Page 12 of His Assistant (His Chance 3)

“Real estate is a good investment,” he murmured.

“That’s why you bought it? As an investment?”

“No. I just wanted to cheer myself up.”

“Did it work?”

He shook his head and hugged his knees to his chest.

Damn it.

I might be able to resist life of the party Harper, but sad, fragile Harper was another thing entirely. I slid closer and rubbed his back, somewhat awkwardly.

“I’ll block off your calendar after your interview on Tuesday,” I said. “The next time you have to be somewhere is the following Wednesday, so would you like to plan on spending the week in between in Hawaii?”

He glanced at me. “I’d love to, but only if you come along. I don’t want to go alone.”

“Maybe you should invite some friends to go with you.”

Harper shook his head. “Aside from you, everyone I know would want to party all week, and I just need to relax. I can’t spend seven days doing nothing though, that’d drive me crazy. If you’re with me, I bet we can find a balance between being productive and still enjoying plenty of downtime. I’ll read those scripts my agent sent me, and we can stuff a giant suitcase with my neglected paperwork, and you can spend time sorting through it and getting me all nice and organized.” He grinned at me and asked, “Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

It actually did, I couldn’t even deny it. I was all about order and organization, which was why coming back to work for Harper was a challenge I couldn’t resist. “I’m sure I can get through your paperwork before that,” I told him, “but I’ll still have plenty to do.”

“So, you’ll come with me?”

“Of course. It’s my job to go wherever you do. One question—is the house actually habitable, or will we need to think about furnishing it before we go?”

“It’s all set. Apparently it’s customary in Hawaii to sell the furniture along with the house.”

“Well, good. One less thing to worry about.”

After a moment, he told me, “I’ll handle the arrangements, including booking our flight and renting a car.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Because that’s what you’re paying me to do.”

Harper shrugged. “You have enough on your plate, and I can handle this.” I felt like there was an ulterior motive at work, but damned if I knew what it was.

“If you really want to, then go right ahead.” I got up and said, “I’m heading to bed, and you should do the same. You have a long day tomorrow.”

“It’s still so early.”

“It’s after midnight.”

“But only nine p.m. our time.”

“I’m still going to bed.”

I started to leave the living room, but he jumped up and caught my hand as he blurted, “Don’t go.”

I turned to him just as he took a step closer, and all of a sudden his face was inches from mine. A feeling of anticipation sparked between us, and I held my breath. Then he ran his thumb over the inside of my wrist, which probably meant he could feel the spike in my heart rate.

His gaze shifted from my eyes to my mouth. When he started to lean in, I panicked and pulled back, which made him let go of my hand. He looked as confused as I felt. We stood there awkwardly for a moment, and then I blurted something that sounded vaguely like good night and retreated to my room.

Once I got there, I closed the door and leaned against it. My heart was still racing, and I took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down.

No matter how attracted I was to him, kissing Harper would have been disastrous. Besides the fact that he was my employer, he was also the worst person ever to get involved with, because he was a total playboy. Most of his so-called relationships could be measured in hours or days. About the only exception I could think of was whatever the hell he’d had with my twin brother, which went on for a few months. The thought of that made me bristle.

But then I began to question myself. Had he really been about to kiss me, or did I misinterpret whatever had just happened? I played it over and over again in my mind. It had definitely seemed like he was coming in for a kiss, but why would he do that? He’d never shown a romantic interest in me, aside from some flirting, but he flirted with everyone. I knew not to take that seriously.

A knock on the door I was leaning against made me jump. That was immediately followed by a wave of embarrassment. I had to have imagined that whole near-miss kiss, and he was probably checking to see why I’d run off like that.

When I opened the door and started to say something, Harper barged into the room, took my face between his hands, and proceeded to kiss me like I’d never been kissed before. It was passionate and demanding and so fucking good that it made me wonder what the hell every other guy I’d ever kissed had actually been doing, because it sure as hell wasn’t this.

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