Falling for Mr. Wrong(9)

With that, she slipped outside into the driving rain, and to her chagrin, into the same damned Subaru Outback she’d exited less than an hour ago.





Chapter Seven


“Are you fucking kidding me?” Harper said as she sat down in the back seat. It was obvious she had no intention of sitting next to Noah. “I should get out of this damned vehicle this minute. Except it’s dumping out.” She glared at him, hard. “Are you stalking me or something?”

Technically, no. But he had hung out in the same area in the hopes that she’d have a change of heart and leave before she did something foolish with that baboon. Not that she gave him any indication she’d do something so fortuitous for him. Based on her responses earlier, he’d almost have expected her to have a rousing round of revenge sex with the twit so she could throw it back at him.

“I can’t exactly stalk you while I’m driving, can I?” he said. “I happened to be nearby. Not too many of us driving tonight. It’s late and the weather sucks. I was the sole survivor I guess.”

“Well, you’re lucky it’s such a stormy night, or I’d demand you let me out on the side of the road.”

“In what universe would you ever expect me to allow that to happen, Harper?” he smiled into the mirror. He might have been a dick for leaving the way he did, but when they were together, he was the most attentive, considerate boyfriend going.

“To be honest, I don’t know what to expect from you. Fact is, I used to expect something from you, and voilà, that was shot to hell in the blink of an eye. For all I know, you might choose to drop me on the side of the road. Wouldn’t that be fitting?”

“Go on, Harps. Get it all out. Beat me up. I can take it. I deserve it. In fact, give me your best shot.”

“You know what? I can give you a bad Uber rating.” She punched the seat. “Then you won’t bother me anymore.”

“But you’re not malicious.”

“I could be if I wanted to be.”

“Why would you want to be?”

“Because you’re a jerk.”

“Two wrongs don’t make a right, Harper.”

“Oh, so you admit you were wrong, then?”

He heaved a sigh. A quick glance at his GPS showed they were pulling up to her home.

“Your place?” He nodded toward a cute little gingerbread cottage tucked away on a less-developed stretch of Ocean Road. It appeared to be a new house, with other new homes in midconstruction all around her place.

“Yep,” she said.

“Nice.” He nodded. “Had it long?”

“Listen, Noah. I’m gonna be honest with you.” She wiped her lips with her thumb and forefinger and reached for her purse, about to get out of the car. “There’s no sense in small talk between the two of us. To be truthful, I’ve got zero fucks to give to you. And you’ve only got yourself to blame. You had the hammer and the bag of nails and you willfully pounded them right on into that coffin, destroying everything we had. So, sorry. Not sorry.”

Noah frowned and opened his door.

“What are you doing?” she said as she opened her own door.

“I’m going to walk you up to your door like a gentleman.”

He shut his door and took a step to catch up to her, placing his hand along the base of her spine, ushering her forward. She swatted at him. “I’m perfectly capable of walking to my own home, thanks.”

“Look, Harper. I understand that you’re angry with me. And you’re entitled to be. But I have a responsibility to be sure that you get home safe and sound. So please, let me walk you to your door.”

“I can assure you I’ve never had an Uber driver extend this service to me before, so I’m pretty sure it’s not in the driver’s handbook.”

“Consider it a kind gesture from a friend.”

She shook her head. “Dude, you gave up the opportunity to be my friend when you turned tail and ran without an explanation. So no. You and I”—she pointed at him and then at herself, shaking her head—“we’re not friends. You’re only someone I used to love.”

She fumbled for her key, and it took long enough that he planted himself right up behind her as she pulled the fob out of her messy purse and slid the key in the deadbolt, giving it a turn. But it jammed instead.

“Dammit,” she said, jiggling the thing to no avail.

Noah stood behind her, arms crossed, a sly smile on his face, trying not to look smug as she fought with the key. She frowned at him. “I think I can figure out how to work the key to my own house.”

He shrugged. “Have at it.”

She twisted and tugged on the key while more expletives erupted from those gorgeous lips of hers. God, he’d love to hear her saying those things while he was buried deep inside of her. He loved dirty talk and no one could talk dirty like Harper Landry. He could feel his pants growing tighter merely thinking about that.

At last he reached over and placed his hand on top of hers, calming her tense fingers, and he pressed the key a little deeper into the lock, then gave it an easy turn. “Sometimes you have to press in a little deeper.” And yeah, he meant it both ways.

She shrieked at him in obvious frustration. “Goddammit, Noah.”