More of You

Chapter 21

Harper had cleaned up the cards and straightened the room service tray before turning off the light and settling back into her chair in the corner, watching the city lights below until she fell asleep. She wasn't sure what woke her, but her guess would be Luke, who had pulled over a chair and was sitting across from her, watching her sleep.

"Why are you watching me sleep Luke?" She rubbed her face as she sat up in her chair.

"Because it's only time I get to see you resemble the girl you once were."

"Hmmm, yes, because we're all getting older," she mimicked Bobby's earlier words. "I'm not the girl I once was and you're not the boy you once were." She stood, suddenly restless, and walked towards the window.

"No, you're a woman and I am a man, something that I think we are both very aware of Harper."

There was a heavy silence between them. Harper continued to look out the window, and Luke watched her.

"Why are you still here Harper?" he asked as he reached up and undid his tie.

"Gran asked me to stay." She shrugged.

"I'm sure she did, but I also know you well enough to know that you wouldn't have stayed unless you wanted to."

"Is she the one Luke?" Harper asked softly, unable to take not knowing any longer.

"Is she the one for what Harper?" Luke sounded tired.

"Is she the one you've been in love with all of these years?" she asked.

Luke rested his elbows on his knees and started to rub his face with his hands, as if he had reached the end of his patience. "For a smart girl you sure are oblivious," he muttered.

"What the hell does that mean?" she demanded in a loud voice as she turned on him, hands on her hips as her anger started to rise once more.

Luke stood and walked towards her, covering her mouth with his hand. "Shhhh, you'll wake Gran," he hissed, but he didn't remove his hand as he looked down at her. Her lips against his skin was extremely intimate, and Harper swallowed hard as he looked down at her as the air around them sparked.

"I have been friends with Bobby and her husband since college. She has dated her husband since they were in high school, and she and I never dated. Does that answer your question?" he asked roughly.

She shook her head, it didn't mean that he didn't love her.

"No, she is not the one that I am in love with, it's far more obvious than that," he said as he removed his hand and pulled at her bottom lip with his thumb. "Are you jealous Harper, is that it? Were you waiting to see if I brought her back here to spend a night in my bed?"

Harper didn't say anything only looked away as he guessed what she herself hadn't. She had made up a lot of reasons to stay but that hadn't been one of them. She was still lying to herself. She had lied to herself about being in love with him and she had lied about being jealous that he was out with another woman. She had always been jealous of his girlfriends.

"I'd be happy to have you spend the night in my bed Harper." He tilted her head back, so he could look into her eyes. "Why don't you ever look at me Harper? Are you afraid of what you might see?" he asked the question of himself, not really expecting an answer.

"Perhaps I'm afraid of what you might see," she whispered. She felt him stop breathing as he looked down at her.

"Harper?"

She jerked away from him. "We can't do this Luke. What happens if I do spend the night, what will that mean in the morning, when we go back home? What will it mean to our families or the business? There is to much at risk for us to take the chance."

"Did you ever think that the risk and loss might be far greater if we don't see this through to the end? And what if it doesn't end? What if we make it work?"

At her continued silence he threw out another question to her. "Give me one reason why we can't?"

"I don't know who you are Luke? I've seen two very different sides to you these past weeks and they're hard to reconcile as the same man? Are you the Luke that I've known my whole life, a man who takes life as it comes and likes every pretty lady he meets, or are you the serious mature Luke who has plans and wants to take care of everyone around him?"

"Why can't I be both?"

"And how do I play into this. We have an affair and it's wonderful, I don't doubt that it will be, this last week has been...it's been hard to say no-"

"Then don't?"

"But am I convenient, just a vacation romance?" she spoke over him, ignoring his demand.

She couldn't ignore the demand of his mouth as it met hers in a punishing kiss. She was lost; all of her arguments went right out the window as he pulled her into his arms.

"Stop thinking Harper, just turn off your brain and feel," he murmured as he rained tiny kisses all over her face. "Stop doing what is expected of you, what you think everyone wants you to do, and do what you want to do. What do you want to do Harper?" he kissed her again, this time deepening the kiss.

Harper was lost as his lips started to trail down her neck and onto her shoulder.

"Tell me this isn't what you want, your body says otherwise, but if you tell me that you don't want this I'll walk away, and we'll never talk about it again." He grabbed her face in his hands and looked at her. "You're not convenient, you never have been, but that hasn't kept me from dreaming about spending a night in your arms since I was old enough to dream such dreams. Let me love you Harper, let me prove to you how wonderful we could be together." He wasn't kissing her anymore, he had stopped, not wanting to sway her with the physical but instead, sway her with his words.

"I can't Luke, I just can't," she pushed away from him and ran towards the door. "There's to much at stake, we risk to much!"

She looked over at him, he hadn't moved, and his hands hung limply by his sides. She wanted to rush back to him, to tell him that she had changed her mind, but she would only be doing that to ease his pain.

"Luke," she called softly.

"What Harper?" he couldn't ignore her, and he never would.

She couldn't give him the act of love, but she could give him the words for what they were worth.

"I love you," she didn't look at him as she opened the door and slipped out into the hall.

She didn't see his look of surprise or hear the deep shaky breath that he took that was full of hope.