8
Suddenly, Harris swept me off my feet, holding me in a princess carry.
“What are you doing?” I yelped. “Put me down!”
“No.”
He called to his driver, “Bring the car.”
He placed me gently in the passenger seat, dismissed everyone else, and slid into the driver’s seat himself, personally whisking me away from the crowd of onlookers.
As the car sped away, I could still see people in the distance, their phones held high. I fidgeted in my seat.
“Mr. Croft, where are you taking me? I feel sick. If you don’t stop the car, I’m going to throw up all over your
leather seats.”
Harris’s voice was calm. “Go ahead. It’s just a car. It’s not worth a fraction of you. Now, tell me, how do you want to seduce me? Tonight, brother will make all your dreams come true.”
He’d lost his mind. I was definitely dreaming. This time, I was one hundred percent sure. Only in my dreams would Harris let me do whatever I wanted.
Well, if it was a dream, I wasn’t going to hold back.
My gaze roamed freely over his face, his neck, tracing the outline of the chest and abs hidden beneath his crisp white shirt. The image of the piano in the Croft mansion, the one from my fantasies, flashed in my mind. I swallowed hard.
“Do you have a piano at your place?” I asked. “I want to pin you against it and blindfold you with your tie.”
Harris’s expression flickered. “How long have you been thinking about that?”
In my dream-state, I was fearless. “Every day. Day and night. But every time I get close to kissing you, I wake up. I’ve never once succeeded.” My voice broke. “Harris, can you please stop appearing in my life? Because when I see you, I can’t help but stare. And when I stare, my heart goes crazy. And please, stop appearing ir my dreams, too. I don’t want someone I can see but never have.”
Harris’s eyes were deep pools of emotion. He reached out and stroked my hair.
“Taylor, don’t push me away. This time, I’ll let you succeed, okay?”
I covered my face with my hands and shook my head. “It’s impossible. You don’t love me. You only see me as a sister.”
His gaze was filled with a pain that mirrored my own.
“Not a sister, Taylor. From now on, never a sister. I promise I’ll let you kiss me as much as you want tonight Trust me.”
I turned my face to the window, tears of defiance streaming down my cheeks.
“I don’t believe you.”
I really did pin him against the piano again.
Because he drove me to his home, unknotted his tie, and handed it to me, his voice a low murmur of tempt. ation.
“Do whatever you want. This is your dream. You can have anything you desire.”
I used his tie to cover his eyes. Then I unbuckled his belt and used it to bind his wrists above his head.’ I undid the buttons of his shirt, one by one. My hands roamed freely, doing as they pleased.
And for the first time, in this dream, when I kissed him, it was real.
His lips were so perfectly shaped, full and inviting, making my heart race. And his collarbones, more elegant than any woman’s, made me want to bite them.
So I did. I bit down, just hard enough to feel the muscles of his chest tense beneath me.
“Did that hurt?” I whispered.
Harris, blindfolded, chuckled softly. “No. You can bite harder. Bite away all the pain from the last five years.” His voice grew serious. “Taylor, do you hate me? When I rejected you five years ago… did I break your heart? I’m so sorry. I didn’t understand my own feelings back then. I thought what I felt for you-this overwhelming need to protect and cherish you-was just love for a sister. I didn’t know my careless words were a knife in your heart.”
His voice cracked. “If you hadn’t left so suddenly… if you hadn’t vanished completely… if I hadn’t spent these five years
in agony, missing you every single day… if you hadn’t even appeared in my dreams… I would have never understood the pain I caused you. Tonight, you can punish me however you want. Just… please don’t
un away again. Don’t leave me. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said.
