as though it was nothing. As he went to throw it into the sink, I said, “Don’t break that one. I like it.”
“Liquor won’t help,” he said, pouring it into the sink and setting the glass down. He grabbed the bottle and screwed on the cap.
I folded my arms. “You’re so boring.” I sounded like a teenager, but he was used to that.
He put the bottle on top of my refrigerator and stepped toward me. “I know.” He lifted my chin and looked at me. “How much have you had to drink?”
I shrugged, unwilling to tell him he’d put a stop to my fun before it started.
“Tell me, Harper.” He dragged his thumb along my jaw, rough and intimate. My body relaxed as if he were tequila, and I closed my eyes in a long blink.
I uncrossed my arms. “Nothing,”
He nodded and pulled me into a hug, wrapping his long arms around me, enveloping me in the scent I now associated with sex and comfort and peace. I let him hold me, pressing my face against his chest and tightening my arms around his waist.
“I’m not psychic, but I think that maybe today brought some issues to the surface for you.” He squeezed me a little bit tighter when I didn’t answer. “You want to talk about it rather than drink them away?”
“Definitely not,” I replied. Him just being here, holding me, made everything feel so much better. “And I’m sorry about the shoes. They’re beautiful and I love them. Sometimes I don’t accept gifts well.”
He chuckled. “Can I ask why?”
I shrugged and he didn’t ask me anything else.
We stood in my kitchen for what seemed like hours, just holding each other until I managed to say, “I’m okay.” His chest muffled my words.
He sighed, his ribcage rising and lowering against my breasts. “I should go,” he said, but didn’t release me.
“Don’t,” I whispered.
“I don’t want to.” He sounded tired. As if by hugging him, I’d sapped him of his energy. “And that’s why I should. We said no more trips to Vegas.”
We had, and it had been the right thing to do. The problem was the more time I spent with him, the more I wanted.
“Then let’s go somewhere else,” I said, smoothing my hands up his back, shifting my hips just a fraction.
“Harper,” he whispered.
“Aruba,” I suggested. “Or Paris.”
He dipped his head and kissed my neck. My knees weakened in relief. It was what I’d been waiting for since he arrived, since lunch, since the last time he’d touched me.
“Or just here,” I said, trailing my fingers up his sides and around his neck. “Kiss me,” I whispered. “Just be here with me.”
He grabbed my ass and brushed my lips with his, first left then right. I wanted more. I wanted him. I didn’t know if he was trying to torment me or still weighing the advantages and disadvantages of being with me again.
I slid my hands down his chest and he caught my wrists before I could convince him to stay.
“You want me, huh?” he asked, placing my hands on the counter behind me.
I wanted to drown out the day. “Kiss me.”
“You think this is about making you feel better about today. But it’s not,” he said, his eyes not leaving my face. “It’s about this.” His hands swept up my arms and cupped my face. “About the way you feel when I touch you.” He bent and placed a kiss on the corner of my lips, teasing me, making me wait. “About how you need me to fuck you more than you need your next breath.” He knocked my legs apart with his knee.
I couldn’t argue with him. Nothing he was saying was untrue.
I wanted him. Every second. Since before I’d met him.
Even when I thought he was an asshole, I wanted him.
But I wasn’t about to admit it.
I squirmed when he reached into the waistband of my leggings, his insistent hand pushing into my panties. “You see?” he asked. “You’re wet for me.”
He ran two fingers up and down from my clit to my entrance, giving neither relief. I twisted my hips in an effort to feel him deeper, harder.
“Admit it,” he said. “Admit how much you want me.”
I shifted my hands from the counter where he’d placed them and grabbed his shirt, fumbling with the buttons.
“No,” he said, removing his hands from my underwear and batting my hands away.
I groaned in frustration.
“Admit it,” he said.
“I want to get fucked.” It was true.
“You are the