Page 53 of In the Net
Takes one to know one.
Seriously. He’s got a bad reputation. You don’t want to be around him.
Harper (ugh)
Couldn’t be any worse than yours. I can take care of myself. I’m putting my phone away now.
My jaw clenches with frustration. Talking sense to this girl is hard enough in person. I don’t have a chance of doing it through text messages.
“You guys get your dinner,” I say to Carter and Jamie, “I have something to do.”
I wasable to get Scarlett to tell me where Harper and Cody went tonight. When I step into Starlite, the hippest club in Cedar Shade, my eyes scan the large area recently repurposed from an old, unused warehouse, looking for Harper.
I push through the crowded dance floor, craning my neck and searching. I find her sitting at the bar, turned sideways on her seat toward an empty stool next to her. There’s a half-empty drink in front of it. I can only assume it belongs to Cody.
My eyes glide over her. She’s wearing a red dress that matches the bright shade on her lips. Her legs are crossed in a way that has the hem of her dress hitched all the way up to the round curve of her hip. My groin swells.
I imagine Cody Perkins filling that seat across from her, with her angled toward him, his eyes getting a full view of all that exposed skin Harper’s showing thanks to that sinful little dress. Rage beats in my chest.
I stride toward the bar, utterly inconsiderate in the way I’m shouldering through the crowd.
“Good, you’re alone,” I say when I arrive next to her, my voice tense. “That makes this easier.”
Surprise splashes on her face. “What are you doing here?”
“Taking you home.”
Her brows pull down defensively. “Excuse me?”
“You are not dating Cody Perkins.”
She balks. “You have some nerve, you know that?”
“Yep, I sure do. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re not going to date Cody Perkins.”
She crosses her arms defiantly. “What if we’re already a couple? What if we already had such good chemistry on this date that we’ve made it official, huh?”
Her voice is pure tease. She’s acting like such a brat right now that I just want to bend her over my knee and …
I clamp down on that thought real fast.
“We got a problem here?” Yep, that’s Cody’s voice right next to me, trying and failing to sound intimidating.
I turn to him, taking his measure. He’s not a small guy. He plays Safety on the football team. His job is to tackle people. But I bet I could body check him flat on his ass any day of the week.
“No problem at all,” I say, my gaze locked tight with his own. “Just taking Harper home.”
Cody squares his shoulders. “Oh, are you?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“No, he’s not,” Harper objects.
“Harper’s too smart for you anyway, Perkins. We both know your ego couldn’t handle it.”
I actually have to clench my chest to suppress a laugh when a glimmer of recognition flashes in his eyes. I have no doubt it’s something he’s already noticed during this date. To a guy like Cody, a smart woman is emasculating.
But if that ego is the reason he’d never be able to deal with a girl as smart as Harper, it’s also the reason he can’t back down.
