“Proudly.”
Tapping his fingers on the table, he said, “I want to ask you something. It’s probably not fair of me to ask this of you – it’s not a customary thing among demons and is more of a human convention, but I’d like you to do it.”
Dubious, she frowned. “You’re not going to ask me to get married in a church, are you?”
Mouth curving, he took her hand. “No. These rings say we’re bound.” He smoothed his thumb over the black diamond, adding, “I’d like you to take my surname.”
Her brows almost hit her hairline. “Well, that wasn’t something I’d have ever expected you to say. Maybe I should have. Your possessiveness knows no boundaries.”
“I won’t deny that.”
“At least you’re admitting it. Changing my surname doesn’t seem necessary. I mean, it’s not like people are under any doubt that we’re together.”
“It’s important to me.”
“No, it’s important to your possessive streak.”
It was more than that. “I want my mate to share my surname.”
“Keeping my surname doesn’t mean I’m not fully invested in this relationship or that I don’t believe it will last,” she assured him.
“I know that. And I fully admit that I want you branded in as many ways as it’s possible to brand someone.” Knox didn’t even care that that was unhealthy. He’d made his peace with it long ago. “But this isn’t about taking possession of you.”
“Then what is it about?”
“I understand that your family name means something to you – the Wallis imps supported and loved you while your maternal family rejected you.” For that reason, they’d always have his respect and backing. Well, all except for her father anyway. “I don’t have a family to welcome you into. We’ll be making our own family, and I want us to do that with one name.”
Her chest tightened. “Did you really have to put it that way? I don’t know how to argue that.” It was too sweet.
“So don’t.” He leaned forward. “At least think about it.”
“I’ll consider it.”
“Thank you.”
The waiter then reappeared, and Harper took the bumpy waffle cone with a wide smile. “Thank you.” She licked at the piece of art and groaned; the salted caramel ice cream was smooth and cold on her tongue. “You’re totally missing out,” she told Knox.
Eyes on her mouth, he said, “Oh, I assure you, I’m not.” He barely took his eyes off her mouth the entire time she ate. By the end, he was so damn hard he knew it would hurt to walk.
When she was done, she cleaned her sticky fingers with a lemon wipe. “Ready to go?”
He was ready to get her home where he could take her as he’d wanted to since the previous night. He let her see that in his expression, and he had the pleasure of seeing her pupils dilate and her cheeks flush. “I’m ready to go. Are you ready for me?”
“If it involves me coming multiple times, I’m totally ready.”
His cock twitched. “You’ll come as many times as I want you to.”
“I don’t know… maybe I’m still a little too fragile for you.”
He snorted, rising to his feet. “Fragile is never a word I would use to describe you.” He kept possession of her hand as he guided her out of the parlor. Levi and Tanner fell into step with them as they walked down the long hallway, toward the exit.
Up ahead of them, the door to the hotel’s restaurant opened and a bunch of people filed out. Harper recognized three of them: Thatcher, Jonas, and good ole Alethea. The males were both Primes, and Alethea was Jonas’ sister. She also happened to be a pain in Harper’s ass and liked to flirt with Knox – as if shaking the sheets with him in the distant past gave Alethea some rights to him.
For a while, a whole lot of females had flirted with Knox, but the majority had recently stopped. They’d seen the black diamond he gave Harper and had accepted that it meant there was nothing at all temporary about her place in his life. She suspected they’d ceased to be bitches to her as they’d rather not make an enemy of Knox. Smart move on their part.
Alethea… well, she didn’t demonstrate the same wisdom. In fact, at that very moment, she shot him a sultry smile and said, “Evening, Knox.” Her gaze then cut to Harper, and her smile fell. “Sphinx.”
“Dolphin.” Yeah, Harper liked to call her that since, as an encantada, Alethea could shift into the form of a dolphin. It was kind of a random ability for the ultimate sex demon, in Harper’s opinion, but whatever.
“Knox, good to see you,” said Thatcher, bushy eyebrows lifting slightly. It was probably wrong just how badly Harper wanted to pluck them. “How are you?” he asked.
Knox inclined his head. “I’m well, thank you.”
Thatcher nodded at Harper – it wasn’t so much a nod of respect from one Prime to another as it was a simple acknowledgement of her presence, but she let it go. She wondered how long it would take the Primes to realize she just really didn’t give a shit if they accepted her or not. The fact that she was a Wallis would always be held against her to some degree.
Jonas’ smiling eyes danced from Knox to Harper. “It’s a pleasure to see you both. We haven’t spoken since the celebration of the Underground’s anniversary, have we?”
“No, we haven’t,” said Harper. She didn’t mind Jonas. He was an okay guy, and he did his best to control his dumbass sister.
“Did the Showcase agree to sell?” Jonas asked Knox.
As the boys started talking business, Alethea examined Harper from head to toe and smiled smugly. Yeah, Harper was quite aware that she resembled the living dead and she hated that the dolphin was standing there looking the image of perfection. Alethea’s smug smirk only rubbed salt in the wound. And because Harper could be a bitch too, she said, “So, how’s life in the Red Light District?”
Behind her, Tanner snickered.
Alethea’s eyes tightened. “You overstep far too often, sphinx. I have to say, you look rather weary.”
“And you look rather bitter,” said Harper. “Still pissed about the rings, huh?”
Alethea licked her teeth. “I won’t lie, I don’t think you’re the right person for Knox. But my brother is right – Knox is our ally, we should support his choices.”
Like Harper would ever believe that. She smiled. “That’s good to hear, even if it is complete tripe.”
Alethea’s mouth curled. “I said we should support his choices. I never said that I did.”
And that was why Harper still believed that Alethea could be one of the Horsemen. On the one hand, it could be said that surely she wouldn’t draw so much of Knox’s attention to herself if she was secretly conspiring against him. But Alethea was a she-demon scorned, and scorned she-demons were malicious creatures – especially when they had an ego as wide as hers.
“And I’m not the only one who’ll never support his choice to have a Wallis for a mate,” clipped Alethea.
“Ooh, I cared for about a ninth of a second. Then I remembered how stupid and insignificant it is.”