Page 19 of The Company

Chapter Nine - Harper

I turn away quickly so I don’t have to look at him.

“Harper?” he asks softly.

I have no words. I just have no words.

“Harper?” He touches my shoulder this time and I shrug him off.

“Don’t.”

“I swear to God, I’m not here for you.”

“Where were you last?”

“I can’t say.”

I already knew that. So I change the question slightly. “Where were you last year?” He pauses and I turn so I can see his face as he makes his decision. He looks like he’s thinking hard, counting back the months, maybe. But they are trained to do that, aren’t they? “I’m waiting.” I tap my foot like a petulant child and his eyes drop down to my flip flop and then he looks up at me and smiles.

How could this man be one of them? I don’t understand how anyone with those dimples could be a killer.

“I was fucking up a friend’s job over in a small, nondescript European country. Which is where all my trouble really started.”

“Not in the South Pacific?” I ask warily. Like he would tell me.

“No. I don’t work that side of the world. Haven’t been back in there since I was assigned when I was sixteen.” He watches me as I process his words. Since he was sixteen. He’s been killing people since he was sixteen. “OK?” he asks, breaking the silence. “We good?”

I shake my head and lean against the wall. He comes towards me and puts his hands on my hips and plays with my belt loops. “Harper,” he whispers in my ear. “I’m not walking away from you. You need to understand that. Accept it. I’m here now and I feel like I’m doing the right thing for the first time in my life. I want you. I want to be inside of you. I’ve waited patiently for so fucking long. And this was a stroke of luck. Being sent here and finding you.”

I shake my head at this. “No, it’s a trap.”

“Maybe,” he says, continuing his soft whisper. It disarms me and I want to give in, I really want to give in to him. But deep down I know what he’s capable of. I know because I was taught all the same tricks. “Maybe it was a setup. But I swear to you, I’m not in on it. I won’t ask about your brother again.”

When confronted by the mark, placate them with any and all possible concessions. It’s a textbook example and yet… I’m so falling for it. I want him to stay with me and never leave. I’m so lonely and needy and he has to know this.

His hand cups my face and then his lips brush against mine. “Harper,” he pleads as he takes his mouth back to my ear. “Trust me, I’ll take care of you, Soldier.”

I force myself not to react but it takes every ounce of training not to.

“I know that’s what they really call you, Harper. The Little Soldier. A baby name, right? Since childhood. I know you and you know me, don’t you?”

I pull back, forcing him back at the same time. I need to look at him. He is so familiar. I had to have noticed him on the beach or something.

He doesn’t wait for an answer, just leans in and nips my lip until I squeal.

And that’s all it takes. I melt. He senses my surrender and crashes his mouth against mine, hungrily, like he’s been waiting for this moment for years. “I want to fuck you right here in the hallway. Bend your ass over and take you from behind.”

Jesus, I’m throbbing almost instantly. He pushes his thigh between my legs and presses. This time the throbbing turns into wetness.

“I never—” I dip my head down, embarrassed.

“I know.”

“What do you want?” I look up at him now. His green eyes do that searching thing again, where they dart back and forth, trying to read me.

“I want you,” he says.

“But why?” I fling my hand in the direction of the beach. “There’s a ton of women out there on the beach you can have. Why do you want me? I’m a kid.”