8
Norah opened her eyes and stretched. It felt as if she had slept for days, but as she checked the alarm clock on the bedside table, she saw it was only seven in the morning. The room was dark, the shutters blocking out most of the light. A few rays managed to sneak past their defenses and they shone on the still-sleeping Harley.
Norah snuck a peak at him. Damn, he was gorgeous. She couldn’t remember coming in the room last night, so he must have carried her. And he had stayed with her all night. She smiled. She had never slept in the same bed as a man before. Even though she hadn’t fallen asleep with him next to her, she felt as if she slept more soundly with him there.
Norah stretched and crept from the room in search of coffee. After she had fixed a fresh pot, she turned to the fridge and cabinets to see what she could make for breakfast. It was her favorite meal to cook, and she was ecstatic to find everything she was going to need in order to put together a nice pancake breakfast.
Norah preheated the oven and then prepped the batter. She lined a cookie sheet with some tin foil and placed the strips of bacon on it. Once it was ready, she slid it into the oven and started cooking the pancakes.
As she cooked, Norah didn’t think about what was going on in her world at the moment. She let her mind escape and thought only of the task at hand. Cooking had always been a way for her to release any stress, and as she poured the batter and flipped the pancakes, it worked just as it always had.
HARLEY WOKE TO find an empty space where Norah had been. The momentary panic was quickly replaced with hunger when he smelled the food cooking in the kitchen. He stood for a moment, stunned as he watched her cook. She was in her own world and hadn’t even noticed him watching her.
She smiled and sang quietly to herself while she danced around the kitchen to the music that was in her head. He was struck with another type of panic, one that was caused by his reaction to seeing her.
How was he supposed to combat this?
She finally saw him and jumped slightly. “Harley!” She put her hand to her chest. “You scared me!”
“Sorry.” He smiled, although his insides were having a full-on panic attack. “Breakfast smells amazing.”
“Thanks. It’s my favorite meal to cook and eat.” She turned back to the stove and flipped the pancakes that were cooking.
“Coffee is fresh. Grab some and have a seat.”
“Thanks.” He did as he was told, both excited and nervous at the chance to watch her again.
She bent and pulled a pan of delicious-smelling bacon from the oven, and Harley’s mouth watered.
“I’ve never seen it cooked in the oven before.”
“Really? It’s pretty much the only way I cook it. It comes out so crispy and makes much less of a mess without the popping grease from the pan.”
Norah spooned some scrambled eggs onto a plate along with four pieces of the bacon and placed it in front of him. Then she went to work setting the table with silverware, a huge platter of pancakes, syrup, butter, and, to his surprise, peanut butter.
“Peanut butter?”
“It’s so delicious on pancakes.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” He smiled, said grace, and then started eating. The eggs were cooked to fluffy perfection, and the bacon was crispy and loaded with flavor. “Norah, this is possibly the best breakfast I have ever had.”
“Thanks.” She grinned. “Like I said, it’s my favorite meal, and a lot of times I would eat it for dinner.”
“Nothing like a good brinner every now and then.”
Norah let out an unguarded laugh, and the sound was music to Harley’s ears. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard breakfast for dinner referred to that way, but I like it.”
Harley watched as she pulled a pancake onto her plate and smothered it with butter and peanut butter. After a generous coating of both and topped with syrup, Norah cut a piece and ate it. She closed her eyes, and Harley studied her.
“That good, huh?”
“You should try it. It’s amazing.”
Harley did just that and was surprised when it indeed tasted amazing. “Damn, that is good.”
“Told you,” she bragged. “So, what’s our first step?”
“Towards?”
“Taking down Tom and anyone else involved in Clayton’s organization.”
He eyed her. She had somehow made him forget that they had to do something. Harley cursed at himself. Stay focused, dammit. “I don’t have any of my files from the original case; those are all back at Hewitt and Hewitt. So I’m going to start by writing down everything I remember and then going back over it.”
“I can help. Maybe I know something you don’t,” she suggested.
“Maybe.” He doubted it, though. He had spent damn near every moment of the last two years tracking Matthews’s movements. “We need to find something solid on Tom, so at some point we are going to have to track him down.” Her face paled noticeably, and he reached across the table and touched her hand gently. “Only observation at first, and you don’t even need to go with me.”
“Yes, I do. I don’t want to be anywhere where you’re not.” She blushed. “You make me feel safe, Harley.”
And I don’t want you anywhere near the danger. You’re a distraction. “All right.” He sat back on his chair. They could cross that bridge when they came to it.
“Look at this collection!” NORAH grinned madly as she gripped a movie case in between her hands.
“What about it?”
