step he took, the more panicked she became. She had no easy way of contacting this guy once he walked out the door. She didn’t want to let him get away quite yet for reasons she wasn’t ready to think about. “Sebastian?” she nearly shouted before he got out of earshot.
He stopped and turned back to her. “Yes?”
“How would you like to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Ireland?”
Sebastian didn’t know what to say. He’d never had a woman offer him a vacation, much less a woman he hardly knew. Actually he didn’t have women offer him much of anything. It was impossible when he never left the lab. The only woman he was ever around on a daily basis was his assistant, Virginia, who was in her late fifties and married.
“Um, run that by me again?”
Harper closed the gap between them with an apologetic smile on her face and a sultry sway of her hips. So many of her features were almost masculine in a way, with piercing eyes, sharp cheekbones and an aquiline nose, but there was nothing masculine about her. Her dark brows were arched delicately over eyes that were like the stormy seas off Maine where he was born.
He imagined a similar maelstrom was stirring inside her to make an offer like that to a complete stranger. Surely she could find a romantic interest if she wanted one. But he was willing to say yes to almost anything she offered when she looked at him that way.
“My friends are getting married in Ireland next weekend. They’re flying everyone there, plus putting all the guests up in a castle that’s been converted into a hotel. It wouldn’t cost you anything to go but some leave from work. I’m not sure what your boss is like, since this is short notice, but I was hoping you would be interested.”
“In going to Ireland?”
She nodded. “With me. As my boyfriend. I just introduced you to Quentin as my boyfriend and said you were going, so he’s going to expect you to be there.”
His brow furrowed. Her boyfriend. For a week. In Ireland. What could go wrong? Absolutely everything. Pretending to be her lover could be complicated. But what could go right? His gaze raked over her tall, lean figure with appreciation. Everything could go very right, too.
Wait—crap—he wasn’t supposed to be “active.” Just his damn luck. “Just to be clear—are you wanting or expecting you and me to...um...”
“No!” Harper was quick to answer with wide eyes. “I mean, not for real. We’d have to pretend to be a couple around everyone else—kiss, be affectionate, you know. But when we’re alone, I promise it’s strictly hands off. I’m not that hard up. I just can’t go to this thing alone. Not after seeing Quentin and finding out he’s engaged. I just can’t.”
Sebastian blinked his eyes a few times and tried to mask some of his disappointment. He wasn’t sure if he could stand being around her, touching her in public and then just flipping the switch when they were alone. The doctor wanted him to, but he wasn’t the best at following doctor’s orders.
This day had done well to throw him off his game. First, getting locked out at work with mandatory vacation and now this. A beautiful woman wanted him to travel with her to Ireland for free and pretend to be her lover. That just wasn’t business as usual for him. He wasn’t entirely sure what to say to her. It seemed foolish to say yes and downright stupid to say no.
“I’ll pay you two thousand dollars to go. It’s all the money I have in my savings account,” Harper added, sweetening the pot as she seemed to sense his hesitation.
She was serious. Her insecurity struck him as odd considering how confident and put together she seemed. He wasn’t sure why this was so important to her. There must be more to the situation with her ex than she was telling. “Aren’t your friends going to wonder where I came from? You’ve never spoken about me before and suddenly I’m your wedding date?”
Harper waved away his concern. “I’ll take care of that. My friends have been so wrapped up in their own lives lately they’d probably not notice if I did have a boyfriend. They certainly haven’t mentioned that I don’t have one.”
“And why is that?” Sebastian couldn’t stop himself from asking. But if he was going to pretend to be her boyfriend, he needed to know if there was something about her that repelled men. From where he was standing, he didn’t see a thing wrong with her. She was beautiful, well-spoken, poised and polished. Aside from the slight hint of desperation in her voice, she seemed like quite the catch. There had to be something wrong with her.
She shrugged and sort of fidgeted before responding, showing the first sign of vulnerability, which he was glad to see. “Like I said, I don’t have the best taste in men. Things haven’t worked out with anyone I’ve been attracted to since Quentin and I broke up.”
“You can’t find a decent man to go to dinner with you, but you trust me enough to travel across the ocean with you, share a bedroom and make out in front of your friends?” There was a flaw in her logic here. “I could be crazy. Or a criminal. Or married. I could attack you in your sleep or steal your jewelry. The possibilities are endless.”
Harper scoffed at his trepidations. “Honestly, I take that risk on every date I go on in this town. Have you seen the guys on Tinder lately? No...you probably haven’t.” She chuckled. “I know you have a job, you smell nice, you’re handsome and you went along with my lie just now, so you’re easygoing. You’re already a head and shoulders over every date I’ve had in the last six months. If you don’t want to go, or can’t, just say so. But don’t turn it down because you’re concerned about my blatant disregard for my own welfare or poor sense of judgment. My friends are already well aware of that flaw in my character.”
“No, I can go. As of this morning my schedule is amazingly wide open for the next two weeks.” That was an understatement. But was this what he should spend his time doing? He didn’t exactly have a more tempting offer.
“Do you find me physically repulsive?”
Sebastian swallowed hard. “Not at all. To the contrary, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve laid eyes on in a very long time.”
Harper’s eyes widened a touch at his answer, but she quickly recovered with a sly smile curling her lips. It must have boosted her confidence because she moved a step closer to him, closing the gap until they were nearly touching. “Do you think you’d have trouble pretending to be my lover? Or have a problem kissing me?”
Every muscle in Sebastian’s body tightened as she spoke. The warmth of her body and the scent of her so close caused an instant physical reaction that would answer any of her questions if she bothered to notice. He balled his hands into fists at his sides to keep from reaching for her. He’d craved the sensation of touching her again since the moment he’d let her go after the collision.
He shook his head stiffly. “No. I think I can manage that.”
Harper’s gaze never left his. “Okay, great. Are you opposed to a free trip to Europe? You have a passport, right?”
“I have a passport, yes.” It had no stamps in it, but he had one. Finn did most of the travel around the world, schmoozing on behalf of their company. Sebastian kept his nose in his paperwork and schematics, but Finn had made him get a passport
