I was coming immediately. My breath hitching high, my hands squeezing Harper’s arm and my tension shattering like glass on the tile.
“Fuck,” I whispered into the air around me as I crumbled. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, Harper. Yes.”
Lips touched over mine, gentle. Smiling. Hushing.
“Quiet now,” he whispered a chuckle along my lips. “I heard you the first time.”
With a hand on his neck I brought him down harder over me, using his mouth to let out a residual groan I’d been holding back fora while. Tucking my head into his neck, I took a few extra moments to collect myself.
When I could finally sit up straight again, flushed and quivering and near dizzy from the encounter, I realized that Harper had righted my panties and pulled my skirt back down into place. I moved my jacket to place it back beside me on the booth and immediately flushed again at the sight of the large hand now settled on my thigh.
I looked up to find him already staring at me. I squinted. “You’re evil.”
No surprise, he grinned. “And you’re dirty, Boss. Who knew you could come like that in a crowded room.”
He’s right about one thing, I surely hadn’t known that about myself. But something about Harper made things feel conceivable. Made me feel invincible.
Warm lips dance across the shell of my ear, kissing behind it gently.
“Need to go clean up, baby?” he asked. “Food’s coming.”
“No,” I said. “I like the reminder.”
“So fucking dirty,” he groaned. The waiter came and set our plates down and Harper glanced at me, with what I couldn’t believe looked like admiration in his eyes. It was gone in a second and then he was pointing to his food. “Now tell me what we’re eating. I let some girl order for me when she was getting?—”
“Harper!”
He laughed and laughed and laughed.
Later, on the way back to the car, a sudden thought struck me.
Harper was opening my door, something I thought he’d do once but turns out he just does all the time, when I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “So, what was the lesson there?”
“Hmm?” he asked, appearing confused.
I blinked at him incredulously. “With the curse words.” I reminded him.
“Oh!” He said like he suddenly remembered now. He shrugged. “No lesson, I just wanted to hear you say it.”
My mouth dropped open, a stunned laugh bubbling out. “Oh my God, Gus Harper you… You little shit!”
I batted at his shoulders in utter disbelief.
He chuckled, shielding himself from the assault and laughing harder at my second curse of the day. “Oh shit! Look out Seaside, I’ve created a monster!”
I laughed too, but I felt something hot wash through my core at the sight of Harper before me. His smile. His smooth features. God, he was just so… Harper.
Yeah. He’d created a monster alright. Let’s just hope now he kept her fed.
Chapter Twenty-One
AUGUSTUS
“I don’t want to pry or anything… But are you ever going to answer that damn phone?”
It was Friday night and I was hanging out with Clay again.
Hanging out with him lately had been nostalgic in a way that was soothing. Needed. Healing. I wasn’t expecting to ever find such a good friend again, but in the few times that we’d reconnected I realized more and more how happy I was that we had.
