Coming Home Duet

by Cameron Hart

  She says it like she’s older than me and the internet is something she just discovered. It’s cute and quirky and makes me want to talk to her all day just so I can hear what other funny phrases she uses.

  Jesus, listen to me. I sound like a love-sick puppy.

  “Well, no matter how you learned, this is the best meal I’ve had in a long time,” I tell her truthfully.

  Harper sits a little taller and flashes me a bright smile. I swear on everything holy my heart just skipped a beat. I can’t help myself; I slide my hand a little higher up her leg and rub soft circles on her smooth skin. She bites her bottom lip and a pretty pink blush blooms across her cheeks.

  She’s breathtaking. Literally. I’m finding it hard to breathe.

  I wonder how far down that blush goes and if the pink matches the color of her nipples.

  “Wait till you taste her dessert!” Emma says enthusiastically.

  I almost choke on the green bean I have in my mouth thinking about how much I want to taste Harper’s dessert. Emma has a sly grin on her face like she knows exactly what I was thinking. We share a look that lets me know she knows I’m all but staking a claim on Harper and that she approves.

  Good.

  She's a good friend and I'm glad Harper has someone in her corner since Dan and Tracy apparently don't give a shit about her.

  I nod slightly at Emma and she gives me a wink. Not a sexy wink, more of an "I'll play along" wink. Maybe she can even be my wing woman. I have a feeling I might need a little help getting Harper out of her shell.

  ✽✽✽

  The rest of the dinner goes by without incident, and Emma was right. Harper's chocolate raspberry cheesecake was decadent and delicious. I have a feeling though that the sweet treat between Harper's legs is even more so.

  I somehow found my hand inching higher and higher on Harper's leg as the meal wore on, stopping only when I slipped a finger underneath the hem of her shorts. To my complete surprise and delight, Harper opened her legs ever so slightly. I didn't dare risk anything else at dinner, but I love that she's as into this as I am. Maybe little Harper isn't as innocent as I originally thought.

  Emma and Harper clear the table and Dan insists on taking me back into his office for some brandy.

  “Levi,” he addresses me once he’s poured our drinks. “You know you’re welcome here while you’re sorting everything out, but let me be clear. You will keep your hands off of Emma. She’s my daughter’s best friend and fifteen years your junior, which makes her off-limits. We can’t have any more bad press coming to bite us in the ass, especially on the heels of the mess you made in Chicago.”

  I almost chuckle when he mentions Emma as the object of my desire but stop dead in my tracks when he bluntly reminds me of why I’m here in the first place. Anger boils in my veins just thinking about it, and my chest tightens at how he just threw it in my face.

  “Goddamnit, Dan, you know I didn’t do anything like what she’s accusing me of. I have no idea why she would call in a tip like that except to fuck with me and make my life miserable. I’ve been assured by my lawyers that the charges won’t possibly hold up in court and we’re just agreeing to the investigation as a courtesy.”

  “The damage is already done though, isn’t it? Most people won’t follow the trial all the way through. They’ll only remember the accusations against you, which will kill business. It’s already begun.”

  I toss back the rest of my brandy and slam the glass down on the desk, a little harder than I meant to.

  "Well, there's nothing I can do about that now, Dan. This isn't my fault. I didn't ask for this." I slide my hand down my face, ready for this conversation to be over.

  “You kind of did when you went and married her.”

  “I have no idea what that has to do with a false claim that I’m embezzling from the company, but while we’re on the subject, Gabriella and I have been divorced for five fucking years, which is almost ten times as long as we were married. She’s greedy and was pissed that she didn’t get half of everything in the divorce, so she took the petty route with this bullshit lawsuit.”

  Dan finishes his drink as well, shrugging me off. “Like I said. The damage is already done.”

  “Are we finished here? I’m thankful for your hospitality, but I came here for a quiet place to regroup, not to have more accusations thrown my way.”

  “Yeah, we’re done. Just keep your hands off of Emma. Your reputation and the future of our business depend on it.”

