The Boyfriend Arrangement

“Maybe B. Mayler is on the bus. Ever think of that? Maybe he followed us into town.”

Sebastian turned to look over his shoulder at the people on the bus. “I doubt it. Besides, he wouldn’t need to steal it from you. You’re about to give it to him outright.”

He was probably right. She hadn’t seen Quentin on the bus or in town. She half expected to see him sitting in the lobby when they arrived, waiting with baited breath for her to leave the package at the front desk, especially after Sebastian had seen him at the desk the night before. She hated to tell Quentin that he was going to be disappointed.

Twenty-five thousand euros. Not a hundred thousand. That was all the bank would give her even with Sebastian’s signature on the loan. If they’d had more time...if she’d had better credit, more collateral...if Harper’d had ties to Ireland... Their reasons for limiting the amount of the loan had gone on and on. She supposed she should be happy to have gotten this much. She was a quarter of the way there. Maybe it would keep the blackmailer happy until she could get more.

Looking into her purse for the twentieth time, Harper checked to make sure the bundle of bills was still there. It was in a white envelope, labeled as directed, and included a note that explained this was all she could get until she returned to the United States. She intended to leave the package at the front desk as they went in. Then, maybe, she would be able to take a deep breath for the first time since she’d spied that envelope on her plane seat.

Or perhaps not.

As they pulled up the curved gravel driveway of Markree Castle, she closed her bag to make sure the envelope wouldn’t fall out. Sebastian stayed close by her side as they exited the bus and walked into the hotel.

Despite their situation, it was nice to have him be there for her. He hadn’t signed up for any of this drama when he’d agreed to come on the trip as her boyfriend. He’d been promised a free vacation and instead he’d been roped into a blackmail plot. And yet he hadn’t complained. He’d been her sounding board, her shoulder to cry on and, at the moment, her personal bodyguard. Harper didn’t know how to thank him for everything he’d done so far. If she’d come on this trip alone, she wasn’t sure what she would’ve done.

They stopped at the desk long enough for her to hand over the package with instructions for the desk clerk. She slipped it into a blank mail slot on the back wall and went to answer the phone as though it was nothing to her. Harper supposed it was. Just something left for a guest. Who would imagine it was filled with thousands of euros in cash?

“Let’s go upstairs,” Sebastian suggested. “We need to get away from the desk so he can come pick it up.”

Harper didn’t argue. She just took his arm and let him lead her away. It felt good to cling to him, to have the strong support of his body against her own. It meant so much to have him there for her. It had been a long time since she’d had that in her life. When so much of her da

y-to-day existence was a lie, it was almost impossible to let people in. Even her best girlfriends, the people who knew her better than anyone, didn’t know the whole truth about her.

As they stepped inside their room and he closed the door behind them, she realized how lonely she had been. Even when she had been with Quentin, something had been missing. She was holding part of herself back from everyone, never letting anyone completely in.

But Sebastian knew all her secrets. And he was still there with her. At least for now.

Harper didn’t expect him to stay around after the end of the trip. He had a life to return to and so did she. But they had the here and now together and, for her, that was enough. She just needed to feel like she wasn’t going through this by herself. She wasn’t lonely when he was around. She didn’t have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t. It was such a relief to be able to let her guard down and just relax into who she really was for the first time in forever.

She turned to look at Sebastian. His large, dark eyes were watching her from across the room the way they always did. He constantly seemed to be in silent study of the world around him. Of her. Perhaps it was the engineer in him, taking things apart and putting them back together in his mind. Figuring out how things worked. What made them tick. What made her tick. The idea of him instinctively knowing just how to push her buttons was enough to make her need to slip out of her suddenly too warm jacket.

He was one of the most intense men she’d ever encountered. And now, in this moment, she wanted to lose herself in that intensity.

“Sebastian.”

It was all she said, yet she knew her tone conveyed so much more to him than just his name. He bit thoughtfully at his full bottom lip as his gaze narrowed at her. At last, he started moving toward her at an unhurried pace. Their gazes never broke away from one another as he came nearer. And even when he was close enough to reach out and pull Harper into his arms, he didn’t touch her. He just studied her, taking in every inch from her dark ponytail to the cobblestone-scuffed deck shoes she’d worn into town.

This was her move to make. Their relationship was set up with parameters she’d defined. If they were going to cross a line, she had to be the one to do it. And that was fine by her.

Her lips met his before she could lose her nerve. Their kiss this morning had been proof that there was more between them than just some arrangement. Excitement and gratitude had overridden her good sense then, but the kiss had been about anything but saying thank you. The current running beneath the surface was one of mutual attraction, undeniable chemistry...they had just been holding back out of respect for the agreement they’d made. This relationship was supposed to be all for show, right?

But all that went out the window when he looked at her the way he did. Touched her the way he did.

“Make me forget about all of this,” she said in a desperate whisper against the rough stubble of his cheek.

Sebastian didn’t hesitate to give her what she’d asked for. Within seconds her shirt was over her head. His hungry mouth traveled down her chin and throat to bury in the valley between her breasts. He nipped at her delicate skin with his teeth even as he unclasped her bra and cast it to the floor.

The sensations were so overwhelming, all Harper could do was close her eyes and try to take it all in. His hands moved quickly to cover her exposed breasts. She groaned as her tight, sensitive nipples grazed his rough palms. His fingertips pressed into her flesh, squeezing and kneading her breasts.

The moment he drew one tight bud into his mouth, Harper’s head fell back and she cried out to the ceiling. His silky, hot tongue bathed her skin, sucking hard and then biting gently with his teeth until she gasped. She gripped his head, trying to pull him closer as she buried her fingers in the dark waves of his hair. She couldn’t get close enough.

Then he pulled away.

Sebastian stood fully upright for a moment, his hands encircling her waist. He held her steady there as his dark eyes studied her face. He seemed to take in every detail, from the curve of her lips to the scar across her brow where she’d fallen out of a bunk bed as a child.

Harper suddenly felt self-conscious as she stood there, topless and exposed to his scrutiny. What would he see if he looked that closely? She wanted to turn off the lights, to cover up, pull away before he found something he didn’t like about her body.

Then he shook his head and said, “Beautiful,” under his breath and she tried to put those worries aside to be the beautiful woman on the inside that he saw on the outside.