Chapter 9 Harper #2
He nods, eyes still fixed on mine. “Then let me keep you company while you enjoy it.”
“I have company, thank you,” I say, tilting my head towards Emma. His eyes flick over to her before coming back to me.
“Surely she won’t mind.”
I swallow, trying not to let my surprise show on my face.
It’s incredibly rare, unheard of, even, for a man to pay me any attention when Emma is right there.
She’s always been more popular with the opposite sex, what with her bombshell figure and her outgoing, flirty personality.
In comparison, I’ve always come across as the sedate friend. The boring one.
But maybe he’s not the type of man to like outgoing, I realize, the thought bringing a flush of heat to my cheeks. You’re a natural submissive, Nate had told me. I knew it the moment I laid eyes on you.
Is that what this man sees when he looks at me?
“I’m actually going to run to the ladies’ room,” Emma says, standing quickly. She gives me an intense look and I can read the encouragement in her eyes. Then she turns to Aden, smiling. “Why don’t you take my seat?”
I want to grab her hand, to tell her not to leave me here, but she’s already flashing me a congratulatory smile and slipping away into the crowd. And Aden is already sliding onto her stool.
“So,” he says, leaning close to me as I suppress a shiver.
Nate had leaned in, just like that. And the effect had been similar, making me feel overwhelmed and ever so slightly dizzy.
At least now I’m sitting and don’t have to worry about weak knees.
“You decided to visit our little club again. I take it you must have seen something you liked last time?”
I smile, feeling shy. “It was a very interesting experience.”
His eyes flash. “Indeed.” He reaches up to brush a lock of my hair over my shoulder, his fingers lingering on my skin. “The only question is, were you more interested in what you saw or who you were with?”
I swallow. “Who I was with?”
“Nathan Chase,” he clarifies. “From the way you stuck by his side all night, I assumed I would see you here again with him.”
So this guy had watched me closely enough to not only recognize me but to make note of the fact that I had spent most of the first evening with Nate.
All of the memories and emotions of that night seem to rush back to me in that moment.
The excitement I felt, the fear. The relief I’d experienced when I started to feel like my desires might not be so strange after all.
And the crushing regret I had felt the next morning when Nate told me not to come back here.
“He decided not to ask me back,” I whisper, the pain of that pulsing deep in my chest.
Again, Aden’s fingers dance across the skin of my shoulder and his voice is deep when he responds. “Then he’s a fool.”
I give him a weak smile and his touch on my shoulder becomes slightly firmer.
“I take it this is all still new to you?”
I manage a laugh. “Am I that obvious?”
“You’re an innocent,” he murmurs, his gaze on my lips. “And it’s incredibly alluring.”
“Alluring?” I whisper.
His grin takes on a predatory quality that I’m not sure I like. Don’t be silly, I tell myself. Isn’t this exactly what you’ve been looking for?
I try to push thoughts of Nate’s blue eyes out of my head as I turn my gaze to Aden’s brown ones. “Alluring?” I ask, letting my voice rise a few notches, knowing the effect will be to make me sound more innocent.
His grin disappears, his eyes darkening. “Incredibly alluring. You have no idea the things I’d like to show you.”
“Like what?”
His eyes flash, his gaze again drifting to my lips.
“Like how good it can feel,” he says, inching even closer until his lips brush my neck, just below my ear. Just the way Nate had done. “To be so very bad.”
Goosebumps erupt over my skin but before I can react further, a rough hand is on my shoulder, pulling me away from Aden.
“Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I spin on the stool to see Nate looming over me, his broad body filling my vision. He glares at me, a fire in his eyes I’ve never seen before, his jaw set in anger.
“Nate,” I gasp, but his gaze has already moved to Aden.
“Get away from her.”
Aden only grins up at him. “And why would I do that? Harper and I were having a very enlightening conversation—”
“She’s not available, Roth.”
Aden’s eyebrows go up. “I don’t see a collar, Chase.”
“Get. Away. From. Her.”
Aden stands, his height nearly equal to Nate’s, though he isn’t quite as broad.
“I’m pretty sure you cast this one aside,” he snarls, all traces of his smirky grin gone as he glares at Nate.
“Seems to be a habit with you, don’t you think?
First Renee and now this one. Don’t blame me for your foolishness. ”
I have no idea who Renee is but when I see the look on Nate’s face, I’m fairly sure he’s going to punch the guy over the comment. Instead, he reaches down and grabs me around the upper arm, his grip tight. “Come with me.”
“Hey,” I yelp, trying to pull my arm back. But then Nate’s eyes meet mine, the fire and power in his gaze unmistakable, and I feel the fight go out of me.
“Come with me, Harper.”
“Fine,” I mutter, feeling embarrassed by the scene he’s creating.
And more than a little ashamed by my own capitulation.
It feels like I don’t have a choice but to do what he says, not when I hear that demanding tone in his voice.
Not when he looks at me like that. My body just responds to him, all on its own.
“Hang on—” Aden starts as I stand, but another man I didn’t notice before puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Leave this one, mate,” the man mutters in a velvety English accent. “Let me buy you a drink.”
I don’t hear whether or not Aden agrees before Nate is dragging me from my stool and over to an empty booth in a nearby corner.
“Sit.”
I glare up at him, crossing my arms. “I don’t think I have to do what you say, Nate. In fact, I think you made it pretty clear that you weren’t interested in bossing me around in any context outside of the classroom.”
He makes a noise that sounds an awful lot like a growl. “Harper. Sit down.”
I sigh, sliding into the booth. I expect him to sit on the other side and am surprised when he slides in after me instead, turning immediately to face me, giving me no escape from the fire in his eyes.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I was having a drink,” I mutter, looking away. His hand snaps out to grip my chin, forcing me to look up at him.
“I thought I told you that you weren’t to come back here.”
I push his hand away, stung by the anger in his voice.
“Are you really that disappointed to see me?”
He sighs roughly, running a hand through his hair. “It isn’t about that Harper.”
“Then what’s it about? You tell me that you don’t want to have a relationship with me—”
“Can’t have a relationship, Harper,” he argues. “There’s a difference.”
I throw up my hands in frustration. “Well it comes to the same thing, doesn’t it? You don’t want to be with me in this setting. So where does that leave me?”
“Not with him,” he says, voice firm. “Not ever with him.”
“I was just talking to him,” I start but Nate cuts me off.
“He’s not good for you, Harper.”
I’m starting to feel really pissed off now. How dare he barge in here and try to control my life?
“That’s really not for you to decide,” I tell him, standing.
Before I can take a step away from the booth, his hand is around my arm again, his grip almost painful as he pulls me back down.
He leans over me in the booth, the intensity in his expression making me crouch away, truly afraid for the first time tonight.
When he speaks, his words send a chill through me, his fiery gaze trapping me under his power.
“Like hell it isn’t.”