Chapter 13 #2
“Sure she does. Not the card number, but we don’t need that. We booked the original flight so it won’t be that much of a leap to change it.”
“You booked it? I thought my father booked it.”
“No, we did. He originally told us he couldn’t make it, but then called and asked if you could attend.
We set up the flight and hotel arrangements and here we are.
” He looked meaningfully at Harper. “I have to say I’m so very glad that you came.
I might not have ever met you otherwise, and this, us has become very important to me. ”
“There is no us, Joel. We’re business associates.”
“I’d hoped we’re friends, too,” Joel said.
“Of course,” Harper answered.
Her Tiger snarled in her mind, but Harper ignored her. She opened the door, gathered her belongings, and got out of the car. “Thanks for the ride.”
“I’ll see you later,” he said.
“Sounds good.”
Harper walked across the parking lot from the drop off zone toward the hotel without looking back, not even when she entered the lobby and crossed over to the elevators.
She went straight up to her suite and stripped off her clothes, donning the bath robe provided by the hotel.
Flopping down on the sofa, she checked her phone for the tenth time that day to see if Clay had sent another message.
It clearly showed that he’d deleted two of them before she’d had a chance to read them, but never resent any.
She sat for a few moments just enjoying the silence before picking up the room service menu, and deciding that everything on it was too rich and fancy.
She just wanted some good old fashioned simple food.
A hamburger, pizza, peanut butter and jelly.
Not croque monsieur or Veal Prince Orlof.
She only scanned the menu for a few more seconds before tossing it to the coffee table.
Focusing on the idea of swimming instead, she changed into her swimsuit, grabbed a towel and headed downstairs to locate the pool.
Delighted to find the indoor pool unoccupied, she dropped her towel on a nearby lounge chair and after dipping her toes in to test the temperature, dove in.
She pushed herself hard, swimming lap after lap, and then swimming underwater as far as she could before surfacing to get a breath to continue underwater to the opposite end.
A huge splash behind let her know someone else had entered the pool, but she ignored it and continued pushing herself as hard as she could.
She came up for air halfway between the deep and shallow ends of the pool, and literally bumped into the person who’d gotten in the pool.
She’d been swimming without goggles, and spent a few seconds wiping chlorinated water from her eyes, as the person helped support her in the water as she tried to get her bearings.
“Sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t know anyone was out this deep! ” she said hurriedly.
“It’s okay, it’s just me. I decided to join you.”
Harper’s Tiger let out a warning snarl that Harper herself just barely managed not to release as well. She pushed Joel’s hands off her upper arms and kicked her legs, moving herself backward a foot or so. “What are you doing here?”
“I finished my calls, had my secretary book my flight and change yours, and decided a swim sounded good. So, here I am,” he said happily.
She hesitated before she spoke, clearly not impressed that he’d taken it upon himself to come back after she’d said how she needed some alone time to exercise and get a break from peopling. When she did open her mouth to speak, he interrupted her.
“And I brought pizza!” he said, pointing to a table near where she’d left her towel.
“I was clear that I wanted time alone,” she said.
“I know, but I thought, why not come back? We get along so well. And I enjoyed your company so much these last few days, I figured what could it hurt? So, I grabbed a pizza and here I am. I just knew it would make my night perfect if I spent it with you,” he said as he moved a little closer to her.
“I even made sure you have a huge suite, plenty of room for spreading out and making yourself comfortable while you’re here.
Even for inviting people up and still not feel like you’re in too close of quarters. ”
“I hope you don’t think you’re spending the night with me. That’s not happening. And you upgraded my hotel room?”
“Well, yeah. It was supposed to be a good thing! You’re welcome.”
“Upgrading the room of a business associate does not give you access to her bed.”
“No! Of course, not. I just wanted to share some down time. It’ll be good for both of us to relax and get to know each other better.”
“No. I’m going to go back to my room alone after I finish my laps,” she answered, knowing she wasn’t successfully hiding her irritation with his arrival.
