Page 41 of The Boss's Forbidden Assistant

‘But you’ve been married,’ she pointed out. ‘So I’m sure your perspective is a little different.’

His lips pulled to one side then he drank from his wine.

‘What was she like?’ The question wasn’t planned, but Harper didn’t regret asking it. After their conversation, she felt that he’d opened a door to their past, to the spirit of total honesty.

‘Anna-Maria was a wonderful person.’ The words came out reluctantly. He clearly didn’t want to talk about his late wife. Could she blame him? It had only been a year, or a little over. Not long enough to have healed.

‘You must miss her.’

A muscle jerked in Salvador’s jaw as he gripped his glass tight enough for his knuckles to show white.

‘How long were you married?’

‘Six months.’ This time, he made it quite obvious he wasn’t going to be drawn deeper into conversation.

The waiter reappeared to take their orders. Harper chose something at random, not having properly looked at the menu.

‘Amanda spoke very highly of you.’ Salvador changed the subject when they were alone once more. ‘It seemed that she knew a lot about you.’

Harper’s smile was genuine. ‘She’s one of my mum’s oldest friends. I’ve known her since I was a baby—apparently. I don’t remember that part, but I do remember her from when I was a girl and she’d come to visit. She’d always bring me little gifts from wherever she was working at the time. She was so glamorous, always overseas on assignment.’

Salvador nodded.

‘My mum was the polar opposite—very beautiful and glamorous but a total scatterbrain. She was artistic and creative, so I never lacked for stories and fun, but sometimes dinner didn’t get cooked until midnight, or not at all, and I rarely had the right school clothes.’ Harper shrugged. ‘Whereas Amanda was so organised. Her life seemed to run like clockwork. I was in awe of her efficiency.’

‘So she’s always been that way?’

‘Always,’ Harper confirmed with a nod. ‘It was Amanda who recommended I apply for the position at da Rocha Industries in Chicago after I quit my last job. She didn’t ask questions, but she understood I needed help, and put my CV forward to HR. I was so grateful to her.’

‘You needn’t be. Your work speaks for itself, Harper. I’m very impressed by you.’

It was just about the best compliment Harper could ever be paid.

She tucked it away into a fold of her brain for later examination and enjoyment. Some memories needed to be clung to, and this, she suspected, was one of them.

Prague was a truly beautiful city—the people, the history, the culture and the architecture. After finishing their dinner, which was sublimely delicious, Salvador and Harper walked across the Charles Street bridge—not holding hands, like the other couples doing an evening promenade, but with Salvador’s hand lightly on the small of Harper’s back, keeping her close, making her pulse simmer. It was somehow even more intimate and possessive, as though he wanted her welded to his side. He was hard, strong and firm and she fit there so perfectly. Heat flamed inside her body; she had enjoyed their night out but now, more than anything, she wanted to get back to the hotel, to their shared room and that perfect bed they’d enjoyed rumpling so much.

In the small hours of the morning, Salvador shifted a little onto his side so he could see Harper in the light cast by the full moon. She was asleep, sound asleep, and, oh, so beautiful. She’d been stunning tonight in that dress, with her hair, make-up and those heels, but he stared at her like this and felt something shift in his belly, something in his chest that he’d never felt before. It was an ache and a need that he shied away from, because he knew instinctively it was more than he should feel for her. That he was starting to want more than either of them had agreed to.

She was beautiful and she was fascinating, but that was even worse, because true danger lay in the kind of desire he felt—a desire that went beyond the physical.

Harper Lawson was the kind of woman a man could fall head over heels in love with.

Salvador had never been in love. Much like Harper, he’d had his own front-row seat to a cautionary tale of love and had always sought to avoid that. Things with Anna-Maria had been different. He’d loved his wife as one of his oldest friends, but that wasn’t the same thing as headlong, romantic love. Their one night together wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t been out together, drinking, dancing, laughing and if Salvador hadn’t been so carefree with who he took to bed.

The next day, he’d woken up and remembered who Anna-Maria was to him, and wished he could have undone the last twelve hours of his life. It hadn’t helped that she’d felt the opposite—that she’d loved him. He’d broken her heart that day, not knowing of course that she’d conceived their baby.

Everything with Harper, though, was different. She was sparky. So sparky that they couldn’t help but surge when they were together. She was dangerous. This whole relationship was fraught with risks he couldn’t define; he needed to remember that, to keep a grip on reality, to remain in control and not to hesitate to end it when the time came. It was the only thing that would make sense of all of this—to stay focussed on who he was and what he wanted, and that wasn’t to get involved with a woman like Harper.

He couldn’t. When he let his mind wander and imagined a world in which he opened himself up to this, to being with Harper without any idea of when—or if—it might end, he could see only the flip side. Only the darkness that came from trusting and loving, only the pain. She’d known enough of that, and so had he. Salvador knew he had to be strong for both of them.

Arriving back on Ilha do Sonhos was a strange moment for Harper. She’d committed so much of this scenery to her memory, because it was one of the most beautiful places she’d ever been, but now she saw it differently. It wasn’t that the island had changed, but Harper had. She was different from the woman who’d flown out of here.

Something had shifted inside her, and a curiosity had been born that was almost insatiable. This was no longer a collection of trees and mountains leading to some of the most pristine beachfront Harper had ever seen: these were Salvador’s trees and mountains, his home, his refuge, the place he’d chosen to live and love, the place where he’d known such awful loss.

To be here, to breathe the air, to see this scenery, was to place herself in his shoes and share a part of his life with him.

It was terrifying and all soreal.

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