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“Just be you. Let me understand you.”
“You already do. You protected your mother. You have to understand why I stayed for mine. I know you do. You say you don’t, but you’re not seeing me and the real picture. The company is all I have left of my father and my mother—Iloveher.She might not be perfect, but she’s all I have.”
He inhales and cuts his stare before he looks at me again, his eyes turbulent, a story in their depths that I hope I will one day understand, but I’m not sure he’ll stay that long. “I understand why you were here,” he says. “I don’t understand why you’restillhere, though.”
“My mother—”
“Is my father abusing her? Is she in danger?”
“Maybe. Maybe I am, too. If there was negligence that was intentional, there’s criminal liability that she could get wrapped up inside. I could end up with that liability, too. You know Isaac will look for a fall guy. I’m terrified. I can’t leave now.Icould end up the fall guy.”
His gaze sharpens. “Have you done something to create an exposure?”
“No.” I pick up my wine and sip, my trepidation as bitter as it is sweet.
“Harper?” he prods.
I set the glass down and meet his probing stare. “Not that I know of, but I’m scared, Eric. Who knows what fingerprint I could have on something I don’t understand. I don’t know what’s happening. I just know something is. The recalls. Weird money movement.”
“You need to be honest with me.”
“Iam.I am being honest with you.”
“What don’t I know?” he presses, and I want to scream with the impossibility of this situation.
“Stop repeating that question. I already answered. I can show you everything I have collected, the paperwork, the notes I’ve taken. The information Gigi gave me. I have it at my house.”
His eyes glint steel, his mood tangibly darker. “If you burn me, Harper, you won’t like the results.”
Frustration bites at me at this back and forth that always leads to the same distrustful place. “I have. What can I do to make you trust me?”
“Tell meeverything.”
“I am,” I whisper, frustration bubbling beneath my surface. “Stop already.”
“Clearly the only way I’m getting everything from you is with your clothes off. I need you to talk and I need to fuck you. I can’t do either of those things here. We’re leaving.”
Heat and confusion collide, rushing over me with wicked fierceness. “You don’t have to get me naked to get me to talk. I’m talking.”
“Let’s do it anyway. Any objection to that plan?”
“No,” I whisper, because this is all too emotional and public for me. “No objection.”
Chapter twenty-four
Harper
After announcing that he’s basically taking me home to fuck me, Eric kisses me, a deep slide of his tongue that is over too soon, but he doesn’t pull back. His lips are a breath from mine, lingering there, taunting me with another kiss that doesn’t come, and the sound of the restaurant buzzes around us, fading away. The intensity of the pull between us stealing my breath. “Holy hell, woman,” Eric murmurs, stroking my hair and then lifts his hand to flag the waitress.
That stroke of my hair undoes me. It’s possessive and tender, a command and a question. No man has ever made a simple act so very provocative. No man has ever affected me like this one. He’s ruined me for anyone else and that’s a little bit terrifying.
The waitress joins us and Eric is quick to get us out of here. “We need boxes,” he says. “We’ll take it all with us.”
The woman looks confused. “Oh. Yes. Of course.”
“Quickly,” Eric adds, impatience to his tone that he makes up for by adding, “There’s a big tip in it for you.”
Her eyes go wide and she rushes away. Eric immediately leans over and brushes his lips over mine again. “You taste like trouble.”
