by Leah Vale
When her bronzed-earth gaze dropped down to his lips, Harrison lost his battle of denial. He growled and slipped his hand into her silky hair, pulling her mouth to his. Her lips opened beneath his and welcomed his hard kiss. The sensation of her hot mouth, of her tongue sliding against his, exploded through his body and he leaned farther into her. She smelled like the river and summer and he wanted to drown in her.
She made a purring sound of need and his gut clenched in response. All he could think of was touching her, conveying his own need for her until she wanted him as much, too. So she wouldn't doubt him. So she would trust him. Like their first time.
He found the hem of her dress and dragged it up her leg until he reachedher upper thigh, her skin so smooth and soft it made the material of her dress seem coarse. Still kissing her sweet mouth, he brushed his fingertips between her thighs until she parted them for him with a moaned invitation.
His blood roaring in his ears, he accepted the invitation and slipped his hand between her legs and found her wet heat.
Whispering his name against his lips, she sunk her hands in his hair and lifted her hips against his caressing touch, urging him to stroke her harder, deeper.
He made love to her with his hand, with his mouth on hers, raw need pushing him on. His thumb rubbed and his fingers stroked and dipped until she ground down on his hand. He wanted to exist with her in this moment, in this place, for eternity.
She cried out and the exquisite tremors racking her seeped into his body and sent his heart soaring. The only other times in his life he'd ever felt this way had been with this woman. With Juliet.
The sound of shuffling in the back seat made her yank away from him like she'd been hit. Her eyes were huge, and it took several blinks before she could clear the traces of passion from them.
She pulled in a shaky breath. "I thought you said you didn't want to hurt me?" she rasped.
He couldn't think. "Juliet, I-"
"My God, Harrison. What are you trying to do to me? What do you want
from me? Everything? You've already got it. You're already everywhere. You're in my head so much I can hardly think anymore." She blinked and a great big, fat tear rolled down her cheek. "God," she sobbed softly, "I was thinking about you when Nathan fell from the balcony today."
Her words hit him like a bucket of ice-cold water,
washing away his confusion, passion and regrets. "What?"
She pulled back yet farther and pressed herself against the passenger door, looking everywhere but at him.
He reached for her and grabbed her shoulders. "Nathan fell from the balcony?"
She started to cry harder. "He's never allowed to get close to the railing, but I was thinking about you, and he was talking about you, and he started pushing against the rails-"
Harrison shook his head, the image of his baby falling from the second-story balcony onto the ground below filling him with rage and horror. "You let Nathan out on that damn, dilapidated balcony?" He let go of her in disbelief. "I trusted you."
Harrison drove to Juliet's family's store too angry to form a coherent thought, let alone speak.
He'd trusted her. Trusted her to be a good mother to his son. But she had been careless and negligent. Good Lord, the emergency room doctor could have reported her to Children's Services.
His father had been right. Environment did dictate everything. He pulled the car up in front of the door and slammed the gearshift into park.
Huddled in the seat next to him, Juliet asked in a small voice, "Harrison?"
He looked up at the balcony, noticing the missing slats and ground his teeth together. It was a wonder Nathan hadn't been killed. "How could you have let him out on that rickety thing?" He looked at her. "I trusted you to be a competent caregiver."
Her expression turned bewildered. "But you said accidents happen. Like your chin."
"Falling down some stairs is a lot different from falling off a dangerous, second-story balcony." He flung the car door open and climbed out, then took considerably more care opening the rear passenger door.
"What are you doing?"
He leaned in and gently unbuckled his precious son. "I'm going to take Nathan up to bed, because that's the best thing for him tonight. But I want you to stay where you are because I'm not done talking to you about this." He lifted the sleeping baby from his car seat and cradled Nathan's head against his shoulder, careful not to touch his bump.
He strode to the store holding his child tight to his chest, the thought of what could have happened making his stomach curdle. He had never felt this scared before. Even when he'd seen how sick his mother was, had accepted that she would indeed die, he hadn't been as frightened. He'd been so angry he wanted to rage at the world, then so hurt he'd needed to run away for a while, but not this scared.
And he needed to lash out. But at Juliet? She was only human. Only human and living in an unsafe place. Still, he'd trusted her.
He walked through the dark store and into the living area, his gaze flicking over the irregular, dark shapes in the room. He didn't need the lights on to know most of them were piles of unfolded laundry or other junk that would never get put away. Though Juliet had made a tremendous effort to clean the place lately, with two lazy relatives messing it up right behind her, there was no way she could stay on top of things and be an attentive mother to his son at the same time.
Harrison felt sick to his stomach. No matter her intentions, Juliet couldn't win. And here he was, jumping on the bandwagon. He paused at the bottom of the stairs at the sight of Willie and Phyllis sitting around the small kitchen table.
The startled expressions on their faces made him think he'd interrupted something. It probably somehow involved him, or his money, and their plans to separate it from him.
He didn't give a damn.