  I scoff, but the harsh truth is that he’s right. Not about Emma, of course. But he’s right that I can’t afford anything remotely scandalous right now. It would be very bad for everyone involved to be caught in a controversial relationship with the much younger daughter of my business partner.

  “Got it, Dan. You don’t need to worry about Emma.”

  He grunts in response and I walk out of his office, hoping I don’t run into Harper before I make it upstairs to my room. Well, to her room. Shit. Forgetting her is going to be a hell of a lot harder when I’m surrounded by all of her things and thinking about how she used to sleep in the very same bed.

  Fuck. It’s going to be a long night.

  Chapter 3

  Harper

  Emma and I have been back in our apartment all of two minutes before she drags me to the couch and opens her mouth to give me a running commentary on the entire evening.

  “Dude. Levi is totally into you. That look he gave you when he introduced himself had my panties wet, and it wasn’t even directed at me.”

  “Oh my gosh, Emma! Stop it!” I try to sound indignant, but my giggle gives me away, along with the heat creeping into my cheeks.

  “And then at dinner when he offered to help you? God, Tracy thought she was putting you down by telling him you’d serve him, but his eyes looked like he was thinking of exactly how you could serve him.”

  She wags her eyebrows at me, and I have to cover my face with my hands.

  “I would have no idea how to…to do…or, serve, or…gosh! Never mind! Not like it matters anyway.” Emma has me all flustered.

  “So you admit that’s something you’d want to do?”

  “What, serve him?” I peek out at her from between my fingers.

  “No, fuck him.”

  I lean over and bury my face in a nearby throw pillow.

  Emma laughs and I grab the other throw pillow and hit her with it.

  “Hey!” She shrieks.

  “It doesn’t matter what I want, it’s never, ever going to happen.”

  “Why not?”

  "Uh, seriously? One," I count off on my fingers, "He's freaking gorgeous and so far out of my league, we're not even playing the same sport. Two, he's fifteen years older than me. He probably thinks of me as a little kid. Three, he's my dad's business partner, which makes him off-limits. That's just common knowledge. And four, he's based in Chicago, so we don't have a future together."

  “Oh, my sweet, innocent little Harp,” Emma says in a condescending yet sweet and playful voice that only she can pull off. “I have a feeling Levi isn’t a one-night stand kind of guy. I saw the possessive looks he gave you all evening and I think he’d probably move heaven and earth to be with you. Plus, I bet he’d love being the first guy inside of you. He seems like the growly alpha type.”

  I roll my eyes, but secretly a part of me wonders what it would be like to have him as my first.

  “You read too many romance novels. Guys like that don’t exist in real life.”

  “There’s no such thing as too many romance novels. And really, you don’t know what kind of guys are out there! I have a good feeling about Levi. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. As far as being out of your league, I think he’d say otherwise. I mean, it seemed like it was taking all of his will power to keep his hands off you during dinner.”

  My face instantly flushes red when I think about his hand on my knee, the way his fingers caressed my skin and made a slow journey up my thigh, leaving a
trail of fire and igniting a longing inside of me I've never experienced before. He kept his hand there during the entire dinner like it was the most natural thing.

  “OHMYGOD, he didn’t keep his hands off you! You’re holding out on me! What, did you guys kiss? Did he feel you up? Did he shove you in the guest bathroom and eat you out?”

  "Emmaaaaaaa," I groan while burying my face back into the throw pillow.

  “Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

  Begrudgingly, I lift my head up to address her. “You were with me practically the whole time so you know he didn’t do any of those things.”

  “Buuuuut…” she urges me to continue.

  “I mean, it’s probably nothing.”

  “Harper Jane Crawford. Tell me what happened right now or else I’m going to drive back over to your house, give Levi your number, and tell him you’re a virgin who saved herself just for him.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “I would,” she says while giving me her evil smirk. I don’t think she really would. But I also don’t want to call her bluff. I close my eyes and tell her what she wants to know.

  “After he complimented the dinner and had that whole thing with Tracy, he complimented me again and then put his hand on my knee. And he kept it there the whole time. But that’s it. It was probably more of a friendly gesture, right?”

