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Only an idiot would refuse me.
Harper’s many things, but an idiot isn’t one of them.
HARPER
He hasn’t changed a bit.
No amount of money could change who he is as a person, I guess—and it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but I can’t help feeling a little disappointed, just the same. “I figured you would have grown up by now.” Can he see how shaken up I am? I hope not.
“I’ve grown up. Stop stalling.”
“I’m not stalling,” I fire back. “But this isn’t high school anymore. You can’t dare somebody to do something like this and expect them to go along with it.”
“This isn’t a dare. It’s an offer.” He looks me over, his generous mouth twitching in a smirk. My heart flutters at the sight of it—he’s breathtaking, always was, and probably always will be.
Only now, he’s more than the devastatingly hot smartass kid I was in love with and came to hate.
“You can’t say things like that just to make me uncomfortable anymore.”
“Who says I was trying to? I don’t say things I don’t mean. We’re both stuck here with nowhere else to go. You might as well enjoy it.”
The thing is, I’m sure he has options. A man like him would have a private jet, right? He could fly back to New York anytime he wanted.
But he doesn’t want to. He wants… no, I can’t even bring myself to believe it. No way does he actually want me, any more than he did when he asked me out after we finished our project. There I was, thinking he was a decent person for a few minutes. Telling myself, I had misjudged him. I knew from the work we’d done that he wasn’t the empty-headed jock I always imagined. He was hiding a brain, and a very good one.
Stupid, naive me thought I was enough to change him a little, to draw out all the good parts of him he felt like he had to hide.
And then he asked me out after we gave our presentation, only he was smirking and snickering when he did. Like it was all a big joke. I cried about it for weeks.
“You really mean it?” I ask with my heart in my throat.
“I do.”
“If I don’t give you what you want, you’ll fire me,” I say more to myself, reminding me that if I do this, it would only be because I have to, not because I want to.
“A quick call to human resources, and you’re gone.” How can he say it so simply? Like he doesn’t care to leave me jobless.
And how can my heart race in anticipation when there is absolutely, positively, no way in the world this is going to happen? It’s wrong.
Damn it, it’s exciting. And what’s the worst that could happen?
Am I actually entertaining this idea?
“How often are you in town?” I ask.
He chuckles at my sudden question before lifting one muscular shoulder. “Rarely. I don’t normally show up in person for meetings, but I had a few things I wanted to work out in person. Otherwise, I’ll dial in through Zoom if I have to dial in at all.”
He tips his head to the side, chuckling again. “You want to make sure we’re not going to run into each other after this?”
“What about it?” I demand, lifting my chin. “What, you think I want to bump into you after this?”
“You just might. You wouldn’t be the first woman who couldn’t forget me.”
Forget him? That would be impossible, but he doesn’t need to know that. He’s already full of himself as it is. “You’re underestimating me.”
“Am I?” Though he’s not wearing a watch, he checks his wrist. “The clock’s ticking. This offer’s only good for another thirty seconds, so you’d better make up your mind or else get ready to be kicked out on your ass.”
He quirks an eyebrow. “And there are so many other things I’d rather do to it.”
