Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
Bastian
BASTIAN LOOKED AT his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes.
“Relax, son,” his mom said. “Stop scowling.”
Much as he didn’t want to sound like a teenager, he groaned. “I’ve written a check, Mom. I don’t understand why I can’t leave. Dad’s around here somewhere, he’ll entertain you.”
This ball supported one of his mom’s many, many charities. He didn’t have the same quota of time to spend with her bunch of non-profits.
“Your father is dancing with your sister,” Carolyn said. “We’re all here together, Bastian. This is family time.”
That was the card she played when she wanted to guilt him into quieting down. Her parents, his grandparents, believed business was more important than anything. Any time he displayed similar tendencies, his mom slapped him into line. Fast. Figuratively speaking.
“There are two or three hundred other people here,” he said. “It’s not the best time for us to bond.”
Cynicism didn’t infect his mom. Never did. He’d never been able to manipulate Carolyn like she could manipulate him, his father, and his sister without breaking a sweat. His mom might not have been a career woman, but she was the smartest Hunt by far.
“You promised your sister you would be here.”
Citing Keely was another choice maneuver. Another point to Mom. So far, he had no points. Unless the check counted.
“I didn’t say I would stay.” Semantics were his final line of defense. “I’m here, aren’t I? Can I leave now?”
His mom sighed. “How do you expect to settle down when you don’t take the time to look around? You never know what beauties you might stumble across.”
Stifling the urge to groan again, he should’ve known this was about more than “family” time.
“Is that what this is about?” Bastian asked. “You want me to find Princess Charming?”
“It wouldn’t hurt to have a look around at who’s on offer, would it?” she said, twisting to scan the women around them. “There are a lot of beautiful women here tonight.”
Shit. Lloyd Newton was heading their way. Instinct spun him around to face the opposite direction. Walk on by, Lloyd, keep on walking.
Leaving things to chance wasn’t his style, and he didn’t like being a sitting duck.
“Damn,” Bastian muttered. Reaching behind him, he caught his mom’s shoulder to guide her over in front of him again. “Do you want to dance?”
“I promised the next one to your father,” Carolyn said, still glancing left and right as she sipped her drink.
She was probably trying to figure out the cause of his shifty behavior. He wouldn’t enlighten her. Just for sport, she’d wave Lloyd over if he told her the truth. His mom’s sense of humor often got him into trouble.
“It’s still this one,” Bastian said. “It’s not the next one yet.”
“There are maybe three lines of music left.”
“Bastian!” Fuck. Lloyd came to his side and patted his elbow. “I was hoping to pin you down tonight.”
Damn it, on his list of people to avoid, Lloyd Newton sat right on top.
“The Poole investment, I know.”
“Have you had a chance to look over the materials?”
No, he hadn’t because Lloyd Newton was a buffoon in business. If he’d been anyone else, Bastian would have told him straight. Unfortunately, Lloyd was a friend of his aunt’s. His sensitive aunt who tended to take things personally.
“It’s in the inbox, Lloyd.”
“I know. I know. A man like you is very busy, I understand. I appreciate that you’re taking the time to look at my proposal at all.”
Lloyd Newton was at least twenty years his senior and still begging for table scraps.
Was there a point at which a man decided to give up on the idea of achieving pinnacle success?
Everyone’s definition of success was different, but Bastian couldn’t imagine conducting himself with the desperation he sensed in Lloyd and other men like him.
Surely there came a point where Lloyd should accept where he was and stop striving for more. Wasn’t that what Harper said about love?
Shit, Harper… she was never far from his mind.
Gaining a new respect for Lloyd, in another context, fighting even when the battle seemed impossible could be necessary.
The music stopped and a familiar sound drifted to his ears over the susurration of the party.
That enthralling laugh.
Harper.
The music began again, but his ears were pricked to identify a different sound. Had he imagined her? Was he hallucinating?
Lloyd was still talking, but it was down to Carolyn to listen. From the way his mom responded to deliberately draw Newton’s attention, it was clear she’d seen his concentration waver.
Scrutinizing the crowd one way and the other, he passed right by the sight of her figure only to pause and return fast.
Yes, it was her.
Harper Scott was at the edge of the room laughing with Ricardo Whey.
Lloyd became instantly irrelevant. Had to be fucking Ricardo Whey? His feet moved before his mind formed a plan. Rudeness be damned, he strode away, intent on his goal.
Nothing in the room, in the world, was more important than the smiling woman in his crosshairs.
The party, the guests, all of it blurred when he got to her side. “Sweet?”
