Harper stared out of the vast windows that lined the wall behind her desk. The view was incredible - one of the things that sold her on the office. Every time she looked out those windows she was reminded of how far she’d come. It was also a distraction when she needed one. The sweeping view of Bryant Park was loveliest early in the morning and when the sun set - though now, mid-afternoon, it was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Harper ran her fingers along the edge of the folder in her lap, frowning. She wasn’t happy with the results inside. In fact, she was doing her very best to keep from having a personal vendetta against each and every one of them. She tried to tell herself it was because Ethan Kensley was making her job so very complicated - but that wasn’t exactly it.

As horrible as it was, the idea of him putting his hands on someone else made her uneasy. Even though he wasn’t hers to claim and they barely knew one another. Harper thought that a single night with the man would be enough to let both of them get on with their lives. She was beginning to realize how very wrong she was.

“Nice place you’ve got here.”

Though she thought she’d been prepared for his arrival, Harper whirled in her chair to see him standing in the doorway. It was the first time he’d ever been in her office and she couldn’t help but think he somehow dominated the space. Tall and imposing in the dark suit of his, he somehow eroded everything intricately feminine she’d done with the place.

“Thank you.” Her voice was admirably smooth as she gestured to the chairs before her desk. “Have a seat. Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea?”

“Coffee would be great,” he acquiesced.

She could feel his eyes on her as she rose from her desk to make her way to the coffee maker. Harper found herself taking measured breaths as her heart hammered against her ribs. She would not let this man make her nervous. There was no reason for him to intimidate her any longer. They’d both gotten what they wanted, hadn’t they? Now there was only business.

That, and the almost painful visceral awareness of his eyes on her. The way her skin heated, her cheeks flushed and her thighs pressed against one another in distant memory.

Harper poured his coffee. She knew the way he liked it from the many questions she’d asked him, and when she handed it to him, he arched a brow in surprise. “You remembered. I’m touched.” As his fingers brushed past hers, she fought the urge to jerk backward as if burned.

“When you have to look at the information on a daily basis, it’s hard to forget.”

She sank down in the chair next to him, but didn’t extend the folder in her hand just yet. Truth be told, Harper didn’t think there was anything terribly different from the women she’d submitted to him before. She knew he would be dissatisfied, and in her desperation, she was ready to approach the issue from a new angle. Anything was better than giving him a roster of women to choose from when he was staring at her.

“You stare at me all day? I’m flattered.”

She would not smile. She wouldn’t. “Your picture doesn’t talk as much.”

“Ouch.” Ethan chuckled lowly - and the sound took her back to the very same gesture in the bedroom. Only, back then, he’d been doing it from between her thighs.

Damnit. Damn him.

“Well, Harper, all you have to do is find my one true love and I’ll be out of your hair.” That smirk of his made her simultaneously want to punch and kiss him. He glanced down at the folder on her lap. “Is that this week’s prospects? Let’s have a look.”

When he reached for it, however, Harper found herself holding the folder out of reach. The gesture brought his body dangerously close to hers, and her breath hitched as the heat of him enveloped her. He smelled good enough to eat. “I... I need to speak with you first.”

He was so close he could have kissed her - and that dark gleam in his green eyes told her she wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Alright.” Ethan drew back, only to surprise her by yanking her chair closer by one wooden arm. “Speak to me.”

Harper regained her composure quickly, clearing her throat. “I thought I might be able to find you a better set of matches if I got a few more details about you.”

At that, the light-haired man snorted. “You could write an encyclopedia about me at this point, Harper. What more is there to know?”

“What happened before the billionaire?” Harper cut him off before he could gain the upper hand. “What about your childhood? How you grew up?”

The change in Ethan was instantaneous. His easy smile disappeared and his shoulders stiffened. He released the arm of Harper’s chair and drew back into himself; it was jarring because it was the last thing Harper had expected.

“What does my past have to do with any of this?”

Harper realized instantly that she had touched something forbidden. She’d never seen Ethan without his alluring smile. He looked somehow naked in its absence.

“Nothing yet.” She continued carefully, her eyes never leaving his suddenly sullen expression. “But I was hoping that a discussion might lead to some more palatable choices for you.”

“I’m certain,” Ethan interjected, his tone firm, “That no one would be interested in any of that.”

“You’d be surprised.” Harper kept her smile soft, her position prim. It was obvious that she had somehow stumbled upon one of those secrets Ethan liked to keep hidden. Was it so wrong that she liked catching him off guard?

