Chapter 7
Seven
Harmony looked at Damien. She felt so dumb for believing the word of a random woman in the bathroom. That woman was the real threat, not Damien.
He showed up. She ran out on him with no explanation, and instead of writing her off, he made sure she was safe. He…
“How did you know where I lived?”
“Uh…” He rubbed the back of his neck, his bicep flexing with the move.
“You knew all along, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. When I looked up where you worked, I found your address. It was the first thing I had deleted from online, though. And if it wasn’t for that woman following you—”
“Thank you.” Harmony couldn’t let him continue to defend his actions when his actions possibly saved her. She wrapped her arms around herself as the reality sank in once more. Someone followed her home.
“I’ll head out.” Damien took a step away. “Lock your door, and—”
“You’re leaving?” Harmony blurted.
Damien stopped. “I… That is up to you. It’s been a rough evening for you. I don’t want to overstep.”
“I think I’d feel better if you stayed,” Harmony whispered, dropping her gaze to the floor instead of the man she was asking to protect her. What was wrong with her? She’d been on her own most of her life, and one threat and she was begging a near stranger to stay in her apartment.
“Are you sure you feel comfortable having me in your apartment?”
She drew a breath and nodded. “I am. I… This isn’t like me to feel so…”
“Vulnerable?”
She exhaled a laugh. “Yeah. That’s a good word for it.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Harmony.”
She looked up at him. “I know.”
His lips lifted in a smile he tried to hide. He nibbled his lower lip, then nodded to her apartment. “Should we go in?”
“Yeah. Um. Yeah. It’s not much.”
“But it’s yours,” Damien said.
Harmony’s chest swelled with pride. He got it. “It is.”
Damien smiled at her, both of them hovering at the threshold.
She let herself sink into his gaze, get lost in him.
She was drawn to him from the day they met because he was kind and insightful.
She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him and had used him as inspiration in more than a few private moments when she couldn’t sleep.
Having him in her space, filling her apartment with his scent and his presence, was going to add even more ammunition to her unbanked desire. Desire she felt swelling inside as she looked at him. Not pushing. Not rushing. Letting her lead.
A door down the hall slammed as a neighbor left their apartment. Harmony jumped at the sound, her hands shaking and heart pounding.
“Let’s go inside,” Damien whispered, urging her backward. He followed her into the apartment, closing the door behind him and locking it.
Harmony couldn’t stop shaking. Her hands trembled, her body flushed hot with fear. She hated how close that woman came to getting to her.
“Can I do anything to help?” Damien asked softly.
Harmony wrapped her arms around her middle. “I’m fine.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I know.”
“Why am I shaking so badly?”
“It’s adrenaline. Your body produced a lot, and it was slowly waning, but that door slamming amped it all back up. You need to do something that will convince you that you’re safe.”
Harmony snorted. “Yeah, because that’s so easy.”
“For some people, touch helps.”
“Touch?” Her mind immediately went to a very specific kind of touch, and her cheeks heated for a completely different reason.
“That kind, too, but I meant a hug. Can I hold you, Harmony?”
She nodded, the motion jerky.
He stepped closer to her, setting his hands on her shoulders. He ran them down her arms and tugged her arms away from her body. He guided her arms around his waist and slid his hands back up her arms until he could wrap his arms around her shoulders.
He hugged her close to his body, surrounding her with his scent and his warmth and his entire being.
Immediately, Harmony felt safer. She shivered at the overwhelming feeling of care she got from him. Something she hadn’t experienced since her father died.
Tears filled her eyes, and she squeezed them shut. Damien held her, his chin on top of her head. His steady breathing and heartbeat soothed her, giving her something she didn’t expect to find in the arms of a man she barely knew.
“Do you feel better?” he whispered into her hair.
Harmony nodded, easing up on her grip.
Damien held on for a second longer, releasing her when she let go of him. He smiled at her, examining her closer than she wanted him to.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Harmony took a step back, giving herself space from him before she grabbed hold and didn’t let go.
Damien lifted his gaze from her to her apartment, and unease immediately swamped her.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had a man in her apartment.
The hours she’d been working the last few months meant more time in the lab than anywhere else.
