Roger nodded.
“That is a very smart thing to do. An excellent and brave choice, really. Now, how do you feel about making another excellent and brave choice and letting me make you dinner? I have spam and canned beans.”
Leigh frowned, wondering how she could turn down spam, which she detested.
Roger chuckled.
“Relax, I was only teasing. I was thinking of takeout. I’m sure you know where we can get the best takeout.”
She really shouldn’t, thought Leigh, but it had been hard work, and she was hungry. She couldn’t quite remember if she’d had lunch, too.
So, she gave in and did what she knew she wanted to do anyway.
“Sounds like a plan,” she told him, and in half an hour, she found herself picking up enough takeout food to feed about six people.
“I eat a lot. Freakish metabolism,” confessed Roger, and she decided that he was even more charming than she’d thought at first. He was going to find himself knee deep in extremely lovely and willing young women.
For some reason, the thought of it annoyed her a little. That was stupid and unreasonable, of course. She had a boyfriend. She had Harrison and she was committed to him.
Besides, it wasn’t like Roger had been anything more than perfectly sweet and friendly.
He wasn’t looking for anything more. Which was a good thing, because she wasn’t in a position to offer anything more. Even if she had been single, she’d never do anything as obviously inappropriate as dating a man who was her professor, if only for a semester.
That was a lot of hogwash coming from somebody who was currently sleeping with her stepbrother, thought Leigh, and was glad that Roger had dropped his keys and not noticed her discomfort.
“Ah, right, got it. Are you sure you’ve got all the takeout boxes?”
“If there’s more, I’m sure we can let it go. But there isn’t. What about your other boxes? With your stuff? We should get them inside.”
Roger grinned.
“I think I’ve asked too much of you already. I’ll look at it as my first real lesson in weights. We’re all supposed to lift nowadays.”
Leigh chuckled.
“I guess it counts, if you stretch your imagination a little bit. I… I don’t want to impose. I can leave.”
Roger waved off her protests.
“There, I’ve got it for sure this time. And hey, presto! We have an open door. I won’t hear of it, Leigh, unless you’ve got a date and you’re looking for a polite out. If you’re not, then stay and have dinner, and maybe we can go through that paper and see where you can improve your grade. I’m not going to tell you what you should do, mind you. I’d just like to see what I’m working with.”
Leigh hesitated.
“I’m not sure that’s the first impression I want you to get of me.”
Roger grinned, that charming flash of brightness again, and walked in.
“Don’t worry, the first impression has already been taken care of. Now come on, let me thank you by giving you a lavish meal that spans some of Southeast Asia.”
Leigh laughed and relented.
It was just dinner. There would be no harm done.
Leigh didn’t notice until much later that she had missed about seven calls from Harrison.
Harrison knew he was supposed to be patient, but patience didn’t seem appealing to him anymore.
Leigh was slipping away from him. She was slipping slowly out of his world and into one where he didn’t belong. Where he couldn’t belong.
The thought of losing Leigh made Harrison feel dizzy. They had gone through so much to be together. They had taken such risks, and now they were supposed to be enjoying the rewards.
But Leigh hadn’t been talking to him as she used to. She hadn’t been very subtle about needing time to herself, either. The last conversation with her, she had been so distracted that he was quite sure that she hadn’t even heard most of what he’d had to say.
A part of him was angry. He was a busy man. You didn’t build a financial empire without being busy. He hadn’t started off inheriting incredible sums of money or wealth. He had worked from modest beginnings, and found success that he had earned on his own skills.
He was still building on that success.
So why was it that he could find the time and make the effort to spend time with Leigh, to talk to her, but she couldn’t do it?
The thought of losing her…
The need to hold on to her, to keep her close, was so heavy on him that it made his head swim. He could hardly think straight.
He needed Leigh.
Leigh needed him, too. He could rest easier if he could know that the only reason why Leigh didn’t have time to spend with him, to come home to him, was because she had too much on her plate. He should be supportive and patient, he told himself, again and again.
But lately, he had found himself beginning to consider things that he might not have, a while ago.
Sighing, Harrison pushed away from his desk and walked to stand at the tall glass window.
He could buy almost anything his heart desired. He could have any luxuries he wanted. But the only thing he had ever needed, truly needed, was to know that Leigh belonged to him – unconditionally and unquestionably.
It had been a few months since they’d started dating. In that time, so much had changed. Most of it, he told himself, had been for the better.
But sometimes, he wondered if Leigh had needed to get away from him, and from how much he needed her. Was that why she had chosen the law school that was a good two hours’ drive away from him, when she could’ve picked one just as excellent close by?
No, it had been for her own ambitions.
He respected her ambitions.
Harrison had no intention of ever standing in her way. He would only help her, every step of the way.
And yet…
Harrison turned his back on the view, almost hypnotic with all of those lights, and everything it represented. He walked back to his desk and sat down.
He opened the little door under his desk and moved a file out of the way.