“Suite! I upgraded you to a suite, remember? And no problem. I wanted to swim a little, too,” he said, beginning a weak breast stroke.
She looked at him suspiciously and redirected herself around him and sank below the water, quickly darting out of reach to the opposite end of the pool.
She wanted to go back to her room now, but refused to be pushed out of the pool because of his entitlement.
She made two more laps before deciding to get out of the pool.
When she finally went up the steps, he was already there, holding out his hand and her towel.
Joel grasped her hand and ‘steadied’ her as she climbed out of the pool despite the fact she didn’t reach toward him herself.
When she stopped on the edge of the pool right in front of him and pulled her hand out of his, he shook out her towel and tossed it around her shoulders, then pulled hard on the ends he still held to move her nearer to his chest rather forcefully.
At the last moment she put her hands up in front of herself to stop her body from contacting his.
She looked questioningly up at him, irritation clear in her expression.
“Come on, Harper. Surely you know how I feel about you.”
“How you feel about me? You met me five days ago. I’m surprised you remember my name.”
“We’ve hardly been apart for those five days, though. I can’t be the only one that feels it.”
“Feels what?”
“The pull. I can’t stop thinking about you.
I think about you all the time. I don’t want to leave after we have dinner each evening, I can’t wait for breakfast each morning.
And tonight I just couldn’t fight it. I had to come back.
I’ve been nothing but a gentleman, I need more of you today,” he said, using the towel to force her against his chest as he lowered his head to try to kiss her as he held her in place with the towel gripped in his fists.
Harper grabbed one of his wrists in one of her hands, and using her thumb and finger, she pressed against his wrist so hard that something popped and he dropped the towel with both hands, so he could cradle the one she’d hurt.
“What was that?!” he demanded.
“That was me letting you know I don’t appreciate being forced into close proximity with anyone without my express permission. And I didn’t permit that.”
He was still rubbing at his wrist. “Jesus! A simple no thank you would have been sufficient.”
“No, I don’t think it would have been.” She started for the exit, planning to go back to her suite.
“So, I’m good enough to spend time with and to allow me to take you to dinner every night that you’re in town, but when I want to make it more personal, I’m not enough,” he said.
She turned and looked back at him as she hesitated by the exit.
“I must have missed something, at what point did a business relationship morph into something else? When did I invite you into my private life, or even give you an inkling that I might be interested in more? And why do you assume that whatever you want is okay because you want it?”
“When you didn’t object every time I invited you to dinner, or said I’d be here to pick you up each morning and introduced you to all my contacts at the trade show.”
“Introducing me to contacts at the trade show is what was expected of the business relationship you and my father anticipated. I simply arrived in his stead. Picking me up at the airport was your choice. You could have sent a text that said you’d see me at the show, or done nothing at all.
I’d have found it myself. The dinners, breakfasts, lunches…
those were all your idea. In fact, the times that I tried to decline, you insisted.
I wanted and expected a room. You upgraded me when we arrived here to a suite.
That was what you were doing at the front desk ahead of me, weren’t you?
What the hell were you thinking? I stayed professional, you did not.
That’s not my problem.” She spun back toward the exit having said all she was willing to say to him, and left him standing there alone with his pizza.
“Harper, hold on. This is not a good idea for your father’s farm. My company is planning some new agricultural processes that will double his production. He’s going to want to have access to that information.”
“Then call my father and discuss it. It’s his business. I’m not included in the parts of his business you will have access to,” she yelled over her shoulder without looking back.
“You’re giving me the impression that you’re not easy to deal with. Walking away like this is not encouraging for a business future. Think hard about what you are doing here and what effect it will have on your father and your family business.”
She laughed and couldn’t help turning to look at him one last time.
“I’m not easy to deal with. Whatever made you think I was?
And you know what? Never mind about calling my father.
I’ll do it. He should know that you just threatened dropping him as your customer because I wouldn’t allow a personal relationship to develop between us. ”