“Great. I will look forward to a run through with one of you when you have it in order.”
Ida disappeared just as Claire’s cell phone buzzed on her desk. She picked it up to read the message. It read simply, “Is it Saturday yet?” She chuckled and responded with “soon” before laying it aside with a lingering smile.
“How is your week going?” Harper asked on the phone later that week.
“It’s been busy. I’ve almost got the pictures we discussed for the Turner ad campaign polished up for you to do a final proof on,” she said.
“I hope I haven’t been keeping you up at night. I’d only like to do that in person.” Claire could once again practically hear the sexy smirk in his voice.
“Yes, you do an incredible job of it, too.”
Their conversation drifted off into plans of what they might do on his weekend visit, the consensus being that they might be discovered too exhausted and starved to leave the bed. Death by sexcapades didn’t sound like a bad way to go. They ended their conversation as they drifted off to sleep in their own beds, separated by miles of road and cell towers. When she woke again, the sun was streaming in the window and the alarm was sounding. One more day of work and then she would be in Harper’s arms again.
Chapter 22
“I will be done at five. I scheduled the treatment late so that you would already be home by the time I arrived. I’m asking a lot as it is without you having to take off work,” Samuel had told her on the phone several days ago.
Claire made sure she went straight home to meet him. There was no way of preparing for the rest of the evening’s events, as she tended to him, weak and sick. She couldn’t believe he had gone home in this condition before and it pained her to know how scared and alone he must have felt.
“Here, Samuel. Let’s get you out of that shirt. You’ve made a bit of a mess with it. I have an old sweatshirt that you gave me a long time ago and you can just wear that. I’ll wash the other and give it back to you later.”
“You kept my sweatshirt?”
His voice was weak as she helped him from the bathroom to her bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his fouled shirt over his head, accepting the clean one she retrieved from a dresser drawer and slipping into it before sliding between the covers and trying to sleep off the nausea for a while.
“Don’t make a big deal out of it,” she chided as she tucked him in and went to the kitchen to pick out something for dinner.
Claire had spent her previous evenings making quick, wholesome meals for him to take home, but she had decided to cook only fresh on the evenings after his chemo. Hopefully, he would be able to keep something down after he slept for a bit. It was harder to see him like this than she had imagined. He seemed to drift off into a peaceful enough sleep, though she found herself checking in on him constantly, afraid of the worst each time.
“The new medicine they gave me for the nausea doesn’t seem to work as far as keeping the nausea from kicking in, but it does work pretty well after the fact. I don’t think I’ve slept that well since all of this began.” His voice caught her by surprise. She turned to see a sleepy-eyed Samuel shuffling barefoot into the kitchen.
“Glad to hear it. You should have a decent appetite then. I’m making us Cornish game hens with a great sautéed kale and orzo blend I discovered online.”
“Cornish game hens? Really? Since when did you become a great chef? I don’t seem to remember that being one of your hobbies. Perhaps this new man I saw you with has caused this change.”
He sat down slowly in a nearby chair.
“Or perhaps, I just want to make sure you eat well while you are going through this.”
It did make her realize that she had never cooked for Harper, but then she hadn’t really had a chance to do so yet. She would have to do that this weekend. The thought of him here made her smile a little.
“I can’t thank you enough, Claire. You have no idea how much just having someone with me while I felt bad helped. I know it is probably just psychological, but it makes a difference.”
His eyes met her own as she turned toward him again. Though there was the tiniest smile on his face, his eyes still told the tale of how scared and alone he felt.
“It is what friends do for one another,” she said, turning back toward the stove and stifling the sadness she felt for him, lest she start to cry.
Sitting the food out on the table, they ate and talked about some of the trips they had taken when the two of them had been in a better place with one another. Soon, they were finished and he was telling her he had to go.
“I’ll call a cab and be on my way. I just want to thank you again, Claire.”
This time, his look conveyed something more, but it was not something he could afford to say, not something that needed to be heard now. Both he and she knew that even if they could move past what had happened at the end of their relationship, it was simply too late to be anything more than close friends.
“Stop thanking me, Samuel. It’s going to all be fine. Call your cab and I’ll get the frozen meals I made you gathered up into a bag for you to take with you. Promise me you will eat these and not a bunch of junk food. Everything I made contains ingredients that are supposed to be good for beating this kind of thing.”
This kind of thing…you can’t say the word. Can you? The word seemed to suddenly echo through her head and bounce back off itself. Cancer. The Big C. One percent. Her emotions were all over the place even long after Samuel was gone and right up until the phone rang. It was Harper. He made everything better again, at least for a while.
Chapter 23
“Well, look at that. My girl is waiting for me on the sidewalk like she’s anxious to see me. Did you miss me that much?” Harper asked as he walked toward her from a nearby parking spot. She had. Her heart had begun to race the moment she saw the cool black sedan coming toward her on the street.
“I have missed you. It seemed like you would never arrive.”
Claire threw her arms around him as he dropped his bag on the sidewalk and kissed her so intensely she felt herself go weak at the knees.
