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“There you go, I told you,” Matty lectured at Diane and Peter and gave them a smug smile. “I’ve been telling these two since Christmas I thought there was something going on. The tension between you two has been so tight, I almost banged your heads together. I saw the way you looked at her, Cole, and I think Harper is perfect for you.”
Matty and Diane offered to be on call to take care of Layla in the evenings after she’d gone to bed, and this would give Harper and me some time alone together.
I’d never had to enlist the help from anyone to spend time with a woman that wasn’t a driver, bodyguard, or a PA, but the fact was that no one was in the least bit surprised. Dorian, the least astonished of all.
“About fucking time,” he stated, shaking his head. “It’s been torturous watching you two, the angst has been so intense, there were times I felt you’d combust.”
I chuckled at his animated opinion. “You weren’t goading me on Christmas Eve by any chance, were you?”
Smirking, he shrugged. “May have been. You only have to see the way Harper looks at you to know she’s nuts about you.”
“I want to do this right, you know? I’d hate for her to get hurt.”
“She’s tougher than you know and you’re in deeper than you realize. Whether you understand it or not, she’s incredible and you’ll never find anyone better.”
“I wasn’t looking for anyone else.”
“You weren’t looking for Grace either, remember?”
Before I could respond, Harper strolled into the kitchen. She smelled fucking edible and looked divinely elegant in a black silk button-down blouse, black slim-fitting pants, and a white sweater tied around her neck. Her long shiny blonde hair was flat-ironed straight and hung loose. I finished taking her in and my hungry eyes settled on her pert little cleavage. She looked effortlessly beautiful.
When she suggested a movie, I knew it would take a bit of ingenuity to make this happen with any degree of privacy. Of course, I could have made some overtly romantic statement by hiring a private viewing, but I knew Harper, she was a normal girl who liked doing normal things, and while I would have been happy to do this for her, it would have made her uncomfortable.
Deciding the time for grand gestures was somewhere down the line, I enlisted the help of my brother who booked the tickets, buying just enough seats around us to give us privacy without being obvious, and spoke to the manager about having drinks and snacks already in place for us when we arrived.
Wearing a baseball cap, we entered the auditorium after the lights had dimmed and the beginning credits for the movie had started. Seating Harper first, I slid in the aisle seat and took her by the hand.
Clasping my fingers with hers, I glanced apologetically at her for having to sneak around, but the smile on her face when she looked back at me made me feel the fact we were there was all that she needed, how I made it happen was of no consequence.
During the movie, I found it hard to concentrate, with Harper smelling so alluring and sitting so close to me. Turning to look at her, I found myself engrossed in her reactions to what was happening on the screen rather than with the movie itself. I scared myself by admitting I could fall hard for her.
Eventually she caught me, her eyes going wide and her expression rather self-conscious as she mouthed, “What?”
I slid my hand around her head as if I was pulling her closer to talk, but instead I took her by surprise and I kissed her. It was slow and sensual, and I was in no hurry to ramp things up, nor were either of us ready to break the kiss either. Pressing her hands gently, she held both of my cheeks and it felt as if she was making sure I couldn’t get away.
Eventually the movie ended, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the end credits for the minor roles pan up the screen. I had a minor awareness of people rising to their feet around us. I had a semi-awareness of them shuffling past us, but neither Harper nor I made to move as I experienced the longest, most sensual, yet innocent kiss of my life.
As the lights came on we broke the kiss. Harper stared passionately into my eyes, her cherry red lips, swollen and wet, and her cheeks flushed with desire.
“Wow,” she whispered quietly, and continued to stare.
“Yeah,” I muttered, my voice husky and my boner straining, desperately wanting to know what would happen next. Glancing around me, I saw we were the only people left in the auditorium.
“Home?” she asked, a small smile curving her lips.
“That would be dangerous,” I replied with a small chuckle.
“Hence the suggestion,” she stated in a serious tone.
Clearing my throat, I smiled widely, “Home it is then,” I agreed, with excitement coursing through my veins.
My initial wish to move things slowly conflicted with what I’d learned from the past. Time was precious. None of us knew when ours was up. It had been a long hard fight for me to finally accept that it was possible to love someone again without diminishing the love I had for Grace.
As we left the cinema though an emergency exit Stuart was waiting in the alleyway in front of us, and as he closed the car, I had a sense of smugness about having an evening in plain sight of a hundred other people and no one had known I was there.
“Enjoy the movie?” I teased, knowing she’d only seen about half of it.
“Yeah, it was… intense,” she answered, as her eyes flicked to the back of Stuart’s head then looked back to focus on mine. Glancing down at our hands resting side by side, she laced her fingers in mine.
