Chapter 24
Kat thought for one terrible moment that Harry would ignore her outstretched hand.
I’ve pushed too far, stuck my nose in where it wasn’t wanted.
Harry had only needed someone to listen as he talked over what was bothering him and she’d steamrollered right in and tried to fix everything.
It shouldn’t be possible to spiral in a couple of seconds but the words of apology were already forming on her lips when Harry reached out and grasped her hand.
He shook it once, twice and then he was tugging her forward, up out of her seat and into his arms.
‘Bloody hell, Kitty, I really thought I was screwed then for a minute.’ He hugged her tight and his chest rippled against hers as he began to chuckle.
Relief washed through her as she hugged him back. ‘You don’t have to say yes,’ she assured him. ‘I won’t be offended if you’d rather find someone else, I just wanted you to know that there were other options.’
Harry loosened his hold enough to stare down at her.
‘Will you stop that?’ he admonished, his tone soft rather than scolding.
‘I need someone I can trust, someone who understands my vision, but you mustn’t be afraid of saying the wrong thing.
If we do this, we do it as partners, as equals.
If you think of a good idea then I want you to say so. ’
Kat nodded. ‘I’ll try.’ She took a deep breath. ‘No, I’ll do better than try. I promise that I’ll speak up when necessary.’
A beaming smile broke out, turning his already handsome face into something quite breathtaking. ‘We’re really going to do this?’
We. How could two letters feel like the most powerful word in the English language? Harry and her. A partnership. Working together to build a future they could both be proud of.
She nodded. ‘We are.’
His arms tightened around her again and Kat allowed herself to lean into him, to accept the affection and return it without hesitation.
She remembered the last time he’d held her on the beach, the invitation in his kisses and the tempting possibility of something special between them.
She remembered too how she’d shied away from it.
The way she’d shied away from any intimacy that carried even a hint of developing into a relationship.
Holiday flings had been her stock in trade.
A few days of fun with a guaranteed expiration date.
Nothing that might result in her getting hurt.
This thing with Harry, though? It scared her because it mattered.
He mattered. The risk to both her heart and their friendship terrified her, but if she let her fears control her she’d be alone forever.
She wasn’t her mother and he wasn’t her father. Harry said he trusted her; didn’t she owe him the same?
‘Harry?’ She let her hands roam over his shoulders as she said his name, the firm muscles a thrill beneath her fingertips. He was so solid and strong and she wanted to put herself under the control of all that strength, to have him yield to her in return. Friends. Partners. Lovers.
When he pulled back this time, the laughter and exuberance in his eyes were gone, replaced by a questioning need, a heat she wanted to warm the coldest, loneliest parts she’d never let anyone else touch before.
Silence stretched between them, taut as a bow string and she knew it was up to her to break it.
She needed to take this first step, be clear in what she wanted, in what she was asking from him. ‘I want you to kiss me, Harry.’
He swallowed so hard she could see the movement of it in his neck muscles. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes. And then I want you to take me to bed.’
Harry laughed and slid his hands down her back to cup her lower body against his. ‘Oh, do you now?’
She could feel the heat rising on her cheeks, a combination of desire and a touch of embarrassment at how forward she was being. ‘You did say you wanted me to speak up if I thought of a good idea.’
He raised a hand to cup her cheek. ‘This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but I like it.’ He leaned forward and their lips connected. When he finally drew back, they were both breathless. ‘I like it a lot,’ he murmured.
They made it down the hallway in a series of stumbling progressions.
Neither one of them could bear to take more than a couple of steps before the need to kiss overwhelmed them.
By the time they reached his bedroom door, Harry’s jumper was in a crumpled heap on the carpet and Kat was down to her bra, the top button of her jeans hanging open.
‘Not here,’ she murmured against his lips. ‘My room.’
‘A bed’s a bed, isn’t it?’ Harry asked between kisses. ‘And mine’s closer.’
It was hard to explain, but she wanted to be in her own space, surrounded by her things. He was so overwhelming – in the very best way – and she needed something to anchor her in the moment. ‘I’ll make it worth your while,’ she promised.
‘Now that’s an offer I can’t refuse!’ Harry grabbed her hand and towed her, laughing, down the rest of the hallway. They tumbled together on to her bed, still laughing between kisses.
‘I’m having such a good time!’ Kat exclaimed, the thought and the words arriving at the same time.
She’d never really considered the idea that sex could be fun before.
Not that she hadn’t enjoyed herself, but laughing with a partner hadn’t ever been high up on the agenda.
Then again, she’d never gone to bed with anyone she felt as comfortable with as she did with Harry.
Certainly no one she knew the way she did him.
Harry raised his head to frown at her. ‘Only a good time? Not great, or spectacular? I’ll have to try harder.’
‘Goof!’ She sat up and pushed him on to his back, throwing her leg across his hips to straddle them. ‘If you want more praise, you’re going to have to earn it.’
His hands settled around her waist, his eyes turning from blue to something smoky and dark. ‘If this is what you meant about making it worth my while, I’m all for it.’ His left hand slid up to cup her breast. ‘You’re so beautiful.’
She’d always wondered if she was too small to be appealing, but the way he was looking at her told her Harry was very happy about everything to do with her body.
Embracing that feeling, she did a little exploring of her own, edging his T-shirt up to expose the flat, hard skin of his torso.
Leaning forward, she pressed a kiss in the centre of his breastbone, then, feeling very daring, she followed it up with a soft lap of her tongue.
