~*~
Everything had seemed so perfectly normal that final day they spent together. Harper and Noah had gone to dinner at their favorite restaurant; then they walked along the boardwalk. Afterward, they went out to a small private beach that only the locals knew about and spread out a blanket between the sand dunes, which hid them from anyone who might also show up at the beach. They’d made love beneath a blanket of stars, brilliant pinpoints of light that seemed like beacons calling them into the stratosphere.
Afterward, they lay curled up together, talking about the usual things: Noah’s departure for law school later in the summer and how Harper was reluctant to leave Verity Beach, even though she’d likely have to move to the Raleigh-Durham area to get a better job.
“I wish you weren’t going to be so far away,” she said, swirling her finger along his chest as she talked quietly. He was planning to attend school in Washington, DC, which meant long road trips.
“Let’s not think about that right now,” he said. “Who knows what could happen between now and then.”
In hindsight, those words were a bellwether, but at the time she thought nothing of it.
The next day, Harper texted Noah to see if he wanted to go for a run on the beach. He said he had something he had to do, so she ran without him. She called him later in the afternoon to see if he wanted to do something, and she got his voicemail. A few hours later she called again, and nothing. Finally she went to his house, pounded on the door over and over, but no one answered. By then she had gotten scared—she even called the police to be sure there hadn’t been an accident.
The next morning she found a letter in the mailbox with her name on it. She ripped open the envelope to find a cryptic letter with no explanation.
Dear Harper,
I know this will come as a shock to you, and I’m really sorry. I can’t explain things right now, but I want you to know that I’ve decided to get away for a while. I needed to figure a lot of things out. I hope you’ll understand, and even more so I hope someday you’ll forgive me. Please know I’m not doing this because of you, but because of me.
I love you,
Me
Harper couldn’t begin to count the number of times she read and reread that letter those first few months after Noah ran away, trying to find some stupid clue about why he left the way he did. It was like trying to divine tea leaves—futile yet impossible to stop trying. She tried to grill his mother to no avail. She was equally clueless about it and likely even more upset. It was hard to explain to her family and friends how deeply the betrayal affected her—it was visceral, to the gut. Sure he said it wasn’t about her, but that’s ridiculous. It had to be about her. Otherwise he’d never have left. There was something about her that wasn’t worth sticking around for. And the worst thing was, she had no freaking idea what that could be.
Chapter Thirteen
Noah was beat. He’d been up since early prepping the Smuggler’s Inn for a wedding that would be held there this weekend. He hadn’t made it to bed till almost three in the morning after picking up fare after fare. There had been a concert in the huge outdoor amphitheater about twenty-five minutes away, so he made some good money at least.
He wasn’t up for getting together with a surfer friend he’d made, Spencer Willoughby, for drinks as promised weeks earlier when it had sounded like such a great idea. By now most of the friends Noah had grown up with had moved elsewhere. He was kind of lonely, so he wanted to connect with either other friends or new people. Matt had Katie—and Tyler, that cute little nug who’d stolen his uncle’s heart instantly. His mom was gone. He was alone at the inn except for two sweet retired ladies who helped with the cooking and cleaning. And his lifestyle didn’t lend itself to meeting new people much. Unless you counted the transient guests who stayed at the inn.
Things were starting to feel dire. Maybe he was going to have to sign up for one of those online dating sites. Although he knew deep down he wasn’t going to do that. There was only one person he wanted to date: a green-eyed girl whose heart he inadvertently broke on the way to finding his way in life. The woman who was now collateral damage in his journey to self-discovery, which seemed so damned mercenary. He wished he’d gotten Harper’s number; he wanted so much to talk to her. Granted he knew where she lived now, but he also didn’t want to stalk her—that would be particularly creepy. He needed to let things unfold organically. She knew he was here now. She knew that in no uncertain terms he was back. And wanted her, desperately so. In some ways, the ball was now in her court, yet it killed him that maybe she had no intention of picking up that ball and running with it.
He checked the clock on the dashboard of his car: he had a good twenty minutes until Spencer would be here. He might as well go in and sit at the bar, catch up on sports highlights. Beat sitting in a cold car, especially now that it was getting dark so early. Winter seemed like it was looming with shorter days and chilly nights.
He entered the martini bar—weird place for two dudes to meet up, he thought—and lumbered over to the leathered granite bar. It was early enough that not many people were there yet. A cluster of three young women sat at the far end of the bar, heads together in conversation. Then he noticed a familiar tumble of chestnut hair, several seats away. Attached to a luscious body with a form-fitting baby pink fuzzy sweater. Sitting alone at the bar.
He tried to maintain his cool as he wandered toward her and pulled up a barstool. “I wish I could think of a clever pickup line, but all that is coming to my head is offering you a nightcap.” He grinned.
She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Noah. Did you attach some kind of homing device to me? Maybe a GPS tracker in my purse?”
“If only I’d thought of that. But I’ll take that under advisement.” He winked. “Mind if I sit down?”
She glanced at the chair he’d already parked himself on. “Looks as if that’s a moot point.”
