Page 15 of I Want You

“You’re not exactly the best person to be lecturing me about moderation,” Harper retorts, taking a step toward her.

“Why not?”

“Because you walked through that door ready to crush me! To prove to the whole world that you could do my job better than I can. From the very first minute.”

“That’s not true!” Victoria says, closing the distance between them.

“Oh, really? Then what the hell happened at this morning’s meeting?”

Victoria stops right in front of Harper. Harper can feel the heat radiating from her body.

“I was just trying to survive seeing you again,” Victoria blurts out.

The words bounce off the walls, and Harper is left breathless.

“What?”

“I’m trying to do my job,” Victoria repeats. “The job I was paid to come back to this city for. And I’m trying… trying with all my might not to look at you for more than three seconds at a time. Because every time I do, I remember exactly why I left. And I’m overcome with excruciating panic.”

“That’s a cowardly excuse, Victoria.”

“It’s the only truth I have right now. What happened between us… the mess we made… doesn’t belong in this magazine, Harper. Nor will it fit into the six weeks this project lasts.”

“Sure,” Harper says, feeling the anger coursing through her veins again. “How convenient for you. Setting boundaries when it suits you.”

She turns away again, but immediately hears footsteps behind her. Victoria stops so close that Harper feels her breath brushing the back of her neck.

And then Victoria leans just a fraction closer to her neck.

“You’re still wearing the same perfume…” she murmurs.

Harper freezes. Her heart skips a beat so violently she fears Victoria can hear it.

“I thought you’d have changed it,” Victoria continues, and Harper has the illusion that she’s caressing her neck. “To something that wouldn’t make me think of you every time you walk down the hallway.”

Harper presses her hands against one of the clothing racks.

“I’m not going to change my habits just because they bring back memories of our failure for you,” Harper manages to say.

Victoria takes another step forward. Harper feels her hand hover in the air, just millimeters from her waist, though it doesn’t quite touch her.

“It wasn’t entirely a failure,” she tells her.

Harper turns, forcing Victoria to look her in the eye. Her face is just a few inches away. Victoria’s gaze drops for a second to Harper’s lips before returning to lock onto her eyes. The gesture is so quick that anyone else would have missed it, but Harper knows every one of her reactions.

“It destroyed us, Harper,” Victoria continues with complete honesty. “The ambition, the overtime, the fear of not being good enough—it destroyed us. But you know perfectly well that there were things between us that we did better than anyone else. Things that had nothing to do with a fucking magazine. Things that only existed when we turned off the lights.”

Harper feels the warmth of her body enveloping her. Victoria tilts her head toward her. An almost imperceptible movement. So slow that it gives Harper all the time in the world to pull away.

But she doesn’t move at all.

“Or are you going to lie to me and say you don’t remember?” she whispers against her lips.

Chapter 5

“Or are you going to lie to me and say you don’t remember?”

Victoria barely recognizes her own voice as she asks the question. It sounds deeper, eroded by the lack of air and by something infinitely more dangerous that she’s been ignoring for years. Harper stands motionless in front of her, pressed against the coat rack. Her eyes—dark and defiant—are fixed on Victoria’s.