Without a word he started up the stairs. The glow of a night-light led him to the correct door, and he pushed it open gently. The room was small and smelled of baby lotion and summer. He ruthlessly slapped down his body's response to Juliet's scent. Though all of the available wall space was taken up by a whitewashed dresser, a very nice-looking crib and a twin bed, the room was entirely free of clutter. A very different picture from the rest of the house.
Even in the soft glow of a bunny lamp set atop the dresser he could see how clean and tidy the room was kept. He'd go so far as to say it was decorated, with scraps of lace and homemade-looking stuffed creatures here and there.
So this was Juliet's space. As different from the rest of the place as she was from the rest of her family. But Nathan couldn't be raised entirely in such a small room, and Harrison hardened his resolve again. He had to move Nathan out of here. If he'd been able to control himself around Juliet he would have had Nathan safe at the estate long before this happened.
He went to the crib and laid Nathan down, thankful he'd remained asleep, and was about to place a soft kiss on his son's cheek when a loud thunk coming from out front stopped him. It sounded again, drawing him downstairs and toward the store to investigate. The third whack rattled the whole storefront.
He pushed open the door and froze at the sight of Juliet standing below the balcony. She held a sledgehammer in her hands. Rearing back, she took a swing at the closest post supporting the balcony. She was trying to knock the whole thing down.
"Juliet!" he called and started toward her, but her wild backswing kept him back.
She let out an enormous sob in response. Even in the faint light he could see she was distraught.
"Juliet," he soothed, trying to grab the sledgehammer.
"No," she snapped and swung the hammer out of his reach. "I have to take it down." She took another swing.
Whack.
"It has to come down," she gritted out.
Whack.
"Should of come down a long time ago. I knew it wasn't safe, but it was my spot."
Whack.
"My spot." She started crying in earnest again, the way she had at the hospita
l. "I thought he'd be safe if he stayed back, but he didn't stay back. I should have known. You're right. It was my fault."
Whack.
"My fault!" she cried.
Harrison's heart, pitiful knot that it was, felt torn from his chest. She was willing to sacrifice her favorite place on earth for their child. She loved their baby so much. She would never purposefully do anything to harm Nathan. Harrison had grown up in the best of environments and he'd still been hurt. Accidents did happen. And Juliet shouldn't be blamed for something every parent faces.
"Juliet. Please, honey, stop." Harrison darted a hand out and snatched
the sledgehammer from her grip. "If that thing comes crashing down, you could get hurt."
"I want it down."
She tried to grab the hammer's handle back but he held it up out of her reach. She jumped in an attempt to grasp it, so he tossed the thing away from them and wrapped his arms tight around her.
"Harrison, ple-ease," she sobbed, and squirmed in his embrace.
"Shh, sweetheart," he whispered into her hair. "This isn't the way."
"But the...balcony...dangerous," she said between great gulps of air. "This whole place..."
Harrison couldn't believe she was echoing his concerns. It would be so easy to tell her Nathan should come home with him-so he'd be safe. She'd undoubtedly agree. Especially in this state. But Harrison couldn't bring himself to say the words, to take advantage of the situation.
"The only reason we're still here is because I was too afraid."
He squeezed her tighter, his gaze rising to the crooked balcony. It was so sad the only places she could find peace was on a busted old balcony and a big rock by the river. She deserved so much more.
Harrison dropped his cheek to her soft hair and thought about the buzzards in the kitchen. They didn't care about her. Whether she would be a distraction or not, she needed to be taken away from this place as much as Nathan.
He set her away from him and looked deep into her glorious, tear-filled eyes. "Juliet, I want you and Nathan to come home with me. For good."
She'd lost her mind. That was the only explanation for what Juliet thought she'd heard Harrison say. She had to be hearing things, because no way would he have asked her to come home with him. No way at all.
Unless he'd said he wanted Nathan to come home with him, and her screwed-up mind had simply inserted the you and into his statement. Now that made sense.
Of course he'd want to take Nathan after what had happened. He was the guy who always did the right thing. But taking Nathan from her was not the right thing, no matter how bad she'd blown it.
She wiped the haze of tears from her eyes with her fingertips so he'd be sure to see her conviction when she met his gaze. "You can't have Nathan."
"Juliet, that's not what I... I want you both to come with me." He settled his hands on her shoulders. "This isn't about taking Nathan away from you. It's about getting you both away from here and into a life you deserve. A life where you can grow to reach your potential and be happy."
He waved a contemptuous hand up at the balcony. "And not just when you're sitting watching a river- and your life-pass you by. I know you're afraid of change, Juliet, but you're going to have to risk it for the sake of our child. And yourself."
At the mention of change and risk, Juliet's old defenses rose up around her like specters from a grave. "All while under your thumb," she retorted, and started to pull away. Her heart couldn't take this. Not today. He was offering her the sky, and she was afraid to fly.
Harrison made a rude noise and turned away from
her. "Juliet, please." He ran a hand through his hair. For the first time she noticed the rasp in his voice and the dark circles under his eyes. "Don't do this again. Not when there is so much at stake. If the Children's Services Department ever got a hold of this, things could easily get blown out of proportion and we'd have a hell of a mess on our hands."