He looked at the little box for a while.
Something very precious was in there – something that represented more than he could explain. With Leigh, he wouldn’t have to explain. He knew that.
He had always known that when the time came, he would offer everything he was to the right woman. He had always known, in some part of him, that Leigh was the right woman, too.
What was he waiting for?
He needed to know that Leigh was in it with him, all the way, for the long haul. He hated the uncertainty he felt at that moment. He’d been feeling it for a while.
He needed to know that he could trust her to be there for him, and he needed her to know that he would be there for her, too.
Could there be a better way of expressing the truth and gravity of his commitment to her?
Carefully, he took the box out and opened it.
It wasn’t particularly ostentatious. It was a rose gold band with an emerald, surrounded by tiny diamonds.
It had been his mother’s. Martha had kept it safe for him for a long time, until he had been ready to take it, and keep it, without being broken by it.
He had been a child when his mother died, but he remembered that ring on her finger. She had always worn it. He saw it clearly in all his memories of her – some vague, some distinct.
He wanted Leigh to wear it, and he wanted memories that would never fade of Leigh with that ring on her finger. He wanted her to be proud to wear it, and know what it meant to him.
He wanted it to mean just as much to her.
If he had misgivings, Harrison paid no mind to them. He wasn’t in the mood to second-guess himself.
He was tired of second-guessing himself, anyway. He never had, not with Leigh, not in any other part of his life.
Leigh could have her time, and she could have her space. He would give her both willingly.
/> But Harrison decided that it was only fair for her to give him what he needed. No, that wasn’t quite right – what they both needed. Leigh had felt torn, tugged between two worlds. Well, this would anchor her, wouldn’t it?
It would be good for both of them.
What he didn’t know was that Leigh was, at that moment, having dinner with Roger. The ridiculous amount of takeout and his unexpected company were combining to make her feel better than she had in ages.
She wasn’t thinking about Harrison at all.
Chapter 4
A week later, Leigh decided that she was fine, really. She was fine as long as she didn’t let herself think too much. So, of course, she made a mental list.
There were lots of things to put down in the positive side of the list: her mom and dad hadn’t had any more trouble with reporters or tabloids. Tabloids themselves seemed to have gotten over the idea of her and Harrison a bit – there wasn’t too much of it anywhere anymore.
She was finally beginning to feel like she was getting the hang of the rhythms of campus. Her papers were better, and her grades were getting back to what she was accustomed to.
Harrison and she had a routine, and since a routine was what she needed, that worked, too. Of course, that routine had been built on her insistence and at her convenience, which made her selfish and self-absorbed, but it was fine. It was part of that give and take that people talked about. Right now, she needed it, and Harrison had told her that he was all right with it.
She’d decided to take him at his word.
But then came the problem that she didn’t know what to do with: Roger. Was he on the pro or con side of it?
Roger had been a huge hit with everybody. Every girl in class seemed to have a crush on him. Even the dean, a very formidable woman who had seen and heard everything, had been heard giggling when Roger was around.
But Roger seemed to want to spend time with Leigh.
At first, it had been only about the paper. He had pointed out a few things that Leigh had never considered, and in the process, he had gotten her fascinated with Criminal Law, something she had never really been all that interested in.
Her firm hadn’t really been into actual Criminal Law. They had mostly been about civil litigation, lawsuits, class actions suits – not the kind of practice where you defended people who were accused of violent crime.
That was where most of the money was.
But Roger had turned his back on all that money for so long. He was the only man she had ever known who had decided that his principles and values were worth more than the payoff, and she admired him for it.
Hard to find anybody like that, she mused.
“Stop daydreaming. Just because you’re back to getting As, you can’t just sit there and dream all day.”
Hana was disgruntled.
Leigh knew how to fix that now.
“I guess that means it’s time for pancakes.”
Hana pouted.
“You’re trying to get me fat so that the hunky new professor won’t leave you and decide I have more promise.”
Leigh chuckled.
“He just happened to see me first, and I found his books interesting, that’s all. Besides, I’m picking his brains while helping him set up the house. He has so many books that we got a bunch of DIY shelves. He is really bad at DIY. I’m better.”
Hana wrinkled her small, cute nose.
“I cannot believe that he’s bad at anything. I bet he’s magnificent at everything. Those hands of his – so long and delicate! I bet he can play the piano.”
Leigh smiled.
“No, he plays the violin. He has it at home. He promised to play for me soon.”
Hana smiled a little slyly.
“Sounds like the two of you are really getting along. I noticed you getting a lot of new thoughts about Criminal Law.”
Leigh shrugged.
“He brings a fresh approach to all of it. He doesn’t make it all sound distant and factual. He makes it sound like it matters – in the immediate future. As if it’s really important, if you know what I mean.”
Hana nodded.
“I do, Leigh, but be careful. He is a professor. The powers that be have always disapproved of students and professors getting too…close.”
