“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m leaving.”

“We can talk about this.”

“No. We can’t. If you’re too much of a coward to take what you want, then I’m sure as hell not going to throw myself at you.”

She went to the door to open it, but he was right there. “You came with me, remember?”

Refusing to even look at him, she opened the door. “I did. But I’m not leaving with you.”

She walked out, hearing the door close behind her as she made her way down the hall.

Barrett stared at the closed door in front of him.

Okay, so that hadn’t gone like he’d expected.

The entire night hadn’t gone like he’d expected. He sure as hell hadn’t expected Harmony to greet him on the balcony in the sexiest red underwear he’d ever seen. And he hadn’t planned on kissing her, or dragging her to the bed to touch her, inhale her sweet scent and think about fucking her.

He finally walked away from the door and went out onto the balcony.

Okay, so maybe he’d screwed up. He’d spent the entire day—and night—with Harmony. Everything had been going well. Maybe he’d subconsciously rented the room with this in mind.

He turned and looked back into the darkened room.

“This” being spending the night with her, having her in bed. They’d been so close.

Until he’d been the one to put on the brakes. And then to make matters worse, he’d made up a lame excuse about respecting her too much.

Not that he didn’t respect her—he did. But that hadn’t been the reason.

He knew it. And so did Harmony.

It was time for him to decide if he wanted to move forward with her, or forever keep his distance.

He was going to have to have an honest conversation with her.

Which could be difficult, because judging from the way she looked when she stormed out of here, it was possible she’d never speak to him again.

Seventeen

There was nothing like throwing yourself into your work to get your mind off your personal problems. And despite thinking she was going to have a light day, Harmony’s morning had been super busy. She had had an unexpected meeting with a walk-in client to discuss the potential for new business, had fielded multiple phone calls and had met with another client to cover a new kitchen and family room makeover.

So it was well after lunch by the time she was free, and, conscious of what had happened to her yesterday, she stopped and had a great salad before heading back to the office.

Since she hadn’t slept at all last night, by the end of today she was going to drive back to her town house, do a workout at the gym, then climb into a pair of shorts and a tank top and settle in on her sofa for a night of relaxation. Maybe she’d get back to that book she’d been reading yesterday, or catch a baseball game on TV.

Either way, she was already wiped out and looking forward to the end of the day. All she had left at the office was some paperwork and several e-mails.

She walked in to find Barrett having a conversation with Rosalie.

He was the absolute last thing she needed today.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I need to talk to you.”

Not wanting to get into it with him in front of her assistant, she nodded. “We can talk in my office.”

She led him into her office, then closed the door behind him. She moved to her desk, needing to put distance between them.

“What are you doing here, Barrett?”

She was still standing. He moved to the front of her desk. “I need to talk to you.”

Trying to act as if her heart wasn’t pounding, she shrugged. “I think you said enough last night.”

“Yeah, about that.” He started to come around to her side of the desk, but she held her hand up.

“No.”

He stopped.

“Harmony, I screwed up last night.”

Yes, he had. Except for the kissing her and touching her part, which unfortunately she hadn’t been able to get out of her head. Which was why she hadn’t slept at all. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

He tried to come over to her, but her “come any closer and I’ll cut you” expression made him pause.

“Okay, look. You . . . surprised me when you came out on the balcony in your underwear.”

“That hideous, am I?”

He cocked his head to the side. “I think from the response you got from me you know better. But I guess I got into it—into you—a lot more than I expected to.”

Okay, now things were getting interesting. “Go on.”

“And I backed off because there were a hundred things going through my head at once. How turned-on I was. How I’ve known you for a long time. How I could potentially hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You haven’t mentioned my brother.”

His lips curved. “Harmony. I had you nearly naked and underneath me. I can guarantee you I wasn’t thinking about Drake at the time.”

She finally smiled. “I’m glad to hear that.”

He made it around the desk and smoothed his hand up her arm. “I’m sorry. I let all those thoughts take over what we were doing. And what we were doing was really good. I backed off because I honestly was afraid that if we went too far, it would hurt you.”

She leaned against the desk. “Tell me why you think you’ll hurt me.”

“I am going to bring your brother into this. You know how protective he is of you. He’s also my best friend and my teammate and the last thing I want to do is piss him off. He wouldn’t like the two of us together.”