Chapter 38 Benny
thirty-eight
Benny
ALWAYS.
It had been a week since Matthew lost his job and moved in with me. Harper wasn’t taking it well. He’d complain to me only when we were alone. The guilt he felt around it all made him very quiet while Matthew was around.
Matthew had told him it wasn’t his fault, and so had I. I didn’t think he believed either of us, but he never said it outright. He’d just nod and be quiet until the subject changed again.
I hated seeing him so lost. I knew he wanted to do something, but what was there to do?
He’d wanted to confront Leon about it, but Matthew had talked him down.
He’d also talked Harper out of spending any more money on him after that first shopping haul.
A big purchase like a car was only likely to get his accounts restricted.
Harper started going to work again after two days, I think because he didn’t know what else to do. I drove him to work and picked him up, because I knew he didn’t want the new driver Leon had assigned to do it, and I wanted him riding that bike as little as possible.
He could have bought himself a car by now. I liked to think he hadn’t yet because he liked me driving him around. I certainly liked doing it.
“What if it’s just a small thing?” Ma asked as she served herself a plate of pasta. I reached for the cupboard to get myself a bowl, finding it unusual she hadn’t decided to feed me.
“I don’t need to celebrate my birthday right now, Ma. Feels wrong to have a party while Harper’s so stressed. We can just do a dinner or somethin’.”
“Well, that’s exactly why we should have a party, though, isn’t it? Force some of the negativity out with cake and balloons.”
I huffed. “I think this is a little more than cake and balloons can fix.”
“Don’t underestimate my cake bakin’ skills,” she said as she blocked my path to the food.
“Just dinner. Cake for dessert if you must. No party.”
“But it’s your birthday,” she groaned.
Ma had always gone too far with birthdays. She’d invite every neighbor on the street and any person she so much as said hello to in the weeks leading up to a birthday, or any event really. She was a social creature.
“Ma, even if everything wasn’t all…” I gestured vaguely at nothing and everything. “Harper still doesn’t want to be too public. He’s not comfortable. He’s still gettin’ used to family dinners.”
I tried to step around her, and she moved between me and the stove once again. “Alright, small gatherin’. Closest friends and family only.”
I knew perfectly well it would be a miracle if she didn’t invite at least ten other “close friends” who were “basically family” tomorrow. I’d let Harper know already, and while he hadn’t outwardly said anything against it, he hadn’t seemed thrilled either.
“Family dinner. Family only,” I told her firmly.
“You’re ruinin’ all my fun.”
“Sorry, is it a party for me or for you?”
“You really want me to answer that?”
I rolled my eyes. “Family only. No negotiations.”
“Fine. Makin’ a big cake to make up for it, though.”
Once more I tried to go for the pasta. Once more she blocked me.
“You should wait for Harp for dinner.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. We both knew I was more than capable of putting away two dinners, and had done so on multiple occasions just this week. She snatched the plate away from me and went to put it back in the cupboard.
“Ma,” I groaned, reaching out to snatch her plate from where she’d left it on the counter, managing to get in two good mouthfuls before she twisted my ear to steal it back.
“You’re a damn animal. Now get out of my kitchen.”
“This is my house.”
“While I’m here, it’s my kitchen.”
My eyes flicked to her fork, and she shielded the plate away from me protectively.
I groaned. “Fine. I gotta go pick him up, and then I’m eating as much pasta as I want.”
“Sure, dear. Now go. I’ll be here just… cleanin’.”
Ma had been coming around most evenings this week, and I was getting suspicious that it wasn’t me or Harper she was here to see.
“Behave yourself.”
“Don’t know what you’re referrin’ to.”
“Mmhmm.” I grabbed my keys. “Love you, Ma.”
“Love you, Bear Bear.”
“I want to drive.” Harper spoke through the open window as I pulled the car into the loading zone.
“Alrighty.” I put it in park without questioning him so we could switch sides.
He adjusted the seat to be much closer to the wheel, and then we were off, heading in a direction that did not lead to either of our houses.
“Where are we goin’?”
He gave me a brief glance and then smirked as he revved the engine. I swallowed. The way he weaved through traffic had my hand shooting up to grab the handle above the window as he swerved the car through gaps barely big enough for us to pass through. Was this how recklessly he rode his bike?
It didn’t take us long to get to our destination, even though it should have, but I was already feeling nauseous as we pulled to a sudden stop.
Harper was out and handing the keys to the valet attendant as I stumbled out after him, heaving in fresh air, barely finding my feet before my car was zooming away from us.
The gold and gleaming sign in front of him announced that we were at Giardino Dell’eleganza. I didn’t know a huge amount about high society in Harborview, but I knew about food, and this place was elite.
I’d never been here because it booked out months in advance and cost more than I could justify on one meal.
“Baby.” I rushed to catch up to him, feeling my stomach twist for a whole new reason. “I’m, uh… not really dressed for this.”
I looked down at my sweat shorts and gym tee. I was wearing slides, for fuck’s sake. I doubted they’d even let me through the front door.
He turned to smile at me. “It’s a good thing you won’t be wearing that, then.”
Unsure of his meaning, I followed him to the grand entrance and lobby. Giardino Dell’eleganza was on the fiftieth floor of the hundred-story building. Everything above it belonged to The Emerald Horizon Hotel.
Harper retrieved a sleek black card from his pocket as we entered the elevator, tapping it on a scanner before pressing the button for the top floor.
We were surrounded by glass walls that faced out over the city that was shrinking as we rose. My stomach seemed to shrink along with it, much like the lights of the ceaseless traffic as we left it all behind.
By the time it stopped again, we were accompanied only by the stars above and the distant city lights winking like colorful stars below.
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 covered the 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 vicuna 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.
The look in Harper’s eyes told me he approved of it immensely.
His elegant fingers slipped behind my tie as he yanked me down to claim my lips again.
“You look so fucking pretty,” he whispered when we parted.
I felt pretty. I felt fucking beautiful, all dressed up for him in the clothes he had chosen for me.