Harper
I couldn’t believe that I took the job here. It was foolish and a last opportunity to see him again. It took a while to figure out who he was, but one time I came to town to see my grandparents and his parents were in the car next to us. I saw him and thought for a moment it was Bryce. My mother and grandmother pointed out that they had one son named Bryce, the heir to the Middleton fortune. For a week, they tried to get me to the hotel, but I couldn’t. Never would I become a gold digger. It was what sent my father into an early grave, that I was sure of.
I just had to see him once. “Hey Harper, it’s your break time,” Dylan said, he was the latest guy to start working here, and his eyes had been on my ass for weeks. The years had been kind to me when it came to my figure, and my mother made sure that it had. She even considered breast implants if my tits didn’t grow. They were as affordable as televisions these days. The world had gone upside down since I was a little kid. Sex was everywhere and technology ruled the world. I never understood all this VR technology hitting the market like it did. Theme parks like Big Bear were on their way out, as was visiting places like the mountains. Driving to take in the fresh air only cost gas or an electric charge to get there and you could camp out under the beautiful night sky. Now everyone put those sets on their heads and saw it without their lazy asses leaving their sofas.
I traveled every chance I got. It was all I could do to forget Bryce. Every time I was up here, my mother hounded me. The only day I was without a tail during the summer after my eighteenth birthday, he wasn’t there. I waited like he asked, but he never came.
After our first and only meeting, I couldn’t shake his promise and hated him for it. He broke my heart without another word. I fell for the idea of him. Learning that he was an heir and I was probably a long-forgotten thought destroyed me. I couldn’t look at another man because I belonged to a liar. I left to go on break. I shouldn’t be working here. I had a college degree in accounting and opportunities beating down my door. Foolish girl. I was going to give my notice and head back to California. As I sat in the breakroom, I thought about him again. Seeing his parents happily smiling at each other with a dirty promise in their eyes didn’t help the longing in my heart and body. I wanted Bryce, and seeing his father only added to that pain. I could picture Bryce at fifty or so, looking handsome with a hint of grey at his temples and creases forming around his eyes as he smiled at me. Damn it. I stood, ready to give my notice. I didn’t care how bad it made me look, nothing was going to keep me here.
I stormed out to the front desk, ready to draft my note when I slammed into a wall of a man. My head lifted and I nearly fainted.
“Mine,” he commanded and I blacked out.
Chapter 6
Bryce
I had her in my arms after all these years and she’d passed out. It didn’t last long after I shook her slightly. “Are you really here?”
“Yes, princess, and I’m here to claim what’s mine.”
“A bit overdue, no? What three years wasn’t enough to test the waters, so you needed longer?” she hissed as she straightened herself up and pushed out of my arms. Man, she did a total one eighty on me.
I didn’t let her get away, it had been too long and there was nothing that would stop me. I pulled her to me as I leaned against the reception desk. “I haven’t been with anyone. I’ve been waiting for you. Six long years since I saw your beautiful face. Six years of longing and wondering. I won’t waste another day.” I dropped my head and captured her lips with mine. It was calming, yet grew in intensity. She sighed, parting her lips and letting my tongue slip past. I grabbed hold of her waist with one hand and thrust the other in her hair. Her long blonde curls were wrapped tightly around my fingers as I dominated her. I didn’t care if anyone was around, my need was insatiable.
“Mr. Middleton, your parents’ office door is opening,” I heard a male voice say. I let Harper go because this wasn’t how I wanted my parents to meet their future daughter-in-law. They walked over to the desk with smiles on their faces and took in my appearance, then said their goodbyes and walked away.
“Harper, there’s so much to talk about,” I said, looking at her before turning to the guy at the desk. “Hey you, how long’s your shift?”
“Until midnight. The next person comes in at five-thirty.”
“Okay, I’m taking Harper with me and she’s done here. Call that person and tell them I want them in early for a bonus.”
“Grab your things and let’s go,” I demanded. She grabbed her big purse from the floor and followed me as I tugged her along. I didn’t want to hurt her in those heels, so I slowed down a bit. We were just outside the doors when I saw my parents waiting by their car, smiling and arching their brows at me.
I took her over to them, there was no time like the present to make an introduction. “Mother, Father, I’d like to introduce you to your future daughter, Harper Simmons. Now, I’ll see you later because she and I have a lot to discuss.”
“Have fun,” my father said.
“Behave,” my mother said.
“That defeats the fun part, love. Let’s leave the kids alone,” he growled against her ear before taking it between his lips. I shook my head, but Harper looked longingly at them. A pang of jealousy hit me hard. Was she attracted to my father? I walked us to my car and pushed her against the passenger side door.
“I’ve missed you, Harper.”
“Then why didn’t you show?” she asked.
“I’d broken my leg right before my flight out to you. I was in the hospital. I had my cousin wheel me over to the pond afterward for two whole weeks.”
“I left the next day,” she said, sorrow in her soft voice.
“Damn it, how come you said that man was your grandfather? I looked him up, searching through death records, and he had no next of kin,” I growled. I would have found her a long time ago.
“Because he was to me. He’d been in my life since I was six. Every summer I’d come to visit my real grandparents, and they would leave me alone to play at their country club. He was their neighbor.”
“I asked the people next door about the old man there and they claimed ignorance.”
“My grandparents moved down with my mom when my father died.”