Chapter 14
AURELIA
My mother’s New York friends sat around the table with us at lunch, comparing holiday plans like they were high-stakes corporate strategies.
They name-dropped, and destination-dropped, and acted like they’d dropped the mic after each reveal, and they did it all shamelessly, like it was completely normal conversation.
I sat between them, not saying a word. Honestly, I didn’t have anything to contribute. My plans were to curl up with a bottle of red wine, a good book, and a soft blanket. I doubted they wanted to know about that, so instead of joining in, I found myself looking around the fancy dining room.
It had been a long time since I’d done stuff like this, lunching with the ladies on an ordinary Wednesday after spending the morning in a department store.
In fact, the last time had probably been in my sophomore year of high school.
I’d started interning at Van Alen and Associates during the summer of my junior year.
My gaze drifted across the trendy bistro, admiring the art on the walls and chandeliers hanging from the ceilings. A flash of platinum-blonde hair caught my eye. I blinked hard, refocusing as I realized who it was. Who it had to be.
CC Westwood was iconic in our circles. Her icy gray blonde hair had started a trend among my mom’s friends a few years ago, her sense of style untouchable.
I’d never met her, but everyone who was anyone in San Francisco knew what she looked like.
She had that kind of elegance that could make a room freeze with a single raised brow.
Her face had been plastered across ad campaigns for local designers and her parties were legendary.
My heart stammered at the sight of her, but it leaped when my gaze traveled further around her table and landed on her son.
Harrison sat across from her, laughing and looking like he was teasing her about something.
As I looked at him, his eyes lifted to mine, as if some invisible thread had been tugged in him.
Our gazes locked and surprise flickered across his features. It was followed shortly by that easy grin that always seemed to undo me more than I would ever admit. My stomach lurched slightly and my heartbeat sped up.
Mom and CC didn’t seem to have noticed each other, but Harrison and I sure had. Without giving it a second thought, I dropped my napkin on the table and stood up. “Excuse me for a moment. I’ll be right back.”
My mother barely glanced at me, too busy regaling her friends with her plans for the Annual Van Alen Christmas Ball to register that I was leaving. I weaved my way between tables toward Harrison. The corner of his mouth twitched into that devilish grin I was starting to know so well.
When I reached the back exit, I pushed the door open and stepped out onto the thin dusting of snow in the alley behind the bistro. The door hadn’t even swung shut behind me when I heard him speaking from the doorway.
“Were you really planning on walking right past me like that without even saying hi?”
I turned to face him, momentarily struck dumb by the sight of him in jeans and a fitted, long-sleeved black Henley.
Those hazel eyes looked directly into mine, his dark hair perfectly mussed in a way that told me he’d styled it that way.
With his jaw sharp and clean shaven and his hands in his pockets, he didn’t look like a bored billionaire on a shopping trip with his mom.
There was an unmistakable air of power and polish about him, like he owned the whole block and everything in it, including me. As he held my gaze, one of his eyebrows started rising and I realized I still hadn’t responded.
“What are we doing, Harrison? Running into each other everywhere. Same stores, same restaurants. Should I start checking the reservation book for your name before I sit down?” My tone was teasing, but I could feel my pulse quicken, betraying how much fun I was actually having.
How attracted I truly was to this guy. Not that I would ever let it go anywhere, but still.
He leaned a shoulder against the brick wall, that easy, arrogant grin firmly in place. “Maybe the universe is trying to tell us something.”
I crossed my arms, my head tilting before I shook it. “Or maybe you really are following me.”
“Maybe,” he said, searching my gaze for something before he pushed away from wall and stepped closer to me, not quite penning me in, but definitely making me aware of his presence in a way I hadn’t been before. “Admit it, you’d like it if that was true.”
I laughed, but the sound was breathless and I felt my heart skip. Somehow, being chased like this, even though he was joking, was completely exhilarating. “It looks like our moms have the same taste in stores and restaurants. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?”
He glanced back toward the restaurant, then down at me. “I only have a minute, but I want to see you again. Tonight. I’m leaving for home in the morning.”
“You don’t quit, do you?”
“Not when I know what I want.” His grin was infuriatingly confident. “I’ve got a reservation at Le Jardin. Eight o’clock. I’ll pick you up.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but before I could say a word, Mom’s voice floated out from inside. “Aurelia? Are you okay? You better not be out here smoking.”
