Chapter 10 WARDROBE MALFUNCTION
The corporate dinner was at the Columbia Tower Club, and Harper was running late. She had spent too long at the Adriatic supervising the initial roof inspection, and now she had exactly forty five minutes to get home, shower, and transform into someone who looked like they belonged at a dinner with tech CEOs and venture capitalists.
Sebastian had texted her three times.
"Dinner is at 7. Don't be late."
"The car will be ready at 6:30."
"Harper, seriously. This is important."
She had made it home by 6:15, which should have been plenty of time. Except the dress Amanda had sent over was more complicated than Harper had anticipated. It was beautiful, a deep emerald green that brought out her eyes, but the zipper ran all the way up the back and Harper's arms apparently did not bend the right way to reach it.
She twisted and contorted, managing to get the zipper halfway up before it stuck. She pulled harder. The zipper did not budge. She tried going down and starting over. The zipper was now definitely stuck, leaving the dress half open and completely unwearable.
"No, no, no," Harper muttered, still wrestling with the zipper. "Come on, you stupid thing."
A knock on her bedroom door. "Harper? The car is here. We need to leave."
"I'm not ready."
"It's 6:30. The reservation is for 7:00 and we cannot be late. These people..." Sebastian stopped talking as Harper opened the door.
She was standing there in the green dress, hair half done, makeup finished but the dress gaping open in the back, held together by one hand.
"The zipper is stuck," she said, hating how panicked she sounded. "I can't get it up or down and I don't have another dress that is appropriate for this dinner and..."
"Let me see," Sebastian said, his voice calmer than she expected.
Harper turned around, still holding the dress closed with one hand. She felt Sebastian's fingers brush against her back as he examined the zipper, and something electric shot through her at the contact.
"The fabric is caught," he said quietly. "Hold still."
His fingers worked at the zipper, gentle but efficient. Harper tried very hard not to think about how close he was standing, how warm his breath felt against her neck, how her skin seemed to tingle everywhere he touched.
"There." Sebastian freed the fabric, and the zipper started moving again. He pulled it down a few inches, fixed the snag, and then slowly began pulling it back up.
Harper held her breath. His fingers moved carefully up her spine, and she felt every single point of contact. The zipper reached the top, but Sebastian's hand lingered for just a moment, resting at the base of her neck.
Neither of them moved.
Harper could feel her heart pounding. She could feel the heat radiating from Sebastian's body behind her. The air in the room felt thick, charged with something she did not want to name.
"Done," Sebastian said finally, his voice rougher than usual. He stepped back quickly, putting distance between them.
Harper turned around and found him looking anywhere but at her. His jaw was tight, his hands shoved in his pockets.
"Thank you," she managed to say.
"We should go. We are going to be late."
The car ride was silent. Harper stared out the window, fully aware of Sebastian sitting next to her. The space between them on the seat felt both too much and not enough. She kept thinking about his fingers on her back. The careful way he had worked the zipper. The moment his hand had lingered at her neck.
It did not mean anything. He was helping her with a wardrobe problem. That was all.
Except it had not felt like nothing.
"This dinner is with potential investors for the Oak Street development," Sebastian said, breaking the silence. "Richard will be there. It is important that we present a united front."
"Okay."
"They are going to ask about us. About how we met."
"I know the story." Harper had memorized it after the Seattle Magazine interview. They had met at a charity auction. Love at first sight. Whirlwind romance. All the lies came easily now.
"Good." Sebastian adjusted his tie, which was already perfect. "Just follow my lead."
The Columbia Tower Club was on the 76th floor, with floor to ceiling windows offering views of Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains. Harper felt underdressed despite the expensive gown. Everyone here looked like they belonged in a magazine spread about successful people doing successful things.
Sebastian's hand found the small of her back as they entered, guiding her through the crowd. It was the same place he had touched during the zipper incident, and Harper's skin remembered. She tried to ignore it.
"Sebastian!" A man in his fifties approached a woman who had to be his wife. "Good to see you. This must be the famous Harper."
"Harper, this is David Chen and his wife Linda. David is the lead investor for Oak Street."
Harper shook hands and smiled and said all the right things. She had gotten good at this over the past few weeks. Playing the role of Sebastian's wife. The woman who had somehow captured the heart of Seattle's most eligible bachelor.
