“No, I like more rural places on occasion. I mean, my cousin and her husband have a private island. And a set of eco hotels in the rainforest.”
“Wait. Is your cousin married to Warwick Hughs?”
I guess I hadn’t told him everything.
“She is. Violet was the skip tracer who chased him through the Amazon Rainforest with assassins on their heels. They fell in love along the way.”
“So she didn’t turn him in.”
“Oh, she turned him in, alright. But only after they proved he was innocent of all those insider trader accusations.”
“I’m going to need more details on this.”
So I gave them to him as he cleaned up dinner and I made us coffee.
It was positively domestic.
Easy.
Oddly familiar.
The only downside of it was when he sighed and declared he had to shut himself in his office for an hour or two.
“This late?” I asked, checking the clock.
“I have a call with Singapore. And all signs point to it being a long one.”
He made his way to his study.
I went back to the coffee machine, making him another (larger) mug and bringing it into the room.
Seeing his laptop open with voices coming from the other end, sounding like everyone was still getting settled, I tried to stay out of the camera view as I dropped his coffee on the desk.
Harrison was having none of that, though.
He reached for me, pulled me down, and planted a quick kiss on my cheek before releasing me.
My heart flipped.
When I got to the door, I found he was still watching me with that soft look.
I gave him a small smile before sliding the door closed.
For the next two hours, I cleaned up the mess I’d created in my room, putting things away, piling the boxes in the closet.
When I made my way back out to the common area, I could still hear Harrison’s calm voice through the door.
I took the last of the coffee that was dangerously close to tasting burnt, then cleaned out the pot and went back into my room to read the unhinged book my aunt had suggested.
At some point, I started to doze off, so I set the book aside and let myself.
Only to wake up from a dream that had my heart racing. But not in a good way. It was a weird, long one that had me sitting by silently as Harrison listed all of the reasons he could never love me.
I reached up and wiped the sudden tear off my cheek.
Then, without really thinking it through, I climbed off the bed and walked out of the room.
I didn’t stop when my legs carried me away from the common area and down the hallway toward the primary bedroom.
