Saving Us (The Billionaire Brothers of NY Duology #1)

5. Harper

CHAPTER 5

Harper

M y hand shook as it lingered on the lock. Resting my head against the window shade of the door, I allowed my heart rate to slow. Him walking out that door was the right decision. For both of us. He’s a client. Nothing good would have come of it if anything had happened.

And I was delusional to think anything was about to happen.

He truly was just done with me and looking at the pictures.

What CEO of a huge financial company has any interest in the floral arrangements that will be in the foyer of his building? Or the girl responsible for making them?

As I returned to cleaning up the remnants of stems and petals left behind from today’s jobs that were strewn across the table, and about to get the broom, there was a knock at the door.

Sometimes we had some latecomer customers trying to get bouquets to bring home, but it was not happening tonight.

“We’re closed,” I said through the locked door. Turning the exterior lights off, I hoped the message was made even more clear to my late-night intruder.

But the knock sounded again. And it was more forceful.

Lifting the shade, I recognized my visitor. Contemplating whether I should unlock the door, I finally turned the bolt and pulled it open.

Standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame, was six feet four inches of a dark, sexy, and stormy grump whose expression displayed as much confusion about what he was doing as mine.

Without words, he stalked into the shop and closed the door behind him, locking it. Turning back to face me, our eyes connected, and I was frozen in place. Two steps, and his body was almost touching mine. His finger gently lifted my chin, forcing me to look up at him.

“Leaving was the right thing to do,” he said.

My breathing was choppy as he continued holding my face, not letting me look away.

“But I couldn’t stop thinking about you once I did.”

Then his eyes closed, and a huff of what sounded like frustration escaped from his lips, and I couldn’t help thinking he regretted his decision to come back. But his thumb came up to rub along my cheek, a very sweet move from a guy I wouldn’t consider sweet.

And my choppy breathing altogether stopped.

“It’s like you put a spell on me or something, or maybe it’s this place.” He looked around the shop, then back down at me. “Your scent intoxicates me. It pulled me back and made me want more.”

And then his eyes shifted a tiny bit, as if he couldn’t believe he’d just said those words. He almost looked disappointed, maybe second-guessing himself. His hand fisted, seemingly in frustration, against my cheek as he backed away.

And I surprised myself at being let down by his slow retreat, my body leaning toward his ever so slightly as he moved. But he didn’t go far as he leaned against the refrigerator case closest to him and put his hands in his pockets.

As he stood there, looking all sexy and shit, my mind raced. My thoughts bounced back and forth between disbelief that he was here, showing interest in me, to thoroughly enjoying his attention.

And crazy enough, I think I wanted more of his attention.

The butterflies in my stomach were evidence of that.

It had been way too long since I’d gotten any male attention that didn’t come in the form of my ass being grabbed.

And though I didn’t want to admit it, he was hot.

Like, seriously fucking hot. And his broodiness added to it.

He cleared his throat as he lifted his eyes, finding mine, and it seemed as though he was about to say something as his mouth opened. But he clamped it shut, as if suddenly changing his mind.

So many possibilities went through my mind of what he might have said:

Want to get a drink?

Can we see each other again?

I hope it’s not too forward that I came back…

But instead, we both stood motionless, staring at one another. And as we looked at each other, one would think it would’ve been awkward, but it wasn’t. Instead, the longer we stood there, those crazy feelings in the pit of my stomach started to settle, to calm down. And that caught me off guard.

I didn’t know him, yet all I wanted to do was force my feet to move in his direction.

Watching, I could tell his indecision about his next move was weighing on him as the seconds ticked by. He broke our gaze as his eyes bounced around the shop, not settling on any one place for long. But then his eyes settled back on mine, and he smiled. As I smiled back, one hand came from his pocket and went through his hair, mussing it up a bit. It made him seem more real somehow, as though he wasn’t so perfect.

Maybe he was nervous after all.

“Fuck it,” he said, almost to himself, as he advanced toward me. His hands went to my waist, and he started walking us back a couple steps until my thighs hit the table. His hands framed my face as he leaned forward, our mouths coming dangerously close. “I’m going to kiss you.”

And I nodded as a soft moan escaped my throat.

Because I wanted this kiss. More than I realized.

His full lips came to mine, soft at first. Then harder, as his lips opened, his tongue begged entrance into me. His fingers threaded in the loose hair around my neck, pulling more from my bun as he gripped me. Our tongues danced together, soft and gentle.

He was a contradiction. Everything I knew of him so far was rigid, hard.

But his kiss was…tender.

And it made my insides melt.

My hands went to his face, almost on instinct, and were rewarded by the feel of that scruff along his jawline. My nails gently dragged through the roughness, enjoying the feel against the pads of my fingers.

Getting kissed by Gage Parker was not on my list of things to do today.

But I wasn’t the least bit sorry it was happening.

He parted from me slowly, peppering me with tiny pecks around my lips. Eventually, he withdrew completely, looking down at me once again.

“I needed confirmation that you tasted as sweet as you smell,” he said. His hand cradled my cheek after he whispered those words.

This moment was surreal.

He wasn’t real.

“And you do,” he continued.

Stepping back, he left me against the table, weak in the knees. I mean, he wasn’t a complete stranger, but he was damn close.

Yet, that kiss.

It was swoon worthy.

Backpedaling toward the door, he said, “But I should go, for real this time. Don’t forget to lock up again.”

And then he opened the door, closing it this time, and left.