“Now, that’s the kind of welcome that I like!”
His smile was infectious as he flashed his sparkling blue eyes at her green ones. “Let’s get upstairs and see what else you have in store for me.”
“My pleasure,” she said.
“Not all of it…” he replied as he followed her upstairs.
They were barely in the door before they were tripping over one another in an ill-timed dance to get undressed and into the bedroom. Her skin burned with his sizzling kisses as he ravaged every exposed inch he could find. One would think that it had been months since we had seen one another, not less than a week.
“Yes, this is exactly what I’ve been looking forward to all week,” he said.
Claire moaned as he simultaneously nuzzled her neck and unbuttoned her blouse. His kisses drifted further downward as more flesh made an appearance from beneath her clothes.
Claire looked up at him as he pushed her across the bed and slid her pants free of her legs, smiling seductively as he performed a mini-strip tease of his own. There was no time for foreplay. They were too hungry for one another, wasting no time in getting down to the soft, slick core of the matter.
“Mmmm, you’re so slippery. I’ve missed being inside of you so badly all week,” he panted.
His hands caressed her hips softly as he rocked back and forth inside of her, still standing by the bed where he had pulled her hips forward to meet his own. His thick cock filled her, pushing along her tight inner walls and creating the most delicious friction. She was taken in, once again, by how wonderful it felt to be with such an older, experienced man. It was utter perfection.
“Me too. You feel amazing,” she responded breathlessly.
His deep plunges inside of her sent shockwaves through her system like nothing she had ever felt before. Claire hadn’t thought it possible for things to be
as incredible as they had been between them at the ranch, but seeing him again had sent hot lava coursing through her veins and the sex had only gotten hotter, more exhilarating. She just couldn’t get enough of him.
“I can’t hold back anymore. Oh, God,” he groaned loudly after what seemed like an eternity of carnal bliss but actually was just a furious need that was over in minutes.
“Yes, yes, yesssss…” she sputtered.
Her body shook violently with the force of her own climax, beating him to his own apex, but only barely. They collapsed against each other, completely sated.
“Well, that escalated quickly.” He laughed, causing her to chuckle as they both lay there trying to catch their breath.
“That escalated at just the right pace. Wow.”
There was a silence between them for a few moments as they just lay staring at the ceiling. Harper’s hand found hers, intertwining his long fingers between her soft, delicate digits. Everything seemed perfect.
Chapter 24
“One of my friends has a gallery opening tonight. He was hurt that I was having company and couldn’t make it. I thought we might surprise him and stop by, if it is okay with you. We don’t have to stay long… just grab a couple of glasses of champagne, say hello and make a round through his sculpture, then duck out,” Harper was saying.
Claire couldn’t imagine herself at a gallery opening, but supposed it was something she would have to get used to if she intended to be with Harper.
“Sure. I could use a bit of culture. Not many gallery openings to be found back home. They mostly have hay rides and tractor pulls.”
He laughed a little and turned toward her, brushing her messy sex hair from her face as he smiled, the twinkle in his eyes capturing hers once again. She was sure he couldn’t be more perfect as they tore free from their comfortable places on the bed to shower for the gallery… together.
“Oh, crap. My shirt fell on the floor and is all wet. I don’t think I brought another dress shirt with me,” he said as he stepped out, his hard naked body capturing more of her attention than the shirt for a moment.
“It’s okay. We’ll toss it in the dryer and run an iron across it before we go.” She reached for it, but he pulled it back.
“I can manage. Where is the dryer?” She wrapped herself in a towel and pointed him toward the small alcove to one side of the hallway.
“It’s in there. I’m going to go ahead and start getting dressed, Mr. I Can Do It Myself.”
Claire tossed him a smile as he stepped away and headed toward the bedroom to find a dress for the evening.
“Hey, there are a few clothes in here. What do you want her to do with them?”
Claire had forgotten all about the small load of laundry and told him just to lay them on top of the dryer and she would tend to them later. There was silence for a moment, followed by the sound of him closing the door and starting the dryer.
“Claire, can I ask you a question?”
His voice was coming from the doorway. She was in the middle of sliding her dress over her head from within her walk-in closet and didn’t have him in sight as she answered.
“Sure. Ask away.”
Claire felt happy. Things were going so well between them. All her concerns about dating her boss were completely in the past.
“Why do you have a man’s shirt in your dryer?”
His voice was solemn. Her heart almost stopped, but she tried not to hesitate with her answer. After all, she had done nothing wrong.
“It belongs to a friend. He got sick and I gave him an old sweatshirt I had here. I washed the other one with my things for him.” Even as she said the words, she knew it didn’t sound good without further explanation.
“I see.”
No more questions, but a definite tone that indicated he was suddenly unsure of what this was all about.
“It’s nothing, Harper. He’s an old friend. He needed some help.”
Claire wanted to tell him the whole story, but didn’t want to paint herself as some sort of saint just for helping someone out. Of course, she also didn’t want to give him the wrong impression by indicating that it was an old boyfriend either, the same one that had been on her doorstep the last time he was here.