I turned instinctively toward the sound, but his hand shot out, catching my wrist.
“Wait.” His eyes searched mine again. “Did you buy the red dress?”
My breath caught at the sensation of his skin against mine. “I did.”
His mouth curved into another slow and deliberate grin. “Wear it tonight.”
I hadn’t even said yes yet, but he slipped away before I could get another word out.
I groaned out loud. That boy was going to be the death of me and I didn’t even know what we were.
We’d only done one deal together, so we weren’t really business partners.
We were friendly but not friends. Flirty but not in a relationship.
And yet, I’d already started forgetting what my life had been like before he’d been in it. So freaking weird.
Since I hadn’t actually agreed to dinner, it would’ve served him right if I’d collapsed into bed when my mother and I had gotten back to the condo.
Instead, I performed a Christmas miracle by convincing her to go out with her friends without me.
She’d fussed and tried demanding that I join them, but with the right amount of strategic flattery and insistence that her friends missed her, she’d caved.
By the time she left, I had exactly one hour left to get ready.
One hour to pull myself together, slip into the red gown, and face the fact that I was nervous.
Me being nervous about a dinner was ridiculous.
I’d negotiated hostile takeovers and stared down men twice my size across boardroom tables, but somehow, knowing Harrison Westwood would soon be waiting for me downstairs had my stomach flipping like I was some virginal, naive teenager about to go on a first date.
At precisely two minutes to eight, I got called down to the lobby. My fingers trembled slightly as the elevator descended. I shook my hands out at my sides and blew out a long, slow breath. Come on, get it together. You are not this girl. You are Aurelia Van Alen and boys do not do this to you.
I had it semi together until the doors opened and I saw him.
My heart tripped over itself at least half a dozen times.
My lips parted on instinct and my lungs suddenly malfunctioned.
Harrison was leaning against a marble column in the lobby like he didn’t have a care in the world.
He wore a jet black tuxedo with his hair impeccably neat for once, looking like he’d stepped straight out of a glossy magazine spread.
His bowtie was perfectly knotted and his white shirt was crisp and clean. My footsteps faltered for just a second and his eyes lifted slowly to mine. When they found me, he went very still.
That grin I’d come to expect didn’t appear right away. Instead, there was a flicker of something else. Something a lot hotter and more primal than his usual cocky ease.
I should’ve felt smug that I’d managed to flap the mostly unflappable Harrison, but my own pulse was hammering way too loudly for that.
When I reached him, he blinked a few times in rapid succession, then straightened up.
Those hazel eyes roamed across the length of my body with obvious, deliberate intent.
“You wore it,” he said finally, his voice lower than I’d expected.
“You told me to.” My attempt at sounding light and breezy failed miserably. My voice was so much breathier than it should’ve been.
“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d wear it for me.” His gaze skimmed the gown for another second before it snapped back to my face and that grin finally appeared. “You’re… wow. I’m not even going to lie here. I’m slightly stunned.”
The heat rising from my neck to my cheeks was definitely because of the lobby heaters. Definitely. Absolutely. No doubt about it.
“Thanks. You clean up pretty okay yourself.”
“Thanks, that’s what I was going for. Pretty okay.” The wicked tilt of his lips reminded me that he was not, in fact, some kind of gallant prince like he pretended to be when he stepped forward and offered me his arm. “Shall we?”
“We might as well. We’re already all dressed up.” I slipped my hand into the crook of his elbow, letting him lead me out the revolving doors.
A sleek black car idled at the curb, a driver waiting at the back door. I rolled my eyes at Harrison. “You hired a car for this?”
“Of course, I did.” He guided me to it, his palm pressing gently at the small of my back as the driver opened the door. “What did you expect, a moped?”
I chuckled. “That would’ve been pretty tricky with this dress.”
“Interesting, though,” he said quietly, like he was speaking more to himself.
He followed me into the car. The city lights blurred outside the window as the driver pulled away from the curb. We weaved into the Manhattan traffic, but Harrison had settled across from me and his eyes never left mine.
Nerves fluttered through me again, but at the same time, I couldn’t bring myself to look away. Whatever he had planned for tonight, I had a feeling he was going to sweep me clean off my feet.
And I didn’t know if I would even try to stop him.