CHAPTER 3

The evening passed in a blur of townsfolk greetings — Georgia Rae did

make her appearance — beer and bar food. Harper felt slightly buzzed and incredibly exhausted as she stood with Luke watching Sophie lock the front doors. She stifled a yawn. It was 2 a.m., way past her bedtime. And her face was starting to throb again.

“Thanks again for hanging out,” Sophie said, as they crossed the lot. “Have a good night, Soph,” Luke said, opening the car door for her. “You too, big brother. Night, Harper! I hope I’ll see you again.”

Harper waved with her good arm and yawned her good-bye, “Thanks for everything, Sophie.”

“Better get her home before she falls asleep standing up, Luke.”

He tapped the roof of her car and waved as she pulled out. “Ready to go?” he asked Harper.

She nodded, crossing her arms against the spring night’s chill. They

were alone. And they would be for the next several hours. Harper wondered if she would lay awake all night on his couch thinking about him being so near ... and presumably naked. Men like Luke didn’t sleep in pajamas.

“We’re over here,” he said, pointing to a dark gray pickup at the back of the lot. “Need anything out of your car?”

“No, I’m good.” The only thing in her car was her old coffee from the morning.

They started walking together and Harper rubbed her arms. “Cold?” he asked.

She nodded and felt a tingle exactly halfway between comfort and lust ignite as Luke draped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her in. The heat

coming off his body instantly warmed her bare skin and she didn’t resist the urge to snuggle a little closer.

He opened the passenger door for her and she levered herself up and onto the seat trying not to wince as her aching body slid across the leather.

Luke slid into the driver’s seat and started the truck. He pushed a button and Harper instantly felt heat under her ass. Seat warmers! He hung a left out of the parking lot and in just a few minutes they were pulling into the driveway of a tidy brick three-story with a sprawling front porch. Harper blinked through tired eyes. “You live here?”

He glanced out of the windshield at the house. “Yep.”

“I expected something different. Like a bachelor pad apartment. Do you have roommates?” A girlfriend? A wife and four kids?

“Nope. Just me.” He smiled, a quick, heart-tickling grin. “Come on.”

The wide-planked porch was deep, wrapping around to the far side of the house. There was no furniture, but Harper could just imagine a porch swing and hanging baskets blooming with color.

Luke unlocked the front door and held it open for her.

She stepped over the threshold and waited while he flipped on the lights. The foyer opened directly to a wide-banister staircase. A pair of

doorways mirrored each other from opposite walls leading into darkened rooms. Above the dark wainscoting, the walls were covered with ornate wallpaper with roses and hummingbirds.

“You don’t really live here, do you?”

Luke tossed his keys on a skinny table just inside the door. The only piece of furniture visible to Harper. He raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

She trailed a finger over a paper rose. “No reason.” Harper poked her head into the room on the right. From the streetlights outside she could just make out an ornate sofa with wooden arms opposite a flat screen on sawhorses. The rest of the room was empty.

“Did you just move in?”

“Not really.” He looked sheepish. “I’ve been here a couple of years.” “Seriously?”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Where did you get that couch?” She gestured at the carved wooden monstrosity with its lumpy red velour cushions.

“It was my grandmother’s.”

“Oh, thank God. I thought you went flea marketing one day and thought that looked like the perfect place to watch TV evangelists.”

He cracked a smile. “This was my grandmother’s house. I bought it when she passed away.”

“Were you close?”

“As close as you can be to a crazy Italian grandmother who chases you with a wooden spoon. Most of the furniture that’s here is hers.”

“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of it,” Harper observed. “I keep meaning to get more, but I’ve been —”

“Busy,” she finished it for him.

“Anyway, there’s only one bed, so you can take that and I’ll take the couch.”

Horrified, Harper stared at the unwelcoming lines of the couch. “Absolutely not. I’m not putting you out of your own bed.”

“Well, you’re not sleeping on the couch.” “Neither are you,” Harper insisted. “What do you suggest?”

She paused weighing the options. “We are two exhausted adults who probably have a reasonable amount of self-control. Can we both sleep in the bed?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” His hands were out of his pockets now and cruising over the back of his head. He was nervous and Harper thought it was adorable.

“Why not?”

“We don’t know each other and ...” he trailed off and Harper scented victory.

“I think I can trust you can control your hormones and not jump me in the middle of the night,” she teased.

