More of You

Chapter 19

The city lights of Paris lay spread out below Harper as she stood on her balcony and dried her hair with a towel. The Eiffel Tower was front and center, and the Seine River ran between the hotel and the tower. The Hotel was spectacular and beyond anything Harper had imagined. Luke and Gran had a suite next door and their view was just as amazing.

There was a knock on the door and she turned away from the beauty of the city and moved to answer it. Luke was leaning against the doorjamb looking at his feet as if he was thinking hard about something. When he looked up and took in the sight of her in her robe with her hair loose around her shoulders; his eye darkened with a look she had never seen before and it made her nervous.

He spent more than what would be considered a decent amount of time taking in her appearance, and Harper was the one who had to break the silence.

"Yes?"

His lips twitched at the sound of resigned patience in her voice. "Gran is too tired to go out tonight, she is going to have room service and then go to bed, would you like to join me for dinner?"

Harper thought about it, she was too keyed up to go to bed and an evening trapped in her room sounded horrible.

She nodded. "Can I pick the place?" There had been this little bistro that she had always loved and she would like to visit it this trip, but she didn't think it would be Gran's style. This might be her only chance to visit it.

"There's somewhere particular that you would like to go," Luke said, catching on right away.

"Yes, but it's not necessarily Gran's style."

Luke nodded and looked Harper over one more time. "How much time do you need?"

"Half and hour?" she suggested. He nodded and then left her to get ready.

She couldn't help the way her heart beat erratically in her chest. Was this a date?  Were she and Luke about to go on their first date, or was he asking because she was the only one he knew in Pairs?

What should she wear! She spent the next half hour racing around her room like a mad woman, she pulled out a long white skirt and a matching blouse. Her hair was another matter altogether. It was too wet to do much with so she pulled it back in to a slicked back ponytail.

Luke's knock on the door meant that she had no real time for makeup so she only had time to put on a little lip gloss before joining him.

"You ready?" he asked, looking her over once more. This time his look was nothing but polite.

"You don't like it?" she asked, looking down at herself.

"You look beautiful Harper, you always do," He assured her as he waited for her to join him in the hall.

"Thank you," she said shyly.

When they emerged from hotel and out into the warm Paris night Harper took a deep breath then grinned up at Luke. "I love Paris!"

"I can tell." He smiled down at her. "Do we need a taxi or are we walking?"

"Walking of course!" She tucked her arm in his and led the way, reminiscing all about her student days spent in the city and the fun that she had had. He seemed to be content to follow her lead, and when they reached the bistro they found a decent table with a view of the passersby.

"Shall I order for you?" she asked Luke and he looked amused by her offer.

"Please do," he agreed as the waiter approached and Harper started a conversation with him in French. They enjoyed their dinner in the lively atmosphere and after they were done eating they both agreed that a walk would be ideal. Harper was still too restless to be able to go to sleep and a walk might calm her down.

They were walking along the river and she hadn't felt so peaceful in a very long time. "I feel different here," she said softly, almost to herself.

"How?" Luke asked just as softly as if he was afraid to frighten her.

"More like me." She stopped and looked down at the water swirling past them. "When I was in Paris for school, I had friends who had no expectations of me, and I could be who I wanted to be not who I was expected to be."

"Who are you expected to be?" Luke asked as he took her hand in his.

Harper didn't pull away as she looked at their joined hands, even that felt right all of the sudden.

"The perfect daughter, sister, friend, employee, you name it."

"Have you always felt that way?" He turned towards her

"For as long as I can remember." She frowned at the thought.

"If it helps, I know your not perfect and I don't expect you to be," he pulled her close.

She tried to push away from him thinking that he had suddenly fallen into one of his joking moods. "Ha ha, very funny Luke!"

"Harper, I've always seen the real you, flaws and all," he assured her, not releasing her.

It didn't feel odd that he was holding her close, even though she had always expected it would. Her blood was pounding and she could feel a whooshing in her ears as her knees grew weak. She had always expected it would? How long had she thought about Luke in this way? These were all new thoughts to her.

Luke's hand moved up to cup the side of her head and his thumb started to trace her jaw and lips.

"Why do you look at me like that Luke?" she asked in a husky and rough voice.

Who was this man that was holding her so close and looking at her so tenderly? It wasn't the Luke she knew or the Luke she expected him to be. He claimed to have always seen the real her, but had she ever seen the real him? Had she wanted to?

"Because I want you Harper. I've already explained this to you."

"But why, why now?" She closed her eyes as his other hand tilted her head back, he was going to kiss her and her heart couldn't handle the anticipation. A kiss when she was half asleep, a kiss with an impatient person knocking at the door, or his brief peck in the airport, these had all been simple kisses that couldn't lead anywhere. This kiss could. There was no one to know or judge them as they stood alone in the middle of a foreign city where no one knew them.

Here they had no history.

"That night in your office when I looked at you, I wanted to kiss you. But instead of ignoring it or pretending it wasn't there like you usually do, you saw the look and returned it. You wanted me to kiss you. That look changed everything."

"Luke?" she whispered still unsure.

"We have two weeks Harper, as you've already stated, here you feel like yourself you have more confidence. Let's see how this might work between us. There's no one here to judge, and no one but us will ever need to know it happened if we don't want them too."

"Gran?"

"She knows, yes, but she won't tell. I have a feeling she has a few secrets of her own where love is concerned."

Harper didn't say anything and he waited patiently for her to make a decision, still not pushing her one way or the other. When his hold tightened on her and he pulled her a little closer she let loose a deep breath and he knew she had surrendered and that she was willing to see where the next two weeks would lead them.

"Harper," he said her name almost as if it was a prayer as his lips descended on hers in an earth shattering kiss. They lost all track of time and place as his lips devoured hers, and she was no longer timid and shy about his kissing her, as she rose up on tip toe to meet him.

Later, he dropped her off at her door with a last lingering kiss and a promise to see her tomorrow.