“Can we watch this one?” She held up the latest in a line of superhero movies.
“Sure.” They had spent the better part of the day putting together notes, and they still had practically nothing. “At this point, I’ll welcome that type of distraction.”
She put the disk in the DVD player and Harley grabbed the remote off the coffee table.
“Gerry seemed to pick out some pretty awesome movies,” Norah commented as Harley booted up the system.
“I’m glad. I had planned to be holed up here for a while, so I suppose he thought I would need some entertainment.”
“I love movies, and the ones with superheroes just so happen to be my favorite.”
Harley stared at her. She was beautiful and into superheroes? Why did fate keep making her more attractive? She certainly didn’t need the help! “You’re into superheroes?”
“Who isn’t? I haven’t read all the comics, so I can’t say I’ve been a diehard fan since the beginning, but ever since they started making these movies, I’ve been hooked.” She glanced at him. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
Harley looked away. “Just surprised, is all.” He looked back, “Though I suppose most women like his biceps.”
Norah rolled her eyes. “They are nice, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not the reason this one’s my favorite.”
“Then why is he your favorite?”
“He's kind and selfless, the way every superhero should be.”
“Uh huh.”
Norah pulled her legs up under her and grabbed the throw off the back of the couch.
“Are you cold? I can turn up the heat.”
“No, that’s all right.” She smiled. “I like being cozy, so I almost always have a blanket on me when I’m relaxing.”
Harley focused his attention back on the TV as the opening credits started to roll. She was an enigma to him. As soon as he thought he had her figured out, another part of her revealed itself.
WHEN THE MOVIE was over, Norah stood and stretched. “See? Coolest superhero ever.”
“I’m still partial to the first movie.”
Norah waved her hand. “Ummm no. This one had tons more action than that one did!”
Harley smiled and stood. “I’ll go see what I can toss together for dinner, since you took care of breakfast and lunch.”
“Harley, I like to cook.”
“It just so happens I do also.”
“Well then, I will go and grab a shower.”
Once in the bathroom, Norah stared at herself in the mirror. The yellow bruise on her cheekbone was almost completely gone. Clayton would never hit her again. She would never have to take extra care applying her makeup to conceal a bruise.
She smiled. As soon as this was all over she was going to start her life again. This time, she wouldn’t allow herself to fall victim to anyone. She was her own person, and she would make sure she took care of things on her own.
No more rules. No more pretending to be someone she wasn’t. She would work as hard as she needed to, and then she would go to school. She would become a social worker, and dammit, she would live her life how she wanted to.
Norah undressed and climbed into the shower.
When she emerged from the shower fifteen relaxing minutes later, she could already smell the food Harley was preparing.
“That smells delicious,” she said as she walked in to see Harley standing in front of the stove.
“Spaghetti.”
“One of my favorites.”
“Really?” he asked, turning slightly to offer her a smile. “One of mine too.”
“Look at that, we have something other than near-death experiences in common.” Her attempt at a crappy joke was met with a half-smile.
“Will you grab some plates down?”
“Sure.” Norah walked over to the cabinet and pulled down two red plates. Then she grabbed some silverware and continued setting the table. “I don’t suppose Gerry stocked some wine anywhere?” she asked hopefully.
“There’s a small portion of the cellar he insisted on stocking with some bottles. Come stir this sauce and I’ll go grab one.” She reached for the spoon he was using and took over, gently stirring.
After disappearing for a few minutes, Harley returned carrying two bottles of red wine. Her mouth practically watered at the sight of them.
“Want a glass now?”
“Yes, please,” she said in a mock begging tone, and continued to stir gently.
He poured two glasses and then reached across her to turn the stove off. “Have a seat.”
“I can make my own plate, Harley.”
“I’ve got it. I cooked it, I get to serve it.”
She did as she was told and gratefully took the wine glass he handed to her. She took a long sip and nearly moaned with relief when it hit her tongue. Oh, how she loved wine.
“Here you go,” he said as he set a bowl in front of her and then took a seat across from her.
“Thanks for dinner.”
“You’re welcome.”
“This is delicious!” she said around a mouthful.
“I’m glad you like it.” He laughed. “My mom would make it for me every year on my birthday—still does, in fact.”
“That’s so great. Where is she now?” Norah asked, and saw his eyes light up.
“She lives in Texas now. Wanted to get away from Seattle and had always loved the idea of the Lone Star State.”
“You didn’t want to go with her?”
“I was already working for Tom, and I didn’t want to let him down. Ironic, isn’t it?” he said, disgusted.
She couldn’t help it. She reached over and gently touched his hand before taking another drink of wine.
“So why did your mom name you Harley?” she asked him.
