“I believe it,” I said, following her as she started to walk back towards the condo. “I’m definitely a terrible person and you’ve clearly got the hots for me.” She covered her mouth to muffle her giggle. My ears ate up every sound she made, the vibrations swimming in my heart until it thrummed like a live wire. “I know I keep saying it, but your voice is beautiful.”
There was a hiccup in her pace. Harper shot me a furtive look, then stared straight ahead. “You said last night that you heard me perform. Where?”
Here it was—a direct question that would reveal our connection. Would she remember that night, and if she did, would that help or hurt my plans? “There was a place back in Sommersville, the Copper Tub. You performed that night… first and only time I heard you sing.”
She pulled up short. We were alone on the street, so it struck me as odd how she darted her eyes around before settling on me again. Why did any talk about her singing make her so edgy? “I hated that place. What were you doing there? That club was known for dirty deeds.”
I looked down my nose at her. “You’re right,” I whispered. “You can make an educated guess why I was there. Dirty business.”
We faced off; her, staring up at me with what I kept expecting to be disgust. Instead, her features softened, the edge of her ruby lips creating a curious smile. “Huh.”
“What’s up?”
“It’s just funny,” she said, half turning away from me. “You’re set on trying to make yourself sound awful. I don’t believe any of it.”
Unsure what to do with her observation, I followed at her side as she walked. “You said it yourself, you can’t read people.”
“Maybe,” she mused. We approached the condo, the doors reflecting our images back at us. In the glass, we were all stretched out and wobbly, our hands warping, almost touching in their imperfection. I loved it. “This is my stop,” she said, jerking her thumb at the building.
“Wait, you live here?”
She made a face. “Of course I do.”
This was a new twist. Did it mean Callum paid for her rent, or did she get a discount because he owned the place? Maybe stripping really did pay the bills. “Are you chasing me off? Cena told you, I’m not a bad guy.”
Harper’s eyes moved to the doorman, then back to me. “Give me one reason to invite you up to my place.”
Cocking my hip, I chuckled warmly. “We could play twenty questions.”
I’d meant it as a light joke, but her expression said I’d intrigued her. Perhaps telling her that I’d heard her sing would actually turn out to be a good thing. “If you come up,” she said slowly, “You’ll behave.”
“What did you say last night?” I asked, so softly she had to strain to hear me over the cars driving by. “Something about… not biting unless asked?”
Harper’s lips parted; I ached to fill the gap with my mouth. Whirling, she pressed a key card to the door, motioning for me to go inside. The lobby was wide; bright from all the windows. A large elevator reached up from the middle of the room, gold and crystal. The stripper poles at the Golden Goose kept entering my mind.
Callum owns all of this. It was impossible not to think of this place like a stone tower. And at the top was Mister Big, ready to crash and burn once I toppled him down.
“This way,” she said, leading me towards the elevator. We passed by the security desk as we went. There was a man there, his face jagged, too thin in all the wrong ways. His hands were harmlessly holding a phone to his ear. But I knew exactly what cruelty they were capable of.
He watched me as I walked by, but no recognition flashed in his face. Between us both, the only reaction was my ribs straining with the memory of old injuries.
“You okay?”
Blinking, I stood next to Harper in the elevator. “Fine. Just thinking about how small of a space we’re in.”
Her cheeks turned a dusky pink. “I said behave.”
“I am.” Purposefully, I set my hand on the smooth wall right above her head; she flinched, breathing deeply. “I’m just riding up with you. That’s tame. I’m definitely not thinking about how much time I have to kiss you and get your clothes off before we… ah.” The doors dinged. “Never mind.”
Harper gave me a slight shove. “You’re something else.”
“Flattery is always appreciated.”
The walk down the hallway to her condo was short. She clicked a key in the lock; the entryway opened straight into a wide, brightly lit room. A chunk of speckled marble formed the island in the kitchen; I could see it from the door thanks to the open floor plan. No question, these condo arrangements had to run a high five figures a month.
“Your boss pay for you to live here, or do you take care of that with your dance money?”
She didn’t bristle, though she did look away from me. “He pays for it.”
The knife of jealousy cut deeper into my heart. I was right; sugar daddy arrangement.
Harper went into the kitchen, draping her purse onto the back of the chair. “Callum paid for everything. It started slow, but soon, everything was in his name.”
My mouth went dry. “Why would you let him have that much control over you?”
Running water from the sink, she snorted loudly. “Sorry. It’s not like I had a choice. Mom wasn’t exactly old fashioned, but what wife turns down her husband’s gifts?”
I grabbed the island to balance myself. There was no way I’d heard her right. “Husband?”
“Yeah. My mom was married to him before she passed away.”
Impossible. Callum is her dad? But… when I researched Mister Big, I’d learned he only had one daughter: Cena. How was this possible?
“Here,” she said, setting a glass of water on the island. She’d poured one for each of us. When I didn’t immediately take it, she squinted at me. “Jack, you okay?”
Regarding the room… Harper… everything with more distrust, I sat on a stool next to her. “I didn’t know your boss was your dad.”
“Stepdad. He married my mom when she got pregnant with Cena. I kept her last name, I’d had it my whole life, why change it when I was nearly sixteen?”
Then Cena is her half sister. I was reeling, absorbing all this information at hyper-speed. Everything made more sense; Harper coming here at night wasn’t to fuck her boss, it was to be with her sister. Walking her to school wasn’t a job. They were flesh and blood.
Fuck.
This will mess up my plans, won’t it? I dug my fingers into my knees. No, it won’t. It can’t. I can still go through with everything. I have to, I…
“Jack? Jack!” Harper grabbed the front of my shirt, holding my shoulders tight. “What’s wrong, you’re so pale.”
I circled my hands on her forearms. I’d zoned out, but when I zeroed back into the moment, I saw how close her and I were. I could count her eyelashes, see the fine lines in her plump bottom lip. The fear in her eyes made her blue irises glint with silver.
Her shirt was loose enough that my angle gave me a view of her lavender bra inside. She was breathing quicker; she’d noticed our proximity, her body’s signals giving her anticipation away. It was exactly how she’d reacted when she was giving me a lap dance.
The memory made my jeans too tight.
She started to back up; my hands became a vice. “Wait.”