by A. C. Arthur
“But you grew up here. In this town and that big farmhouse.”
“Yes. I did,” she said and tried not to feel too sad about not having her mother anymore. It was an old wound, but every now and then, the feeling of loss could sneak up on her. “One day my dad told me that he’d never wanted me to grow up on the base. That he’d urged my mom to stay Stateside after she had me. But my mother was committed to her marriage and her family.”
“She wanted you to stay together,” Garrek said. “My mother wanted that for us, too.”
“What do you want to do, Garrek? Do you want to live in Temptation or stay in the service?”
She probably shouldn’t have asked him that, but he’d opened the door to the discussion, so Harper had literally and figuratively sat down and made herself comfortable with it.
He sat back in the chair then and stared straight ahead. “I thought I knew. Just six months ago, I thought I knew everything. Where I was, why I was there and where I was going.”
“But now?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure.”
“Is that why you really came back here?”
“It’s why I’m sitting here right now,” he said. “I think that’s the more important thing.”
That was saying a lot, and at the same time, it wasn’t saying enough. For the first time since she’d met him, Harper realized that he was just as confused about his life as she often was about hers. That was huge, considering her circumstances. No, Harper was not naive, nor did she think she was the only person in the world with problems, but she did know how hard it was trying to make sense of it all.
“You’ll work it out,” she told him, because it was what she had to remind herself so often. “Where you belong and what you’re supposed to be doing will make itself clear to you when the time is right.”
He looked over to her then, his gaze holding hers for the next few seconds—until there was a knock on his door.
Garrek cursed. “Three days of solitude, and the last hour and a half people cannot stop knocking on this door.”
He stood as he spoke, so Harper did, too, prepared to leave. She’d said what she came to say, and he obviously wasn’t in the mood for company.
“Good evening,” Otis said the minute Garrek opened the door. “Got some piping-hot dinner for you two. Was told to bring it right up, as you were both hungry and needed to eat and relax.”
“Who told you that?” Garrek asked.
Harper frowned as she tried to figure that out herself. Otis didn’t bother to answer. He was too busy pushing a rickety old cart into the room, stopping right behind the couch where Harper had stood just minutes ago.
“How you doing, Ms. Harper?” Otis asked when he glanced over to her.
“I’m well, Mr. Otis. Um, but I don’t understand what’s going on here,” she said, because she wanted to make certain that Garrek did not think this was her doing.
“Just thought you lovebirds would like a little dinner,” he answered. “Nana Lou cooked up some of the fresh shrimp her nephew Cyrus caught this morning. And there’s some seasoned wedge potatoes fresh outta the grease. Cocktail sauce is on the side, but if you’re like me, you’ll leave that spicy stuff alone. Shrimp are seasoned just fine, and big ones, too.”
He talked as he moved farther into the room, pushing the papers on the table to the side. He walked back to the cart, his bowed legs giving him a wobbly sort of gait, picked up the tray and carried it to the table.
“We didn’t order any food,” Garrek told him.
“But you gotta eat, right?” Otis asked when he returned to the cart to grab the container of lemonade and a bowl of butter-topped dinner rolls. “I know Ms. Harper does. She had a busy day down at the spa with Wendy and Morgan. I was just coming from down there, fixing those recessed lights in the back room, when I walked in the front door and Mr. Grayson was on his way out.”
So Gray had sent him up here with the food. From the way Garrek frowned, Harper could tell he’d connected those dots as well and wasn’t terribly happy about it. Neither was she that Otis had just told Garrek where she’d been all day.
“This is Nana Lou’s fresh lemonade in the pitcher. Got the pulp and plenty of sugar. It’s what they like to call refreshing.” Otis laughed then, his high cheekbones and glossy dark brown skin highlighted with the action.
“Thank you, Mr. Otis,” she said, because it really was no use blaming him.
If Gray had said something to him about her being up here, then Otis was just doing his job. Just like she suspected Gray was getting used to doing what all the other people of Temptation received so much pleasure from doing—meddling.
“Thank you,” Garrek said begrudgingly before walking the older man out.
Harper moved closer to the table, looking at the china plates and folded linen napkins on the tray. There was also a small vase with three fresh carnations stuck inside. Nana Lou kept a huge pot of fresh carnations on the front desk. It was quite a romantic-looking tray of food, if only romance was what was happening here.
“Guess we’d better eat,” Garrek said when he came up behind her. “I’ve learned it’s a waste of time to argue with Nana Lou and her cooking.”
* * *
She was right.
There was nothing going on between them.
There shouldn’t be, anyway. What happened at the house was...well, it had happened, but...
Garrek finished his second glass of lemonade as he continued to watch her sitting across the table from him. It wasn’t the rum and Coke he’d begun craving again the morning after their night at the house. But strangely enough, he was enjoying it just as much.
When Harper had first showed up here wearing those bulky sweatpants that hung low on her hips and the tight tank top that rode just a little higher than the waistband of her pants, giving him a sneaky little peek at her midriff, he’d known he was in trouble.
