“I’m not glaring,” she lied, eyes narrowed to slits.
He tried to suppress his amusement. Failed. She was just too fucking adorable, with her sass and that little dent between her brows and the fact that she’d come here, of all places, to read books about fairies. The huge stack ranging from children’s titles to familiar classics was piled next to her on the bench, along with her open notebook, whose pages looked fuller now than they had this morning.
“Look, my sister is waiting for me over there—”
Harper’s gaze followed the jab of his thumb over his shoulder. “That’s not your sister. She doesn’t even have tattoos.”
“Myothersister, Little Miss Know-it-all. Come and eat with us. She hasn’t many friends around here, and I’m sure she’d be happy to meet you.”
“I don’t think she’d be happy about you telling strangers that she has no friends.”
He couldn’t help but nudge her shin under the table playfully, relishing in the rosy glow it left on her cheeks. She shoved him back, harder, and he laughed. “I can take you back to the cabin when we’re done.”
“And save me from the big bad forest? You’re my knight in shining armour.” Sarcasm dripped from her words. It must have been made of gasoline, because it lit a flame in his chest, a burning sensation he shouldn’t have liked so much.
“You’re a pain in the neck,” he muttered.
“Yup,” she chirped proudly. “But you don’t have to invite me to a family meal under the pretence thatshe’sthe one with no friends. We both know that’s me. And I don’t need a pity tea. It’s fine.”
“Harper—”
“We agreed I wouldn’t interrupt your work, and I did. That’s on me. I didn’t mean to piss you off,” she said, quieter now. Instead of looking at him, she stared at her drink. “It won’t happen again.”
He didn’t like this side of her. Not at all. He’d rather she keep teasing him than sag further into her seat – just like his sister did – like she didn’t want him to look at her anymore. Like she thought maybe he wanted her to disappear.
He sighed, shifting from his chair to the bench beside her. The wood creaked with his weight as he took her hand – beneath the table so that Eiley wouldn’t see if she was watching. He didn’t need another meddling sister on his case.
“It will happen again, because you’re living in my cabin. And I’ll get short with you, because I forget how to talk like a normal person when I’m lost in work. That’s just how it is. I can promise to try to be less of a dick if you try to give me my privacy when I’m in the shed.”
“That seems like a fair deal. Easier for me to keep to than you, though. Being less of a dick? Are you sure you’re capable of it?” Her eyes glimmered with mirth.
He wanted to kiss away her smugness. Stop her front teeth from sinking so seductively into that bottom lip, until she was gasping and speechless. He supposed that meant he was not yet keeping his promise. He was still as dickish as ever, because he wanted her. Every second spent with her only made him hungrier.
Her eyes fell to his lips as though she could read his thoughts clear as day.
He snapped out of a momentary trance, aware of his sister watching them from across the room. Too aware of the twitch between his legs, a promise that it wasn’t just going to be fantasies making this hard for him, but his body, too. Literally.
“What are you drinking, sunshine?” He stood up, motioning to her glass. “I’ll order you another one.”
“Vodka cranberry. Thanks,” she replied hoarsely, then cleared her throat and crossed her legs.Fuck,did she feel it, too?
He went to the bar and tried – failed – to shake himself out of whatever was making him like this.
The problem was thatshecouldn’t be shaken out of him. She was already deep under his skin.
12
Harper was nervous as she followed Fraser over to his sister’s table. She’d already met one of his siblings, but this felt oddly… formal. He was introducing her. He could have just left her in the corner with her books, but instead, he’d insisted she eat with them.Andhe kept calling her sunshine with that unexpected fondness.
Weird was what it was. Sweet, but weird. Or maybe she was just making it weird because she was the weird one, with weird, weird feelings spreading through her like a wildfire through the forest.
“I hope you don’t mind a third wheel,” Fraser joked as he set down the drinks in front of his sister. “Eiley, this is Harper. She’s a…” His eyes flashed over to Harper uncertainly. She was a what? A friend? A disaster? A charity case?
“New in town,” he decided. “Staying in the cabin.”
“Oh, this is the girl Cam was talking about!” Eiley scrunched up her features, much the same way Fraser did when he was scrutinising Harper. Her hair was styled in a flat, strawberry blonde bob and her features weren’t as immediately disarming as Cam’s,but softer, a little like a porcelain doll. She too was gorgeous, with a heart-shaped face and blue-grey eyes, but she didn’t seem to care if other people thought so the way Harper did. She wore little makeup and a comfortable, old-fashioned patchwork jumper with a raincoat and leggings.
“Aye. Cam just loves to talk about my business.” Fraser sat beside his sister, nudging her lightly. Like with Cam, warmth was radiating from him, which felt contagious as Harper took the chair opposite them both.
