Make Me Risk It by Beth Kery Read Free Book Online Page B

when were supposed to have dinner. Did you go to Napa because of her? I only wondered because Elizabeth told me you were in Napa for an emergency.”
    He put his fingers beneath her chin and lifted her face. “I can understand that you’re curious. But Regina deserves some privacy in all this. I don’t think it’s fair for me to talk about her problems to someone she doesn’t even know. I realize these circumstances aren’t ideal. I’m sorry it happened while we were here together. Trust me, I wish like hell it hadn’t.”
    Her blue-green eyes looked moist. She nodded abruptly.
    “You’re right. I would have liked you less, knowing that you were the type to abandon a friend when they were in need. I’m glad you went to help her.”
    “Thank you,” he said, holding her stare. “Elizabeth will have things in hand. You don’t need to worry about it anymore. It’s done. Okay?”
    She’s not going to be this forgiving forever.
    He pushed down the sarcastic voice in his head. Harper hadn’t left, and she wasn’t freezing him out. For the moment, anyway. Still, he felt uncharacteristically doubtful about how to proceed.
    She nodded, attempting a smile. “You should get some sleep before you have to get back to work again.”
    He glanced around the sunlit pool area and over the balcony onto the Pacific Ocean, really taking in his surroundings for the first time since arriving home. The only thing he’d been able to consider since seeing that empty bed was finding Harper. A gust of sea air rushed over him, sweeping away the cobwebs of his sleepless night and anxiety. Or maybe it was Harper’s clear, crystalline eyes and gentle touch that had done that.
    “How about a swim? It might help us to sleep a few hours.”
    “I didn’t bring a swimsuit. That’s why I’m wearing this,” she said, nodding down at her shorts and T-shirt.
    “You don’t need a swimsuit.”
    She gave him a
give me a break
look. “You’re bound and determined to see me shamed in front of your staff at some point, aren’t you?”
    “If you don’t want to, we won’t have sex.”
    It was like she was fading, and he needed to connect with her again. The only way that felt right at the moment wasn’t Jacob’s way.
    It was Jake’s.
    He didn’t like the idea of reverting back to it, but the alternative of watching Harper continue to move away from him was worse. It was stupid on his part, but the compulsion was strong.
    “Come on,” he coaxed. “It’ll feel good. Then we’ll go up and take a nap.”
    He saw the hesitation in her eyes and thought he knew part of the cause of it. He turned and jogged up the flight of stairs to the glass doors. He opened one and reached inside, touching a button. Opaque blinds began to slide down the terrace windows.
    “The staff knows not to come outside if they’re down,” he said when he returned to her.
    She rolled her eyes. “You’re hardly really reassuring me, Jacob.”
    He exhaled, seeing his misstep. She’d assumed his staff was trained not to come outside when the blinds were down because he was privately engaged with a woman when they were.
    She’d assumed correctly.
    Fuck
. Sometimes, it felt like all the tools that had worked with him in the past with women—even his aloofness—weren’t assets with Harper, but liabilities. He reached up and tucked an escaped tendril of hair behind her ear, then brushed her cheek with the back of his knuckles. She was so soft. So beautiful. Something seemed to well up in him. God, he must be exhausted.
    “Just swim with me,” he murmured, dipping his head and kissing her nose. “I know you like to swim.”
    “How do you know that?” she asked, a hint of wariness crossing her features.
    “You said you like the water when we were out on the yacht. You just seem like a swimmer,” he said, deflecting his error. “Come on, I dare you.”
    She laughed and shook her head, finally shrugging in acquiescence. Relief swept through him. “What the