Staying away from her had been intended to kill any and all of those eerie little feelings that arose when he was around her. The four-day separation was supposed to make him forget how strong and dominant he felt when his hands spanned her slim waist and lifted her into his arms. How wanted and desired he felt when she let him glide her down over his aching arousal. And that look in her eyes—each and every time he saw her it was the same, like he was the only guy in the room, in the world.
Garrek had never felt that way before. Ever.
It was intense and so different that he figured it had to be some kind of joke. A cruel and sick one that was bound to blow up in his face any minute now.
“When can you start working on the house?” he asked when he’d decided that thinking about her in any other way besides professional was futile.
He wasn’t in the market for a relationship, and Harper Presley was definitely a relationship type of woman. Even if she tried to dispute that fact, Garrek knew differently. She came from a tight-knit family in a town that was full of families, and despite how she sometimes had a far-off, lonely look in her eyes, he sensed she was right where she wanted to be, doing exactly what she wanted to do. Like he’d thought he was doing in Washington.
Now, he had decided that he would hire her to restore the Adberry house, and he would not sell it. At least not yet.
“I’m wrapping up the job at Gray’s in the next week. He wants everything done before Morgan delivers. She’s due around Labor Day, but really she looks like she’s about to pop right now. Ms. Ida says the women in her family never carry a baby right up to the due date, so we’re all in agreement that the house needs to be finished before the Fourth of July festivities.”
“There are Fourth of July festivities?” he asked, enjoying the way she was folding her napkin.
Her nails were unpainted but still managed to look dainty and neat at the same time.
She smiled, and Garrek felt a
quick and potent pain in the center of his chest.
“There are festivities for every calendar holiday, and some made-up ones, in Temptation,” she told him.
“I see,” he said. “Well, I’ll be here at least until then, so when you’re ready, we can go back to the house and you can walk me through each room explaining what needs to be done.”
“That sounds good. I’ll be able to give you a preliminary estimate after that. Thank you,” she said. “For this opportunity. I’ll do it right.”
“I know you will,” he said, believing every word.
He’d seen the look in her eyes when they were at the house the first time, and he’d heard the sound of her voice as she spoke about the place. She was connected to that house even though she’d never lived in it, and that’s what Garrek thought the place really needed. A connection.
She stood abruptly. “Okay, well, I think it’s time for me to go. I’ve already stayed much longer than I anticipated.”
Garrek stood up as well, following her as she moved toward the door.
“Really? What did you anticipate when you came here?”
He’d resolved not to ask her that question. He wasn’t going to look at her and wonder how it would feel to have her come here just to see him, to want to slip into that bed with him and let him make slow and passionate love to her.
“I just wanted to set the record straight,” she said when she was close enough to reach for the doorknob.
“About what?”
“About us,” she replied and then opened the door.
“What about us?”
He moved in quickly, closing the space between them until she was backed against the front of the now wide-open door. Her hands went behind her back, her chin jutting up so that she could stare right at him. Just like that first night she’d looked up at him, capturing him with her naturally beautiful face, her lithe body, her hair and her scent. Garrek inhaled deeply and let the breath out slowly, his lids lowering as he stared down at her.
“There is no us,” she said, her voice a breathy whisper as he pressed his body close to hers.
“Are you sure about that?” he asked, putting his palms up on the door on either side of her face, caging her in.
“Yes,” she sighed and then licked her lips. “We’re not...um, we’re not dating or anything like that. Just...” She paused and sucked in a breath as his teeth nipped the line of her jaw. “Just...working together now,” she said and cleared her throat.
“I feel like there’s something else,” Garrek confessed.
He stroked his tongue over the soft skin of her jaw, then moved up to her cheek and over to touch his tongue to the edge of her lips.
“No,” she whispered. “I don’t think so.”
“Why?” He needed to know. “Don’t you feel it?”
“I’ve never experienced this before, so I don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like,” she told him.
He pulled back slightly and gazed into her eyes for several quiet seconds.
“Like this,” he said, and then pressed his now swollen erection against her thigh.
She hissed, and her tongue sneaked out to touch her bottom lip once more. He caught it in that second, touching his tongue to hers, making them both moan. Garrek felt her body tense and thought for a moment that she was going to pull away, but then she moaned and leaned in, twirling her tongue around his.
He had to touch her then, bringing his hands down to cup her face as he took the kiss deeper. This was it, this right here. It was the feeling that he was running toward each time he was near her. Like a sprint to get her and grab her, hold her tightly to him and just sink in. Forever, if he could.
She turned her head then, breaking the contact of their lips and leaving him breathing heavily as he tried to get a grip on his wandering thoughts.
“There’s nothing between us,” she said again.
She wasn’t looking at him at first, but then she took a deep breath and stared at him once more.
“There’s this physical pull, I’ll admit that,” she continued. “But nothing else. Like I said, we aren’t dating.”