  After waiting in silence for what feels like forever, I open one eye to look at Emma. Her face is frozen in shock, with her eyebrows raised and her mouth hanging open.

  “What? I told you it was no big deal!”

  “Uh, yeah. It is. I was totally right, he’s all alpha. He had his hand on you because he’s so freaking possessive. I knew it!”

  “Maybe I didn’t say it right. He just put his hand on my knee.” I leave out the part where he was so close to my…lady parts that I was sure he was going to feel how embarrassingly wet I was.

  “Because he couldn’t help himself. I bet Tracy pissed him off and he wanted you to know he cares about you. I mean, he looked downright disgusted when she tried to kiss his cheek during introductions, and he looked indifferent when I shook his hand, but you? When he shook your hand, he looked like he wanted to devour you.”

  I scoff, but my heart flip-flops at the idea.

  “Seriously, girl. You can’t pass an opportunity like this up. You have to jump on it,” she gets a wicked grin on her face. “And by it, I mean his huge dick.”

  “Emma!” I scold her as she bursts into laughter. I can’t help but join her.

  Her phone rings again, and again she sends it to voicemail.

  “Everything ok?” I ask.

  “Yeah. Yeah, of course.” She smiles and then gets a mischievous look on her face.

  “Uh oh. I know that look,” I say.

  “What look?” Emma asks, feigning innocence.

  “The look that says you have a crazy plan and I’m going to protest but you’re going to keep pushing until I cave because I’m a pushover and a people pleaser.”

  “Great! So we can skip all of that ucky middle part where you pretend not to love my plan, and we can go straight to the part where you put your full trust in me and we execute my plan!”

  Without waiting for my answer, she jumps off the couch and pulls me with her.

  ✽✽✽

  “Whhhhyyyy did I let you talk me into this? I look like—”

  “Like the sexiest goddamn woman on two legs anyone has ever seen?”

  “Uh, no, I was going to say I look like a tramp.”

  Emma barks out a laugh. “Girl, you gotta update your vocabulary. No one says ‘tramp.’ And besides, you’re only uncomfortable because you try to hide your beautiful body under baggy t-shirts and jeans. Not saying that ass can’t rock a pair of skinny jeans, but it wouldn’t hurt to switch things up every once in a while.”

  "Thanks…I think." I look at myself again in the mirror of the dressing room, trying to see myself the way she does. Emma picked out a cute light blue spring dress with a lacy bodice and spaghetti straps. It's fitted through the waist and then falls down around my hips in waves of lacy material, hitting a few inches above my knees. It's a super cute dress, one that I would wear over leggings and pair with a nice cardigan. Oh, and I'd also wear a different bra so that I wasn't showing the obscene amount of cleavage I am with this push-up bra Emma made me try on.

  “Harper. All joking aside, you’re beautiful. This dress isn’t ridiculous, and you don’t look ridiculous in it. Rock your curves, lady, own them and use them to your advantage!”

  I give her a small smile, and she knows she’s won.

  Two hundred dollars later, we walk out of the little boutique with a new dress, a new bra, and a pair of strappy wedge heels that Emma insisted I had to buy. I relented since they were at least a little more tasteful than the six-inch nude stilettos she wanted me to try on.

  “Okay, so we have all of this stuff. Now what?”

  “Well, now, my pretty, we put on a show.”

  “A show?”

  “For Levi.”

  “For Levi?”

  She rolls her eyes and huffs out a breath. “Yeah, you dum-dum. Why else did you think we were getting you sexy clothes?”

  “I don’t know, to feel good about myself?” I mumble.

  Emma stops walking and grabs me by the shoulders. “Harp. If these clothes make you feel good about yourself, then hell yeah, I want to do a shit ton more shopping with you. You’ve let Tracy tear you down long enough, so whenever you’re ready to let me overhaul your wardrobe, count me in,” she winks at me. “But this,” she gestures to the bags in my hand, “Is for operation Cherry Pie.”

