Page 123 of Seeing Harper

“You’ll be glad you did,” he teased.

“Fine. Go ahead,” she said.

“I didn’t know what you would think or feel about the situation when I first made this decision, and granted it was spontaneous, especially for me. But after everything that happened between us, I know I was right. I have no doubt I made the right decision.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but when he raised an eyebrow, she closed it again and pressed her lips together, obviously irritated, as she crossed her arms over herself.

“I left school. I finished my finals, took one of them early and headed home. I told you on text I was going to try to take the last one early and I might be here when you got here. Didn’t you get it?”

She shook her head, knowing that was another conversation they’d have to have.

“No wonder you didn’t answer. Anyway, I’m not going back to finish my degree. I don’t need it. Didn’t care if I got it or not. You know that.”

She nodded.

“I found what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life and I used my college fund that has been sitting and growing since we invested it instead of spending part of it for school, to buy it.” He lifted his hands up in a ‘Ta Dah’ moment. “I bought this place!”

Harper’s mouth fell open and her eyes widened in shock.

“I love you, Harper. I’ve always loved you. And when I felt the pull of the mate bond between us, I knew that my fascination with you wasn’t just a fascination. I’m yours. And the only thing I want in my life is to love you. To make you happy. The only thing that you want is be with these horses, and live a life around them. They make you happy, you make me happy. The Bigsbys were selling, so I bought it for us. It’s ours, Harper. If you’ll have me, this place is our life now. You’ll never have to leave it. You’ll never have to worry about it being taken away. I’ve already started getting quotes for insurance coverages to get us ready to hire personnel to work with kids with special needs and equine therapy. I’ve put ads in every place in every kind of media I can think of for professionals to help get the programs off the ground. We’re going to board horses, offer horseback riding lessons, work with the special needs kids and adults, too. We’re going to take care of the Bigsbys for the rest of their lives because they’re not leaving. They’ll remain in their home for as long as they live. We’ll pay them so much a month toward the purchase of this place, and when we finalized the paperwork this morning, Mr. Bigsby refused the lump sum payment I was transferring and insisted the place revert to us on signature of the contracts he’d already had Erica alter. And we’re going to take care of them like family, because they are. They’ve been like a family to you since you were a kid.”

Harper who had begun quietly crying, tears tracking steadily down her face couldn’t stand patiently any longer. She took a step forward, then another before she launched herself at Clay.

Clay caught her and held her tight as she wrapped her legs around his tall body. “I love you, Harper.”

“I love you, too,” she sobbed into his neck. “That’s why I was so hurt when I thought you were with your girlfriend.”

“Never had a girlfriend. Always only wanted you.”

“I love you so much,” she sobbed against his neck.

Clay inhaled deeply and leaned his head against hers, closing his eyes. “So, I did good?” he asked quietly.

“So, good. So very good,” she said, crying happily, her face still pressed against him. “All I want is you, and all this.”

“We are all yours,” he said, squeezing her tightly against him.

“Wait,” she said, leaning back enough to see his face. “What if I hadn’t felt like I do and you’d spent all your money on this property?”

“Then we’d have owned it jointly, and I’d have let you run it and live here. You’re my mate whether you accept me or not. I want you happy even if it’s not me that makes you that way.”

“We’re already mated. I figured it out because of all the turmoil and confusion I was feeling being away from you. It hurt, it actually hurt no matter how much I tried to ignore it. The only thing that made sense is that even though we tried to avoid it, we finalized the mating. I’m guessing when I scratched your arms? But you didn’t mark me.”

“Not obviously. But I did scrape my teeth across your nipples,” he said, his expression not the least bit apologetic. “I couldn’t stop myself, but you didn’t want to be marked.”

“So you knew we were mated.”

“I hoped. I wanted it to be enough to tie us together, but not to frighten you since you were so insistent that I not mark you.”

“I thought you had someone else you were interested in. You said you might have met someone that could be your mate but that you didn’t think she knew yet. That was the only reason. I wanted you to be sure. And then after we… you know, you were in such a hurry for us to get dressed and make sure no one knew. I thought you were ashamed.”

“Harper, I’ve always been sure. And I did try to hurry you to get your clothes back on — but not because I was ashamed. I didn’t want anyone to see you like that but me. And I didn’t want anyone to be able to say a word about it to you until I had the opportunity to convince you that I was the one you were looking for. I thought you weren’t sure and that was the reason you didn’t want me to mark you. The woman I mentioned that night at the pizza place that might be my mate but I didn’t think she knew it, was you.”

She started crying again as she rushed to kiss him, pressing her lips to his, despite the tears steadily trailing down her face, and the smile that just couldn’t be suppressed.

Clay seized the opportunity to really kiss her — slowly, patiently, tasting and memorizing everything about his mate. Everything about the only female he’d ever truly seen. His Harper.

When the kiss finally ended, he continued holding her, not wanting to put her down.