“Okay. I trust you. I shouldn’t have even asked.”
His words said one thing, but the expression on his face said something different altogether as she walked toward him.
“You can ask me anything.” She hoped those few words would convey to him that she had no secrets, but she also knew that she sort of did. “Can you zip my dress?”
“Absolutely. Where is the iron and I will heat it up to press my shirt while you get ready?”
He pulled up the zipper on the back of her dress and kissed the side of her neck as he spoke. A man that didn’t mind ironing his own shirt. It was just one more thing to love about him. She told him where to find it and he left her alone to finish dressing. Within a half hour, they were out the door to grab a quick dinner and then head over to the gallery.
Chapter 25
“There are some really great pieces here. I’m impressed,” Claire said as she admired some of the sculptures that were the focus of tonight’s exhibit.
“Yes, they are beautiful, aren’t they? He likes to mix clay with repurposed metal for sort of a dystopian look. The man is an immense talent. Come on. I’ll introduce you.”
He pulled her toward a small circle of people where the artist was explaining his vision for a nearby piece, but they were cut off by the appearance of Samuel.
“Claire! I didn’t know you were coming!”
His suit looked a little big on him and his eyes were sunken. Immediately, melancholy flooded her as she was once again brought face to face with what was happening to him. Still, he seemed in good spirits.
“I wasn’t expecting you here, Samuel. This is Harper Webb. Harper, Samuel Montgomery.”
Claire skipped explanations of anything past that, but wondered if Harper recognized him from the encounter at her apartment. She felt silly calling Harper her boyfriend and she certainly couldn’t introduce Samuel as her ex-fiancé after the way she had watered down the explanation of who he was to Harper.
“Nice to formally meet you, Harper. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Samuel was polite, but she could see him sizing Harper up again and she knew Harper must recognize him from before from the expression on his face. Plus, he was probably wondering when they did all this talking about him.
“I can’t say that I’ve heard quite as much about you, but I do recognize you from your last visit. I take it that you and Claire have sorted out whatever issues you were having.”
Her heart sank. Harper was not going to just parrot a polite greeting. His alpha male was kicking in.
“Yes. I’m sorry about that. She’s been a great deal of help to me lately. I’m not sure what I would have done without her. By the way, Claire, thanks for giving me the sweatshirt to wear. I’ll trade it for the one I left behind next time I come over.”
Claire stared blankly at him. Was he baiting Harper deliberately? Or was he really so unassuming that he didn’t realize what he was saying. The old Samuel would return serve to Harper, but in his current condition, he just seemed so resigned to things that she had a tough time believing he would deliberately sabotage her new relationship. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time she had misjudged what Samuel would and wouldn’t do.
“Thanks, Samuel. It was nice to see you,” she replied. She nodded politely toward him and pulled Harper over to where the artist was still talking with the crowd, careful not to even glance up at him for fear of what she might see churning behind those beautiful blue eyes. He immediately saw Harper and broke off his conversation, thanking him for attending and introducing himself to her.
Finally, she looked toward Harper and saw exactly what she had feared. His look was cool as he spoke to the artist for a moment and then excused himself from the group. She f
ollowed, unsure of what to say or do.
“Okay. What is up with that guy, Claire? First, he’s on your doorstep like some broken-hearted schoolboy and now he’s hanging out at your apartment with you? Am she missing something here? I mean, are we not exclusive? I thought we were on the same page, but maybe I was too assuming.”
He didn’t sound angry. It was worse. He sounded wounded. She knew that feeling all too well. She was going to have to explain to him what was going on, quickly.
“I’m sorry, Harper. He just needed my help with something. There is absolutely nothing between us and nothing happened. You are going to have to trust me.”
Claire knew she still wasn’t telling the whole truth, but it was enough of the truth that he shouldn’t be concerned and a defiant part of her said she owed him no further explanation.
“Very well. If there is nothing to it, then we have no problems. Just in case I need to spell it out, though, I’m not seeing anyone else. I’m crazy about you. If that is not what you are looking for, then please let her know.” His gaze was intense as he searched her own for any signs of dissention.
“We have no problems, Harper. I feel the exact same way.”
Claire smiled up at him, hoping to alleviate the tension between them and it seemed to work. He smiled back at her and kissed her softly on the lips.
“Okay, let’s get out of here. How about we stop by that little jazz bar I saw down the street and have a couple of drinks?”
“Sounds wonderful!” she replied.
Thank goodness he was going to just let this go. They walked hand in hand down the street and chatted lightly, ducking into the little dive near the parking garage where they had left the car. It had drawn their attention earlier as they made their way to the gallery a few blocks down. It was surprisingly nice inside as they kicked back in a quiet booth and sipped on their drinks, enjoying the sweet sounds drifting soulfully toward them.
Chapter 26
“I can’t believe the weekend is already over,” Harper said, watching Claire as she moved about the room.
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