Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
“We’ll talk later, Blake,” Eric says, disconnecting the line. “I know you’re not setting me up, but they may be setting me up through you and I can’t allow that to touch Grayson Bennett. He’s been too damn good to me.”
Panic rushes over me and I pop to my feet. Eric is there with me, his hands settling on my arms. “I’m not going to let them hurt me or you. I’m here. I have a world of resources, which means you have a world of resources.”
“There’s something weird about Isaac having me take over this union negotiation.”
“Meaning what?”
“Involving me came out of nowhere. It’s not what I do and it could have been to keep me busy, but it feels like more. My instinct, the first thing that came to my mind, was that he was setting me up in some way.”
“Never disregard your instincts,” he says. “And I’d already planned on going to the union meeting with you.”
“Maybe that’s the idea. Connect you and me to something unsavory. Don’t go with me.”
“I’m going with you, Harper. End of subject.”
“Eric—”
He drags me closer and kisses me. “It’ll be fine.”
“We don’t even know what’s going on. We don’t know where the bullets are coming from. Blake’s assumption feels right. This is a set-up. I brought you into a set-up. You have to leave.”
“I’ll leave if you’ll come with me.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Then I’m staying.”
“I’m a bad person. I need to tell you that I’m a bad person.”
His eyes narrow, and I feel the slight stiffening in his body next to mine. “What does that mean, Harper?”
“The honorable thing to do right now is to make you leave.”
His expression softens. “You can’t make me leave.”
I wish that was true, I think. I wish so much that I didn’t have a secret that would make him hate me. I tell myself to tell him now, but it’s embarrassing and I’m ashamed that I didn’t handle a piece of my life, of his life, in a better way. He’ll leave when he finds out. He’ll go home and that means he’ll be out of this. He’ll be protected and I care about this man. I need to suck it up and take the hate. I need to force him to leave. I need to just tell him. I need to do it now.
But then he strokes my hair in that way he does that is both tender and sensual, and it undoes me. “We’re in this together, Harper,” he says with that warm, gravelly tone of his that is sex and sin and friendship all in one. “Which is why,” he adds, “we’re going to get comfortable, drink wine, and dig through the data Blake gave us. Together. We’re going to do this together. Say it.”
“Together,” I repeat, and I like this word for us. I like it so much that I’m selfish. I can’t tell him right this minute. I’ll tell him tomorrow. I’ll tell him everything in the morning.
Chapter thirty-eight
Eric
With the word “together” between us, I reach up and untie the sash of Harper’s pink silk robe and then turn her to face the door, dragging it down her shoulders, letting the silk pool at our feet. “Let’s get comfortable and get to work,” I say, my lips by her ear, my fingers catching on her shirt, and pulling it over her head.
“And that requires I be naked?” she asks.
I remove my shirt and slip it over her head, the material falling past her knees as I turn her to face me and she slips her arms into the sleeves. “My way of reminding you that we’re together as we dig into the investigation. Together, Harper.”
“Together doesn’t mean jumping to conclusions like you did over Gigi without talking to me first.”
“I’ll concede that to be true,” I say. “And I’m sorry.”
She blanches. “You’re sorry?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, and in case you didn’t know, savants are good at apologizing, in my case, if it mathematically makes sense.”
It’s a joke, but she doesn’t laugh.
“You’re not going to say anything more about the Gigi incident?”
“I believe you had good intentions,” I say, and I do. “I believe you’ll talk to me next time first.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Then let’s put it behind us. That’s mathematically logical as well.”
She smiles. “I like this mathematically logical stuff you do.”
“Good, because it’s who I am, sweetheart.” I glance at my black and silver TAG Heuer watch, one of the first expensive things I bought myself, and then back to her. “It’s ten. I want to analyze the data Blake sent me and have you show me the data you collected before we catch a few hours of sleep.”
“Of course,” she says. “I have a paper file I put together. I was paranoid about the electronic data getting wiped out or it being discovered by the wrong people.” She moves to the side of the bed where she’s taken up residence for the night, and I claim my spot as she pulls a folder from her briefcase.