Page 108 of Redeeming Harmony

He studied her face, then cupped her jaw and kissed her. She returned his kiss and made a sound of protest when he eased out of her.

They lay silently in bed. The thunder was quieter now, the storm moving further away, but the rain still fell in hard pellets against the roof. The sweat on their bodies dried, and they grew chilled. Nathan pulled the covers up around them.

Lying in bed with Harper, their limbs entwined, sharing body heat and listening to the soft sound of her breathing beneath the pounding rain, brought contentment and peace. He smoothed his hand down her back, the feel of her spine reminding him how small she was, how delicate and fragile.

“What are you thinking about?” Harper asked, then groaned. “Oh, holy shit, how cliché was that?”

He laughed and traced his fingers down her spine. “Just thinking about how small and delicate you are.”

She grinned. “Is that the right word to describe me? Delicate?”

“Maybe not,” he admitted. He pulled Harper closer when she craned her head to glance at his alarm clock. “You thinking of going somewhere?”

“No,” she said.

“Good. Because you’re staying the night with me.”

“So bossy,” she said before tracing her fingers over his chest. “Are you sleepy?”

“No,” he said. “You?”

“Not really.”

She looked pensive and a little sad, and he rubbed her lower back. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s stupid,” she said.

“Tell me.”

“I realized that I don’t know that much about you beyond you help animals, and you like to game. I know this is only a friends with benefits thing, but can we even consider ourselves friends?”

“Ask me whatever you want to know,” he said. “I’m an open book.”

She laughed and traced her fingers over his chest. “Okay. What’s your favourite movie?”

“Shawshank Redemption. You?”

“Lord of the Rings.”

“Huh,” he said. “Fantasy nerd… would never have thought it.”

“I used to dress up as Frodo every year at Halloween. Still got the fake hairy feet in my closet, in case that’s a fetish for you or something.”

He laughed so hard that the bed shook, and she grinned at him. “So, no foot fetishes, huh?”

“Nope, not even for hairy ones.”

“Okay, next question… who was your biggest crush in high school?”

Chapter 24

“Ican’t believe you did that.” Harper licked the sticky sweet remnants of the danish from her fingers. “That is so not like you.”

Nathan ate the last bite of his danish before taking a swallow of water from the glass and handing it over to her. “I was fifteen, and my brother was a pain in the ass.”

“He was twelve. They’re always pains in the ass at that age,” Harper said. She tucked the sheet a little closer around her body. Almost two hours had passed, but she wasn’t the least bit tired. The benefits of being a night owl, she supposed. And since her shift at the shop didn’t start until noon tomorrow, she had plenty of time to sleep later. Although, it wasn’t exactly fair to Nathan, who did have to work in the morning.

“Maybe we should get some sleep.” She glanced at Nathan’s alarm clock. “You have to work in the morning.”

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