📖 The Story Continues
The story doesn't end here.Continue reading the full story adaptation below and discover what happens next.
How to Tame a Silver Fox – Episode 04
Harper reached for the door as soon as Chris stopped outside the store, eager to complete the errand before he changed his mind. The brightly lit entrance was only a short distance away. She had almost escaped the charged silence of the vehicle when his voice stopped her.
“You’re not going out there dressed like that.” Chris’s gaze traveled over her wet clothes with open disapproval. “It’s not safe.”
Harper looked down and finally saw what the rain had done. The fabric had become nearly transparent beneath the store lights, outlining far more than she had intended to show. Horror swept through her as she covered herself with both arms.
“Has it been like this the whole time?” she demanded. The question included the street, the rescue, and every second she had spent sitting beside him without realizing how exposed she was.
“Yeah.” Chris answered without apology, which only made her embarrassment worse.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Her voice rose as she imagined him noticing the moment he arrived. He had let her ramble, argue, and stare at his arm while knowing exactly what her soaked clothes revealed.
“I just did.” His composure was maddening. He seemed less interested in her embarrassment than in preventing anyone else from seeing her.
“You freaking creep.” Harper turned on him, although she knew the accusation did not fit the man who had just protected her. Blaming him was easier than admitting she had been oblivious.
“Give me a jacket or something,” she said. Chris did not have one within reach, and his eyes flicked toward the closing store.
Without ceremony, he caught the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. Harper’s irritation disappeared so quickly it was almost humiliating. The wet fabric had concealed a body built with the same disciplined force he carried in every movement.
Chris held the shirt out to her. Water shone across his shoulders and chest, and the years since she had last seen him became impossible to ignore. He was not merely older; he was a fully grown man, imposing and dangerously attractive.
Harper forgot to take the shirt. Her gaze lingered before snapping back to his face, where unmistakable amusement had begun to appear. He had caught her staring.
“When you’re done checking me out,” he said, “I think your store closes in two minutes.” The reminder broke the spell and sent heat rushing into her cheeks.
“I was not checking you out.” She grabbed the shirt from him and pulled it around herself, swallowing the fact that it smelled like rain and him. “That was a yawn.”
Chris looked unconvinced. “I’m sure it was, kiddo.” The nickname landed harder now, because nothing about her reaction to his bare chest had felt childish.
“It’s past your bedtime,” he added. His teasing made clear that he intended to keep their relationship safely where it had always been: he was the adult, and she was Mark’s little girl.
Harper pushed open the door, gathering the oversized shirt around her. “Stop calling me kid.” She wanted the demand to sound firm, but the frustration beneath it carried something more complicated.
Chris watched her hurry toward the store wearing his shirt, his expression unreadable in the wash of neon and rain. Harper could prove her age with an identification card inside, but as long as Chris looked at her and saw a child, twenty-two would never be enough.