He’d certainly done it to her enough. “I just want to make sure we are exploring all avenues here. There are matches in this folder.” She tapped the manila where it laid on her lap. “But why waste your time if we can come up with better options?”

“No.” Ethan was out of the chair in an instant, raking his hands through his hair as he turned from her to stalk away, every muscle in his body tense. Harper watched him, fascinated by the change she saw. The easygoing Ethan Kensley of the tabloids had utterly disappeared and in his place was... a stranger.

“No?” Harper echoed, surprised. “But you could be turning down the opportunity to-”

“No, Harper.”

She had risen to follow him, but now Harper inhaled sharply as Ethan turned on her, backing her against the edge of her desk. She dropped the folder and the papers slid messily over the carpet - an amalgamation of pictures and information that had taken her all night to collect. Harper might have been angry if it weren’t for the way he was looking at her - all at once furious and incredibly vulnerable.

She found herself drawn back up against the desk, her breath caught in her throat. She should have told him the information didn’t matter. That she would find another way. But when he looked at her like that, Harper found that she desperately wanted to know what had put that expression on his face.

Who had hurt him.

“Ethan, I-”

But she didn’t have time to say anything. The next thing she knew, Ethan’s mouth was on hers and she had forgotten that she even had the power of speech.

She told herself that it would never happen again - that once was all she needed and that business would take precedence. In that moment, Harper knew that she had lied to herself.

Blatantly lied.

His mouth covered hers - hard and desperate, and Harper tasted the sweetness of coffee and something darker - something bitter, masculine and completely intoxicating. She found her fingers threading his hair as she pulled him closer - as she wrapped a leg around his waist when she should have been shoving him away.

Ethan growled - low and needful - against her mouth, and she felt her entire body clench in response. Had she ever really thought she could get away with never feeling this again? She must have been out of her mind.

He was just as solid as she remembered - the slide of his body was just as magnificent - and when she felt the hard jut of his erection against her stomach, a low moan escaped her.

By this point, Harper had forgotten all about the documents scattered on the floor. When Ethan’s hands slid beneath her, hefting her onto her desk, sending more papers flying, she hardly noticed. She was too busy reveling in the feel of his mouth on hers - trying to get as close to him as humanly possible.

He shoved the jacket she wore from her shoulders to pool around her wrists as his mouth dropped to her neck, and Harper inhaled sharply, her fingers tightening at his nape. He had hardly even touched her, and her panties were completely ruined. When his hands slid up her thighs, hiking her skirt up to the point of no return, Harper squirmed slightly. “Ethan!’ Her plea came low and urgent. “There’s an entire fucking wall of windows, for God’s sake!”

“Don’t care.” Ethan’s snarl came low against her collarbone and Harper shuddered as his finger found the soft, wet heat between her legs. “Christ, Harper…. you’re so wet for me.”

She did care - or at least that’s what Harper tried to tell herself as two fingers slid inside her. A low, desirous moan spilled from her lips as she arched into Ethan’s invasion, her body all but thrumming in bliss. She tried to tell herself that anyone could be looking in from the offices across the street - from buildings halfway down the block - and her sensibilities struggled against the pleasure that lanced through her with every deft slide of Ethan’s fingers.

She had no idea how he managed to find and exploit that spot inside her the way he did, but he was making it almost impossible to think straight. “Ethan…” Her breath hitched on a shuddering sigh that made him growl. “I... please, not here…”

“Then where?” He kissed her, and Harper couldn’t decide which was more divine - the slide of his fingers within her or his hungry mouth on hers. “I want you here and now, Harper. And I’m not a patient man.”

She was desperately tempted to let him have her right there on her desk, but for all the things Harper was, she was not an exhibitionist. She valued her career too much. 

Somehow, she managed to stay his hand. No easy feat when she wanted nothing more than to writhe against him. “Ethan... stop. Stop…” It was more of a breathless gasp than a plea, so she was lucky when the man paused for a hairsbreadth of a second. “Bathroom…” she managed. “There’s a bathroom…”

Ethan cursed lowly, indecision gleaming in his eyes for a moment before he reluctantly released her. Slick fingers slid down her thighs and he exhaled hotly against her neck before straightening. “Alright.”

Despite the lust gleaming in his eyes, he sounded almost civil. At least until he raised the fingers he’d just used on her to his mouth to suck them clean. “Lead the way.”

