This was what distance couldn’t do, thought Leigh, and she felt the weight of so much stress lift off her.
“Harrison,” said Leigh, and to her own shock and surprise, she ran straight into his arms.
“Oh, baby, I missed you, too,” said Harrison, pulling her into his arms and holding her tight, as if he would never let her go.
“I didn’t know how much I missed you until now,” said Leigh, resting her head against his chest, holding on to him as if he could keep her steady, somehow.
“Kiss me,” whispered Harrison, and Leigh raised her face to him, her lips parted. She wrapped her arms around him, her fingers sliding into his soft, wavy hair, a shade too long, and knew that she was home.
When his lips touched hers, she knew that she belonged.
She sighed against his mouth as she sank into that kiss, leaning against him, finally letting go and letting him hold her. His hands on her back, stroking her, so soothingly, made her sigh and relax, but his mouth coaxed her into a response that he drew from her body, heart and soul, so easily, every time.
“Harrison,” she whispered, and his name was a moan as she parted her lips and his tongue slid in to find hers, to stroke hers so softly, so gently.
He was so sweet and tender with her.
“Leigh, I missed you. I need you,” he said, and his voice was hoarse with desire as his hands moved lower to cup her rounded rear and pull her closer, in sharp contact with his male hardness, that made her gasp against him.
His teeth grazed against her lower lip before nipping at it. His tongue followed, soothing her so softly and gently, and she sighed against him again, her hands moving up and down his back, so hard and toned. She wanted to feel his skin under her hands. She wanted his hands on her, stroking and teasing her, soothing her, arousing her, until she was begging him to take her, opening for him and pulling him deep inside her.
“I need you,” he said, and it was almost harsh, as his kiss turned greedy. His hands moved up the soft wool of her dress to cup her breasts, full and heavy for him, already aching for his fingers, for his mouth.
She wanted nothing more than she wanted to have him strip her, to tug his clothes off, lead him to the bedroom and bury all her worries and fears under the pleasure she knew he could give her.
Under the sheer need he could draw from her.
The phone didn’t even register, at first, they were so wrapped up in each other, bodies straining for each other’s, fingers already beginning to grip and tug at clothes.
But then it rang again, and again, discordant and ugly, and they drew apart, though reluctantly.
“Fuck it,” he muttered, and took his phone out.
Leigh moved away, her legs a little wobbly.
Harrison always did have that effect on her.
“Well, fuck me,” she quipped, and Harrison grinned, quick as a flash. His smile did things to her that almost rivaled what his hands could do.
What his mouth could do.
Hell, the man was a genius with all of his body. He could definitely make taking a weekend off worth her time.
“Shh. It’s Martha,” said Leigh, and there was nothing like knowing her mother was waiting, after having cooked a meal for them, for which they were probably late, to douse the fires he had lit in her loins as if with a bucket of very cold water.
“Shit,” said Leigh, as Harrison took the call.
If Martha was calling Harrison, there was a pretty good chance that she had called Leigh and hadn’t been able to get through. Because, Leigh remembered now, belatedly, that she had forgotten to charge her phone.
“Yes, Martha, we’ve both left. We’re on our way. Leigh had a little trouble with traffic, or we wouldn’t have gotten late,” lied Harrison glibly. Add ‘cop,’ thought Leigh, and it wouldn’t be a lie.
Harrison hung up and looked at her with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
“So, ready to go and explain why we’re late?”
Leigh chuckled.
“Hey, they’ll be so happy to see me that they won’t really grill me. You, on the other hand, might be another matter altogether.”
Harrison sighed.
“I hope that in a couple of decades, when we’ve been married for years and have a couple of kids – I’m thinking three – and a few dogs, Samuel will stop grilling me about my intentions towards you. I swear, Leigh, I really thought we’d turned a corner that first time he grilled me. I didn’t know that it was just the beginning of a pattern.”
Leigh smiled and walked to the elevator with Harrison, but suddenly, she felt like there were jumping beans in her belly.
Twenty years?
Married for years?
Three children? Had Harrison really put a number to it? And so casually! A few dogs? Who did he think would pick up after three children and a dog? Did he think she was going to law school to be his brood mother of some sort?
“…coat.”
“What?” asked Leigh, not sure what he’d been saying. She was in shock after hearing how casually he could lay out his plans for their entire lives. Which, apparently, he had decided that they were spending together.
“Coat, Leigh,” he said, patiently.
“In the car. Let’s go,” said Leigh, and told herself to stop thinking.
Maybe that would help.
Chapter 2
Leigh managed to make it through about ten minutes before she gave up.
“All right, Mom,” said Leigh, placing her napkin aside after wiping her mouth carefully. “What’s going on? You’re obviously upset about something. Why don’t you tell us about it?”
Martha, elegant as always, looked affronted.
“Leigh, we do not talk about unpleasant things like that during dinner. That’s what your father’s study is for.”
“My study is not for the family fights,” rumbled Samuel, but he subsided quickly enough, after finding himself on the sharp end of a glance from his lovely, but definitely strong-minded, wife.