Going out on a Tuesday, especially for drinks, was not the norm for me. But after what happened at the shop, I texted Victoria and begged her to meet me for one. I had to talk this out. There was no way I’d be able to go to sleep tonight without getting someone else’s perspective.

Walking into the bar, I looked around and found her sitting at a booth, the wild blonde curls giving her away. Plopping across from her before she saw me made her jump in her seat.

“Fuck, Harper, a little warning!”

“Love you, too, bestie,” I said, blowing her a kiss across the table. Vic and I have worked together at the club for a few years now and became fast best friends. Living in a city like New York, both of us being outsiders, gave us a lot in common right off the bat. We didn’t have a ton of time for each other, with my second job and her still going to school part-time. But whatever time we did have, we made good use of together.

“What’s up?” she asked. “Your text was very cryptic.”

She’d ordered some wings and had two beers on the table for us already, which was one of the things I loved best about her. She knew me so well. Chugging almost half the beer before I even thought of starting the story, she stared me down from across the table.

“Well?” she asked. “I don’t have all night, I’ve still got homework to do, Harp.”

“Ok,” I said, ready to start. “You’re not going to believe this.” Leaning in over the table conspiratorially to start my story, her eyes got wide. “Do you remember the two brothers I told you about from the other day?”

Nodding, she said, “Yeah, Frat Boy and Curmudgeon. But if I remember, you said they were both hot.”

They were both hot. But now I kinda thought one was hotter than the other.

“Yeah, they are. So, I was closing tonight, and Curmudgeon showed up.” Chuckling at his nickname, I grabbed a wing and started nibbling on it. “He said he wanted to pay their invoice.” My skepticism wasn’t lost on Vic.

“In person? Isn’t that a bit ’90s?” She laughed out loud. “Does he realize how transparent that is?”

Just thinking about Gage made me blush a bit. Tonight was so unexpected.

Victoria stared at me as I continued to eat my buffalo wing.

“Harper,” she said. “What did you do?”

Reaching for another wing, I did my best to avoid her question for the moment.

“Harper!”

But it was why I asked her here.

“Well, we may have kissed.”

The gulp of beer that was about to go down her throat instead sprayed out of her mouth, across the table, and all over my food and face. Literally, I was soaked. Grabbing my napkin, I wiped my cheeks.

“Seriously?” I asked as she laughed out loud, and I pushed my plate aside.

“Curmudgeon!” she howled.

I was sure my face fell, and she saw it. Her laughter subsided, and she watched me carefully as I took a swill of beer.

“You like him,” she said.

“Maybe, but can I like someone I don’t even know?” I responded. And it was true. I knew nothing other than he was the heir of a billion-dollar company, a client of ours, and a grump. “But I liked what he did.”

That piqued her interest. She sat back against the booth, beer in hand, and waited for me to continue.

“Well, first I started showing him some work pictures, and he was like making me call him Gage, not Mr. Parker, and then I stood up from the table, and I was, I don’t know how, but freakin’ right between his spread legs on the stool.” I was rambling, I knew that. But I needed to get it all out before I lost my nerve. “And the tension, Christ, when he looked at me. But then, bam, he got up and left. Like, just got up, said ‘I have to go’ and left.”

Her bulging eyes told me she was with me on the story.

“There’s no kiss in that story, Harp,” she said.

Rolling my eyes, I threw a paper napkin at her chest.

“I know Vic, but this is where the story is like one of those books we read all the time,” I said. “He came back. He literally knocked on the locked door of the shop and came back. When I opened it, he came strolling in and went right for my face, like literally stroked my cheek. Then he looked confused for a minute, but then he walked me back against the table and kissed me.”

Victoria’s slow smile spread across her face. “That doesn’t seem very curmudgeony.”

We laughed together.

“Did he talk? Did he say anything or just kiss you?” she asked.

“He may have, but nothing I can remember.” Those details were left out intentionally. Because the words he’d said to me were definitely not the words of a grump. And I also wanted to keep them to myself, keep them special. At least for now.

As I reflected on the events of my night, I found myself absently drawing pictures in the dew on my glass.

“Well,” Vic said, drawing me back from my thoughts. “That sounds super sexy and romantic. And I’m happy for you, babe. You guys gonna see each other again?”

And that was where my magical encounter seemed to take a cliff dive.

The slow shake of my head coupled with my eyes not meeting hers I knew was telling Victoria more about this experience than I really wanted her to know.

It was forcing me to admit to myself more than I wanted to.

“Well, we, uh, didn’t exchange numbers,” I told her.

“Hey,” she said, the pity already in her voice. “Harp, don’t worry. In this day and age, that’s not a problem. We can figure something out.”

But she could tell by the look on my face that there was more to my concern. Much more. Victoria slumped back against our booth with a frustrated huff.

“Harper, you have to stop thinking every guy you meet is going to be like Asshole. He was a special breed, not everyone will be like him. You need to put yourself out there.”

The asshole she was referring to was my ex from right after college. Well, we met when I moved to the city and were together for a couple years. He was on the fast track to become partner at a law firm. But once he landed that job, image was all he cared about. It completely changed him. Or maybe I just never saw who he really was. But once I did, he was ugly. Every aspect of him was ugly. He had no regard for my goals in life at all, only his.

“Chicks before dicks, right?” I said, and we clinked our beers to that.

Vic wasn’t looking for a boyfriend while she was still in school and working all the time. Hookups only were her thing.

And she wanted that to be mine as well.

But as hard as I tried, I wasn’t built that way.

“Right,” she said.

But somehow, one specific dick was stuck on my brain.