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“You also forgot your pants.”
“You doused me in coffee, so I had to take them off. Then I didn’t feel like going all the way upstairs for another pair,” he said, with a glint of mischief in his eyes. As he once again took a seat on the desktop, he added, “Now I’m making a big ol’ ass print on your desk. That’s kind of gross. I didn’t really think this through.”
I pretended to frown at him as I picked up one of the cocktails and took a sip. “You really didn’t. Fortunately for you, this is delicious, so I’m inclined to forgive you. But what happened to those sandwiches?”
“What do you mean, what happened to them?”
“They look like they got run over by a truck.”
“They don’t look that bad, especially since I hid the burned side on the bottom.” He studied them for a moment, then conceded, “Okay, maybe they got slightly squashed, because it seemed like a good idea to flatten them like a panini.”
I raised a corner of a sandwich to inspect the charred underbelly. Then I peeled a bit off the top and popped it in my mouth before mumbling, “That’s not cheese.”
“Not technically. No.”
“So, what is it?”
“Some kind of vegan…stuff. It’s all I found in the fridge,” he explained. “You know I’ve been vegetarian for a long time, but Tristan is trying to turn me vegan. I’m almost down with that, except that I really, really like cheese.”
I forced myself to swallow whatever was in my mouth before saying, “Yeah, I have to say, I’m with you on the cheese thing.”
“Since I failed with dinner, can I interest you in some dessert instead?”
“I’m only halfway through these RSVPs, so can it wait?”
“Oh God.” Harper melted off the desk and collapsed onto the floor in a big, overdramatic heap. “I’ve totally lost my touch. I should just join a monastery and resign myself to a life of celibacy.”
“What are you talking about?”
He sat up and said, “I was trying to offer you me. I’m dessert. Was coming in here naked too subtle? Should I go squirt myself down with whipped cream and stick a couple of cherries on my nipples? Because I can do that.”
“Is there such a thing as vegan whipped cream? If so, I bet you anything it’s slightly beige and probably made out of cashews.”
Harper groaned and fell forward, so his forehead rested on my knee. “I give up.”
I grinned and ran my hand over his hair. But after a few moments, I said, “I should go.”
He looked up at me and asked, “Why?”
Because I’m getting way too attached to you. Because it’s going to gut me when you move on to your next flavor of the day, or week, or month. Because I’m feeling a lot of things right now, and I need time to sort it out. All of that was too much to admit, so I said, “I’m tired, and I want to get an early start tomorrow with the rest of this correspondence.”
“Spend the night with me, Phee. It can be whatever you want, hot and passionate like Friday night, or sweet and mellow, like last night.”
The night before meant the world to me. He’d seemed perfectly content to just sit in bed and read with me, and then I ended up falling asleep in his arms. It had actually been a lot more intimate than when we’d had sex. Harper fucked a lot of people, but very few got to see that other side of him, the quiet one that wasn’t putting on a show. It made me feel special, and it made me think he truly cared about me, and—shit, I really needed to get out of here.
I slid back the chair and got up, then tried to pull up a cheerful façade as I said, “You need your rest, too. You have a big week ahead. I’ll be back first thing tomorrow morning.”
I started to leave the office, but a quiet, “Don’t go,” stopped me in my tracks. When I turned back to him, Harper said, “I don’t understand why you’re running away like this. Did I do something wrong? I’ll go put on some clothes if you want, and I’m sorry if that was inappropriate. I was hoping you’d find it funny, and that maybe it’d entice you to take me to bed.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
He got to his feet and crossed the room to me. I should go. It was going to hurt so bad when he moved on to his next shiny new plaything. I’d be devastated. Broken. He cupped my cheek and said, “Please stay with me.”
It was like lightly tapping on a pane of glass, then watching the whole thing shatter into a million pieces. Four quiet words, one gentle touch, and my resistance disintegrated before my eyes.