‘Bloody hell!’ Harry arched up so high he almost unbalanced her and Kat had to grab for his thigh so she didn’t topple to the side.
Harry dropped back on to the bed with a breathless grunt.
‘You’re killing me, Kitty, but I’m going to die a happy man.
’ A frown creased his brow and he gripped her waist as he shifted beneath her once more.
He fumbled beneath him with his free hand and pulled out her notebook.
‘What’s this?’ His eyes widened and he shot her an excited smile.
‘Is this your writing book? What have you been working on?’
It seemed ridiculous to feel embarrassed given her current position, but she could feel her cheeks heating as she made a grab for it. ‘Nothing really, I’ve just been playing around with a few ideas.’
Harry held on to the book when she would’ve pulled it free. ‘Why don’t you want to tell me about it? Do you think I won’t be interested?’
She couldn’t miss the flash of hurt in his eyes. ‘Oh, Harry, no, that’s not it at all.’ Oh dear, she was going to have to come clean, wasn’t she? ‘I… umm… Could you stop looking at me for a minute because this is too embarrassing to explain while you’re staring at me.’
Harry’s brows drew together in a frown but then he closed his eyes. ‘Is that better?’
It wasn’t really, but she couldn’t not tell him and risk him getting the wrong impression about her reluctance to talk about her writing with him.
Then again, she wasn’t sure him getting the right impression about it would be any better.
Kat took a deep breath and the words tumbled out.
‘I had an idea for a story and I was struggling with the meet-cute and I, uh, I might have used you for inspiration.’
His eyes flew open. ‘Meet-cute? What’s that?’ Kat shifted as though moving her body would somehow release the internal discomfort of the moment. Beneath her Harry went rigid – in more ways than one – and he let out a moan. ‘Hey, stop trying to distract me!’
It was so absurd that Kat couldn’t help giggling, which resulted in some jiggling and earned her another pained glare from Harry.
He tossed the notebook to one side, grabbed her by the waist and flipped them over.
Kat landed on her back with a gasp. Harry settled over her, keeping his weight mostly off her with his braced elbows.
‘That’s better. Now you were telling me about your story… ’
It was hard to focus with the delicious heat of him covering every inch of her, but she dragged the few functioning brain cells into order. ‘The meet-cute is a term we use for the first time the hero and the heroine interact in a romance story.’
‘Meet-cute,’ he repeated the word like he was testing it. ‘Yeah, I can see how that works.’ His smile turned a little wicked as he looked down at her. ‘And how exactly did you use me as inspiration for the hero?’
She nodded and bit her lip. ‘You know a couple of weeks ago when I caught you in just your underwear?’
Harry’s eyes widened and he burst out laughing.
‘Oh my God, Kitty! Were you writing sexy stuff about me?’ Mortification threatened to kill her stone dead, but he looked entirely delighted at the prospect as he shifted his hips until her thighs were on either side of his and their bodies were cradled together in the most intimate of ways. ‘What was I doing?’
‘I didn’t get that far because you started crashing plates around in the yard outside and disturbed my train of thought.’
His bottom lip stuck out in a comical pout. ‘Oh, that’s disappointing.’ He nudged his body against the apex of her thighs. ‘Perhaps we could work on those ideas now, see if we can get your story back on track?’
Harry took his role as her writing muse very seriously and by the time they emerged from the shower together later that evening, Kat was too exhausted to be inspired.
‘Your place or mine?’ Harry asked her as he trailed hot kisses across her collarbone, his hands already trying to undo the towel she’d just wrapped around herself.
As much as she was tempted to say either would be fine, she was feeling a little overwhelmed with how quickly things had progressed, even though going to bed with Harry had been her idea.
She needed some time alone to process and figure out where things were going to go from here.
She had no intention of this being a one-night stand situation, but she was worried they were going to go from zero to a huge commitment without all the usual steps in between.
‘How about you sleep in your place, and I sleep in mine?’ she suggested as she eased herself gently from his embrace.
‘You don’t want us to spend the night together?’ There was no mistaking the disappointment in his voice.
Kat raised a finger to rub away the frown lines between his brow.
‘Don’t be grumpy with me. You haven’t done anything wrong, I just think we need to take things slowly.
Yes, we live under the same roof and I really, really want us to make a go of things, but I don’t think that should mean an immediate shift towards living together, do you? ’
His brow smoothed under her touch and he reached up to take her hand, drawing it down to his mouth so he could press a kiss to her open palm. ‘I’m glad one of us still has enough sense to think straight.’
‘You’re not upset?’
He shook his head. ‘Not one bit.’ He leaned forward and brushed a soft kiss over her lips. ‘I don’t want to fuck this up, not now, not ever. And it’s like I told you before, I want you to speak up whenever you need to. We’ve got plenty of time to figure things out.’
Relieved, Kat reached out and hugged him. ‘Thank you.’
Harry hugged her tightly then stepped back. ‘You don’t need to thank me, Kitty, we’re in this together. What time do you need to be in work tomorrow?’
‘I normally try to get there for about eight to give me plenty of time to sort things out before we open at nine, why?’
‘I thought I might bring you breakfast in bed,’ he replied with a grin that told her exactly what would be on the menu.
She laughed. ‘I’ll make sure I set my alarm.’
He leaned in and gave her a final kiss. ‘I’ll leave you to finish up in peace. Give me a knock when you’re done. Sleep well, Kitty.’
‘Night, Harry.’
He paused in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder. ‘If you wake up in the middle of the night and find yourself in need of more inspiration, you know where to find me.’