Drake watched the younger woman’s features and knew that she was going to skip the lunch. He wanted to laugh at her bravery but he was having too hard of a time controlling his body’s urges to pull her into his arms and kiss her until she obeyed the summons. Or maybe simply because she was going to defy him.
He enjoyed her blush though. And the way she gripped the table behind her. All little signs that she was completely aware of him, just as he was very aware of her as well.
So be it, he thought silently. The gauntlet had been tossed and he had never been one to ignore a challenge.
“I’ll see you later then,” he replied.
Sierra nodded her head, but she was so tense, it probably came out as simply a snobbish tilt instead. When he finally turned around and walked to the next office, she let out the breath she hadn’t even known she’d been holding. With great, heaving breaths, she took in air and tried to cool herself down.
What had just happened? She turned back to her drafting board, wanting to put him out of her mind and just dive back into the safe and benign world of lines and calculations. She understood angles and math. She understood the solid materials that would support a building in different ways and for various reasons.
She didn’t understand Drake Harrison.
As she stared down at her work, she realized that she’d only created her fantasy man in her head. The man who had been laying in the hospital bed, fighting for his life, hadn’t been able to speak so she’d made up a personality for him. She’d been safe from the real man. Safe from who he might actually be.
But now that she’d met him, she didn’t understand why he affected her like this. Men had never impacted her in such a way that she couldn’t think or act appropriately and professionally. She’d never thought about any of her dates in such a sexual way. And except for her first crush in high school, she couldn’t remember ever blushing when in the presence of another man.
She shook her head, remembering that she had a meeting in just a few minutes. She didn’t have time to contemplate the inner workings of the real life man or her reaction to him. It wasn’t that he hadn’t lived up to her fantasies. It was more that she didn’t like what happened to her when he came close. She hadn’t expected that reaction. And she definitely didn’t like it. She’d felt vulnerable. Exposed.
She’d endured that feeing with her father for years although she knew she couldn’t honestly compare what she’d felt while living in her father’s house to what she felt when Drake Harrison stepped close to her. There was vulnerability yes, but the feelings were completely different. With her father, there had always been the threat of violence and anger. With Drake, there was…something else. Like he knew all of her secret desires. Things even she didn’t want to acknowledge about herself.
Unfortunately, her eyes didn’t see the lines and the details of this man like she understood a building’s layout. All she saw was his face, his amused eyes as if he were fully aware that she was lying about attending the lunch with all of the other staff members.
She wanted to growl at her confused emotions. What she was feeling was completely out of character. She was a good employee and she tried very hard to be a compassionate person. But that man banished all of her efforts in both of those areas and, it seemed, eliminated her common sense.
This man terrified her on several levels. She didn’t see recognition in his eyes, not that he would have any reason to recognize her. He’d been unconscious almost the entire time she’d stayed with him. When he’d finally regained consciousness in the hospital after over a week in the intensive care unit, she’d made sure that his foreman or someone else was there to be with him. She’d kept tabs on him, but also kept her distance, not wanting him to realize who she was or why she was there.
She’d paid all of his medical bills anonymously, even selling her jewelry when her father cut off her credit card after he’d realized what she’d done. She hadn’t cared at all about the jewelry. He’d bought it for her to show her off. In his mind, his children wearing expensive jewelry was a status symbol so selling it made a statement in her own mind. It was a rejection of his life, sold to rectify the wrongs he’d committed, at least in Drake Harrison’s case.
Adding to her defiance, she’d moved out of her father’s house that week, not even telling him. He’d said some horrible things about her sister Marissa, things Sierra had been unable to ignore. So she’d just left.
When her father had gone to prison the following year, she hadn’t even attended the trial, relieved that someone had finally found enough evidence to convict him and several of his underlings. She’d gone with the assumption that her father was guilty of everything he was accused of and more. So much more! In fact, if she’d been able to find evidence of his crimes, she would have turned it over to the police herself. She’d even looked, but couldn’t find anything. Her father had hidden his crimes well over the years. But not well enough since he had been given a life sentence.
He’d died in prison that first year. She’d heard about his death but, after talking with her sister, they hadn’t attended his funeral. The two of them had visited their mother’s grave that same day, holding hands and letting the tears flow, but neither had understood those tears.
Shaking her mind out of the past, she walked over to her desk and typed in Drake’s name. She’d followed his career over the past six years, but there were always new articles to read. Obviously, she wasn’t the only one that was fascinated by the man! The press loved him, followed him around and reported on not only his business successes but also his personal life, whenever they caught even the smallest rumor.
A split second after she pressed enter on her computer, she saw a long list of articles about the man. Irritated that she was distracted, she read through the first few articles. And then one more, and one more. He actually had created one of the largest construction companies in the country with his headquarters based out of Chicago. So what was he doing here in Denver? And why would his holding company, which had huge assets globally, be interested in a mid-sized architectural firm? She’d always assumed that Harrison Holdings would have a team of architects on staff. They didn’t just build houses or even large buildings. Harrison Holdings was known for building cities!
With a sigh, she clicked out of her web search, refusing to read anything more about the man’s career or his astounding wealth. So what if he lived in a fabulous house that was perched on the top of a mountain in what looked like a visually precarious design? She’d glanced at the designs and she’d done similar work on her own dream house. She absolutely loved designing homes, creating either small or large living environments for the way each family lived. Designing buildings and sports complexes was interesting also, but her favorite projects were those where she got to sit down and talk with a family, find out what they did each day or during the year so she could create the perfect area for each member of the family.