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“Me neither.”
Victoria looks deeply into her eyes. The wind picks up again, ruffling the loose strands of both their hair. The atmosphere between them has shifted from a battle to a refuge.
They keep walking until they leave the park behind and turn onto Harper Street. The traffic has almost completely disappeared. The sidewalk in front of the entrance to her building is deserted, bathed in the warm light of the streetlamp by the entrance.
Harper stops in front of the iron-and-glass door.
“We’re here,” Harper announces, turning to look at her.
“I know. I recognize the entrance.”
“Of course you do. You lived here for a year when this was my place.”
Victoria can’t help but smile.
“It’s been… a great night, Harper.”
“It’s been a strangely perfect night.”
Victoria takes a step toward her, raises her hand, and slowly brushes a strand of hair away from Harper’s face.
The touch sends an electric shock straight to Harper’s heart.
“Good night…” Victoria murmurs, her voice growing hoarse.
Harper looks at her lips. Those lips she knows by heart and that have once again been her undoing.
“This is ridiculous.”
Victoria raises an eyebrow, amused.
“What?”
“That we’re playing the part of well-mannered ladies after everything we’ve done.”
Victoria leans forward and captures her lips in a slow, deep, and brutally tender kiss.
Harper stifles a sigh against her mouth, wrapping her arms around Victoria’s neck and pressing her body against hers as the New York chill fades away completely. When they finally pull apart, their foreheads remain pressed together, and they both breathe the same air.
“How about you come up to my place?”
“Well, I’m not going to say no.”
Victoria smiles triumphantly and crosses the threshold behind her.
Chapter 17
Victoria leads Harper toward the bedroom, almost taking her breath away, slowly undressing her under the dim light of the bedside lamps.
The silence of the Brooklyn apartment is broken only by the distant murmur of city traffic and the creak of the wood beneath their footsteps. Harper lets herself go, her eyes shining in the golden twilight and her lips parted slightly as her breathing grows faster and faster. Victoria is in no hurry. Every movement is deliberate, calculated with the precision of someone who knows by heart the anatomy of a desire that has been held in check for many years.
“I want to make sure you don’t forget a single second of tonight, Harper,” Victoria whispers against her lips, tracing her skin with slow kisses that trail down her jawline to her neck.
“There’s no way I’ll forget it when you look at me like that… as if I were the only thing that matters,” Harper replies, wrapping her arms around her neck, digging her fingers into her ex-wife’s hair, and pressing her hips against hers with an urgency that breaks Victoria’s leisurely rhythm.
Victoria’s coat falls to the floor, followed by Harper’s jacket. And little by little, the rest of their clothes surrender to their shared impatience. Victoria lets out a low, deep, heated laugh against the skin of her ex-wife’s throat, savoring the contrast between the impeccable executive who commands meetings at Velvet & Silk and this woman overcome by instinct.
“Relax, Brooks…” Victoria murmurs, sliding her hands down to caress her waist. “We’re not going anywhere.”
