chummy, did you?” Dante practically sneered. Tomas. Like they were all friends here.
“Sure, he’s a brilliant man. Great cheekbones. His genetics were the main reason I became interested in him.”
Something black bloomed in Dante’s chest. “He hit on you.”
“What? No. Well, okay, yeah, I guess if you count the fact that he asked if I’d consider getting pregnant the old-fashioned way ‘hitting on me.’” she accompanied her words with air quotes, oblivious to the way Dante’s stomach had lost its lining. “Then I guess he did.”
Dante massaged the ice pick that had formed between his eyes. “Please, for the love of God, tell me you said no.”
She scowled. “Of course I said no. I have no interest in that kind of relationship with any man.”
Relief flooded his chest so fast, he almost saw stars. The thought of Cardoza putting his filthy paws on Harper—he swallowed the bile. Thankfully, she’d handed the horrible man his hat.
With anyone else, this would be the point when he’d ask if she meant that she preferred women. But he’d felt her reaction when he’d held her in his arms.
She was straight, 100 percent. “No interest in any man except me, you mean.”
“Uh, no. Not with you, either,” she corrected. “Haven’t you been listening?”
Oh, he’d heard every word, much to his chagrin. “You’re interested, Harper. You’re so interested you can’t stand it.”
The way she’d curled into him when he’d kissed her, the thrill of her eagerly offered tongue against his—he’d be reliving that in need-soaked dreams tonight. She was interested. And not happy about it, clearly, as her reaction to the kiss had prompted this little game of true confessions.
Pregnant. As mood killers went, that one took the cake.
“I don’t know when you developed that industrial-sized ego,” she said primly. “But it can go anytime.”
“Please.” He snorted. “Lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me. Not when my mouth was on yours. I could feel your interest clear to my bones.”
Not ego talking. Okay, maybe a little, because it did warm him up plenty, even now, to recall how fervently she’d responded. She’d thrown herself into the kiss, no holds barred, like she did everything, practically climbing into his pants while he kissed her, and he’d have let her.
The attraction between them was mutual. Whether she liked it or not.
A blush worked its way across her cheeks. “That’s just hormones.”
That got a chuckle out of him. “Yeah. That is generally the way it works, or have you forgotten everything you learned in college?”
To his surprise, she sank onto the couch and buried her head in her hands. Her shoulders started shaking and that’s when his bad mood vanished in favor of the mood he should have had all along—concern for the woman he cared about.
He wedged in next to her on the couch and gathered her into his arms, holding her without a word because what would he say? He’d already ruined her big announcement, one she’d only made under duress because he’d been pushing her past her comfort zone.
In another shocker, she relaxed into his embrace and it almost felt like normal. Sure, the smell of her hair crossed his eyes like it always did, but he’d been ignoring the physical pull of Harper for a long time. He could buck up for his friend, who’d spelled out her need for him in no uncertain terms.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured into her hair and she nodded. “I just don’t understand. Why a baby? And via artificial insemination to boot?”
“I told you,” she mumbled against his shirt. “Romance is not my thing. It’s all a bunch of chemical reactions that people mistake as an emotion greeting card companies tell you is love. Then those reactions stop and what are you left with? My way is so much easier.”
The arguments against all the mistakes in her theory bubbled to the surface and he almost started firing back facts from the hours and hours of research he’d done into the chemistry between people, but he cut it off at the last second. She didn’t need his opinion, professional or personal. Not right this moment. Not when she’d already made the decision.
“Congrats, regardless.” He bit back the rest of that, too. Foster care had colored his view of people who had children and the various ways they ended up making the kid’s life hell. Until he could be objective about Harper’s baby, he’d shut up. “For the record, those chemical reactions come with a hell of a kick.”
“I wouldn’t know,” she said, her voice so muffled he almost didn’t hear her.
All at once, the subtext whacked him over the head and he realized she wasn’t talking solely about love. “You’re still a virgin?”
Pieces of this puzzle started falling into place at a rapid clip. She’d confessed as much one night back in college, but he’d assumed that somewhere along the way she’d—but then, she’d probably have told him if she had. Idiot.
She froze. “I’ve been busy getting a doctorate and then building Fyra’s product line from the ground up. Who had time?”
His head fell back against the couch and he stared at the ceiling. Some doctor of seduction he was. He’d totally missed the most important aspect of the dynamic at work here.
Harper was scared of what he’d made her feel. He’d tied up a normally fearless woman in knots because she’d never been properly introduced to the pleasures between a man and a woman. That was a travesty of the highest order.
And a blessing. His resolve solidified. Dante had been gifted an amazing opportunity to be her first. Then he’d finally have one up on Cardoza, that was for sure, and he wasn’t going to apologize for being smug over it. He and Harper could burn off their attraction, get back to being friends, and go on. Win-win in his book.
“It doesn’t change anything,” she said defensively. “I’m still pregnant and I still need your support, regardless of your opinions about my choice of donor or methods of impregnation. I can’t do this alone. Can I count on you to be my friend? To be there for me?”
The realities of the situation crashed down on him. His best friend was pregnant with the offspring of his most hated rival and all he could think about was claiming Harper in some kind of testosterone-filled territory grab.
She knew him well enough to hone in on his biggest conflicts, but naming it and claiming it didn’t change his views on babies. If he said he supported her, he had to do it. Keeping his word meant something to him. This friendship meant something to him. He had to put his money where his mouth was.
“Of course you can count on me.”
And she could. But he wasn’t going to back away from the attraction between them. Instead of scaring him off, she’d inexplicably created a challenge he couldn’t ignore. He wanted her. Perhaps even more now than he had before, thanks to her confessions.
New plan. Nothing but a full-bore seduction would do, and he had an undeniable urge to put every ounce of his energy into verifying the strategies he promoted on his TV show actually worked. Even on a woman who’d never had a lover before. Even on a friend. A pregnant friend. Was he an expert or not?
Dante had the next two weeks to find out.
Dante’s sprawling home in the Hollywood Hills had enormous charm and Harper loved it. A housekeeper showed her to the guest suite, pointing out the kitchen, the dining room, the back terrace with the multilevel swimming pool on the way.
Wow. Harper craned her neck as the housekeeper breezed past the triple set of French doors overlooking the pool. Cerulean