Juliet's battered heart slammed to a halt. The Children's Services Department? She mouthed the words, unwilling to say them aloud for fear of producing a caseworker out of thin air. She wrapped her arms protectively around herself. "What do you mean?" she asked from low in her throat.
Harrison turned to look back at her. "Nothing." The worrisome expression on his face cleared. "Nothing we need to think about now."
Juliet felt her insides slowly turning to stone. Please God, no, she thought to herself. Harrison couldn't possibly be threatening her with Children's Services.
Could he?
Juliet felt an unholy calmness settle over her. He certainly had enough ammunition against her. Did he plan to use blackmail to get what he wanted?
Determined to find out what that was, she asked him flat out. "What is it that you want, Harrison?"
"I want to take you and Nathan away from here."
"To where?"
He reached out and wiped a stubborn tear from her cheek with the back of his index finger. "Home, with me."
Her heart started beating again, this time furiously. "To the Rivers estate in Plainview?"
"Yes. I want you and Nathan to move into the house."
Juliet brought her brows down, her pulse slowing. "Why?"
He ran his hand over his face in frustration. "I told you! I want you and Nathan to have better than this." He flung a sharp gesture at the store. Reaching for her again, he wrapped his warm hands around her upper arms and leaned down toward her face. "Come home with me, Juliet."
"Will you call the CSD on me if I don't?"
"No! That's not why I brought it up. I swear."
She searched his fierce gaze as best she could in the twilight, looking for his intent. She didn't know what to do. Her heart screamed for her to do as he asked. She felt so emotionally pummeled, so desperately in need of support and comfort, and the only person who could give her those things, besides Nathan, was standing right in front of her.
The lightness of her throat forced her to whisper. "Your father won't like it."
"To hell with my father. This is my decision. You and Nathan are a part of my life."
She squashed the thrill that rocketed through her. Part of his life or not, she would never be accepted in his world. "You shouldn't purposefully make him angry right now. What if he decides not to step aside and let you run the company?"
"He wouldn't do that. Not over me bringing you and Nathan home."
"But what if he does, Harrison? What if he denies you the one thing you've always wanted?"
"He won't."
For some reason his conviction rang hollow. "But if he does, could you handle it? Would you still be happy with the risk you took?"
"You'll never get what you want in life if you don't take risks. My mother taught me that."
"You said before, you loved her," she stated, thinking of her grandfather.
"Yes."
"And she loved you?"
"She used to tell me so every day." His voice sounded small, almost faraway even though he stood not a foot from her.
She softened her tone. "Don't you think she'd want you to be happy? Not to take a risk that could cost you the one thing you've always wanted?"
Harrison looked at her. The darkness kept her from discovering what might have been in his eyes.
Then her grandfather's favorite quote echoed in her head. Seeing its wisdom, she repeated it to Harrison.
"To thine own self be true, Harrison. To thine own self be true." Not expecting or wanting a response, Juliet turned and started toward the store.
"Juliet."
Harrison's gentle call stopped her.
"Will you come home with me?"
She gave him her answer with the slightest movement of her head, then went inside. To pack her and Nathan's bags. Grandpa, God rest his soul, would understand if she didn't stay to run the store.
Because she was not a hypocrite.
While Juliet wasn't a hypocrite, she certainly wasn't brave, so she sneaked upstairs, packed her and Nathan's thin
gs in her duffel, and tossed the army-green canvas bag down to Harrison from the wobbly
balcony. She wrapped Nathan and his bear in his crib blanket without waking him and carried him downstairs as silently as she could. She couldn't face her family and explain her actions right now. She just couldn't.
How could she make them understand that to be true to herself, she had to go with Harrison? She had to take this chance.
Even though it scared the spit out of her.
But she wanted, more than anything, to be with Harrison, so it was worth the risk. She hoped.
Seeming to read the terror on her face and understand, Harrison didn't say anything to her as she settled Nathan into his car seat. But when she moved to go to the passenger side of the car, he stopped her with a gentle hand to her cheek and brought her gaze to his.
"It'll be okay," he whispered.
Juliet couldn't answer past the dread in her throat.
Harrison dipped his head and touched a light, sweet kiss to her lips. It was the last thing she needed. Did he plan to further close the distance between them? Didn't he know a relationship between them would never work?
Or would it? Could she find a way to bridge the distance between their worlds? Convince him loving wasn't so bad? Moving into the same house would be a sure way to find out. She gave him a small smile. His answering grin pumped strength into her weary heart and wavering soul.
She felt much better as she slid into the smooth leather interior of the car, but she still didn't want to talk about what they were doing. If she talked, she might find herself talking them both out of this insanity.
They drove to the Rivers estate in silence. But in a way the silence was worse. It allowed Harrison's presence to speak to her. She became aware of the warmth his big body radiated. The spiciness of his cologne mingled with the car's leather, creating a heady male scent. His wide, strong hands steered the sedan with ease and made her feel safe. There was so much about him that appealed to her. That she wanted.
