Ruthless Heir (Ruthless Billionaires #5)

Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Asher

I watch the cool spray of water from the shower run down her body.

I like this.

Watching Harper and being close to her.

We haven’t stopped since we got back from the club last night. I brought her in here because I like taking her in the shower up against the wall.

It’s the early hours of the morning. Although we’ve calmed, that ravenous desire to have her is still swimming in my veins.

It was that same thing that made me fly back early from Hong Kong.

Hunter is covering the next few days for me so I get to spend the time with Harper.

I keep losing myself around her. At the same time I keep pushing aside the elephant in the room that’s growing bigger and bigger. But now that I’ve had time to think I’ve decided to talk to her and lay the cards on the table.

The moonlight coming through the skylight shines down on her, turning her hair silver. She leans against the wall and I press my hand to the flat of her stomach, allowing the water to trail over my hand and down to her pussy.

I crouch and lick her from her stomach to her clean-shaven mound. Then I gaze up at her and savor her smile, wanting to take that, too.

I stand, rest my hand above her head and gaze down at her. “Are you tired?”

“No.” Her smile widens.

“You should be. I’ve kept you up every night.” I cup her chin with my free hand.

I’ve had barely any sleep myself. Our crazy rendezvous of phone sex and naked pictures kept me up all night. God knows how I managed to sound sensible during my meetings.

“I like spending time with you.” He sweet voice is a tender whisper that floats over my skin.

“Me too. With you.” I sigh and trace the line down her elegant neck. I stop when I reach her cleavage, feeling myself getting hard again.

If I keep going we’ll be back in that bed and I’ll have her there all day. “I need to talk to you, Harper.”

“Don’t worry, I have an implant.”

“Implant?” I give her a narrowed look, not quite catching her meaning.

“Birth control.”

“Oh.” The crazy part of me is still keeping the pregnancy plan open as an option. “I’m sorry. I should have checked. I’m clean.” I felt that I should tell her that because she knows about the scandal with the actress.

“Me too.”

Quickly, I realize she’s stalling. This is definitely a conversation we need to have but she knows I wasn’t going to talk about that.

“Harper, there’s some other stuff I need to talk about. We?—”

“No.” She shakes her head vigorously and her eyes fill with sadness that grips me. “Every time you say anything that sounds like that, we lose each other.”

She’s right. This is going years back. But that changes tonight. “Not today. I’m not leaving and if you run from me I will always chase you. So, let’s talk. Okay?”

She presses her lips together and nods with hesitation in her eyes. “Okay...”

“Let’s go downstairs and I’ll make us some coffee.”

“Alright.”

We get out and she pulls on a fluffy white robe while I dry off and put on my boxers.

We head downstairs to the kitchen. She sits at the breakfast table and I switch on the coffee machine.

Within minutes I have two steaming mugs of coffee ready for us. I set them on the table and sit opposite her, leaning onto the wood surface.

She takes a sip of her coffee and watches me over the rim. “What do you want to talk about first?”

“Everything.” She is the only person I’ve ever struggled to talk to when I have a mountain load of things on my mind. This is different, though. Different from everything we’ve ever spoken about.

I drag in a deep breath and decide to start with the most important thing. The beginning. The night things changed. “I shouldn’t have rejected you.”

“Which time?”

“The first time. The time that counts the most.”

“Why did you? I was eighteen.”

“I know.”

“Was it Josh?” Harper searches my eyes. I’m not surprised she guessed he had something to do with my decision. “Did he say something to you?”

“Yes. He did. The year before he warned me to stay away from you. He caught me watching you.”

Her eyes widen and a soft rose color spreads across her cheeks. “Okay I was seventeen then, but telling you to stay away from me sounds way harsh. Nick was ten years older than me. Josh seemed fine with that. He never even mentioned it, so it can’t be our age difference—which is hardly anything anyway.”

“He has his reservations about me.” I sit straighter and level her a hard stare.

“But he knows you more than anyone.”

“I guess that’s why.”

She thinks for a moment and the curiosity in her eyes intensifies. “What gave him those reservations?”

“High school.” I swallow hard. I haven’t spoken about Natalia in years. It always gets me when I do, but I will myself to keep going. “He doesn’t want me to hurt you, the way I hurt an ex of mine who ended up killing herself.”

Harper’s skin pales and her hands go so limp I fear she may drop the cup. She sets it back on the table but her hands are shaking.

“What happened, Asher?”

“Her name was Natalia. We dated for nearly a year. I broke up with her in senior year when we grew apart. I was already bound by my marriage contract so I knew I couldn’t have a future with her anyway. Knowing that, my biggest mistake was getting involved with her in the first place.” I pause for a beat as my mind goes back to that difficult time. “I guess I wasn’t really thinking about that at seventeen. She took our break up harder than I expected and turned to hardcore drugs. It ruined her life. She killed herself months later when she saw me with someone else.”

Harper’s hands fly up to her cheeks. “Oh, Asher. Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”

“I blamed myself.” Guilt stirs deep in my soul like a tumultuous maelstrom waiting to swallow everything that goes near it.

“But that wasn’t your fault.”

