More of You

Chapter 24

When they reached the hotel, Luke pulled Harper through the lobby and towards the bar for a drink. She just wanted to be left alone to absorb the information that Aunt Rita had shared about her Grandpa Henri and Emmeline.

"We'll go upstairs and talk to Gran about it all in a minute."

"No!" Harper shook her head. "I think that the less we know about it the better off we will be," Harper insisted as she shook her head. It was fine if they had loved each other, it was a lifetime ago and it had no bearing on her life now.

"Harper," Luke sighed at her stubborn stance. When she refused to give in he shook his head. "Explain to me how you can be so stubborn and unwavering in this simple thing, yet you let your family push you around whenever they want? It doesn't make sense."

"Nothing makes sense anymore," she muttered as she took a sip of her beer.

"Fine, nothing makes sense, be specific and we will try to figure it out together."

Harper stared at him, debating what she wanted to say. They could have it out right now and then end this whole romance thing because there was no way it was going to work in real life. She decided to start simple. "Your Grandmother and my Grandfather, that doesn't make sense. How could they profess to love one another and then not fight to be together?"

"How can you say you love me but not want to fight for me?" Luke countered and Harper paled at his words

"Are you really comparing us to them?"

"Yes, I see a lot of similarities," Luke nodded watching her. "The fact that you keep refusing to give us a chance because you think your parents and my parents will be against it. What you don't, or won't, realize is that they have all hoped for a very long time that we would end up together."

"No, I don't think so," Harper insisted.

"Your father set up an entire make-believe office romance in hopes that it would give us ideas, then he flat out told you that he wanted us, you and me, to give him grandchildren. How does he think that's going to happen if not through the two of us having a romance?"

"Stop!" Harper felt her heart rate increase at his words. What he said overwhelmed her, the idea of her parents thinking of her and Luke in terms of a relationship, the thought of them making love, the thought of having Luke's baby. It was all too much for her to handle.

"Fine Luke, I'll admit it, I'm weak and unsure, and I don't know how, much less why, you would love me. In fact, I have a hard time believing it after all of these years." She leaned forward and hissed the words, getting to the heart of the matter. "That doesn't make sense either!"

Luke grabbed Harper's arm and drew her out of the bar, dragging her through the lobby and up the stairs to their floor. When they reached her room he held out his hand for the room key and she handed it to him, watching as he pushed open the door, and then held it open long enough for her to follow him through it.

"Are you going to try to seduce me again Luke?" Harper asked, throwing her bag down on the bed.

He grabbed her arms and spun her around. He looked mad, and Harper had never really seen Luke mad before, at least not at her.

"I love you Harper," he gave her a little shake, "I have loved you since we were kids, but it's more than that, I am in love with you." His hands bit into her arms as he said the words. "It's you that I want, I have done all that I can for the past ten years to show you in little ways that I love you, and if you can't see that and you don't believe the words then I really don't know what else to say."

Harper wouldn't look at him.

"You said you love me Harper, but are you in love with me?"

She still didn't answer him, she couldn't lie to him, but she couldn't tell him the truth either. If it didn't work out between them it would ruin an entire family and an entire business.

"I'm not willing to take a chance," Harper said softly, still unable to look at him. "I told you that I think that we risk too much."

Luke released her abruptly. "Alright Harper, you win. I give up."

The words crushed her soul, and she knew she had no one to blame but herself. But Aunt Rita had been right when she had said that perhaps the only reason that Henri and Emmeline had remained friends over the years was because they never made love. It was an intimacy that they were missing as a couple that had allowed them to survive over the years. If she made love to Luke she would be giving all of herself to him, and there would be no easy out, at least this way they could stay friends and it would save the family and the business.

"Just so you know, even though you're not admitting it and you're making the decision to end this romance before it even started, it will never be the same between us again."

At her continued silence he left her alone. Harper fell to the bed, crying silent tears for her breaking heart. She did love him, she was in love with him, and nothing assured her more of that fact than the pain she felt while watching him walk out the door.

*******

Luke walked slowly back into his and Gran's suite, a thoughtful expression on his face as he deliberated his next step. He knew he had had ten years to get used to the idea of him and Harper making a life together, but Harper hadn't, and that's where all of her doubt was steaming from.

"How did it go?" Gran asked with a grin from the sofa.

Luke fell to the couch beside her, he had already decided not to mention that he knew about her and Henri, and if Harper's reaction was anything to go on when he had suggested that they talk to her about it, she wouldn't be mentioning it to her anytime soon either.

"Not good Gran, she's turned me down,"

Emmeline looked at Luke with a look of such desolation that he took her hand to comfort her.

"Luke!" she cried. "What can I do to help, would you like me to talk to her?"

"No, she needs time." Luke stood, patting Gran's hand as he did. "She needs time so I'll give it to her. Don't worry, I promised you that I wouldn't give up and I won't."

He walked towards his room. "Are we still on for the Louvre tomorrow?"

Gran nodded, her thoughts elsewhere as she wondered what had gone wrong.

"Luke?"

"Yes Gran?"

"You promise, you won't give up?" She looked at him with tears in her eyes.

Now that he knew her story, he understood her desperation to make sure that he and Harper would be happy. She had given up and she had lost Henri. Henri may have been in her life as a friend, but it wouldn't have been the same as having all of him. Luke knew this from from having only been Harper's friend for the past ten years and wanting so much more. It wasn't a feeling that just went way in time.

Luke wanted all of Harper not just her friendship, and he wanted it for the rest of his life.