My chest and stomach squeezed as I quickly exited the elevator to put some distance between myself and the glass.
Harper chuckled. “Not a fan of heights, Bear Bear?”
“If humans were meant to be this high up, we’d have wings.”
He laughed. “Well, I hope you don’t have a problem with our room, then.”
“Our room?”
The hallway had sleek black-tiled floors covered with intricately patterned red rugs and marbled windowless walls.
He pulled the black card from his pocket and used it to unlock a solid black door with a gold handle. Room 1001.
What it opened to was undoubtedly the most extravagant room I’d ever seen. Shining dark floors and furniture, a stark contrast to the bright crimson of the rose petals that coveredthe floor, leading to a gigantic circular bed on a platform in the center of the space.
The only light came from what must have been hundreds of candles and the distant city beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows.
I forgot how to breathe.
“Happy birthday, pup.”
My heart ached, threatening to explode with how much love it held for him. I turned to take him in through blurry eyes. “You did this for me?”
Harper’s cheeks were flushed as he looked away. “You deserve more.”
“I have everythin’ I need and more with you, baby.”
His eyes met mine, and in the next moment our bodies were colliding, limbs entangled, his hand on the back of my neck dragging me down so he could dominate my mouth. I let him. I’d always let him. There wasn’t a single part of me that he didn’t already own entirely.
When he pulled back, I chased the taste of him like I was starved for it.
Slender, perfect fingers pressed to my lips.
“Later,” he breathed. “You need to get ready for dinner.”
“I want you for dinner.”
“You can have me for dessert.”
I groaned. He was already stepping away from me, and I nearly fell to my knees to beg him for more.
“Shower. Now.”
He was using his stern voice, and it only made my knees extra willing to kiss the floor. That wasn’t what he’d told me to do, though, and there was no way I’d ever deny him anything.
There was both a shower and a huge claw-footed bath in the en suite, but what held my attention was the fact that the walls were crystal-clear glass. There was absolutely no privacy or functional shield hiding the bathroom from the rest of the suite.
Harper strolled over to the bed, taking a seat with his legs just wide enough for me to fit between. He watched me expectantly, and after a long moment staring longingly at the space between his legs, I did as I was told.
I stripped off. He watched. I stepped under the high-pressure rainfall shower. He watched. I used soaps that smelled of oud and saffron. He watched.
I cleaned thoroughly, and the more skin my hands covered, the darker the look in his eyes grew. As if he was jealous that my hands were the ones touching my skin and not his.
Then I was done, and he gestured his head to the wall behind me.
There was a black suit bag blended with the dark wall it hung off.
The bag felt expensive, the suit inside even more so. It was a cashmere and vicuña blend, dark navy, and it somehow fit me like a fucking glove, as if it had been perfectly tailored to my body and then my memory of the entire experience erased.
