“I like your office.”
“You sound surprised.”His mouth was turned up at one corner, revealing the cutest dimple.
“No.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Okay.Maybe.”
“What were you expecting?A frat house dump?”
“Honestly… something a little more… I don’t know… rock ‘n’ roll.”
“Like skulls and red velvet?”He laughed, and Harper was suddenly embarrassed by her clichéd expectations.
“You asked,” she responded with a small smile.
“My sister Kit is an interior designer.She helped me with the whole place.”He looked around the room.“So.Ready to do this?”he asked.“This is the easy part.”
Harper nodded.“I think I am.”
Trent got up and went to the light table, flicking the light on.He reached over to grab the brown cardboard tube, flipped the plastic lid off, and pulled the papers out.
He held out his hand toward her.“There is only one rule from this point on.”
Trying not to overthink it, she reached out and took his hand and he lifted her to her feet.
“What’s that?”
His dark eyes looked deep into hers unflinchingly.“Total honesty.Once we do this, it’s going to be on your back a really long time.You need to love it.Not just like it.Not just decide it’s good enough because it covers up what is already there.You have to love every single piece of it.It has to speak to you.You won’t hurt my feelings at all if you don’t like it.We’ll draw it as many times as we need to so it’s perfect for you.”
What he was saying made sense and addressed one of her own worries, not wanting to offend him if she didn’t like what he had drawn for her.“Okay.That, I can do.”
He unrolled the artwork onto the table, the design slowly revealing itself to her.It was too much to take in.The colors drew her eye, and the beautiful lines of the lettering captured her breath.She lifted her hands to her face in a prayer.
She could feel Trent studying her, scrutinizing her reaction.The first tear rolled down her cheek as she moved to stand in front of the sketch and touched it with two of her fingers.
The sword, with its jeweled handle and detailing, was spectacular.The flames were so vivid and looked so real that her fingers felt hot as she stroked over them, yet the way they morphed into fiery flowers was beautiful.The stone was dark granite with sparks within it.And the script—it was perfect.The slanted italic script swirling through the fire simply stated “…strongest steel… hottest fire.” It was everything she had hoped it would be.She moved her fingers over it a second time.
Trent came to stand next to her.“Like it?”
“Like it?It’s exquisite,” she whispered, struggling to rein in her emotions.“I’ve never… I mean… shit… sorry.I’ve never seen anything quite like it.Are you sure you can do this on me?”
“Yeah.See this area here where it’s just flames?That’s where the two biggest vertical scars are.And this part here, where the rocks are, this will be where the horizontal scar is.We’re going to draw people’s gaze away from the scars by just shading here, making the focus the sword and text down the center.That’s where all the detail will be, the fine-line work.That’s what people are going to look at.Not going to lie, though.It’s going to hurt like a bitch.”
“No more than it did when he did this.”Holy shit.Words likeloquacious,garrulous,andvolublecame to mind.Had she meant to say that?Unlikely.She didn’t talk about him.Ever.Unless she counted the one time she’d felt the need to share with Drea—and that had been a long time in the making.
“What if I can’t do it?”Harper asked.“What if it’s too much?”
“I’ll get you through this.I promise.If it takes fifty short appointments, if I have to come to your home, if I have to sic Cujo on you, I’ll get you through it somehow.We’ll figure it out.”
They stood in silence as Harper continued to run her fingers over his design.
Needing to lighten the conversation, she shook the thought of not being able to go through with it from her head.“Maybe I’ll be able to wear a bikini before the end of the summer.”
“Now there’s your motivation.You go through with this and I’ll buy it for you.”
Harper looked up at him.“No!You can’t do that.I’ll buy it.”