She turned, smile lighting her whole face. The vision of her was a sucker punch to the abs. Breathe, man, don’t forget to breathe.
“Bastian!”
Harper stepped in to press herself against his side. Her automatic impulse to make full body contact—yep, he’d forgotten his own name. Her arm slid around him under his jacket until she hooked her thumb into one of his belt loops.
“Looks like he found me,” Harper said to Ricardo. “I should’ve known if I stayed in one place long enough he would.”
“Your friend is Bastian Hunt?”
Bastian registered Whey’s incredulity. Let him wonder. Harper kept on smiling, being polite, but he could sense her desire to get away from Whey.
“Someone has to take pity on him,” Harper said, resting her head on his chest.
She wanted everyone in the room to believe she belonged to him. Good. Worked for him.
“Good to see you, Bastian,” Whey said.
“And you,” Bastian said, shaking Whey’s hand.
“No Colliers in the room tonight.”
“Not that I’ve seen.”
“A lot of low profiles these days.”
“Which profiles are you thinking about?” Bastian asked, knowing exactly who the man didn’t want to see.
“I heard Zairn’s still in town. Not seen him around.”
“Since the wedding?” Oh, that’s right, Whey wasn’t invited. They both knew it. And, boy, it gave him some pleasure to see the man bristle. “You’ll be disappointed if you came tonight to see him. Last I heard, Roxie’s keeping him busy across town.”
“No,” Harper said, interrupting the men’s flow. “They’re dancing. Roxie and Zairn are dancing.”
“They’re…” How the hell did Harper know Zairn? Time to get her alone. “If you’ll excuse us, I promised this beautiful woman a dance.”
Whey lifted his glass in concession and took Harper’s when she held it out.
Check that out, not many people would ask Ricardo Whey to pick up after them.
Arm still around her, he held her tight all the way to the dance floor. Like it was choreographed, when he swept her into his arms, Harper slipped her thumb from his belt and relaxed her hands on his chest.
Absorbing her scent, he loosened. Thoughts of leaving evaporated. This had suddenly become the hottest ticket in town and the only place he wanted to be. Thank God his mother was his mother.
“What did you think you were doing?” Bastian asked, inspecting those circulating close, being less than subtle in their scrutiny.
Not that Harper noticed anyone else.
“If you’re upset I’m here, it’s easily remedied,” she said, bringing her hands closer to the center of his chest. “I can leave.”
Good, chastise her. Great. Where did that fit in with the plan to win her over?
He’d never been so happy to see a person in his life and, somehow, he’d put the opposite in her head.
If Harper left right then, they’d probably never see each other again.
Severing ties wouldn’t make him happy. New plan, erase any doubt.
“I’m not upset you’re here.”
“You sound upset,” she said, tipping her head back.
He did, but it wasn’t because she was at the party. “I’m upset that you came here without me.”
“I hoped you would be here.”
If that was true, she’d made a misstep crossing paths with Whey.
“You were talking to Ricardo Whey. He would say anything to take you home to his bed.”
Another smile, and, shit… Time to check out the others again. Anything to distract himself from the stunning sight. Resisting an urge to growl and squeeze her closer wasn’t easy.
“Bed didn’t come up in the conversation, and he didn’t make a move.”
Talking was move enough. Too close. Whey had been on the approach, of that he had no doubt.
Harper didn’t understand she belonged to him. That wasn’t her fault, he hadn’t told her yet.
“You’re a beautiful woman deserving of attention. Too many other men know that.”
If he’d known her intention to be there, he’d have picked her up and kept her on his arm all night. How was it she’d never been at one of these parties before and then she was there with him?
It couldn’t be that he’d never noticed her in this crowd before.
He wasn’t blind; he’d have noticed. Many would.
The same faces passed every time. They all attended these events, spent their money, then saw each other again the next time.
The butter was always churned. Everyone knew the steps to this dance.
Polite. Smiling. Dancing. Mind-numbing… until Harper.
Yet if she moved in circles with Roxie and Zairn…
The party started two hours ago. Had she been wandering through the crowd all that time? Any man could’ve picked her up and he wouldn’t have been around to interrupt the seduction.
“You don’t have to look after me,” she said. The heat of her delicate hands seeped through his shirt. “You helped me out at my family party; I thought I would return the favor.”
Wait… what?
He stopped. Her presence wasn’t serendipitous, it was orchestrated?
“You’re here for me?”
The glitter in her eyes dazzled him. “I said that, didn’t I?”