Harper almost fell off her desk as she scrabbled to her feet. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered that this was supposed to be a business meeting. That she’d brought the man to the sanctity of her office particularly so this type of hanky panky wouldn’t happen - and here she was. Leading him to her plushily appointed bathroom with her skirt still hiked high around her hips.

As if she could have resisted.

Harper had always been thankful for the luxury of a spacious bathroom. When she began renting her office space, she’d gotten permission to have it redone. The entire affair was covered in pink and gold marble with new fixtures, and she often got ready there when she left the apartment in a hurry in the mornings.

But now, Ethan was backing her against the opposite wall, his gaze predatory. “This lighting suits you, Harper.”

A clever comment stuck in the back of her throat as the man undid his tie. No one had the right to look that sexy undoing a goddamned tie. When Ethan wrapped the edges of the silk around his wrists, she wanted simultaneously to flee the bathroom and to prostrate herself on the marble floor before him. “Hold your hands out.”

The blonde’s eyes widened. “Ethan, you can’t tie me up here-”

“Hands,” he growled brusquely, his tone brooking absolutely no argument. When Harper held them out, they were slightly unsteady. If Ethan noticed, he said nothing, merely enclosing her wrists in the silk material. As he did so, the thin strap of her camisole slipped down a shoulder and Ethan glanced at it hungrily.

Harper found herself glad she’d left her jacket back in the office.

Ethan didn’t tie her too tightly - just enough so that she couldn’t separate her wrists - before his mouth was on hers again, his fingers sliding through her hair. They slid down her body brusquely - over her shoulders and to her waist before he jerked at the zipper of her skirt. In mere seconds, the cloth was pooled around her ankles, and Harper was left in only her panties, camisole and high heels.

Ethan paused for a moment - just a moment - to let his eyes roam her from head to foot. It was the last opportunity Harper might have had to flee - and she was far too absorbed with the man staring at her to take advantage of it. 

Then, he was turning her, pressing her against the wall. Harper’s bound hands were trapped between her stomach and the smooth marble as Ethan’s ran down her bare legs; he went slowly, from the curve of her behind down her thigh, then lower, to the curve of her calf. “I’ve dreamed about these legs wrapped around me, Harper.”

Her knees went weak at his admission - and then her breath hitched as Ethan’s lips replaced his hands. He trailed hungry, lingering kisses up the trail he’d just descended, shocking Harper with how sensitive she was in places she had never considered. The backs of her knees, the place where buttock became thigh, the slender jut of her hip bone… “And you know what else I’ve dreamed of?”

Harper shuddered as she struggled to find her voice. “I’m...sure you’re going to tell me.”

Her cheek was rewarded with a sharp swat across her hip that made her gasp. “You and that mouth, Harper.” As he kneeled on the bathroom floor behind her, with his mouth was so close to the most tender parts of her that Harper felt every word he spoke. “The bane of my existence.”

When she attempted to straighten, Ethan’s hands pinned her hips right back to the wall.  “Stay right there, sweet. Right there.”

This was insane. This was her office. She should be making the rules - not pressed helpless against her own bathroom wall, dying for Ethan to touch her.

But she was - Harper was a slave to her own desires.

And there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

 

**

He needed to forget - and for Ethan, there was no better medicine to soothe his tainted soul than a woman.

But not just any woman. Harper Jones was in his blood - and it had to be her.

The last thing he had expected was for her to take another angle in this matchmaking process - to try and turn the tables when it was obvious that her patented methodology was failing her. When she asked him about his past, Ethan found himself torn between two extremes. He wanted to leave her office - to end the strange dance between them before she found out more than he was comfortable with; even as he wanted her to soothe him. He wanted to be inside her until he forgot his demons - until the warmth of her body burned them away.

In a way, it made sense that his carnal instincts won out. She was right there in front of him - with those rosy lips, that hair and that superior smile. She thought she had him.

Ethan knew he had to prove otherwise.

And now that she was hedged up against the bathroom wall, he moved in front of her, still on his knees so that his head fell between her thighs, with only the thin barrier of her underwear between him and a succulent treat. When he tugged the thin lace aside with dexterous fingers, Harper’s breath stuttered. When his mouth closed over her, she rose onto her toes in a frantic bid to get away that had him chuckling against her.

Ethan jerked her back down onto the flats of her feet - groaning at her taste against his tongue. This. This was what he’d craved. He could never get enough of the memory of Harper writhing on his tongue the first time. He could, he realized, very happily spend the rest of eternity between her thighs, listening to those soft, desperate sounds she made for him.

He would have liked her in his bed, but this would have to do. He could make her come apart just as easily here.

