Page 7 of Falling for Felix
"I've been told that before."
"You ask too many questions."
"Also not the first time I've heard that."
"And you've got this way of looking at people like you can see right through them."
"That bothers you?"
I lean back, studying her face in the flickering light. "It should."
"But it doesn't?"
"No," I say quietly. "It doesn't."
Harper sets down her beer and shifts closer, close enough that I can feel the warmth radiating from her skin. "Can I tell you something?"
"Like I could stop you.”
"I think you're full of shit about wanting to be alone."
I raise an eyebrow. "Is that your professional opinion, doctor?"
"It's myartisticopinion. Artists are good at seeing what people don't want to show." She gestures toward my booth setup, visible in the distance. "Your furniture isn't made by someone who doesn't want to connect with people. It's made by someone who wants to create something beautiful for them to live with. Something that will last."
I shrug. "It's just furniture."
"Bullshit,” she says. "That coffee table you sold today? The one with the copper inlay? That's not just furniture. That's faith in humanity. That’s believing that someone out there deserves beautiful things in their life."
I stare at her, caught off guard by the insight. By the way she's managed to see something in my work that I haven't let myself acknowledge.
She’s right, though. I don’t just make furniture for the sake of it. I want people touseit. Toenjoyit.
"You're dangerous," I say finally.
"How so?"
"You make me want things I'd convinced myself I didn't need."
Her voice drops to barely above a whisper. "Like what?"
“Like this." I lean closer. So close that I can see the flecks of gold in her brown eyes. “There’s still time for you to run far away.”
"I'm not running."
"No," I say, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "You're not."
The space between us disappears like it was never there. I brush my mouth over hers—tentative, testing—and she sighs into the kiss like I'm something she's been waiting for her whole life.
When I deepen the kiss, cupping her jaw in my palm, she melts against me. Her fingers find the front of my shirt, gripping like she doesn't want to let go.
Neither do I.
Not tonight.
Maybe not ever.
Chapter 5