“It was my dad’s idea.” Harley laughed. “Mom always told me she lost a bet and dad got to name me after his favorite motorcycle.”
“That’s awesome.” Norah laughed and took another bite of her spaghetti.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“What’s your story?”
“I assumed you knew most of it, since you had a file and all.” She didn’t mean it to come out sharp, but judging by his face, that’s how he took it. “It was a joke, Harley. My parents weren’t around much once I could start caring for myself. I guess I was about seven when they left me alone for the first time. I was alone for about three days at first, and then the lengths of time began to grow. Once they were gone for a month, came back for a day, and then left again. Eventually they stopped coming back.”
“I’m sorry, Norah.”
She shrugged. “It is what it is. We lived in an apartment, so eventually the landlord came calling for rent. I didn’t have any money, so I packed some things and left. Stayed at my friends’ houses for sleepovers every once in a while and then eventually stuck to shelters. I stayed in school and graduated, and after getting a job at a diner, I got my own apartment.
“I still wanted to help, so I spent my free time helping in the shelters I had lived in. Eventually I began throwing benefits for them. That’s how I met Clayton. You probably don’t want to hear about that part, though.”
“Tell me, I’m curious.”
“All right.” She sighed. “Clayton was smart, charming, and from what I believed then, he was a charitable man. He asked me out, and all I can remember thinking was, wow, this wonderful man is interested in me. I didn’t think much of myself, so the fact that he was looking in my direction meant everything.” She took her last bite and pushed her bowl away to take another drink of wine. “I thought it was strange that he never seemed to want to, you know, take our relationship to the next level. Physically, so to speak, but when I asked him he told me it was because he had wanted to be married first. Naturally, I thought that was honorable, so it placated me at first. He proposed, I accepted, and shortly after that is when I started to see who he really was.”
“Why didn’t you leave?”
She hesitated for a moment. She had given that a lot of thought over the last year. “I was afraid. He had a lot of pull in the shelters and other charities throughout the city, and I was afraid that he would stop donating if I left as a way to punish me. He knew how much helping people meant to me.”
“So you stayed and was beaten because you were afraid the punishment for leaving would fall on innocent lives that were already suffering enough.”
“Yes and no. He hadn’t hit me yet, so there was no abuse as of then. I fear I stayed for selfish reasons as well. I didn’t have to worry about money, I was able to live a life I had never dreamed of before.”
“I doubt it was the more selfish reasons that were the main reason behind it, though.”
“They weren’t,” she admitted. “I found out about a month after his proposal that he had been sleeping around. Probably had been since the day I met him.”
Harley shook his head. Why in the hell would anyone not want to be with the woman sitting before him was beyond him. “Fucking idiot,” he said out loud without meaning to. “Sorry,” he said, and took a drink of his wine.
“It’s okay. He was an idiot.”
“How did you find out?” Harley wondered.
“Walked in on him. He had some redhead bent over his desk in his office. You know, the son of a bitch didn’t even stop when I walked in, and the woman looked at me and smiled. She knew who I was, that we were engaged, and it didn’t bother her at all.”
Harley had no words. What kind of asshole screwed around on his fiancée and continued literally screwing when she walked in?
“I was going to leave, and he had his guards hold me in the other room while he finished. That’s the night he hit me for the first time. He gave me a black eye.” She rolled her eyes. “I was so stupid for staying with him as long as I did.”
“I can’t disagree there,” Harley said with a smile, hoping it would cheer her up. “But you did it for good reasons.”
“I suppose.” She smiled back. “It’s all behind me now. As soon as this nightmare is over I am going to go to college. I want to be a social worker.”
“You’ll be a great one.” He nodded and stood to clear the table. When she stood, he set the dishes on the counter and turned to her. “You deserve so much better, Norah,” he said, and stroked her face. She reached out and gently grabbed his arm, holding it to her cheek.
It felt so good to be treated this way. To have a hand on her in kindness rather than in anger. She wondered what his lightly calloused hands might feel like on other parts of her body.
She bit her bottom lip and looked up at him through her lashes. If he kissed her now, she would not stop him, and she found herself wishing he would.
Just as she thought he might do it, he dropped his hand and turned to the sink.
She cleared her throat. “I can do the dishes. You cooked.”
“I can do it.”
“Please let me do it, Harley. Go get a shower. Trust me, you’ll feel amazing afterwards.” She smiled and watched as he left the room.
HARLEY LET THE hot water beat on his back. She had bit her lip. Oh, he had wanted to bite it for her—gently, of course. As he pressed her back against the counter and showed her exactly how beautiful she was. Let her see what she did to him.
