that determined look on her face that drives me wild. “Those are all details that don’t need to be mentioned. Especially the naked one.”

  I grin with a wink. “But the naked part is my favorite.”

  “See, which is why we’re dating, maybe even fucking.”

  I shake my head. I hate that more than the “we’re just dating” bullshit. “No, we left all that behind when I learned the names of your family, your friends, and how many men you slept with before me. We—me and you—are doing something here, Harper. Admit it.”

  “No way,” she says, very resistant. “Never.”

  “You’re going to admit it,” I promise her, and she presses her lips together. “And you’re coming to my game to cheer me on because you want to watch me win.”

  “Or I’m coming to the game because I want to hang with my friend.” I give her a dry look, and she sends me one right back. “Don’t rush me, Jakey.”

  I laugh from the gut, despite her annoyed look. “But you’ve given me a nickname and we’re only dating?”

  She glares as her face warms with color. It’s so beautiful, the color, but on her, it’s breathtaking. “Hush.”

  “Never. I will get you to admit this is more than just dating.”

  She rolls her eyes. “I won’t.”

  “You will, and when you do, it’s gonna blow us both away.”

  She narrows her eyes. “This will probably end before that could ever happen.”

  I laugh. “This is never going to end.” She rolls her eyes, and I look at her seriously. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because things don’t last.”

  “This will.”

  “How do you know?” she asks mutinously.

  “Because I feel it, just as you do. But you choose to ignore it.”

  She sets me with a pointed look. “I don’t feel anything.”

  “You can say that all you want, but I feel it in your kiss,” I say, moving my thumb along her lip. “In the way you look at me. The way you hold me. And most definitely the way you smile.”

  Her eyes soften, and her lips quirk at the side. “People don’t stay with me.”

  “Do you give them a chance?”

  She stares at me, her eyes burning into mine. “I don’t have to.”

  “Well, give me the chance, Harper, because I’ll prove you wrong. Over and over again,” I promise, taking her mouth with mine. I know she probably has a lot to say to that, but thankfully, she falls into the kiss.

  Just like how I want her to fall in love with me.

  Just like how she will fall.

  I know it.

  When I come onto the ice, the first thing I see is Harper.

  She’s wearing a purple jersey, and I’m pretty sure I see a number two on each of her cheeks, but I won’t get my hopes up. She has her hair spiked tonight with the purple throughout it. She’s wearing bright purple eye stuff and even lipstick. Her style excites me. Like her best friend, who is wearing every piece of Shea Adler merchandise there is, respectively, Harper looks as if she is a fan, but I know that’s not the case. Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. This is the first game she’s ever been to. And I don’t care what she says; she’s here for me. I didn’t know where Elli’s seats were, but to any hockey fan, they’re badass. Right beside the penalty box and immediately across the ice from where we come out.

  As I put a puck to my blade, I watch as Shea skates right for where Elli and Harper are sitting. Even though no one can tell, I watch as he talks through the glass to Elli, who looks more like a teenager than a grown woman. She is excited and basically bouncing while looking at Shea. She is all about him, and Shea is eating it up. Harper sits beside Elli with this look of disgust on her face, and it annoys me. I want her to be excited like that for me, but her words from earl