And in doing so, he wouldn’t have to think about the past.

She was already soaking for him - that much he knew from touching her earlier. Tasting that sweetness was complete and utter nirvana. From the first touch of his tongue against the most intimate parts of her, she was gasping, whimpering... moaning... that normally snide mouth of hers rendered completely useless.

Ethan pressed his mouth flush against her, drinking up every reaction. The way her thighs trembled - the way she grew even more slick against his lips and the way her toes curled. A dark, indulgent groan escaped him as his tongue slid into her - just the tip among her eager, clenching muscles.

“Ethan!”

That single, ragged word was music to his ears. “Ethan, God...just…” In reply, he merely gripped that lovely behind of hers hard enough to leave marks, merely pulling her even flusher against his searching tongue. Harper squirmed restlessly - helplessly - as his mouth plied her - licking and kissing just where he knew she liked it most. He didn’t think he could ever forget - not when she shivered so deliciously.

When he fastened onto her clit, suckling powerfully, a soft cry escaped her. Her legs might have buckled if he hadn’t been holding onto her, but Ethan held her up easily as she trembled, tasting her orgasm against his tongue.

In the aftermath, her forehead fell against the marble wall as she struggled to breathe. She was all but sitting on his shoulders by that juncture, and he hardly minded. But when he breathed against the over-sensitized flesh against his mouth, she jolted.

He had to resist the urge to taste her all over again, instead having mercy on her. Ethan shifted slightly so Harper’s still panting form slid down his front and they both sat on the floor with her straddling his lap. Her face was flushed, her eyes glassy, her wrists slightly irritated from her attempts to free herself.

He liked Harper all tied up - with that half-content, half surprised look on her face, as if she hadn’t ever known such pleasure existed. He kissed her - deep and needful - so she could taste herself on his lips. “Still in there, Harper?”

That was all it took. Ethan had long found that Harper Jones responded quickly to jibes - even in the wake of a mind-bending orgasm.

“Untie me,” she demanded immediately, pressing against his chest. Her eyes had once more taken on that dominant gleam - the one he so loved to challenge.

Ethan merely chuckled, wrapping his hands into her soft thighs to lift her as he stood from the floor. Harper had no choice but to throw her bound arms around his neck if she didn’t want to lose her balance. Once she did so, he carried her effortlessly over to the sink to set her on its edge before undoing the button and zipper of his slacks. This was much more harried than he might have liked. He wanted a big bed and an entire afternoon with her to himself.

But right now, he needed to be inside of her.

“Ethan…” Harper repeated, more insistently this time. “Untie me, or so help me God-”

Her protestations were cut off when he pushed inside of her in one smooth thrust that stole her breath. Harper cried out, immediately clinging to him as she arched against his body in a frantic attempt to have him deeper.

“Harper.” God, he needed this. And not just to dull the past that haunted him but because it seemed like an eternity since she had last been surrounding him - making him lose his mind. Ethan’s fingers curled into her thighs as he withdrew, only to bury himself within her again almost mindlessly. She was so soft... so hot... and those little panting noises she made as he penetrated her again and again... Jesus, they were going to be his undoing.

He watched her in the mirror behind them - the way her back dimpled. The way her muscles tensed as she clung to him and the way he clung just as tightly to her.

She was nirvana. Pure, unadulterated nirvana.

Ethan didn’t last long. How could he? Harper was so enticing, so tight and glorious around him that he found himself teetering on the edge embarrassingly quickly. Thankfully for him, the blonde goddess in his arms was already over sensitized from her prior orgasm. When he was on the cusp of coming apart, she shuddered against him, moaning his name almost deliriously as she found her second peak.

When she clamped down around him, squeezing him like a vise, Ethan groaned - deep, loud and long. He buried his face in Harper’s shoulder as he came in a long, heated gush that made her shudder, and him forget where the hell he was.

Fuck.

Perhaps it might have been a fluke once, but twice? Despite Ethan’s overt fondness for the sensual, his connection with Harper was enough to make even his head spin. She was stubborn, strong and independent - but there was also a vulnerable side to her. One he wanted to see more of.

Long moments passed before either of them came down from their high. Harper lifted her hands haphazardly from around his neck, raising her gray eyes to his. He thought she might slap him - he certainly deserved it after that little escapade. Instead, she merely looked over his face, as if searching for something.

It was an oddly intimate moment - him leaned against the counter, still inside her, as she stared at him. Ethan found himself arching a brow as he remembered how to breathe. “You’re not going to get me for that one?”

