Dazed with desire, Harper dipped a finger into the pot, retrieving a scoop of the luxury before Will set it back on the console. Then he captured her wrist, bringing her hand to his lips. His eyes on hers, he went down on her finger and sucked the caviar away.
The limo idled through the city traffic, but she no longer needed speed to get that wild, crazy feeling from racing fast in a car.
All it took was one touch from Will.
He licked her finger once more, his gaze smoldering. Then he tipped her champagne against her lips. She took a long drink, the bubbles bursting all the way down her throat. When she was done, he leaned in and tasted her mouth, licking away the drops of the champagne.
“I want you now,” he whispered against her lips, “but I swore to myself I’d have you in my bed tonight. All night long. Over and over.”
Moments later, the car stopped and the door opened, garage lights beaming beyond the driver’s shoulder. Her knees seemed to wobble as Will helped her from the car. He carried the two champagne glasses in one hand as he walked her to the elevator, which he opened with a special key card. There were no floor buttons. Once inside, he simply inserted the key again. The doors closed as the limo rolled away.
His arm wrapped around her, he held the glass to her lips once more. “Eat the fruit. It’s been sitting in champagne.” He tipped the glass until the berries slid down into her mouth. They were rich with bubbles, sweet and sparkling.
Then Will’s lips crushed hers. He held her tight against his body, pressing her up against the elevator wall as he tasted the fruit with her.
But though she’d truly had an amazing time at the show tonight and the fancy ride, complete with fruited champagne and delicious caviar had been seductive and decadent, she hadn’t needed any of it to be happy.
All she’d needed was him.
*
Harper’s taste on Will’s lips lingered as the elevator doors opened and they stepped into his flat.
“Wow.”
Harper’s breathy exclamation of wonder called him to her. She glided to the wall of windows showcasing the vast blackness of a nighttime San Francisco Bay, with the blazing lights of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, and the East Bay surrounding the water like a ring of fire. Abandoning the champagne glasses on the coffee table, Will shadowed her.
“It’s so beautiful.” She spoke to the inky night and to him.
With the room still dark behind them and moonlight falling across her, she was more beautiful than any landscape. He shifted to stand close at her back, seeing through her eyes. He’d bought the place because of the view, but he’d long since stopped noticing it. Harper made it fresh again as he shared her awe, revealing the beauty he’d forgotten.
She turned her head slightly to gaze at him over her shoulder. “Do you sit here at night just staring at all this?”
“I haven’t.” But he could sit here all night watching her. “But I see now that I’ve been missing something.”
He’d been missing so damn much until she’d walked into his life. If only what he felt for her was enough to wipe out ten years of his past, from the ages of eight to eighteen...
She turned back to the vista, leaning against him. “Just looking out your windows would be like meditation after a long work day.”
“Maybe I should rearrange the furniture and make this window the centerpiece.”
“Yes, you should,” she said, and her hair, still fragrant with some sweet shampoo, brushed his cheek, his chin.
He’d planned the evening meticulously, from dinner to the sold-out tickets for the two-week run, the limo, the caviar, the fruit in the champagne glasses. He’d wanted to wow her.
But he was the one wowed. From the very first moment he’d set eyes on her.
She needs to know how you feel. Trust her with your secrets.
Susan’s words had been his constant companions since their talk. Wrapping his arm around Harper’s waist, he pulled her back tightly against him, as he wondered for the hundredth time: Could she handle what was in his heart? Or would it send her running?
Rich men in fast cars, the teenager who’d run her brother down, the wealthy father who’d bailed him out—Will knew he embodied all Harper’s fears and he instinctively stiffened at the thought of losing her.
“Will?” She turned slightly to look up at him again, her eyes meeting his. “Is everything okay?”
He brushed her hair aside to plant a kiss on the sensitive skin of her neck. “You’re here.” He sucked her skin, leaving his mark on her, then moved up to her ear, a sweet little hot spot, and nibbled. “Everything is amazing.”
“You make me totally crazy when you do that.” She twirled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re such a tease.”
He wanted to tease her right up to heaven, wanted to give her so much pleasure that she’d never, ever think about leaving him. “The word tease implies no follow-through. And believe me, I intend to follow through.” He kissed her lightly. “All—” Kiss. “—night—” Kiss. “—long.” Then he parted her lips and took her mouth, hot need spiking through him. “You’re absolutely perfect.”
“So are you.”
But he wasn’t.
Not even close.