Page 16 of Love, Honor, and Ink

“Going to let me in?” he asked with a grin, and she shook herself. He was out in the cold on her porch and probably hadn’t just walked in since it was way too early. He must have known she’d be awake, but still.

“Come in out of the cold,” she said after a moment, trying to blink her treacherous thoughts away. “Thank you so much for the coffee. I can’t believe you’re here.” She moved out of the way and reached for her cup, her fingers gently brushing his. The swift intake of breath from each of them was new…and intoxicating.

She blinked then stepped back, needing to find that control again. “I’m going to go put on my suit. And, uh…all of my things are stacked by the table, ready to go. Harper, you don’t have to do this.” He opened his mouth to argue, and she held up her hand. They’d had this fight before, and today wasn’t a good day for her to get her back up about him helping. She needed to be grateful, not pushy. “But thank you anyway. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Harper met her gaze, and something flitted across his eyes, forcing her to hold back the urge to wrap her arms around his waist and never let go. “Well, I’m here, so you don’t have to think about what you’d do without me. That’ll never happen.” He cleared his throat. “Now go get dressed, and I’ll meet you by your car.” He turned and then stopped, looking over his shoulder. “Ari? You’re going to kick wedding ass today.”

She grinned at him, feeling a little more at ease by his presence. “Yeah. I’m totally going to kick ass.”

He smiled back and then went to one of her piles, bending over so she got a fantastic view of his very tight butt in dark slacks. She shook her head and ran to her bedroom. What the hell was going on with her? Checking out Harper’s butt? It must be the stress.

Yeah, that was it.

It had to be.

Because she didn’t have time for it to be anything else.

By the time she was dressed and at the wedding venue, her nerves were fraying, but not from things going wrong. No, it was her worries taking care of that.

Warm hands covered her upper arms, and she froze before turning, only to see Harper standing behind her. She smiled and turned, breaking the contact. He was too warm for her, too male. She could barely breathe with him around.

So not what she was used to when it came to Harper in her life.

“How’s it going?” he asked, his gaze on hers, unwavering.

Arianna took a step back and tapped her headset. “We’re ready to roll in forty-three minutes when we let the guests break out of the staging area and into the dining room. B&G are with their families in the ready room and will join us then. They haven’t seen the center winery area with their tables because they wanted it to be a surprise.”

Totally no stress or anything. It’s not like they could hate it on sight and feel like their wedding was ruined. Except, of course, that was bound to happen if she kept thinking about it.

She took a deep breath. “We’re on course.”

Harper tucked a curl behind her ear. “Good to hear. Setting up the flowers in the rafters would have been a bitch for the florist. I’m glad you had us help.”

The couple had wanted flowers to decorate the dark wooden ceiling and beams. They could have cared less about the expensive chandeliers in the room, and Arianna was grateful about that.

It looked better with only a few of the lighting sconces on and the flowers and natural light making the afternoon reception perfect and intimate.

“You look great, by the way,” he whispered. “That gold fucking rocks on you. I’m glad the wedding party wanted you to blend in with them.”

Arianna blinked and ran a hand down the heavily beaded and adorned bodice of her gold dress. Rather than wearing her suit, her clients had wanted her to match. Half of the weddings in the past she had planned had requested her to match their settings, and, while it was harder to move in the long, flowing dress, she felt like a princess wearing it.

“You don’t look too bad yourself,” she replied. And she wasn’t lying. In a black suit and gold tie, Harper looked model worthy, even with that rugged appeal that he could never quite lose no matter how hard he tried.

He grinned, white teeth bright on tanned skin. “Where do you need me?”

On me. In me. Over me.

She coughed, pushing those thoughts away. Totally not the time to be going crazy.

“I don’t know yet. I’m trying to anticipate problems, so why don’t you just stay by my side just in case?”

His eyes darkened a bit, and she swallowed hard. “Standing by your side is easy, darling.”

“Uh, thanks.”

Smooth, Arianna. Smooth.

Who was this Harper, and why couldn’t she seem to resist him?

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