by Kira Archer
Before he’d even made the decision to do so, his lips brushed across hers, so gently he almost couldn’t feel it. He could feel the energy between them though. A spark that he could have sworn literally jumped between them. He kissed her again, his heart thundering. What the hell was he doing?
“Harry,” she whispered, his name ending on a small gasp.
That one tiny sound undid him. He didn’t even care that she’d called him by that ridiculous nickname. In fact, coming from her lips, in that sexy, raspy little voice, he actually kind of liked it. Hell, she could call him whatever she wanted as long as she kissed him again.
All the reasons why this was a terrible idea beat at his brain, but he ignored them all. What difference did any of them make when she was right there, her eyes staring into his, her lips parting for him?
He took her chin between his thumb and finger and tilted her face up toward him, drawing her closer for a deeper taste.
“Do you think this falls under the assistant or fiancée part of her job description?” a voice from the doorway said.
“I don’t know,” another one said. “I mean, she is assisting him, I suppose.”
Nikki whirled around with another gasp, and he glared at the group that had gathered in the doorway. Cole, Brooks, and Chris all stood crammed into the narrow space while Kiersten, Leah, and Izzy were poking their heads into whatever spaces the men left open.
“Sorry, guys,” Kiersten said. “We tried to keep them out.”
“Speak for yourself,” Izzy said. “I totally wanted to see what’s really been going on.”
Harrison scowled. “Nothing is going on.”
Brooks snorted. “Well, yeah. Now. Way to go, guys,” he said, looking around at everyone. “You ruined their moment.”
Harrison glanced quickly at Nikki to gauge her reaction. She seemed a bit flustered, but her pert little chin was thrust defiantly in the air as she stared each of them down.
Impressive. Even he was having a hard time meeting their eyes at the moment. He hated to be proven wrong.
“We weren’t having a moment,” Nikki said. “Yet.”
His gaze flew back to her in surprise and then back to his friends, a couple of whom were whooping with a few ahhhhs and laughter. She raised an eyebrow at them.
Chris clapped the guys on the shoulders. “All right, boys. Let’s let these two get back to…fixing my shower,” he said, giving them a speculative, and amused, glance. It took him a second but the women helped pull Brooks and Cole away from the door, though not before Brooks shoved his phone into the room and snapped a picture.
“For your grandkids,” he said with a huge grin before Leah chased him off.
“Sorry,” she said, waving at them over her shoulder.
Nikki sat back and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Do they always sneak up on you like that?”
He snorted. “They’re like bloodhounds if they think something interesting is going on.”
She gave him an appraising look at that. “And is there?”
He didn’t know how to answer that. Of course there was something going on. Despite his best intentions, it seemed like every time he was alone with her for more than two minutes she ended up in his arms. And he enjoyed it way more than he should.
She watched him for a second and then smiled, shaking her head a little, and sat back so she could put everything away.
He frowned again. It was for the best. Their lives were going in two different directions. On two different continents. And her life was keeping her much too close to his family for his comfort. The fact that being in close proximity to his family didn’t bother her was also too much for his comfort. But it still took a lot more willpower than he expected not to pull her back to him and finish what they’d started.
He leaned his head against the tiled wall. Now that he no longer had a mouthwatering distraction in his face, all the stress and worry over the family’s new venture came crashing back.
“Maybe it was a mistake to try and pull this off this summer. There’s no way we’ll have everything ready in time.”
“Hey now. That’s no way to talk,” she said.
“It’s the only way to talk. Our first group of guests has been here ten minutes and already they’ve almost been crushed by masonry, accosted by a corpse, and nearly drowned in the bathroom. It’s a good thing that shower head hit me and not Chris or he’d have grounds to sue.”
“Your friend wouldn’t really sue you. Would he?”
Harrison sighed again and stood, reaching out a hand to help Nikki to her feet. “No.” He frowned again. “Probably not.”
She laughed.
“That’s not the point, though. Another guest would. And they’d have just cause.”
“So, we’ll go through everything again. Double check it all. Triple check it all. We’ll get this place restored to her former glory, don’t worry.”
Harrison watched her for a second. Long enough that she started to squirm.
“What?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I’ve never met anyone so consistently optimistic before. There’s no problem too big to deal with. Everything has a bright side.”
“I know. Irritating, isn’t it?”
His lips twitched. “Occasionally.”
She sighed. “So I’ve been told.” She shrugged and threw the towel in the hamper. “Can’t help it, though. It’s how I’m wired. I’ve never seen the point in wallowing about something that can’t be changed. If there’s something that needs fixing, bitching about it isn’t going to help. Just suck it up and get it done. Whining about it will just make you miserable in the process.”
“Good point.”
She came closer, rising up on her tiptoes to lightly touch his head. He flinched back slightly, though he tried to hold still.
“I think that’ll hold. Stay away from loose showerheads for a while.”
He laughed. “Will do. In the meantime, I should probably change. Being soaking wet in a drafty old castle is a great way to catch one’s death.”