“Yeah, well, I’m hoping you don’t call the bouncer to evict me.” He glanced around. “Although this place is too high end to have a bouncer.” He tapped the bar to motion to the bartender, then turned to Harper. “So tell me. What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”
“And you thought nightcap was cliché?” She took a slip of her cosmo. “If you must know, I’m meeting Danny here for drinks.”
“Danny, eh? I knew a guy once in kindergarten named Danny. He ate flies.”
She pursed her lips in a pout. “Ha. Ha. So funny I forgot to laugh.”
“You sure you want to meet up with this guy? It could be the very same fly-eating marauder from my childhood days.”
She tipped her head down and threw him a look. “You’re forgetting that you and I were in kindergarten together, Noah. That was Danny Finkelstein. He’s a professional chef now.”
Noah clapped at the irony. “That’s wonderful,” he said. “His discerning palate was evident at an early age.”
He glanced over at the entryway as he saw the door opening. Dammit. Mr. Wonderful, Nightcap Danny, was heading their way, but then he diverted toward the restrooms.
“Hey, listen, uh, Harper. I was hoping you’d share your number with me. Maybe sometime we could get together and talk.”
She lifted her brow. “I think we’re all talked out, don’t you?”
He shook his head. “Oh baby, you haven’t yet seen the type of conversation I’m capable of.”
“Really? Noah? Can’t we let it all go?”
“You mean what happened between us last week didn’t affect you the same way it affected me?” And boy had it affected him. He’d had to rub one out twice a day since then.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You don’t want to talk about it? Or you don’t want to talk?”
She pursed her lips. “Neither.”
“Aha!” he said, punctuating the air with his pointer finger. “So that means it did affect you. Can I be honest with you?”
“I’m getting hard thinking about it. You?”
“Uh, no, I can assure you I’m not getting hard.”
“But are you getting wet? Have you touched yourself while replaying it in your head? I bet you have.”
“You do realize that you dumped me, like an eternity ago, right? And that under the circumstances, your line of questioning seems rather impertinent.”
“If I thought for a second you weren’t as hot for me as I am for you I’d let this drop, Harps. But I could tell by the pulse in your throat, the pace of your breath, the moan as you came. You know as well as I do that we’ve got unfinished business. Why don’t we stop wasting time, dispense with the formalities, and get to it already?”
“Harper!” Noah turned to see McDickhead standing there, looking coifed and impeccably stylish.
He nodded at Noah. “Uber driver guy?”
“One and the same,” Harper said. “He was just talking about something. Was it hardball?”
The guy squinted at her trying to get in on the conversation. Conveniently Spencer arrived right in time.
“Ah, Spencer, I want you to meet—” He pointed toward Harper’s date.
“Danny,” the prick said, extending his hand.
The two exchanged pleasantries while Noah leaned over and whispered into Harper’s ear. “Hardball, eh? In fact I was about to tell you how hard I am right now being next to you. And unfortunately you’re leaving me with a bad case of blue balls. Because all I want is to bury my hard cock inside of you again.”
Harper was midswig when she heard that line and choked as the drink went down.
“Yes, right,” she said with a surprisingly straight face. “I’ll keep that under advisement for sure.”
He extended his hand to shake hers. “Harper. Great to see you again.” He dragged his thumb along her palm suggestively before pulling his hand away and nodding toward her date. “Danny. Take good care of the lady.”
He smiled a far too toothsome grin. “I have every intention of doing so.”
Noah tried hard to suppress the growl that was fighting to escape his throat. He’d have to make sure ole Danny boy didn’t take too good care of Harper.
Chapter Fourteen
Harper and that douchebag had gone off to the restaurant side of the bar, so Noah couldn’t even spy on them. He couldn’t get his mind off her and what she might do with that loser the whole time he was catching up with Spencer. Which he felt badly about—Spencer was a nice guy.
“This is the chick you dated real seriously way back when?”
“Yeah, we did. But things became complicated.”
“Too bad for you. She’s a hot piece of ass. I’d do her.”
Dagger to the heart. Even nice guys were after Harper. Shit. This was not good. He leaves her to fend for herself in the world, and now the entire male species is getting in line to fuck her?
“Uh, if you’ll excuse me for a minute.” Noah needed to splash some water on his face. This night was going from bad to super bad. All he wanted was to go home. With Harper. For a command performance. Preferably minus the drama.
He turned down the hallway toward the men’s room when he noticed the twerp standing back behind a potted palm tree. He appeared to be on the phone.
“Listen, babe, I swear, I’ll be back home tomorrow afternoon. I promise we can spend the entire day together in bed. Just you and me. Okay? I love you.”
Noah blanched. This fucker was two-timing his girl? Who wasn’t actually his girl? But needed to be. Or more like he wanted her to be. But she wanted to be Danny’s girl. That sounded like a pop song from the eighties, didn’t it? Ugh. This had officially become more complicated. He wanted to run out and tell Harper right away, but he knew she’d never believe him. She’d accuse Noah of making shit up. Worse still, she might suggest he was trying to hurt her even more. The thought she’d even accuse him of that made his throat tighten. Not that she had. But she probably would. And she had every reason to, considering how he’d treated her. Oh, man. Poor Harper. How the hell was he going to handle this? It was going to require finesse and nuance. Two qualities he knew he could muster up if need be.