Before that, she still favored the lab and her own company over random hookups.
She got most of that desire out of her system in her twenties and was happier with her own imagination than with a man who fell far short of her fantasies.
“You have a great place,” Damien said, his gaze landing on the record collection on the far side of her apartment. “You’re a collector?”
“My dad was. He started with my mom. They met at a record store. He was working, and she was a customer. He said he followed her around because he thought she was beautiful and talked to her. It took him months to work up the nerve to ask her out, and she said finally.” Harmony laughed.
“She didn’t even like records that much, but she kept going back because she wanted to see him. ”
“That’s pretty awesome.”
Harmony nodded. “Yeah. He played records when I was growing up. He had a little of everything. Now that it’s starting to come back in, it’s like he was ahead of his time, but really, he was holding on to a time when she was here.”
“Nothing wrong with that. It had to be hard losing her.”
Harmony nodded. “Yeah.”
“What’s your favorite?” Damien asked, nodding to the collection.
Harmony nodded approval for him to check out the records and followed him across the room. “He has some really great Motown records. Some Elvis.”
Damien looked over his shoulder at her. “That doesn’t answer the question.”
She laughed at his insight. “My Girl.”
“The Temptations?” he asked.
Her eyebrows shot up that he knew the song immediately. “It was my parents’ wedding song. Dad was a little older. He had a friend at the record store who was flirting with Mom one day, and he told the guy to back off because she was My Girl. It became their song.”
His eyes crinkled at the edges as he smiled. “That’s amazing. When you know something is right, you don’t have to question it, but you’ll do anything you can to protect it.”
Harmony’s cheeks warmed at his words and the possible implication. She pushed the thought away and asked, “Have you ever been close to settling down? Besides moving here for Morgan?”
Damien chuckled. “Ah, no. Not even with Morgan. She was great, but I was looking for something she couldn’t give me. Something I wasn’t even sure about at the time.”
“And you still haven’t found it?”
Damien looked dead in her eyes and hesitated.
That look. She could see into his soul. Into the man who was looking back at her and telling her he found it in her. Harmony cleared her throat and tore her gaze from his.
Damien flipped through the records, focusing on that instead of her.
She appreciated the reprieve. More than he knew.
Harmony had never been the focus of a man’s attention like she was with Damien.
She knew she was attractive, but she never let herself be fully available.
Her education came first. Always. She told herself she’d have time for love later, but later never seemed to come.
It was an excuse. She knew it was. She accepted it was. But it was all she had. If she convinced herself she wasn’t available, she couldn’t be disappointed to be thirty-six and single.
Damien chose a record and slipped it from the sleeve, setting it on the turntable without Harmony seeing what he chose. When the opening chords of My Girl played, she smiled.
“Will you dance with me?” Damien asked, getting to his feet and offering her his hand.
Harmony slipped her hand into his and let him help her to her feet. He turned their hands to fit and pulled her closer with his other hand on her waist. She rested her hand on his shoulder.
The man had moves. He took it easy on her, but it was obvious he had excellent rhythm and an ease with his body. They moved around her couch and toward the door. When Harmony tensed, he guided them back toward the record player.
Her fingers flexed on his shoulder, and he stepped closer to her, his hand sliding across her back. He didn’t break his stride or his eye contact.
The song ended, and the record continued to the next one. Damien moved their joined hands closer until they were resting against their shoulders, their bodies brushing with each shift of their weight.
Harmony sucked in a breath, her chest brushing his.
Damien moved closer, bringing his forehead to hers. “Can I kiss you?”
“Finally.”
He chuckled, but he didn’t rush. He brought his hand to her face and trailed his fingers over her cheek. He cupped her jaw. When his lips brushed hers, it was a simple kiss, barely more than a peck she would give a distant relative.
But Damien wasn’t done.
He peppered her lips with whispers of kisses, teasing and tasting from one side of her mouth to the other and back to the center. He sighed against her lips as though he were just as turned on as she was. He settled his lips over hers and licked against the seam of her lips.
She parted them on a half-sigh, half-gasp, and he responded with a growl that sent a shiver through her. His tongue brushed hers, and a switch flipped.