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I suppose I had been a bit too harsh with her. My comment was likely uncalled for, but hell, maybe it wasn’t and she was just pissed off because it was true. I decided to focus less on that and more on what she evidently flew to Chicago to tell me.
I headed to the guest room. When I got there, I tried to turn the knob but the door was locked. It was for the best anyway. I started back down the hallway, but the door finally opened. When I turned around, she had on a similar outfit to the one she wore to the charity auction, and I narrowed my eyes when I saw what was in her hand.
“Why do you have your bag with you, Harper?” She said nothing at first, and just when it looked like she would, I saw her clamp her lips shut. She tried to storm past me, but I was able to grab her arm which stopped her in her tracks. “I asked you a question.” Still, I was greeted with silence. “I’m sorry for what I said,” I finally admitted.
“I’m not a slut,” she said softly, her voice somewhat breaking up on the last word.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are or not. It was uncalled for, and I’m sorry.” Apologizing for that caused a sour taste to lodge in the pit of my throat, but I meant it.
Regardless of what she’d done to me in the past, I was raised to treat women with more respect. My mother would be rolling over in her grave right now if she had seen me a little while ago.
Harper used my moment of distracted silence to wrench her arm away from me. She then headed to the top of the staircase and I had to practically jog to catch up with her. “Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving.” She started down the stairs, and I was forced to follow.
“There’s a fucking blizzard going on out there. You’ll freeze to death or worse.”
“So,” she told me when she came to a stop on the bottom step. After spinning around, she had her chin stuck out in defiance like she so often would when she was younger.
No matter how much time had passed between us, she had the uncanny ability to make me forget it all. I felt like I was eight years old again trying to explain why she couldn’t play with me and the other boys because girls played with dolls and not cars.
Just as she was doing now, she had stuck out her chin and put her hands on her hips. She hadn’t understood back then, and the longer I stared at her, the more I forgot what we were even fighting over now.
“I’d rather be out there in the snow than in here with you,” she told me, and I remembered the blizzard.
I also remembered the words I had whispered in her ears as I came inside of her. I also heard her warning and it now echoed in my ears.
“I just apologized for that,” I told her, and she rolled her eyes.
“It’s not sincere. You—”
“You want to preach about sincerity Miss ‘I’ll call and talk to you everyday. We’ll make this work. I promise.’” She’d told me that right before leaving with her uncle, and I’d been a fool to believe her.
“That’s a low blow,” she told me, but I didn’t apologize. Maybe I shouldn’t have called her a slut, but I had every reason to call her a liar.
“You’re not going out there at night in the middle of a fucking storm.”
“Hmmm,” she said, then regarded me with another look of defiance. “Watch me.”
She grabbed her bag and headed to the door, but I was able to beat her to it. “I’m not letting you leave, Harper,” I told her, putting emphasis on her name.
“Why? You hate me, so what does it really matter?”
“I don’t hate you, per se,” I responded, not even entirely sure whether it was a lie or not.
I wanted to hate her, and God knew she had given me enough reason to, but when we’d been playing pool, the natural chemistry between us couldn’t be denied. Neither could the desperation I felt to keep her here with me.
“Well, I’d like to believe you, but your actions have said otherwise. I’ve intruded on your new life enough, so I’ll just—”
I ripped the bag from her hand and tossed it off to the side. She went to get it but I grabbed her arm and pulled her against me. My other arm wrapped around her to hold her still.
“I said you’re not leaving tonight, and I meant it.”
Her breath was coming in shallow pants, and I wondered briefly whether her sudden trembling was from desire or fear. I leaned in and tried to kiss her neck and had almost succeeded when she pulled her head away.
“Let me go, Gabriel.”
“Not until you calm down,” I warned, and she huffed in frustration.