  “Subtle.”

  “I thought so,” she grins at me and loops her arm in mine as we continue walking to my car.

  We get in the car and I pull out of the parking lot, heading back to our apartment.

  “Okay, well, I’ve already invested two hundred dollars into this plan, so are you going to tell me what exactly it entails?”

  “It’s pretty simple, really. We’re just going to test the waters first. See if he’ll bite.”

  My cheeks burn at the thought of Levi biting me.

  “Oh, yeah. You definitely need to pop that cherry, Harper.”

  “How did you even know what I was thinking?”

  “I’m your bestie. I have my ways.”

  I just laugh and pull into my parking spot.

  “So. First things first. We come up with some reason for you to go over to your house. You’ll be all dressed up in your new outfit, and when Levi inevitably asks where you’re going, you’ll tell him you’re going to a party. At a frat house. With a date.”

  “Um, why would I tell him that? What if he asks follow-up questions? You know I’m a terrible liar.”

  “Which is why it isn’t a lie. We’re going to a party Friday night at the Alpha Phi Alpha house. And I told Ryan and Andrew we’d go as their dates.”

  “You WHAT?”

  “Chill, Harper. It doesn’t really mean anything. These guys will take a hint and go hit on some other chicks when they see we’re not interested. Everyone knows once you’re inside one of these frat parties, anything goes.”

  She must notice all of the color drain from my face, because she quickly adds, “God, not like that, Harper. I just mean everyone is fair game. There are no loyalties.”

  Again, I gawk at her. “Jesus, Harper. Lighten up. I promise you’ll be okay. Plus, if my plan works, Levi will be jealous as fuck and he’ll refuse to let you go and then you’ll have to ask him for a ride back to our apartment since I’ll be driving the car to the party.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Oooooh.” She says it like a sexy moan, which makes me giggle despite being annoyed with her. “It’s okay, you can say it. I’m a brilliant mastermind and you are forever in my debt.”

  “Slow down there, your plan hasn’t worked yet.”

  “But it will.”

  “Someone’s cocky,” I tea
se her.

  “Mmm, but someone’s about to get cock…y…nope. I was really hoping to make a cock joke but couldn’t quite pull it off.”

  “I wonder if Levi will like when I pull him off.” The words just spilled right out of my mouth without my permission.

  Emma’s face is priceless though, her eyebrows practically shoot right off of her forehead before she doubles over with laughter. “Harp, did you just tell a dirty joke?”

  I shrug, going for nonchalance.

  “It was a good first attempt. Don’t worry, I’ll have you making all kinds of dirty jokes soon enough,” she winks at me and we make our way up the stairs to our apartment.

  I’m not sure this plan is going to work, but it seems like a relatively low-risk situation. If Levi doesn’t bite, then I’ll just go to the party and no one will know about my failed attempt to seduce my dad’s business partner.

  God. That shouldn’t make me wet, should it? Knowing he’s my dad’s business partner, so much older, so much sexier, so much muscle, such sincere eyes…well, shoot. Now I’m all kinds of worked up and I don’t know the first thing about taking care of this sweet ache between my thighs. I’ve only ever felt like this with Levi.

  Chapter 4

  Harper

  It’s been a long week, especially knowing tonight is the night we’re going to execute operation Cherry Pie. Yeah, the name has kinda grown on me.

  I worked my opening shift at the coffee shop on campus and attended my classes in the afternoon. The whole time I couldn’t stop thinking about Emma’s devious plan, and more specifically, seeing Levi again.

  Thinking about being around him in any capacity is enough to fill my stomach with butterflies, but thinking about me trying to seduce him? Well, that just gets my nerves all tangled up and makes my stomach roll. And not in a pleasant way.

  I’m awkward and nerdy and chunky and not at all capable of seduction. I tried to picture it in my head, what I would say, if I would try to touch his arm or even lean in for a kiss. But I couldn’t imagine me doing any of those things. I suppose it’s just as well. I don’t want to be fake with him. I want him to see the real me, and if he doesn’t like it, it’s his loss.