Her eyes traveled down his body, and for a moment he was almost self-conscious about how he might appear to her with his clothing plastered to every inch of his frame. It wasn’t an emotion he was used to feeling. He didn’t think he was vain by any means, but he knew he was attractive enough. And he put in enough hours at the gym to keep his muscles finely toned. Not chiseled into mountain man proportions like the apparently god-like actor who portrayed a certain character from a certain book that he refused to name. But he cleaned up okay.
And she apparently thought so too if the slight blush to her cheeks and quickened breathing meant anything.
Not that it should mean anything. Or could mean anything, he should say. She was his assistant. Practically a stranger. And by all appearances, nearly as crazy as his family. Which meant all signs pointed to her being extremely off-limits. Even if all that weren’t the case, they would very soon be separated by thousands of miles and an ocean. He couldn’t wait to get back to New York. And she’d made no secret of the fact that she never wanted to go back. Long-distance relationships never worked. Hell, short-distance ones never did, either. There was no future for them.
He cleared his throat and plucked at his clothes. “I’m going to get out of these.”
She nodded, a little absentmindedly. Then she shook her head and smiled at him, her cheerful, business-as-usual grin. “Right. You do that, and I’ll call a plumber to get that fixed and check on Bob and company and make sure they are getting that ceiling fixed ASAP. And we’ll need to get the bed fixed…”
She wandered out, now completely engrossed in their growing to-do list. He was still up in the air about whether or not he had been incredibly lucky or cursed to sit next to her on that plane. As an assistant, she was amazing. On the other side of things…well, she’d wandered into his bed, which had sparked their impromptu engagement, which even the people who knew it was fake seemed to want to make real. He wasn’t
entirely sure how he felt about a woman his family seemed so willing to embrace. And vice versa. He loved them, but he certainly didn’t want to marry, or even date, anyone who fit in so well with them.
She was everything he’d spent his life trying to get away from. He craved structure, logic. He wanted…normal. He’d visited friends’ homes in his youth. Basked in the peace and quiet, envied the tempered affection between his peers and their families. His friends had never worried about being embarrassed if their parents had shown up at school for visits. Whereas his mother was always more likely to show up in full hair and makeup, springing from her car like she was performing for a sold-out house and towing his father behind her like a lost puppy who was apt to either ignore the world around him completely or hyper-focus on it in a maniacally enthusiastic way.
He knew his family loved him, but it was like they always made sure the spotlight was on them, for all the wrong reasons, when all he ever wanted was anonymity. He’d grown up with a father who was more absentminded professor than hands-on dad, a mother who’d pretty much made his childhood one giant theatrical production, and his grandmother…well, she was a whole different level of looney toons.
Nicole was too much like them—spontaneous, inappropriate, over-the-top. So why the hell was he so drawn to her?
Chapter Ten
Nikki took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the crisp, cool morning air, and slowly let it out again. Normally, she’d have her eyes closed so she could envision a beautiful, tranquil place in her mind. But as she was currently sitting atop a castle in the middle of the gorgeous English countryside, it seemed a shame to waste such beauty trying to imagine something when everything she’d ever imagined was right in front of her.
Including the man of her literal dreams.
She’d come up to the battlements after waking from yet another disturbingly realistic dream about her new boss and pretend future husband. A circumstance made more awkward by the fact that they now shared a room. Arguing that she needed her own room when they’d been found in bed together that first night wouldn’t have made any sense. They were making the best of a tight situation.
Luckily, back when the castle was built, lords and their ladies typically had their own chambers, and those chambers often had other chambers for dressing or whatever else they might have been used for. She really needed to read up on old castles, because the place was fascinating. There always seemed to be rooms within rooms connected by secret passageways and the always popular doors that led nowhere since those rooms and passageways had been boarded and walled up throughout the years.
Thankfully, Harrison’s room was one which boasted an attached dressing chamber with a very comfortable chaise lounge. He’d offered to take it. Demanded, more like, so she could have the more comfortable bed in the main chamber. But his over six-foot frame didn’t fit on the delicate sofa nearly as well as her own five-foot-six body did. She’d put her foot down and taken the couch. The room had its own little fireplace and was actually quite cozy. Plus, it had an amazing view of the gardens. When she’d woken, all sweaty and turned on from another intense dream, she’d decided to get an even better view and cool off a little.
Hence her current location, parked on the battlements, which overlooked the estate while she tried to meditate a little and get herself under control.
It had been working well enough until Harrison had decided to show up. She hadn’t noticed it before, but the roof had several places ideal for working out. Including the wrought iron bar set high up in the stone that Harrison was currently using for pull-ups.
Nikki’s meditation had taken a nosedive the minute he’d grabbed the bar and started lifting that gorgeous body of his off the ground. She’d gotten a few glimpses of him before, of course. Seeing a man drenched in water, not to mention waking up naked beside him, had afforded her a few ogling opportunities. But watching those muscles ripple as he lifted himself up and down was getting her heart rate up to optimum cardio level without having to get off her butt. She wasn’t sure which gods the old Britons had once worshipped, but she was pretty sure the man in front of her was descended from them. Because dayum.
