They sipped champagne and argued about the movie.
“This is ridiculous,” she said. “She has to know he’s only using her to get the information he needs.”
“But you can tell he cares about her and he feels really guilty about it.”
“Oh, and that makes it okay?”
“In the movie world, yes. Plus, you know she’ll make him pay for it in the end. They’ll end up married and he’ll spend the next forty years apologizing for lying to her about being a spy and not coming clean about who he was in the first place.”
She laughed. “Probably.”
At the end, there was a happily ever after—with a twist. It turned out the heroine was also a spy, and she’d been playing the hero as well.
“Okay, that surprised me,” Barrett said. “Did you pick up on her being a spy?”
Harmony shook her head. “Not at all. So maybe she’ll be the one continuing to apologize for the next forty years.”
He laughed. “Or maybe they’ll end up even.”
“Could be.”
Barrett gathered up their bowls and laid them on the tray, then wheeled it out to the hallway and called room service to pick it up.
“Tired yet?” he asked as he refilled her glass.
“Not yet. I think I’m still riding that sugar high from the ice cream.”
“We could get dressed and take a walk.”
She picked up her phone. “It’s after midnight. How about we step out on the balcony instead?”
“Sure.”
He opened the slider and they walked outside. It was warm, but that breeze she’d felt earlier at the club was still present. There were two chairs out here, but all she wanted to do was stand, lean against the railing and look at the lights of the city.
“Beautiful out here.”
Barrett came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her. “Yeah.”
She leaned against him and put her hands on his forearms. “Nothing like your ranch, though. It must have been amazing to grow up with all that space.”
“We didn’t spend all our growing-up years there, but the time we had sure was fun. Lots of space to run around and get dirty.”
She laughed. “I imagine that for boys it was a great deal of fun. Plus riding horses, driving the trucks around all that land.”
“Mucking out stalls, working cattle . . . it wasn’t exactly all play all the time. Dad made us work, too. Nothing fun comes without hard work attached.”
“A lesson we all have to learn.”
They both went quiet, until he leaned his head against hers.
“I’m sorry about everything tonight.”
“Not your fault that one guy thought he had the right to put his hands on me, and that my brother can’t seem to keep himself out of my business. I had it handled.”
“I know you did. And you were walking away when Drake decided to get involved.”
She looked out over the clear night sky. “I wish I understood Drake’s motivations.”
“I have a younger sister, Harmony. I do understand the need to protect. But I also trust Mia to handle herself. We all know she can, and that she wouldn’t hesitate to call on any of us if she needed to. It doesn’t mean we don’t keep a watchful eye on her, or that we don’t worry she won’t make the right choices.”
“Right.”
“But the difference between Drake and me is that he’s felt that pressure to be your protector because you didn’t have a father in your life to do the job. So maybe he feels the need to always be there for you, even if you might not want him to be. He’s having a hard time letting go of the little girl who needed him all those years ago.”
She had long ago pushed the past aside. Maybe Barrett was right and Drake hadn’t yet let go of their past. “You might be right about that. I give him such a hard time about being overprotective, but maybe I don’t understand where he’s coming from.”
She needed to spend some time talking with Drake, to come to an understanding with him.
But not right now. Not when she was so angry with him.
Barrett moved his hands over her shoulders, massaging away the tension from the night.
This was what she needed to focus on. She and Barrett were finally alone, and she needed to make good use of their time. She focused on the movements of his hands on her body, the way he used his fingers to expertly find the knots in her shoulders and melt away all the stress.
She tilted her head forward. “Mmm, that feels good. I like your hands on me.”
He smoothed his hands over her shoulders, pressing in, then releasing as he made his way down her arms to the very tips of her fingers before gliding back up again.
Who knew that Barrett touching her fingers, elbows and shoulders could be so sensual?
“More.”
“Where do you want me?” he asked.
She let out a soft laugh. “That’s a loaded question.”
He came around to face her, then backed her up against the wall of the terrace. His warm breath sailed across her cheek.
“Here?” he asked, his lips brushing hers so lightly it felt like the caress of a feather.
She drew in a breath. “Yes.”
“Or here.” His tongue left a blazing trail across her neck, making her shiver despite the heat and humidity that still clung to the night.
She grasped his shoulders, letting him know by digging in her nails that she very much liked the direction he was going.