She gave him an odd look, and Morgan realized that he had probably come across as someone who dearly wanted to play dress-up with his new doll. Thankfully, Harper was generous as well as beautiful, because she let it go by with a nod.
“We can figure it out if it becomes a problem,” she said easily. “Shall we hit the road?”
Chapter Eleven
∞∞∞
The large black town car that Morgan procured for the trip ate up the road like some kind of starving beast, and the ride was so smooth that Harper would have thought she was on the couch in her own apartment if she couldn't watch the scenery going by. It was so restful that she spent the first few hours of her vacation asleep, her arm tucked under her head and her seat reclined back so far she was nearly prone.
Now she looked around, startled at the new angle of the sun. She was grateful when Morgan passed her a cool bottle of water.
“I'm sorry,” she said, rolling her shoulders to loosen them. “I feel like I should have been keeping you company.
“It's fine,” he said, and Harper blinked at the clipped note in Morgan's voice.
She could tell right away that he wasn't angry, but there was something to it that made her look more closely. Harper sipped her water slowly, watching Morgan out of the corner of her eye. She took in the focused way he stared at the road in front of them, and the way his hands grasped the wheel too tightly. There was a peculiar stillness to his body that set off a quiet alarm bell in her head, and when she screwed the top back on the bottle, she shifted the seat upright and turned to him.
“How are you doing?”
“Just fine.”
It…it was all right. It was something he might have said to a barista who handed him his coffee order or someone servicing his car if they had asked him how things were going. For some reason, though, it irritated her.
“Are you sure?”
He gave her a look that stopped just short of being sharp before turning back to the road.
“Of course I am.”
She frowned. She recognized the area that they were traveling through. It was lightly forested, mostly empty. They were probably a good hour or more from a city of any size.
Carefully, lightly, she put her hand on his arm closest to her, and she blinked when she felt how very tense the muscles were there. She waited to see if he would snap at her. If he did, they were going to have a problem, but instead he only shifted slightly before settling again. She watched as his hand on the steering wheel tightened and then loosened again, listened as he took a breath and let it out slowly.
Harper stifled the urge to ask him again if he was all right. There was a wariness to him that she didn't understand, not yet, but it was there, as sure as anything.
“Is this all right?” she asked, nodding at her hand on his arm.
“Of course it is,” he said, and this time his voice was gentler, perhaps a little remorseful of his earlier sharpness. “I…like you touching me. I always like it.”
“Because I'm your true mate,” she guessed, but to her surprise, Morgan shook his head.
“No. Because you're a beautiful woman. Because you're you.”
There was a flat honesty to his voice that made Harper's breath catch. The sky was blue, grass was green, and she was a beautiful woman, at least as far as Morgan was concerned.
“I'm glad you're you.”
“I'm glad I'm me too,” she said with a slight smile.
She wasn't glad that there was still that tightness bracketing Morgan's mouth. He was squinting slightly at the road as if it had done something to wrong him, and she made a decision.
“i want to get out and walk a little. Can we do that?”
Morgan gave her a startled look. For one heart-sinking moment, Harper thought that he was going to show his true colors, one of those petty tyrants that thought if he could tough it out then of course everyone around him was capable of doing the same. Instead of looking irritated, however, Morgan was only surprised and then guilty.
“Of course, I'm sorry, I didn't realize...”
“Nah, I didn't tell you,” Harper said with a slight smile. “But that's why I'm telling you now.”
She expected questions of some sort, about what had happened or what had gone wrong, but instead Morgan pulled the car over at a rest stop by the the side of the road. In the early spring chill, it was empty except for a business traveler who was on his way out when they pulled in, and Harper got out with real gratitude, stretching as she did so. She turned around to find Morgan staring at her from across the top of the car. There was something intent in his gaze, and for a brief moment, she felt like something he was hunting or stalking, followed by a hot thrill that shot down the core of her body.
All right, we'll look into why that sounds so very good in a little while.
Outwardly, all she did was raise an eyebrow at him.
“Do I have something on my face?” she asked, and he blinked.
“No. I just wanted to make sure that you're okay.”
She came around the car towards him, allowing him to look her over quickly and carefully. She had the idea that he would have touched her as well, checked her limbs like a horse if she had allowed it, but for the moment, he kept his hands to himself. She was actually a little sorry about that.
“I learned a long time ago that there's nothing to be gained from running myself so ragged that I