“Is that what you want?” he asked. “You want to go on a date?”
She shook her head and then eased away until she was standing in the hall about three feet from him.
“As far as personal relationships, I’ve never let myself think about what I want. It just wasn’t a priority. But what I do know is that I could never be someone whose only concern is the physical. I’m worth more than that,” she said.
Garrek wholeheartedly agreed.
“If that silly auction and the money you paid gave you the wrong impression, I apologize. And I’ll gladly give you your money back.”
“Wait a minute,” he began.
“No. It’s okay. I can see how you originally got the wrong idea, and then that day at the house, I didn’t make it better. But I’m being clear now. I’m being honest,” she said. “There are no hard feelings.”
To hell there weren’t. He was offended and embarrassed, because as much as he knew he wasn’t the type of guy to pay for sex, he knew at the same time that he hadn’t given her a good idea of what type of guy he was. He hadn’t thought there was a reason to. Until now.
“Harper, you don’t understand,” he tried to say.
She shook her head. “I do,” she told him. “Honestly, I do. And it’s okay. We can just start over. Okay? I’ll work on some ideas, and we’ll schedule a time to go look at the house again.”
She was backing farther away from him as she talked, heading down the hallway away from his room.
“I’ll get everything squared away at Gray’s place and then have my crew ready to dive into your project. I won’t let you down in that area. I promise,” she said earnestly.
And then she was gone. Running down the steps until he couldn’t see her anymore. Garrek didn’t know how long he just stood there, staring, wondering what the hell he’d just done.
Again.
Chapter 9
Four days later, Garrek had just finished typing a text message and was hitting Send when Morgan opened the front door to let him in.
“Why do you keep knocking on this door like you’re a guest?” she asked by way of greeting.
He’d smiled down at her, because in the weeks that he’d known her, she’d begun to sound more like his sisters than he thought she even knew.
“Well, you haven’t given me a key yet” was his joking reply as he slipped his cell phone back into his front pants pocket and made his way through the foyer.
The house looked different than it had almost a month ago when Gray had first brought him here to meet his family. The wood floors were newly glossed, as was the dark cherrywood banister leading up the stairway. There were drapes at all the windows, furniture in each room, an array of freshly painted walls, shiny new doorknobs and people. Tonight there were lots of people.
Gray had mentioned that they’d planned an open house because Morgan wanted the town to see the house they’d talked about for so many years. Morgan figured if they just let the people in this time, that might lessen the gossip surrounding the house renovation. Gray wasn’t as optimistic about that. He thought the people of Temptation would always be fascinated by the Taylors and interested in whatever they did. Garrek was inclined to agree, since Fred Randall already knew about Garrek owning the Adberry house before Garrek had even asked for his assistance. Apparently, Mr. Simon and Fred were poker buddies.
The brothers had spoken on the phone for about fifteen minutes that morning, during which time Gray had also asked about Garrek’s dinner with Harper.
“Sending Otis up here with a tray of food was unnecessary. There’s nothing between me and Harper,” Garrek had said.
“That’s not how I saw it,” Gray told him. “And I’m not ta
lking about the gossip. I’m speaking on what I saw personally. Harper Presley is never flustered. She’s a candid and compassionate person with a keen eye for construction and a head for business. But every time I, or anyone else, mention your name around her, she blushes. Add that to her showing up at your place dropping the infamous ‘we need to talk’ line, and I get the picture.”
“You’ve got the wrong picture,” Garrek had said. “We’re just working together.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. But I know how a man looks at a woman he wants. I was in your shoes not too long ago, little bro,” Gray added with a chuckle.
“No, Gray. You’ve never been in my shoes,” Garrek had replied solemnly.
He’d ended the conversation then. He’d also vowed to do whatever Gray asked him from now until he left Temptation as an attempt to keep his older brother from asking about the two things Garrek was not ready to discuss. The first was what happened in Washington and the second was—despite what he or Harper thought—what was currently happening between him and Harper.
The community center reopening had been two days ago, and Garrek had made it through that just fine. In fact, he’d enjoyed standing next to Harper and her grandfather, watching as Morgan cut the huge red ribbon that was stretched across the glass front doors of the building. A wave of something—pride, he thought—had swept through him as he read the name etched over the doorframe: Olivia Lorraine Taylor Community Center.
She would have loved being a part of the town once again. She would have loved her children being a part of Temptation as well. Unfortunately, Garrek didn’t think that was going to happen.
Now, Garrek was spending his Friday night at a house party unlike the ones he used to attend when he was in high school. That thought made him smile, just in time for Morgan to turn around and see him.
“Well, I wonder what you could be thinking about to put that kind of smile on your face. Or should I say who?”
His sister-in-law did in fact look as if she were about to pop in an orange dress that barely touched her knees. Around the sleeves were funny little colorful balls that reminded him of the drapes his mother used to have in their dining room. On Morgan they simply looked whimsical, and Garrek thought the outfit suited her perfectly.