“Well, unless we talk about it, we’ll never get through the family dinner without wanting to eat and bolt, so let’s just talk about it, Mom. Please, I only have the weekend, and heaven only knows how long it will be before I can take another one off.”
“You work too hard, Leigh.”
Leigh grinned.
“And I know you too well to let you deflect like that, Mom. Tell me. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”
Martha sighed and put the fork and knife aside precisely and carefully.
“I want you, both of you, to know that I don’t blame you for this. In fact, in a very strange way, I’m proud of you, Harrison, for being…relevant enough to make this a problem.”
Martha was choosing her words very carefully. That wasn’t usually a good sign. Martha only broke bad news so carefully.
Harrison, for one, had excellent reason to know that, since she’d been the one who had broken the news of his parents’ accident to him.
“Mom…”
Harrison interrupted by placing his hand on Martha’s.
“It’s all right. Whatever it is, I promise you I will take care of it.”
“Oh honey, you’re just the sweetest… Well, then, we’ve been having some trouble with reporters. They seem to find ways to sneak in, and they try to get interviews. Comments, they call it. I’d like to tell them what to do with their comments.”
Leigh frowned.
“That’s not fun, but a call to the cops would take care of that.”
“I set up that new security system. You’ve been remembering to turn it on, haven’t you?”
Martha sighed.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Martha. Somebody tried to break into the first floor last week. We’re pretty sure they were trying to get into your rooms. They tripped the alarm and it got a little ugly.”
Harrison tensed. Leigh saw it – everything about him went on high alert, like a predator scenting prey.
“When was this? Why didn’t you call me?”
Samuel shrugged.
“It was handled. The security company you chose is very thorough. We asked for privacy and confidentiality, and we got it.”
“You’ve been dealing with enough, Harrison. We didn’t want to worry either of you,” said Martha, her voice quiet.
Leigh didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
“We’re both sorry. But we’ll take care of it. I promise, I will. I’ll make sure word gets out that the next reporter or photographer who tries anything will regret it in ways that will have repercussions outside of their professional lives.”
Leigh was startled.
“Harrison…”
But before Leigh could say anything, Samuel stepped in.
“I know where you’re coming from, Harrison, but the last thing I need are rumors that there’s some kind of a hit out on anybody coming near here. Let it go. It’s fine. There’s no harm done that cannot be easily undone. Martha will be fine soon enough. Besides, the security system worked. That was the point of it, wasn’t it?”
Harrison was still tense. Leigh could feel it. So she placed her hand on his leg and stroked, gently, sliding over the inside of his thigh. She felt him go rigid, but not the way he had been earlier.
If she’d wanted to distract him, she could hardly have chosen a better or more effective way.
“All right,” capitulated Harrison, though he obviously wasn’t very happy about it. He glanced at Leigh sharply, and she winked at him, needing to distract him.
“Good. Now that you’ve ruined the dinner, shall I bring dessert?”
Leigh smiled at her mother, and turned the wink on her.
“Oh, please, after my time on campus, you really think a security alarm going off would rattle me? Wait till I tell you what happened just last week…”
Leigh launched into an exaggerated and slightly plausible account of some of the more notable shenanigans on campus the week before, and soon, to her relief, she had everybody chuckling, relaxed again.
The rest of the evening went by without much incident, but there was that tension, again, when she and Harrison left together. Would her father ever get really used to the idea that she was with Harrison? Leigh wasn’t so sure.
Harrison was quiet on their way back, and Leigh didn’t try to break the silence, either. But Leigh could feel the tension building, and she hated every moment of it. She hated how she felt so jumpy by the time they got out of the car – Harrison never had to bother with things like parking the car himself – and she hated how they were so careful not to touch each other as they rode up in the private elevator that was only for Harrison and his guests’ use.
By the time they were inside, though, Leigh couldn’t stand the tension any longer.
“So, that didn’t go as badly as it might have.”
Harrison looked at her sharply.
“Not how I hoped the evening would go, but I suppose a lack of bloodshed seems like a good time to you, after your hair-raising adventures on campus.”
Leigh felt her own temper beginning to rise, and her eyes narrowed.
“Do you have a problem, Harrison?”
Harrison tugged his tie loose and threw it onto the couch.
“I don’t know, Leigh, do I have a problem? Do we have a problem? I’m not so sure anymore. I’m not sure of anything that’s going on with you anymore. If you were so keen on talking about your wonderful life in law school, why did you even bother to come back for the weekend?”
Leigh stared at him in open-mouthed shock.
“What on earth are you talking about? Do you have any idea what it’s like for me, to live in two worlds, to be pulled this way and that? To know that Mom is scared, that Daddy will always be angry, and whatever I do, I’ll fail everywhere?”
“Do you think I enjoy any of this, then, Leigh? Is that what you think?”
Leigh could’ve screamed her frustration until her voice simply winked out as if it had never been at all.
“You said you would support me.”
The words didn’t come out as a scream. They came out as an anguished whisper, and she saw, immediately, that they’d had more of an effect than any amount of screaming could’ve done.
“Leigh,” he sighed, and she saw in his eyes that the anger had drained away, with remorse taking its place.
