Page 12 of Your Heart & Mine

Harper bowed her head and looked at the floor. She bit her lip as the memories washed over her. She remembered that day all too well. It had been their first time and she had been so in love with him. He was everything to her. She would have done anything for him, then. Before she managed to find any words, Wyck continued his story.

“I was so nervous. You were so beautiful, and I was scared I was going to screw things up.” He chuckled to himself. “It wasn’t the romantic evening I had envisioned in my mind. I’d had a plan to set up a dinner for two on the back deck with all the candles and flowers and make love to you on a blanket in the meadow under the stars. This old couch and that bottle of wine ruined my grandiose plans, but I wouldn’t have traded that night for anything.”

He turned to face her then, his hand tipping up her chin until her clear hazel eyes met his. “I was so in love with you, Harp, I couldn’t see straight. Tell me you remember that night like I do.”

Her eyes went soft as she looked at him, gold flakes in the amber reflecting the weak winter sunlight shining in from the windows in front of them. Just for a moment, he could see the seventeen-year-old girl she had been, the one only beginning to turn into the stunning woman she had become. Eyes full of love for only him. He felt her chin dip almost imperceptibly in acknowledgement before she whispered, “I remember.”

Ever so slowly, his hand slid from her chin to the nape of her neck and pulled her toward him until he felt every curve of her body against his. It nearly undid him when her arms wrapped around his waist, and he fought back a groan of pleasure. He used all his control to have their lips meet carefully, just a brush, before he let his fingers slide into her silky, sun-kissed locks.

He tilted his head to capture her lips more fully, sipping on the top then sucking her full bottom lip into his mouth. Memory and reality collided as he recognized the sweet taste that was all Harper. She let out a sigh, opening for him. He didn’t let himself immediately dive in, though, despite how badly he wanted to. His raging desire wanted to see her back on this leather couch, spread out before him like a feast but his rational mind overcame the urge. He didn’t want to scare her away, not now. He wanted her to look at him like she used to before he’d gone and fucked it all up.

He gave her one last devastatingly sweet kiss then pulled his lips away. He felt her lips chase his a little as he did so, giving him a warm feeling in his chest. He touched his forehead to hers, both hands now tangled in her hair. His heart was beating in a staccato rhythm that he was sure she could feel as they stood there wrapped up in each other. His lips still felt the heat of hers as her warm breath touched his face. Her eyes were still closed, and he was afraid to speak. He stayed still just breathing her in for several long moments. Finally, on a sigh, he whispered, “Ah, Angel, I’ve missed you so much.”

At the words, he felt her tense. Her eyes popped open and quickly lost their dreamy gaze. She dropped her arms from around his waist and moved back. As she pulled away from him, his body cried out at the loss of her heat. She shook her head and his hands dropped from her hair. “Don’t, Wyck. We can’t do this.”

“Why?” he asked, hating the pleading quality in his voice. “You remember. You felt it. I know you did. We could have that again.”

Her eyes darkened to amber chips. “No, we can’t, and you know exactly why.” She shivered and rubbed her arms as if she was suddenly freezing despite the layers she wore. Her voice turned brittle. “Are we done here? I need to leave.”

He reached out a hand to try to recapture her, but she was already across the small living room before he could touch her. He ran a hand across his head in frustration dislodging his sunglasses causing them to clatter to the floor. He grabbed them up then thrust his hands into the pockets of his dress pants. He took one last look out the windows and at the brown leather couch in front of it with bleakness before following her out to the porch.

“Harper, I...” he tried again but she cut him off with a thrown-up hand.

“Just don’t,” she said. “That was a mistake. I’m sorry if I led you on. I got caught up in the memories. That seems to be happening a lot lately. Now, I need to get some things done and get back to the house. I’m sure Cam and the family are waiting on me.”

His grey eyes grew darker at the mention of the blond mystery man. "You didn't seem to be thinking too much about him a few seconds ago."

Harper’s brows met in a deep V.What was he talking about?Then it hit her. He thought she and Cam were together. She barked out a laugh at the thought but grew serious again quickly. She would use his misunderstanding to her advantage to extricate herself from all the feelings he'd stirred up inside her.

