“How do you think us dating is working out?” he asked mildly.
Two days ago he’d thought he might have blown it by not staying the night when she’d invited him. Thankfully, she’d been fine the next morning, acting as if nothing had happened, and he’d been beyond relieved. They’d gone out to a movie and dinner last night and talked the whole way home about the movie’s plot, so he hoped they were back on solid ground again. But Harper was sometimes hard to read, and he knew he had to check in with her.
“I think we’re doing fine,” she said.
He rolled his head to the side so he could see her. “You seriously mean that?”
“So much.” She leaned in to him and brushed her lips over his. His eyes drifted closed to savor the feeling. Harper had been so adamant about not adding intimacy into their arrangement that he wouldn’t push. But then her lips brushed past his again, and he kissed her back.
He still couldn’t believe he’d come so close to not having this woman in his life. If he’d gone in to the Tate Armor office at any time in the past two years that Harper had worked there, he would have met her. Instead, they’d met at a masked ball where he hadn’t known who she was and she’d thought he was his twin brother.
That very first time he’d laid eyes on her, every thought in his mind had fled. All he could see, all he could register, was her. She’d worn a gold mask that she held in front of her face by a long stick that served as a handle. She’d lowered it for maybe a minute while she ate a canapé. No one else was watching, but Nick was. She wasn’t just beautiful; there had been something else that called to him. Something he couldn’t name but that was soul-deep and unable to be denied.
And she’d been watching him. The realization at the time had damn near stalled his heart.
“Do you remember when we met?” he asked, running a lazy hand up and down her arm.
She snuggled closer into him. “I’ll never forget that moment.”
He wanted to believe it but refused to let fantasy get tangled up with their real story—not when their real story was already enough—so he had to call her on it. “You thought I was Malcolm.”
“My mind thought you were Malcolm. But the rest of me thought you were...”
“Yes?” he whispered in her ear, then sucked the lobe into his mouth.
“Mine,” she said on a sigh.
She reached up to cup the side of his face, the motion making her top ride up. His fingers found the exposed stretch of skin along her side, across her stomach.
His eyes drifted closed again. He was lost in the feel of her under his hands now and the memory of her then. “You were wearing a glittering gold mask at first.”
“And you had a black mask that covered half your face,” she said, her breath coming a little faster and her hands slipping under his shirt.
He had a brief thought about their agreement not to bring lovemaking into their marriage, but surely they were past that by now? And Harper didn’t seem to be slowing down. They’d agreed that their dating would be a trial, so he decided to give in and let what had been building between them play out this once.
Needing more, always needing more, he pulled her top higher, then, as she raised her arms, lifted it over her head before quickly dispensing with his own shirt. He settled back, satisfied his hands now had a wider range of skin to explore.
“I love it when you do that,” she said, turning over to face him, then kissing him lightly, her lips brushing over his, teasing, luring.
“I aim to please,” he murmured. He stretched out on the bed and adjusted her so she was lying along his body, gravity ensuring their skin-to-skin contact was firm, just the way he liked it. “You wore a dress the color of autumn leaves.”
She arched an eyebrow. “A dress you had off me in less than an hour from first sight.”
“Which was no disrespect to the dress,” he said as he unhooked her bra and threw it over the edge of the bed. “I dreamed about that dress every night until I found you again.”
And that would have been a whole lot sooner if she hadn’t run before he could get her number. The day he’d discovered she was pregnant and they’d reconnected, she’d admitted that she’d freaked out that first night, thinking she’d just slept with her boss. It was understandable, but still a shame that they’d lost those months.
A smile slowly spread across her face, even as she pushed his trousers and boxers down his legs. “You dreamed about
me?”
“Oh, yeah.” They had been most excellent dreams—almost enough to make him not hate falling asleep at night. He stroked his hands down her bare back, still marveling that he didn’t need those dreams anymore. She was here with him. Touching him with as much urgency as he touched her. “And you weren’t just in my dreams,” he continued. “Thoughts of you filled most of my waking moments as well.” He unsnapped the clip at the back of her skirt and tugged it, then her underpants, away, leaving all her glorious skin available to his roaming hands.
“Tell me,” she said as she kissed a trail along his collarbone.
When her tongue flicked out and joined her lips on their mission, he had to pause and find his breath before he could reply. “When I was jogging, I could hear the sounds you made.” She lightly bit his shoulder, and his breath became jagged.
“Tell me more,” she said, moving down his chest.