Page 78 of Seeing Harper

“No, we did. He originally told us he couldn’t make it, but then called and asked if you could attend. We set up the flight and hotel arrangements and here we are.” He looked meaningfully at Harper. “I have to say I’m so very glad that you came. I might not have ever met you otherwise, and this, us has become very important to me.”

“There is no us, Joel. We’re business associates.”

“I’d hoped we’re friends, too,” Joel said.

“Of course,” Harper answered.

Her Tiger snarled in her mind, but Harper ignored her. She opened the door, gathered her belongings, and got out of the car. “Thanks for the ride.”

“I’ll see you later,” he said.

“Sounds good.”

Harper walked across the parking lot from the drop off zone toward the hotel without looking back, not even when she entered the lobby and crossed over to the elevators. She went straight up to her suite and stripped off her clothes, donning the bath robe provided by the hotel. Flopping down on the sofa, she checked her phone for the tenth time that day to see if Clay had sent another message. It clearly showed that he’d deleted two of them before she’d had a chance to read them, but never resent any. She sat for a few moments just enjoying the silence before picking up the room service menu, and deciding that everything on it was too rich and fancy. She just wanted some good old fashioned simple food. A hamburger, pizza, peanut butter and jelly. Not croque monsieur or Veal Prince Orlof. She only scanned the menu for a few more seconds before tossing it to the coffee table.

Focusing on the idea of swimming instead, she changed into her swimsuit, grabbed a towel and headed downstairs to locate the pool. Delighted to find the indoor pool unoccupied, she dropped her towel on a nearby lounge chair and after dipping her toes in to test the temperature, dove in. She pushed herself hard, swimming lap after lap, and then swimming underwater as far as she could before surfacing to get a breath to continue underwater to the opposite end.

A huge splash behind let her know someone else had entered the pool, but she ignored it and continued pushing herself as hard as she could.

She came up for air halfway between the deep and shallow ends of the pool, and literally bumped into the person who’d gotten in the pool. She’d been swimming without goggles, and spent a few seconds wiping chlorinated water from her eyes, as the person helped support her in the water as she tried to get her bearings. “Sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t know anyone was out this deep!” she said hurriedly.

“It’s okay, it’s just me. I decided to join you.”

Harper’s Tiger let out a warning snarl that Harper herself just barely managed not to release as well. She pushed Joel’s hands off her upper arms and kicked her legs, moving herself backward a foot or so. “What are you doing here?”

“I finished my calls, had my secretary book my flight and change yours, and decided a swim sounded good. So, here I am,” he said happily.

She hesitated before she spoke, clearly not impressed that he’d taken it upon himself to come back after she’d said how she needed some alone time to exercise and get a break from peopling. When she did open her mouth to speak, he interrupted her.

“And I brought pizza!” he said, pointing to a table near where she’d left her towel.

“I was clear that I wanted time alone,” she said.

“I know, but I thought, why not come back? We get along so well. And I enjoyed your company so much these last few days, I figured what could it hurt? So, I grabbed a pizza and here I am. I just knew it would make my night perfect if I spent it with you,” he said as he moved a little closer to her. “I even made sure you have a huge suite, plenty of room for spreading out and making yourself comfortable while you’re here. Even for inviting people up and still not feel like you’re in too close of quarters.”

“I hope you don’t think you’re spending the night with me. That’s not happening. And you upgraded my hotel room?”

“Well, yeah. It was supposed to be a good thing! You’re welcome.”

“Upgrading the room of a business associate does not give you access to her bed.”

“No! Of course, not. I just wanted to share some down time. It’ll be good for both of us to relax and get to know each other better.”

“No. I’m going to go back to my room alone after I finish my laps,” she answered, knowing she wasn’t successfully hiding her irritation with his arrival.

“Suite! I upgraded you to a suite, remember? And no problem. I wanted to swim a little, too,” he said, beginning a weak breast stroke.

She looked at him suspiciously and redirected herself around him and sank below the water, quickly darting out of reach to the opposite end of the pool. She wanted to go back to her room now, but refused to be pushed out of the pool because of his entitlement. She made two more laps before deciding to get out of the pool. When she finally went up the steps, he was already there, holding out his hand and her towel. Joel grasped her hand and ‘steadied’ her as she climbed out of the pool despite the fact she didn’t reach toward him herself. When she stopped on the edge of the pool right in front of him and pulled her hand out of his, he shook out her towel and tossed it around her shoulders, then pulled hard on the ends he still held to move her nearer to his chest rather forcefully. At the last moment she put her hands up in front of herself to stop her body from contacting his. She looked questioningly up at him, irritation clear in her expression.

“Come on, Harper. Surely you know how I feel about you.”

“How you feel about me? You met me five days ago. I’m surprised you remember my name.”

“We’ve hardly been apart for those five days, though. I can’t be the only one that feels it.”

“Feels what?”

“The pull. I can’t stop thinking about you. I think about you all the time. I don’t want to leave after we have dinner each evening, I can’t wait for breakfast each morning. And tonight I just couldn’t fight it. I had to come back. I’ve been nothing but a gentleman, I need more of you today,” he said, using the towel to force her against his chest as he lowered his head to try to kiss her as he held her in place with the towel gripped in his fists.