But shit. What if Harper was planning to go home with this guy again? That would be disastrous. He needed to do something to stop her from making a huge mistake.
He circled around the back end of the bar and found the quiet, intimate dining area. Harper was scrolling through Instagram when he came up behind her.
“Listen, Harper—”
“Ack!” She jumped, throwing her hands up and hitting Noah hard in the face. “You scared me!”
Noah reached for his smarting nose and quickly realized it had started to bleed.
“Wow, you’ve got a good left hook.”
Harper turned around and stood up. “Oh, no! I gave you a nosebleed!”
“You punched me, Harper Landry! I bet it felt good!” He reached over and grabbed the napkin from her lap and pressed it to his nose to staunch the flow of blood.
“I didn’t punch you! You frightened me. I reacted.”
“Nevertheless, I think you need to come back with me to be sure I’m all right.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Look, buddy.” She pushed her pointer finger into his chest for emphasis. “You killed my chances with Danny last week on our date. I was ready and willing to go home with him for a perfectly lovely night of naked fun and games. Until you came along and screwed that all up.”
“At which point you screwed me.”
“Which was a mistake made purely in the heat of passion.”
“Oh, so you admit you have passion for me.”
“It was a generic phrase. What I meant was I was momentarily bitten by the horny bug. No thanks to you.”
“Because I stirred up so much passion in you.”
“Will you stop with the passion already?” She reached out for the napkin and dabbed at his nose. “I’m sorry about this. Even if I am mad at you—and trust me, I am—I’d never deliberately hurt someone.”
“That’s good to know. So next time I fall asleep naked next to you, I don’t have to worry about any sort of revenge dismemberment then?”
She laughed. “Oh, honey, I had a lot of fantasies of Lorena Bobbitting you, for sure. Good thing I can separate fantasy from reality.”
“Can I tell you about the many times I fantasized about you over the past several years?”
She wagged her finger. “Best not to go there. You did this to yourself. There would have been no need to fantasize about me had you stuck around.”
Noah saw the two-timing shitmeister approaching around the corner.
“Listen, I’m serious now. I don’t want you going home with him. You have to trust me on this.”
“And you don’t have any say in who I do or don’t sleep with.”
“That’s true. But I have my reasons. This guy doesn’t deserve you, Harps. I can’t get into things now, but please. Do not go home with him.”
Harper shrugged. “No promises, Noah. Besides,” she paused for a minute, “as you’re well aware, promises are meant to be broken.”
Chapter Fifteen
Harper felt like maybe that Lorena Bobbitt was onto something with that technique. Because darned if she hadn’t been so excited to return to Danny’s place, but once again her ex seemed to have cock blocked her (she wondered, can you cock block a woman? Or is that only a guy thing?). Dinner was delightful. Danny regaled her with tales of his triplet nieces who were in kindergarten. And his frazzled sister who was their mother. He talked about how much he traveled for his job. He was headed to Virginia tomorrow for a few days, then up to DC, then back here after that. So if she wanted to strike while the iron was hot, now was the perfect time.
But damn if Noah hadn’t been so darned cryptic. It was weird, the way he implored her. As if he knew something she didn’t
. Though that would be impossible. He didn’t even know who Danny was. He was jealous—that had to be it.
She sighed. Ahhh, dammit. It’s like Noah was a human candle snuffer, extinguishing her sex drive in the blink of an eye. Except while he quite deftly smothered whatever potential burning embers were there for Danny, he was fanning the veritable conflagration that was flaming up deep in her pelvis the minute she thought about Noah.
His words played on an endless loop in her brain: I was about to tell you how hard I am right now being next to you. And unfortunately you’re leaving me with a bad case of blue balls. Because all I want is to bury my hard cock inside of you again.
And all she wanted to do was let him. All. Night. Long.
When Danny returned from paying the check, they left. He offered for Harper to go back with him, but she told him it was late and she was tired. She drove down the darkened beach road to her house, hoping against hope that she’d spy Noah’s car waiting out in front of her place. She didn’t want to admit she was disappointed he wasn’t there.
Good thing she didn’t have his phone number. She had enough alcohol in her to loosen her tongue and bolster her bravado, and she’d likely have dialed his number for a booty call of epic proportions that she’d live to regret.
Instead, she’d settle for her pocket rocket and thoughts of Noah pressing himself deep within her wet body. It wasn’t nearly as satisfactory but was a far better way to salvage her dignity.
~*~
After Noah ran away, Harper had burrowed in for the long haul, spending much of her time crying or preparing to cry or finishing up a cry. Her eyes were so swollen half the time her mother had started fretting that if the tears didn’t stop soon, she’d be unable to see. Easy for her to say. Her job search ground to a halt—who would hire someone who looked like a leaf-tailed gecko, all bloodshot and swollen and bulgy-eyed. It was not a “hire me” kind of look.
Falling for Mr. Wrong Page 6