If she meant to be cute and flirty, it wasn’t working.
“No. No, sir. No problem.” A slight pout puckered her lips. “I wanted to let you know, there’s a party at the bar down the street tonight. I thought you might like to come. You know, blow off some steam?” Her gaze traveled down my body.
Again with the innuendo. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I was too old to resort to such teenage dramatics. But damn if I didn’t want to shove her out of my office and tell her never to come back.
“No.” My response barked out in a harsh sound that rolled up from the pit of anger I’d stewed in for months.
“Oh.” Her smile fell. “Well. You know, if there’s ever anything I can do for you…” She tipped her head to one side, letting her hair fall over her shoulder. “I’m always available.”
“I appreciate you being a part of our business. You’ve been a loyal employee and you work hard.” I bared my teeth in a mockery of a smile. “If that is becoming too much of a problem for you, or if the lines between employee and employer are becoming blurred, I can set them straight for you.”
She gulped, her eyes going wide. “I would never jeopardize my position here. I only meant to be polite.” She made the one-eighty amusing to watch, and I let her splutter around for a while. “It might help with the rumors, you know? The other employees, they’re used to seeing you more often. You’ve been…absent from many of the meetings you used to attend.”
“Thank you for that insightful recommendation on how I should runmycompany.” I bit out the polite response, but the idea of playing nice any longer than necessary ended. “You’re free to go. If there’s anything I need, I can take care of it myself.” Let her take that however she wanted.
The bubbly smile fell completely as she turned on her heel and stormed out with a huff. Her disappointment had turned into anger so fast I almost missed it. She’d thought she’d come in looking like a porno film and expected me to take the bait like a good little boy who couldn’t control his urges.
Nowthatalmost made me smile. I had more self-control than any man she’d probably ever been with, and I was not in the mood to have her shaking her tits and thinking that’s all it took to have me ripping off her clothes.
Harper was the only person in the world who’d ever threatened my self-control. She gave as good as she got, and she drove me wild with the need to pleasure her. Being in the same room with her lit up my life in ways I had no explanation for.
I would do anything for her. Except leave her alone. That had proven harder than I ever expected. I groaned at the growing well of unease that clamped onto the back of my neck.
Bethany wasn’t the only one to dance around the idea of an inter-office romance. She’d been the most subtle, but I’d had at least three propositions a week since the rumor mill started up around Harper.
Her sudden disappearance had helped put the gossip to sleep as far as the tabloids were concerned, but inside Elevate the gossip continued hot and heavy. Everyone thought they had a chance.
I’d even had one woman tell me I didn’t have to suffer through sex with a woman like Harper when I could have someone like her. Like Harper was beneath us. I’d asked her who the fuck thought they had the right to judge who anyone else slept with.
She’d gone bone white, and even though I’d basically confirmed the rumors, it had shut her down cold and she was one of the few who hadn’t dared approach me a second time.
The messages were nothing but a bunch of gibberish. Only one was real, a message from one of our suppliers that the coffee order we’d requested had been delayed. I’d pass that one on to Julian. He preferred to handle the coffee after he’d discovered Harper had been drinking mediocre slop in the coffee corner. I tried again to focus on the earnings reports. They swam in and out of focus. The harder I tried to concentrate, the more my thoughts ran back to Harper.
What was she doing? Where was she? All of our searches turned up nothing. Not even a hint of her location.
The door burst open, and my head snapped up, an angry retort on the tip of my tongue, but it wasn’t Bethany back for a second attempt.
Julian rushed across the room, his hair and eyes wild. He’d stopped wearing a jacket and stopped covering his tattoos. He looked every inch the angry badboy billionaire who’d once been the talk of the town as one of New York’s most eligible bachelors.
I palmed the edge of the desk and stood. “What’s wrong? Harper?” My thoughts always ran straight to her. Nothing except Harper or one of us could put that wild look in his eyes, and I was fine, so it could only mean Harper or Alexander.
He nodded and ran a hand back and forth over his chest like his heart ached. If it felt anything like mine, he felt broken into a million shards that rubbed and poked with every breath. Nothing would be right in our world until we held Harper again.
“Lila called.” He choked and took a shuddering breath. “Harper’s in trouble.”
28
JULIAN
Harper needed us. The constant pulse of it beat so hard and fast in my chest I barely had room to breathe. I’d been held suspended in this constant state of uncertainty that we’d never see her again, never hear her voice. It ruined me. Wrecked me. Dante was worried about me. Hell, I was worried about myself.
How did I explain that losing Harper was like losing all of myself? Not half of my heart, my whole heart and soul.
Standing in Dante’s office with Lila’s words beating me over the head, I knew one thing for sure, I was not, under any circumstances, staying in New York.
“What do you mean, Harper’s in trouble?” Dante loomed behind the desk, his face darkening.
“Be right back.” I turned and rushed from the room, slamming to a stop in front of Bethany’s desk. “Call our pilot and tell him to get the helicopter ready.” I didn’t wait for her response but rushed back into Dante’s office and explained what I knew. “Lila called me. Harper is in a hospital in Virginia.”