Harper merely held her bound hands up before him. “Untie me, please.” Her voice was husky from her moans and Ethan couldn’t help the way he twitched at the sound of it. Slowly, he pulled from her, relishing the way she inhaled sharply. Once he’d tucked himself away, he undid his tie - much as he was loathed to give up having her bound and at his mercy.

The blonde rubbed her wrists gingerly before gesturing to the floor behind him. “Skirt, please.”

Fuck, this was unnerving. Ethan would almost rather she slap him - that she yell at him, rail - do something. That calm was making him uneasy, despite the earth-shattering orgasm he’d just experienced.

No small feat.

He retrieved her skirt before handing it to her. It was almost as sexy to watch her sliding it up her thighs as it had been to take it off her. Once Harper was zipped and proper, she ran a hand through her blonde hair before raising her gaze to his once more. “Maybe you can think a little straighter now, with that out of your system?”

At her question, Ethan couldn’t help but laugh - bitter and amused all at the same time.  “If you think you’re out of my system, sweet, you’re dead wrong.”

His words seemed to surprise her. The emotion flickered through her gaze so quickly he might have imagined it - but Ethan didn’t think he had. “Ethan, we had a deal. Once and then you cooperate with me.”

“And you honestly want to tell me that once was enough for you? That would make us both horrible liars, Harper.” He couldn’t believe they were having this discussion. He didn’t think he’d ever had this discussion with a woman.

Harper didn’t answer him immediately. She straightened from where she’d been leaning against the counter and advanced on him until they were mere inches apart. The smell of her perfume - and her sex - wafted around him headily. Reaching up, the blonde cupped his face, drawing his mouth down to hers to kiss him slowly - so sensuously that Ethan found himself all but clamoring for her again.

But that wasn’t what Harper wanted. She withdrew shortly, and when he met her gaze again, he found the same searching look she had given him before. “What are you hiding, Ethan?”

He felt his stomach tighten. Harper had told him that she wanted the information for a match, and even then, the idea of talking to her about his past was beyond repugnant. But now, Harper wasn’t talking about matches. At least, he didn’t think she was.

“I thought we agreed that part of my allure was my secrets,” he murmured lowly against her mouth. Harper let him kiss her - but she didn’t let him disrupt her focus.

“Ethan... I want to help you. I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.” He hadn’t come here to talk - Ethan realized that now. He’d known that Harper meant to foist more matches on him - that she would expect him to have a civilized discussion. From the moment he entered her office, however, all he could think of was having her.

Of course, her interrogation had turned that desire into a pressing, immediate need. Anything but talking.

“If you want to talk... tell me about you.” It was a classic misdirect, but it wasn’t a wholly unfounded request. All Harper’s energies had been going towards pawning him off on someone else. He’d told her almost everything about himself - and he knew virtually nothing of her.

Ethan expected her to flat-out refuse. After all, they hadn’t even really agreed to this second little romp. If anything, he owed her.

But Harper merely sighed. “Fine.” Slipping from his arms, she moved past him towards the bathroom door. “But I’m not telling you my life story in the goddamned bathroom. Come on.”

For a long moment after she left, Ethan stared after her, absolutely flummoxed. It took him a moment to realize that he was supposed to follow her; but once he did, he slipped quickly from the bathroom and found her organizing the papers strewn about her desk - the ones they knocked off before she had convinced him to shy away from exhibitionism.

He watched her bend to sweep the papers from the floor before stacking them neatly on her desk - a simple, completely casual motion that still managed to get him hot under the collar. But then, everything about Harper got him hot under the collar. 

By the time she took a seat at her desk, Ethan somehow managed to get a hold of himself. He couldn’t help but think, however, that Harper looked amazingly unruffled for a woman who had just been thoroughly ravished. The only tell-tale signs were her missing jacket and her kiss-swollen lips.

“I just hope you know that if I’m telling you my story, I fully expect yours in return.” As if Ethan could do anything but nod in the face of that piercing stare of hers. With a sigh, Harper raked a hand through her blonde locks. She appeared to hesitate for just a moment before she finally began speaking. “I guess the meat of the matter is the most important, right? Why I do what I do. It’s nothing super surprising, I guess.” She leaned back in her chair - and in that moment, her gaze was far away. “I’ve never really seen a well-functioning relationship. By the time my parents had my sister - your brother’s assistant -  and I, they weren’t very fond of one another.”