“It’s not my hormones that I’m worried about.”

She smacked him in the chest. The very solid, warm chest. Maybe he had a point.

The only furniture on the second floor was in the master bedroom. A four- poster queen-sized bed dominated one wall opposite an ornately carved dresser.

“Grandma’s?” Harper lightly grasped one of the mahogany posts at the foot of the bed.

Luke nodded, hands back in his pockets.

“It’s nice.” Staring at his bed was suddenly making Harper feel a little shy.

“I can still sleep on the couch if you’d be more comfortable.” He jerked a thumb towards the hallway.

“Don’t be ridiculous. That thing looks like it would put your ass to sleep if you sat down long enough to tie your shoes. We’re adults. This doesn’t

have to be awkward, right?”

Instead of answering, he turned and opened one of the dresser drawers. “Here.” Luke held out a plain white t-shirt. “You can sleep in this.”

It was soft to the touch and obviously well worn. By him. “Thanks.” She took it, careful to only touch the shirt.

“You can change in there,” he gestured towards the connecting bathroom. “I’m going to go lock up.”

“Okay, thanks.” They stared at each other for another minute. “This is awkward, isn’t it?” Harper blurted out.

Luke smiled. “A little.”

“It’s just for one night.” She wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure him or herself.

“Right.”

“And we’re adults.” “It would appear so.”

“We’re just being silly,” Harper reasoned. “It’s just sleep.”

She could see his dimple again. At least he was amused. She nodded finally. “Okay, I’m going to go change.”

In the bathroom, she splashed cold water on her face, careful to gently dry the bruised side. She didn’t even look at the rest of her body. Judging from how sore everything was, it was probably just as purple as her face.

It was a good thing this wasn’t some “first time” with someone like Luke. She wasn’t at her best — maybe even hovering near her worst. And if she was going to have a first time with someone like Luke she’d want it to be perfect.

She rolled her eyes and tugged the t-shirt over her head and down her torso. It was ridiculous to be newly homeless and jobless and more concerned with the what-ifs of imaginary sex with the sculpted captain. She wondered what he looked like in uniform.

“Pull yourself together,” she muttered. “It’s one platonic night of sleep.”

She ran a hand over the cotton and took a moment to be grateful for remembering to wear underwear today.

Harper tugged the neck of the shirt up to her nose and breathed deeply. It smelled like him. And she was about to crawl into a bed that smelled like him ... with him. She hoped she could control herself in her sleep.

She was standing at the foot of the bed, fidgeting, when he came back upstairs.

“Everything okay?” he asked, opening a dresser drawer.

“Oh, yeah. I just didn’t know if you had a side,” she said, playing with the hem of the shirt.

He suddenly seemed very interested in the contents of the drawer. “A side?”

“Of the bed. Do you sleep on a side?”

He glanced back up. “I usually sleep in the middle. So you can take your pick.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Luke grabbed a pair of pajama pants. “I’ll be back.”

As soon as the bathroom door closed, Harper gratefully flopped onto the bed and burrowed under the covers. She would just hug the edge and he wouldn’t even know she was there. No inconvenience at all.

She hoped she wouldn’t snore.

The bathroom door opened. He stood in the doorway in nothing but untied flannel pants that rode low on his hips. Harper wet her lips and tried not to stare at his cut abs. Every visible inch of his torso was carved, muscled, and freaking hot. There was another tattoo, a phoenix, over his heart.

Oh my God. She was going to sleep with that.

No! She was not going to fall down the rabbit hole of crappy life

choices again. She had promised herself that she was turning over a new leaf. Starting fresh, focusing on herself.

Harper was failing at not focusing on Luke’s naked chest. Her fingers itched to trail over the tattoo, across his chest and down those abs to the indecently low waistband. She fisted her naughty-minded hands in the quilt. There was no way she was going to sleep a wink. Not next to that perfect body.

He was staring at her, too, but his eyes weren’t bugging out of his head like hers. Harper thought she heard him sigh. But he moved towards the

bedroom door and wordlessly flipped the light switch.

In the dark, Harper was relieved she had nothing to stare at. Until she felt his weight on the other side of the bed.

He seemed to have the same idea she did, hugging his side. “Good night,” she whispered into the darkness.

“Night.”

“Luke?”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks for letting me stay here.” He sighed. “You’re welcome.”

“I really appreciate it.” “Harper?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up and go to sleep.”