Three Strikes and You're Mine

by R.S. Grey

well, if he pushes my daughter again, he’ll have a lot more to worry about than a little dirt up his nose.

“Why is she blinking like that? Like over and over so fast. Does she have an eye disease?”

“It’s because of you and your attitude. That’s why she’s always running away from us as fast as she can.”

Luke is a hunky muscular bear of a man.

any thought of Luke is accompanied by fluttering butterflies and flute-filled serenades. I’m in so deep there’s no going back.

If reading regency porn on the beach is wrong, throw me in handcuffs and haul me off to jail.

It hurts to love someone so much, to have your exposed heart walking around on two legs all day.

“I want you to know why, even though it’s completely obvious that I’ve got a big ol’ embarrassing crush on you, I haven’t acted on it.”

“I am insanely, annoyingly, couldn’t-stop-if-I-tried attracted to you. I have thought about kissing you a hundred times in a hundred ways.”

“Okay, new plan,” she quips. “I’ll quit and make this easier on us.” The suggestion sends a fissure of panic through me. “No.” “You could fire me?” “I’m not firing you.” She sighs lightly. “Oh, all right. Amnesia it is.”

“I didn’t want to take any chances. Also, it’s my fictional scenario—why should I be friend-zoned?”

I have to boldly look into the warm sultry eyes of a man who could have my heart served to him on a silver platter (if only he wanted it!) and pretend I’m not falling…all the time, little by little.

Harper continues, “But it doesn’t matter if she likes you, because you like Chloe.”

You’re my dad and a baseball player. Why can’t Chloe be a chef and your girlfriend? Nana says hearts want what they want.”

In my opinion, it’s not that easy being a kid. Being told what to do all the time, following directions, sitting still, minding your manners—it all gets to be too much sometimes. If Harper can’t express her feelings here, at home where she feels safe, where can she?

“Oh okay, for starters, I’m so attracted to you I can barely restrain myself when you’re in my presence. I’m a fool for you, constantly, wanting you every damn minute of the day.”

“Yeah, not sure if you could tell from the way I just attacked you downstairs, but I’m pretty interested in fucking you.”

“But now you’re mine, Chloe.” His voice drops as he repeats it again against the shell of my ear. Mine.

The crushing weight of a child’s love isn’t crushing at all. It’s weightless. Termless. Restriction-less.

“I love you.”