“You’re right, there’s no point fighting. We’re still new at this. We just need to figure out how to do this. I… I’m sorry. Come here,” said Harrison, and reached for her.
Leigh sighed in relief that the storm was over, at least for the moment, and she walked into his arms, nearly leapt into them by the last few steps to him, and held on to him.
“Harrison, I hate what this is doing to us,” she whispered, clinging to him.
“I know, darling. I know. We’ll make it fine again.”
“We have to,” she said, and felt herself slowly steady as she soaked in the strength that Harrison always exuded. Being with him always made her feel like, perhaps, she could handle everything, after all.
It was a strange feeling, still. Leigh was used to handling things herself. She had always been independent, but lately, she’d become dependent on Harrison, and that dependence was beginning to weigh on her.
Leigh didn’t want to think. She wanted to stop thinking, and feel.
She only wanted to feel.
“Harrison, please, make love to me,” whispered Leigh, and she saw the words ignite what she needed to see in her eyes.
All the pent up frustration exploded when he swooped to take her mouth, covering her lips with his and growling deep in his throat as she wrapped her arms around him, her fingers linking behind his neck to pull his face down to hers.
“Leigh,” he said, his voice hoarse as his hand slid down her back, moving over her as if he would stamp his ownership on her.
Leigh didn’t care.
She wanted him too much to care. She needed to stop thinking.
“Harrison, please. Please, take me,” she whispered, and he quickly tugged her bulky coat off her, leaving her in that form-hugging sweater dress that didn’t leave much to the imagination.
“I will. You’re mine, Leigh. You won’t forget that you’re mine.”
Leigh gasped as his hands moved up and down her back, his fingers pressing against the line of her spine, and the soft wool of the dress might as well not have been there. She shuddered against him as his hands drifted lower to cup her curvy bottom and squeeze, tug and pull gently.
“Harrison!” she gasped, as she felt him pull her dress up, the hem being pulled higher and higher until he had it above her hips, bunched at her waist.
His fingers played over the fullness of her ass as she trembled against him.
“You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever made love to, Leigh,” he told her, and Leigh felt herself respond to his words, to the compliment in it, and the implication that he had chosen her out of many, because he had only needed her.
It was true. Leigh knew that women threw themselves at him. He could have whomever he wanted.
“Show me,” demanded Leigh, nipping at his lower lip, tugging at the buttons of his shirt, trying to get her hands on him.
She needed to get her hands on him.
“Harrison,” she moaned, as she finally managed to undo those buttons and spread his shirt open. She stroked her hands along his hard, toned chest, and she sighed as she felt his muscles tremble under her touch.
He needed her as much as she needed him.
She loved knowing that. She needed to know that.
It made her feel in control again. Leigh needed to feel in control, too.
“Leigh, you undo me,” he whispered, as his greedy mouth took hers again, his tongue sliding over hers. He broke the kiss only to pull her dress over her head, leaving her in her very brief panties that left most of her ass cheeks exposed, her matching blue lace bra, her stockings, and her heels.
Harrison stepped back, and Lei
gh took the moment to undo his cuff links and pull his shirt off. She stroked his chest, intent on how she could see his muscles rippling as she aroused him, how his nipples hardened and puckered. She didn’t realize that he had stopped touching her.
She didn’t notice that his hands had fallen away as she let her fingernails graze his nipples, making him sigh. She leaned forward to lick them, one after another, and blew on them softly, making him shudder at the slight chill that gave him.
“Fuck me, Leigh,” he said, and she glanced up at him to see the tightly reined-in passion that he somehow knew that he had to check, because she needed to be in control. Somehow, he knew it.
“Harrison…”
She watched as he undid the snap of his trousers and unzipped it. Slowly, he pushed them over his hips and let them fall to the ground. He kicked off his shoes and stepped out of them, leaving him in his boxer briefs and socks.
Leigh smiled.
“On the couch,” she told him, purring as she realized what he had in mind.
Harrison sat on the couch, his legs spread, and Leigh’s eyes were drawn to his crotch where the bulge was already more than obvious.
“Oh, I missed you,” said Leigh, her voice almost strangled as she kneeled in front of him. She glanced at him, an intimate, knowing look, before she stroked his bulging crotch.
“Leigh…”
“I’m in control,” she reminded him, and the hand he had lifted to cup her head and bring it into contact with his crotch fell away.
“But I’ll give you what you want. I want it, too,” she promised, and stroked his crotch lightly. She loved how his hard, throbbing manhood felt against her. She had missed it.
“Leigh,” he moaned again, and she could feel him beginning to lose control. She loved knowing she could do that to him. It helped her forget everything else.
“I promise,” she said, and slipped a hand inside to draw his hard, throbbing, long, thick shaft out.
She smiled as she stroked it lightly, letting her fingernails play over it gently, and she was gratified by how his veins pulsed, how thick and large his head was.
She pressed a soft kiss to the tip of it and heard the sharply drawn breath that he couldn’t hide. She teased him, licking him up and down, over and over again, until his hips were moving on the couch, thrusting lightly, insisting that she do more.
Being Harrison Bloom's Girl (That Forbidden Love Book 2) Page 2