He was more than willing to do what Matthews had refused to do all those years. He scolded himself. She was vulnerable right now, she had just gotten done telling him what that asshole had done to her and everything she had been through and he rejected her again.
He wasn’t an idiot. He knew she had wanted him to kiss her. He had seen it in her eyes that she was more than interested. Damn, he was as well, so just what was he going to do about it?
“Shit,” he said, and shut the water off.
NORAH DIDN’T CARE to admit it, but the fact that he hadn’t kissed her had stung. She had spent the last two years being rejected by Clayton, and although she knew Harley wasn’t the same man, a small voice in her head was telling her she wasn’t worth it.
What am I feeling? she asked herself as she washed their plates and set them in the drying tray. Could it all be due to what they had gone through together? The fact that he had saved her life, maybe? Or was it more? Who was she kidding, of course it was more. She braced her hands on either side of the sink and took a deep breath.
If he wasn’t interested in her, then that was just fine. She understood. Maybe he didn’t want to complicate things further by getting involved. Too damn bad. They were going to talk about it. Who knew how much time they had left with everything else going on around them?
Norah turned when she heard Harley come back into the room. She felt her mouth go dry when she looked at him. He was shirtless, and the basketball shorts he wore hung low on a trim waist. His muscles were hard, and a light dusting of hair coated his chest. The look on his face was primal, and it furthered the intensity of the heat she was feeling.
Without saying a word, he strode across the kitchen, and before she knew it his hand was cupping her chin, the other buried in her hair and his mouth was on hers.
The second his lips touched hers, her body switched on. She felt as if she had been living in the dark her entire adulthood, and somebody finally flipped on the freaking light.
His mouth has hard on hers, and she gripped his shoulders like he was a lifeline. She opened and he took what she had to offer.
She wrapped her arms around him and he lifted her onto the counter. She could feel his arousal pressing into her, and her body instantly readied for him. It had been years since she had been with a man. And even then, it had been her boyfriend of six months, and he had barely gotten her body started. This was more than she had ever felt for anyone.
She groaned and wrapped her legs around his waist. Her head tilted back as he buried his face in her neck. His breathing was rough and matched hers in frequency. What just happened?
When he pulled away, she slowly opened her eyes to find she was dizzy. Her vision refocused and she stared into his eyes.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“For what?” she asked, dumbfounded, barely finding the words to speak at all.
“For that.”
“Are you, sorry?” she wondered. “Because I’m not.”
He grinned slightly and started to leave the room as she slid back to the floor. “I’m not, either,” he said, and walked out, leaving her aching for more.
HOLY SHIT, THAT was amazing, Harley thought to himself as he pulled a shirt on. He had very nearly lost the nerve to do what he had wanted to do since the moment he saw her.
She had tasted wonderful. Like the red wine she had been drinking. He would have taken her right there in the kitchen had he not come to his senses.
Her scent surrounded him, and he wondered how he was ever going to drag her back into the danger he knew they were going to have to face with how he felt about her.
He went to the top shelf of the closet and pulled a box down. He opened it and pulled out a notebook and pen and sat on the edge of the bed to start going over their notes again. Now more than ever, he wanted it all to be over with so he could see whether there was anything between he and Norah. Anything more than knowing you might not survive to see tomorrow.
THE REST OF the night was quiet. Harley had come out to find Norah curled up on the couch. He hadn’t realized that he had been in the bedroom for over an hour writing things down. He sat on the floor next to the couch, telling himself it was so he could be there if she needed him, but he knew it was also for himself. When he was close to her, he didn’t feel so alone in the world.
He was trying to piece everything together. To figure out who might possibly be running things now that Matthews was out of the way. The only person he thought could be behind all of it, including the assassination, was Tom. But then how long had Tom been working with Matthews?
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He was getting a headache, so in order to give himself a break, he stood and grabbed a bottle of water. He set his notes on the counter and stared at the pile as if it might learn to talk and tell him everything he was missing.
He looked over at the clock on the microwave. Three a.m. He had been at this for over five hours. Harley glanced over to where Norah slept peacefully on the couch. Her soft features were relaxed, as if she were any other woman and this was any other night.
He could still taste her on his tongue, and the aftertaste had him desperately wanting more. The kiss had done nothing to curb his appetite for her. If anything, it had fueled the fire he felt steadily building inside.
He grabbed his notes and walked over to brush a strand of hair out of her face. She moved slightly at his touch, and smiled.
She hadn’t asked him to sleep next to her again, but he was taking it as an open invitation and lifted her into his arms to carry her into the bedroom.
He had given in to his lust for her, and he knew that before long, he was going to have much more than a taste.