The pier comes into view on the left and Sasha squeals with delight. She’s so happy. But I’m not. I groan and put a hand on my stomach. “James, please, just turn around.”
But he can’t even hear me over the wind and Sasha. Besides, he’s not listening. We pass the pier and turn up Fifth Street towards my house. The little Mexican restaurant is busy because it’s lunchtime now. He slows down and turns left onto Walnut, then makes the first right into the alley.
My alley. I grab him by his upper arm. “I don’t want to go to my house, James!”
He ignores me, just parks the car in front of my garage, then gets out.
But he’s not going to my house. He walks up to the garage across the alley, flips open a control pad, and keys in a code. The garage door opens as he gets back into the Hummer. “I live right here.” He smiles down at me and I feel my worries lift for a moment.
“You lived across the alley from me that whole time?”
He pulls into the garage and cuts the engine. “All the better to stalk you, my dear.”
“Ha,” Sasha says from the back seat. “James, you really are the big bad wolf. He was gonna tell Merc wolves ate me out on the prairie if I didn’t behave, Harper. You better watch out.”
“All right, enough,” James says as he opens his door. “Let’s go inside and I’ll give you the tour before I head out.”
Ohhhh. My stomach does another flip and I have to swallow down the puke. I reluctantly get out and follow them over to the key pad by the inside door. James presses in the code and the garage door closes as the condo door opens. Inside there are steps leading up to a second floor. Sasha and I follow him up to a bright and open living area.
“You can see the ocean,” Sasha says.
He does have a very nice view. One block away, but looking down Sixth Street. When I follow them out onto the balcony, I realize you can even see sand from here. “That’s quite a view the Company pays for.”
I don’t know why I say it. To be a bitch. To hide my insecurities. To make him feel guilty for being here on their dime. Or maybe all of the above.
What’s he doing with me anyway? I get that he wants me to trust him, but why should I? He has never denied that this is a job. He has denied certain very specific things about why he’s here. It’s not to kill me. It’s not to kill Nick. But beyond that, he’s been very evasive.
“You should see the third floor,” James quips back as he takes my hand and leads me over to some stairs on the other side of the living room.
“I wanna see the third floor!” Sasha says excitedly.
“Stay here, Smurf,” James growls.
I know what he’s doing, but I follow him upstairs anyway. He takes me past a bedroom and an office, until we get to the end of the hallway, and then he opens the double doors that lead to the master and waves me in.
The doors close behind me and then his hands are on my hips. Lifting my shirt and caressing my br**sts before I can even begin to protest.
I want to protest.
That’s a lie.
I want to f**k him. I want to suck him off so hard he forgets all about these files and stays in bed with me for the rest of the day. But that’s not gonna happen, so the best I can hope for is an hour of dirty pleasure.
I drop to my knees and begin unbuttoning his pants, but his hand grips my upper arm.
“No, Harper. That’s not why I brought you up here.”
“What?” He pulls me to my feet. My face is hot with embarrassment. “What’s wrong?”
He just smiles.
“James, please, you’re scaring me.”
And then he pulls me into an embrace. His mouth drifts to my neck and his hot breath is enough to cause prickles to stream down my spine. “Nothing is wrong. Nothing at all. I just… I just don’t want you to think I’m only here for that. I brought you up here to talk, that’s all. In private,” he adds quickly when he realizes my confusion. “Nothing bad.”
I’m not sure I believe him. Sex, that seems to be our new normal. It’s very obvious he’s been using it to get what he wants. To control things and keep me off balance so I’m more compliant. But talking?
“Why are you so nervous?” he says, cupping my face in that way that allows his thumbs to caress my jaw.
I let out a long sigh. “I’m just not sure any words we say will be very comforting.”
He leads me over to the balcony and opens the slider so we can step out onto the terrace. The ocean hits me immediately, and it’s breezy today, so even though it’s probably not possible, I feel the sea on my skin.
I inhale deeply and then realize James is watching me. I smile, a little bit more at ease with all these familiar scents and feelings. “What?”
He shakes his head and stares. “You’re so pretty.”
Pretty.
It’s such a simple word.
Pretty.
It’s something kids say.
And yet it says so much more than gorgeous or beautiful or hot or sexy. It’s the implied simplicity of the word that make my heart swell around the echo of his voice in my head. “I wish we were Six again.”
He nods at me. “Yeah, a do-over. I wish we could have a do-over. But you know what I’d do different?”
Tears are suddenly running down my face. I wipe them away and swallow down whatever this new emotion is and answer him. “What?”
He closes the distance between us with one step, but that step changes everything in my eyes. That step makes me his. And when his arms come around me, the way they have so many other times, that changes things for me too.