“I know.”
“Why am I shaking so badly?”
“It’s adrenaline.Your body produced a lot, and it was slowly waning, but that door slamming amped it all back up.You need to do something that will convince you that you’re safe.”
Harmony snorted.“Yeah, because that’s so easy.”
“For some people, touch helps.”
“Touch?”Her mind immediately went to a very specific kind of touch, and her cheeks heated for a completely different reason.
“That kind, too, but I meant a hug.Can I hold you, Harmony?”
She nodded, the motion jerky.
He stepped closer to her, setting his hands on her shoulders.He ran them down her arms and tugged her arms away from her body.He guided her arms around his waist and slid his hands back up her arms until he could wrap his arms around her shoulders.
He hugged her close to his body, surrounding her with his scent and his warmth and his entire being.
Immediately, Harmony felt safer.She shivered at the overwhelming feeling of care she got from him.Something she hadn’t experienced since her father died.
Tears filled her eyes, and she squeezed them shut.Damien held her, his chin on top of her head.His steady breathing and heartbeat soothed her, giving her something she didn’t expect to find in the arms of a man she barely knew.
“Do you feel better?”he whispered into her hair.
Harmony nodded, easing up on her grip.
Damien held on for a second longer, releasing her when she let go of him.He smiled at her, examining her closer than she wanted him to.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Harmony took a step back, giving herself space from him before she grabbed hold and didn’t let go.Damien lifted his gaze from her to her apartment, and unease immediately swamped her.She couldn’t remember the last time she had a man in her apartment.The hours she’d been working the last few months meant more time in the lab than anywhere else.Before that, she still favored the lab and her own company over random hookups.She got most of that desire out of her system in her twenties and was happier with her own imagination than with a man who fell far short of her fantasies.
“You have a great place,” Damien said, his gaze landing on the record collection on the far side of her apartment.“You’re a collector?”
“My dad was.He started with my mom.They met at a record store.He was working, and she was a customer.He said he followed her around because he thought she was beautiful and talked to her.It took him months to work up the nerve to ask her out, and she saidfinally.”Harmony laughed.“She didn’t even like records that much, but she kept going back because she wanted to see him.”
“That’s pretty awesome.”
Harmony nodded.“Yeah.He played records when I was growing up.He had a little of everything.Now that it’s starting to come back in, it’s like he was ahead of his time, but really, he was holding on to a time when she was here.”
“Nothing wrong with that.It had to be hard losing her.”
Harmony nodded.“Yeah.”
“What’s your favorite?”Damien asked, nodding to the collection.
Harmony nodded approval for him to check out the records and followed him across the room.“He has some really great Motown records.Some Elvis.”
Damien looked over his shoulder at her.“That doesn’t answer the question.”
She laughed at his insight.“My Girl.”
“The Temptations?”he asked.
Her eyebrows shot up that he knew the song immediately.“It was my parents’ wedding song.Dad was a little older.He had a friend at the record store who was flirting with Mom one day, and he told the guy to back off because she wasMy Girl.It became their song.”