Leigh pretended not to understand what Hana was getting at.
“I guess they need to be careful about that, what with the power imbalance and the chances of favoritism.”
Hana rolled her eyes and gestured theatrically.
“And you have Prince Charming. Don’t forget Prince Charming.”
Leigh grinned, but it felt like a grimace on her face. Trust Hana to bring up what she was so carefully trying to avoid thinking about.
“I never forget my Prince Charming, as you call him. Harrison and I are good now, Hana. We’re doing much better.”
Maybe if she said it aloud a few more times, she might even believe it.
“If you say so, but you haven’t had any grand gestures lately.”
Leigh shrugged.
“I’m glad, it means that he’s coping much better. I thought he would be upset about me not going home for three weekends straight, but I think it’s fine. It’s difficult, Hana. It’s a completely different world with him and here. I need to find my feet here now. That’s important. He understands that.”
At least, Leigh thought he did.
Hana smiled gently.
“I know that. I know it’s difficult. But I don’t know how he’d feel about the amount of time you’re spending with Roger. And if you really want to find your feet here, the risk you’re taking there is probably not a good idea, either.”
But Leigh was feeling extremely stubborn. Roger and she had done absolutely nothing inappropriate, and acknowledging that a man was very attractive was not the same as being attracted to him.
But then, there were those long, delicate hands and how careful they were when he handled his books. There was that charming grin, and the way his voice made everything he said sound so interesting.
Maybe her motives in spending time with him weren’t as innocent as she pretended.
“There’s nothing to worry about. Everything is perfectly fine and above board. Anyway, I’m not spending all that much time with Roger. It’s just a few minutes here and there, and I helped him with his books that one evening, after that first evening when I helped him pack and move.”
Hana let it go. There was no point pushing it when Leigh was determined to stick her head in the sand. When Leigh was defensive, there was no way to get anywhere.
“I’m going to go out and read for a while. I need…”
Leigh didn’t finish her words. She just grabbed her backpack and headed out.
She found a spot – she was beginning to think of it as her spot, under a tree, not too crowded – and settled down with her laptop, the book she’d gotten out of the library at Roger’s recommendation, and the smoothie she’d made before leaving the house.
“Well, that’s a pretty picture,” said a soft voice, and everything in Leigh seemed to tingle.
“Roger, I didn’t expect to see you out and about.”
He smiled down at her. Leigh couldn’t help but smile back. That charm really was irresistible.
“I’m not a vampire, though the hours I keep might indicate so. Ah, you got the book. Excellent. It will help you with that paper. It has… But I can’t tell you all of that. All I can do is point you in the right direction.”
Leigh grinned.
“I think you’ve done plenty.”
“I thought you’d go home over the weekend.”
Leigh shrugged.
“Mom and Dad are away this weekend. I need the time to catch up on so much. The driving back and forth can get to be a bit much. Anyway, I have another paper to work on, too.”
Roger nodded in approval.
“Good. That’s excellent. Avoid distractions and use that fine mind of yours. If you do need to pick my brains,
though, you’re welcome to come over and have dinner with me, Leigh.”
Roger smiled again, and before Leigh could quite decode what he had meant, he was gone.
Without thinking of it, hardly aware of it, her hand went to her heart. It was beating so hard, as if a bird was trying to get out of her chest.
She was attracted to him. Now that she was alone, maybe she could admit that. But it didn’t mean anything because she was in love with Harrison.
Of course she was in love with Harrison. He was the love of her life. Sure, they were having a slightly difficult time of it, but they were fine. They would be fine. It was just a matter of finding the right balance, and she knew they would. It would all be fine.
Just fine.
It would be, she insisted to herself, but…
As if she had willed it to, her phone rang. Quickly, her heart thudding, grateful that she had been startled out of her unpleasant reverie, she grabbed the phone and saw Harrison’s face on the display screen.
“Damn,” she whispered, and was immediately guilty about it.
No, not damn. She was glad Harrison was calling her.
What she was feeling was not guilt. It most definitely was not guilt.
“Harrison!”
“Leigh, you sound happy.”
Leigh felt even guiltier when she heard the relief in his voice. Had she been so insufferable and snappy lately?
“I guess things are going well, finally. I feel like I’m finding my feet. I was floundering here at first. I guess part of it is because I’ve never been used to floundering.”
“No, you haven’t. You’ve always done very well whatever you chose to do. I’m glad you’re feeling better. You sound more relaxed.”
Leigh let herself breathe, and felt the tension slowly flow out. She had been getting all weird for no reason, she told herself. There was nothing wrong. Things were better than they had been in ages.
“I am. I finally feel like I can handle all of it.”
“Then you have time for dinner?”
Leigh stopped short, going still.
“Dinner? But I can’t drive all the way there tonight, Harrison. I won’t be holding my head above water again if I do that.”
Being Harrison Bloom's Girl (That Forbidden Love Book 2) Page 4