The connection - which Ethan had only made faintly in the back of his mind - was brought forth immediately. “Athena Jones. The dark-haired little waif... she’s your sister?”

Harper immediately scowled. “She’s not a waif.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Ethan hid a smile. This was supposed to be a serious conversation, but he found it interesting how much he’d learned about Harper in the few sentences she’d spoken. It was obvious that she felt like her sister’s guardian - it was evident in the way she talked about her.

And the pointed look she gave him when she mentioned Toshiro - almost as if in warning. “Sorry. I just... you look nothing alike.”

Harper smirked. “That’s the trick. No one sees me coming when they do her dirty.”  Ethan didn’t doubt it for a moment. If Harper was savage enough to trade her body for his cooperation, he didn’t think she’d hesitate to poison someone who wronged her little sister.

Which didn’t bode well for Toshiro. “Well, I assure you, Shiro’s a gentleman. There will be no dirty-doing on that front.” At least, he hoped not. Shiro could be unpredictable when it came to women. If anyone would know about his current situation, it would be Vlad, not Ethan.  In truth, he was relieved that he wasn’t privy to the knowledge. Harper might try to castrate him. “Weren’t we talking about your parents?”

Thankfully, that was enough to get them back on the subject at hand. “We were. They divorced when I was about twelve - but they were nasty to each other plenty before that. I was pretty sure at that point that being in love was synonymous with verbal abuse.” Harper made a face that Ethan hadn’t ever seen a woman make when talking about affection.

It was something dangerously close to disgust. “Whatever it was, I knew I didn’t want it. I’ve never been into the idea of lovey-dovey - and in college, I wanted to prove that love was more formulaic than psychological.”

“So, you came up with your system.” Ethan finished for her, his smile bemused. “And it worked.”

“Still working.” Harper came back with a smug smile. “But don’t talk to Athena about it. According to her, I’m bastardizing the idea of love.” 

“No, you’re quantifying it.” Ethan replied, somewhere between fascinated and bemused at the way Harper’s brain worked. “Making it into a profession.”

“Well, I’m glad, at least, that we can see eye to eye on that.” When Harper smiled, there was no ice in the gesture. It was genuine and warm, and Ethan felt his gut clench. How many other men had she smiled at like that? In that instant, he was jealous of them all. “So, now that I’ve divulged my sob story, it’s your turn, Mr. Kensley.”

Ethan immediately stiffened. He should have known things were coming to this, but he’d somehow had faith that he might be able to steer the conversation in another direction.

Harper was amazingly single-minded - and it was both attractive and terrifying.

Ethan eyed her from across the expanse of her desk and knew there was no getting out of this one. He also knew that this had gone a little beyond matchmaking. He didn’t see any way that divulging his stereotypically tragic childhood would open up the path to any woman more intriguing than the one sitting right in front of him.

He opened his mouth to speak - just as his phone buzzed in his pocket.

It was audible enough for both of them to hear, and Harper arched a brow in immediate skepticism. But Ethan wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He answered the phone quickly. “Ethan Kensley.”

“Ethan, thank fucking God.” At Alistair’s exasperated tone, Ethan glanced at the phone. He hadn’t. “I need you down here, ASAP.”

“Whoa, what?” He hadn’t even heard from the man for weeks. Of course, he knew where he was - what project he was working on. As the head of accounting, that was just business. But Alistair hadn’t sent him anything that might lead him to believe he needed him.

“Don’t ‘whoa what’ me,” Alistair snapped back almost immediately. “I’m telling you I need you. Vlad’s off to Russia soon and he’d probably tell me to fuck off anyway. Come to Texas.”

Well this was sudden as hell. Ethan glanced up to see if Harper was listening to this conversation with as much intensity as he was. The blonde was, in fact, watching with an amused smirk on her face - amused and entirely too knowing. “I’m kind of in the middle of a meeting right now, Alistair.”

“Well then, step out. This shite is insane and I need you.”

Fuck.

Ethan met Harper’s gaze. He knew that just about the only thing he could do to surprise her at this juncture was to stay and give her the information she’d requested. But that would mean calling Alistair back, and he sounded pissed as hell.

His brother was his way out, but Ethan had to admit that he felt like an ass as he rose from the chair to address her. “I need to go...”

“Of course you do.” She raised a hand to crook her fingers at him in dismissal and it was almost enough for Ethan to hang up the phone.

Almost.

If there was ever any small bit of coward in him, Harper managed to find and exploit it. Ethan grabbed his jacket and fled her office, wondering what the hell she must be thinking of him.