“You really think highly of yourself, don’t you? I hadn’t even thought about that night until you brought it up!” She hoped the lie sounded convincing. “I don’t have time for this shit, Wyck, I really don’t. We need to get out of here.”

She shouldered past him and climbed into the SUV. She gave him a hard, pointed look waiting for him to follow her off the porch. Finally, he threw up his hands in defeat and frustration, turning to lock the door again. He climbed into the driver's seat and started the Rover without a word. He’d let her escape this time, but this wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. He and Harper had unfinished business that he was determined to confront after all these years, whether she liked it or not.

Chapter ten

Insomnia

Thatnight,Harpersatin the thickly cushioned seat in front of the large bay windows of her room into the early hours of the morning. She watched slow falling snowflakes through the wavy, antique glass of the panes. She shivered and drew the down comforter tighter around her shoulders. After giving up trying to sleep about three a.m., she'd taken it off the four-poster mahogany bed and dragged it with her to the window seat.

She couldn’t remember ever being so tired. Her whole body and mind ached with fatigue but sleep still would not come. Images of her daddy’s face, always boisterous and smiling in life were overlaid with his visage gone grey and severe in the silk lining of his casket. She truly didn’t understand the point of seeing the dead before you buried them. It wasn’t peaceful. It gave her no closure and now that image was stuck in her head for the rest of her days. She rubbed her eyes in a vain attempt to wipe it away.

Close on the heels of the flashes of her daddy, were images of Wyck. Wyck as he had been this week, well-pressed with his curly hair wrestled into submission with product. Even in jeans and a sweater, he reeked money — nothing at all like the poor boy she'd fallen in love with. The Wyck she remembered was the boy forever in holey jeans and a ratty Virginia Tech sweatshirt he liked to wear just to rile her. He knew she was headed to UVA.

God, he'd loved that stupid sweatshirt. She’d never tell anyone, but she still had that sweatshirt tucked in the back of her closet behind her Gucci dresses and Chanel work suits. That old ratty shirt was one of the few things he had left in her room when he had disappeared. She used to put it on, clutching her knees to her chest and just sit in it.

She liked to imagine she could still smell him in the fabric, though it had been washed a million times since then. The Paco Rabano cologne that she had given him their first Christmas together overlying the masculine scent that was just Wyck’s. Closing her eyes, she thought she smelled it still. Even though he had broken her heart, she wished she had that piece of him with her now to snuggle up in and remember better times.

Harper had believed she had finally put the past behind her. She was successful in her own right, she had Cam – her platonic soulmate, but then Wyck had walked into the kitchen of her family home, and it was like the last fifteen years hadn’t happened. He'd immediately set off flames low in her belly just by his presence. So familiar, and yet so different at the same time.

As soon as she'd seen him, she'd felt her face reddening, her heart speeding up, and her breath quickening. She'd clutched her hands together to keep from throwing her arms around the man despite how they'd ended. He’d pierced her with those grey eyes across the room and she was frozen in place. All the feelings she thought she had balled up and thrown away were suddenly right back there in those eyes.

She couldn't believe she had let him kiss her at the cabin. To be honest with herself, she had kissed him back. It was like she had no control around him. She never had, but it had been fifteen years! How did he still have this pull over her? She scowled. Wyck had known exactly what he was doing taking her to the cabin. It was so manipulative!

Harper expelled a huge breath, unfolding her long legs from beneath her and started to pace. Dwelling on how Wyck made her traitorous body feel wasn’t helping anything. That ship had sailed long ago. She had to focus and figure out what to do with this mess her Daddy had left them with. There was no time to sit around and moon over a man who had thrown her away once already. She welcomed the anger that started to grow in her over his manipulation. It was much better than the confusion she had been feeling. Yes, in this circumstance, anger was more productive by far.

Tomorrow, or rather later today, she would gather her sisters and her mother and see if they could come up with a plan to save the house. She'd managed to avoid her mother since yesterday, but it wasn't fair to not let her know what was going on. Surely, between the four of them, they would figure something out. They had to.

Just a few blocks away, Wyck sat in his hotel room on the hard little sofa. He'd given up sleeping hours ago. Swirling the bourbon in his plastic highball glass, he pretended to go over the paperwork Mindy had faxed him that needed his signature. In reality, his mind couldn’t focus on anything but Harper. Harper Carrington, after all these years.

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