“Maybe not technically, but I still blamed myself.” I press my palms to the table, allowing my fingertips to touch the hot coffee cup. “People like Josh blamed me too.”

Harper shakes her head and stares at me with sad, worried eyes. “That’s incredibly unfair. I’m shocked that Josh would do that.”

“Josh thinks of me as a playboy who has no regard for anyone’s feelings. That’s why he blamed me and the reason he wouldn’t want me to get involved with you. That night I rejected you I didn’t want to hurt you. But I ended up hurting you anyway.”

She presses her lips together and frowns. “The accident wasn’t your fault, Asher. It’s was something uncontrollable that happened to me.”

“You could have died.”

“I didn’t. I’m here.”

“One more minute could have saved you from heading into danger.”

“We don’t know that.”

“I wanted you. If I’d kept you with me, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. I let you go because I knew Josh didn’t approve of me and I didn’t want to cross a line like that with you and end up proving him right.”

“I understand how you feel, but you thought you were doing the right thing.” She rests her hand on top of mine. “You can’t blame yourself for that any more than you can with your ex.”

I hang my head for a moment then look back at her. “I won’t let that happen again. Not ever. I allowed Josh to stop me from being with you. I tried to stay away from you, but it messed with me.”

“Then don’t stay away from me.” A weak smile glides across her lips. “Josh is my brother, but that doesn’t mean I have to do everything he says.”

The warmth returns to my heart. “I know. It doesn’t mean I have to either. So I decided not to. Not anymore, because he’s wrong. I would never hurt you.” And I am good enough for her because I’ll never stop trying to be better than what I am.

The soft twinkle in her eyes enriches the vibrant green. Deep within them I see the intense desire and longing that reflects my own.

“I want us to be real, Harper. Not fake anymore. I think I only went with that crazy idea because I wanted to be with you. I just didn’t know how much.”

She grins back at me. “So you don’t want me to be your fake girlfriend anymore?”

“No.” I reach out and caress her cheek. “I want you to be my real girlfriend. What do you think about that?”

“Yes. I want to. More than anything.”

“More than anything?”

“Yes, more than anything.”

“Well, I’d like you to be my girl more than anything .”

“Then you have me.” She smiles wider and I lean in to kiss her.

When I move away she gazes up at me with excitement, but then her smile falters.

“Are we going to tell Josh?” she asks cautiously.

“I want to wait awhile before I tell him. And I think he should hear it from me.”

“Are you sure? I am his sister. If I’m dating his best friend he should hear it from me, too.”

“I know but I feel that this is something I need to smooth over between him and me first. I want him to trust me.”

“Okay. I guess that means we’ll still have to be careful around the press?”

“Yes.”

She places her hands in her lap and looks more worried. “What about the company? You… still need to get married.”

Of course, I knew she’d ask that question. But I don’t want to download too much on her. I told her a lot tonight.

“I don’t want you to think about that.”

“But it’s important. Isn’t it?” She smirks.

“It is, but I just want to be with you without the worry of the company hanging over our heads. I want normal with you first. Not a contract or an arrangement to get my legacy. I want to do norma l and make up for the time you could have had with me instead of Nick.”

My words stun her and she stares back at me with tear filled eyes. The sight pulls on my soul. “Oh Asher. I would love that.”

I reach for her and pull her into my lap. “Then let’s do this. We can think about the fine print after.”

She touches my cheek and I touch hers, too. “Are you sure.”

“Absolutely. All I want is you.”

“I want you too.”

“Then don’t worry about anything else.”

She smiles, looking more like her usual self. “Okay.”

I’m glad she looks in awe at the idea, but what she doesn’t know is that I’ve already thought about the things she might not have considered.

Specifically to do with Josh.

I might have decided to risk my friendship with him but he is her brother.

Harper is a strong-minded woman. Even though she wants to be with me, it will break her heart if she’s put in the position where she might have to choose between Josh or me.

Here’s me being selfish again and hoping that if that happens she’ll choose me.

If she doesn’t—because I won’t make her—then I’ve made my choice.

Which is to take whatever time I can get with her.

Staying with Harper means cutting off all other avenues to finding a wife.

I have six weeks before my father’s deadline then I’m locked in for three months.

If Harper and I don’t work out I’ll have one big decision to make. Marry Portia or forget the CFO position in the company.

I’m not marrying Portia— or anyone else —so… I’d choose the latter.

It’s not what I want, but while I was away I realized that I can’t see myself with anyone else but Harper.

That is my truth.

“How about we start with you going with me to St. Barts?” I say, knowing she’ll be excited to getaway for a while.

She gasps. “What? Where did that come from?”

“I need to be there for a little over two weeks on business. I landed the deal in Hong Kong. I fly out Friday. Come with me?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You start classes the week after. It’s perfect timing.”

She laughs. “You’ve thought about this already.”

“In detail.”

“I haven’t been on a vacation in years.”

“Then come with me. Let’s get away from here and spend time together. It will be fun.” And I’ll have her all to myself.

“Yes. A million yesses.”

I smile and pull her in for a kiss. “Thank you.”

“No. Thank you .”

We fall into a deeper kiss and I think of all the things I want to do to her and with her.

In my heart I know I’ll never be able to let her go.

Even if she wants me to.