He finished his set, dropped down, and leaned over to grab a water bottle he’d left sitting beside him. He glanced around as he did so and froze when his eyes met hers.
Busted.
She gave him a little wave. She should probably be mortified that she’d been caught staring but seriously…hot guy working out right in front of her. She was only human.
He came toward her, one eyebrow cocked.
“I didn’t realize anyone else was up here.”
She smiled. “I didn’t want to disturb you. I came up to meditate,” she said, patting the yoga mat under her. “Have a seat.”
He hesitated for a second and then surprised her by actually sinking down next to her.
“A little cold up her for meditating, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “It is. But that makes it worth it.” She gestured at the countryside surrounding them.
Harrison shrugged, and she gawked at him. “How can you blow off beauty like this?”
His gaze roved over her again. “I never blow off beauty.”
Warmth rushed to her cheeks that definitely had nothing to do with the weather. She pushed her glasses back on her nose, surprised that he managed to make her squirm. She was a pretty decent flirt, blunt even. And she appreciated the same openness from members of the opposite sex. But for some reason, coming from him, the words seemed to mean so much more.
She forced herself to look back out at the grounds, anywhere but at him. “You say that, yet you ignore all this.”
He shrugged again. “I grew up here. It’s beautiful, of course. But sometimes even the beauty of a place can’t take away the bad memories.”
Nikki drew her knees up to her chest. “You grew up in a castle on some of the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen. What sort of memories could dim that?”
Harrison was quite for a long while. Long enough she didn’t think he’d respond. And she didn’t blame him. It had been a horribly invasive question. But he finally spoke, though his forehead remained furrowed in a slight frown.
“My family has always been…well, let’s say on the eccentric side. My dad, he’s quiet and a little…distracted now, but he didn’t always used to be that way. He’s a botanist.”
“That explains the rutabaga obsession.”
That brought a small smile to his face. “Yes. Well, when I was growing up, he was extremely enthusiastic about it. It took him away from home for long stretches of time while he was off chasing down some rare plant or another. My mother was an actress. Never really made it in film, but she was moderately successful on stage. When I was younger, she took fewer jobs, but when she was home, I always had the sense that she would rather have been somewhere else.”
Nikki put her hand on his arm. What she really wanted to do was throw her arms around him and give him a big hug. But she wasn’t sure how that would be received. Still, the sad little boy in him missing his parents even when they were right there yanked at her heartstrings.
He looked down at her hand but didn’t ask her to move it.
“That must have been hard. Sometimes it’s lonelier being surrounded by people than it is when you are actually alone.”
He glanced down at her, surprised. “That’s it exactly.” He shrugged. “Things got better when I went off to school. I think everyone was happier only seeing each other on holidays.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“No. It is. But it’s okay. My parents were able to live their lives, which made them a little more tolerant of me when I was home. And I was at school with my friends living my own life. Which made me less resentful of their resentment of me.”
Her frown deepened. “Do you really think they resented you?”
“Maybe not consciously. I know they loved me, but I don’t think being parents was part of their plan.” He
gave her a little half smile. “I don’t think being married to each other was part of either of their plans, let alone bringing children into the mix.” He shrugged. “They did the best they could, I suppose.”
“What about your sister?”
“As much of an accident as I was, I’m sure. But then she was born in the age of electronics. She’s had every digital device imaginable since she was old enough to stare at a screen.”
“Still sounds lonely.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. She seems happy, though.”
Happy wasn’t a word Nikki would use to describe Amy. But then again, Amy seemed just like every other kid she knew born after 2000. Happiest when plugged in. So maybe he had a point.
“Don’t you have any good memories of your childhood?”
A smile spread across his lips, making him look years younger. “My grandfather.”
She smiled back. “Fun, was he?”
“Oh, not at all. He was very strict, proper. Followed all the rules. Took his role in society and on the estate very seriously.”
Her eyebrows rose. “And being with him was a good memory for you?”
He laughed a little. “I know that might sound odd, but he taught me everything he knew. How to have a strong work ethic. Run an estate. Hunt. Ride a horse. Everything. He always reminded me how important it was to be a Troy. To preserve our legacy, the family name, the estate.” He looked back over the grounds and swallowed hard. “It was everything to him.”
Nikki nodded. “And so were you.”
He glanced down at her and gave her a sad smile. “I think so.”
“Nothing feels as good as being wanted.”
“Yes,” he said quietly.
She looked up into those blue eyes of his, her hand tightening around his to keep from reaching up to trace the faint lines on his face.
It wasn’t until she did that that she realized her hand was no longer lying on his arm but was enveloped in his hand. And he showed no signs of wanting to let it go. The warmth of their skin where they touched made her wish more of her was exposed so she could press it against him. A thought that both excited and horrified her.