They made their way to the private dining room where Richard and several other people were already seated. Richard looked more relaxed than the last time Harper had seen him. That was good. Sebastian had apparently done a decent job of repairing that relationship.
Dinner was a course of food that looked like art and tasted expensive. Harper sat next to Sebastian, their chairs close enough that their arms occasionally brushed. Each time it happened, she felt that same electric charge from earlier.
"So Harper," Linda Chen said between the second and third courses. "Sebastian tells us you are an architect?"
"Yes. I specialize in historic preservation."
"That must be why you two connected. Sebastian is always buying old buildings." Linda smiled as if she had said something clever.
"Usually to tear them down," Harper said before she could stop herself.
The table went quiet. Sebastian's hand found her knee under the table, squeezing gently. A warning or reassurance. Harper could not tell.
"I am working on that," Sebastian said smoothly. "Harper is teaching me to see the value in preservation. We are actually renovating a historic hotel together."
"The Adriatic," David said, nodding. "I have heard about that property. Art deco, right?"
"1923," Harper said, relaxing slightly. "It is a beautiful building. It just needs some love and investment."
"And you convinced Sebastian to save it instead of developing the lot?" Linda looked impressed. "You must be very persuasive."
Sebastian's hand was still on Harper's knee. His thumb moved in small circles, probably unconscious. Definitely distracting.
"She is," Sebastian said, looking at Harper with an expression that seemed too real for comfort. "Very persuasive."
The dinner continued. Harper answered questions about the Adriatic, about her work, about how she and Sebastian had fallen in love. She was getting better at weaving truth into lies. Yes, they had met because of a property dispute. Yes, it had been unexpected. Yes, she had been skeptical at first.
All true. Just missing the part about the contract marriage and the five million dollars.
Sebastian kept his hand on her knee through most of dinner. At one point he leaned in to whisper something about one of the investors, and his lips brushed against her ear. Harper nearly dropped her fork.
This was getting dangerous. They had established boundaries. Rules. This arrangement was supposed to be professional. Nothing about tonight felt professional.
After dinner, they mingled in the lounge. Sebastian introduced Harper to more people whose names she immediately forgot. His hand stayed on her back, possessive and warm, and Harper found herself leaning into him without thinking about it.
"You two are adorable," someone said. Harper could not remember if it was Linda or another investor's wife. "How long have you been married now?"
"Three weeks," Sebastian said.
"Still newlyweds. That explains it." The woman laughed. "You cannot keep your hands off each other."
Harper felt heat creep up her neck. She had not realized it was that obvious.
"Can you blame me?" Sebastian's voice was light, teasing, but his hand tightened on her back. "Look at her."
He was playing his role perfectly. Being an attentive husband. The man is clearly in love with his wife. Harper reminded herself it was an act. All of this was an act.
But when she looked up at Sebastian, the expression on his face did not look like acting.
They left around ten. The car ride home was silent again, but this time the silence felt heavy with things neither of them wanted to say.
Harper stared out the window and tried not to think about Sebastian's hand on her back. On her knee. The way his touch had felt like it was burning through the fabric of her dress.
"You did well tonight," Sebastian said as they pulled up to the building.
"Thanks. So did you."
"David is going to sign. I could tell."
"That is good."
They rode the elevator up to the penthouse. Harper watched the numbers climb and wondered if Sebastian could hear her heart pounding.
When they got inside, Harper headed straight for her room. "I need to get out of this dress. Goodnight."
"Harper, wait."
She turned. Sebastian was standing in the middle of the living room, looking uncertain in a way she had never seen before.
"Thank you," he said. "For tonight. For playing your part so well. For making them believe this is real."
"That is what you are paying me for."
"Right. Of course." Something flickered across his face. "I just wanted you to know that I appreciate it."
"Okay. Well. Goodnight."
Harper made it to her room and closed the door, leaning against it. Her hands were shaking. That was ridiculous. Nothing had happened. Sebastian had helped her with a zipper and been appropriately attentive during a business dinner. That was all.
Except it had not felt like nothing.
She changed out of the dress carefully, hanging it up so Amanda would not be disappointed. Her back still tingled where Sebastian's fingers had been. Her knee still felt warm where his hand had rested.
This was a problem. She was not supposed to be feeling things. This was a contract. A business arrangement. Twelve months and then they would go their separate ways.
Harper's phone buzzed. A text from Jessie. "How was the dinner?"
"Fine. Normal. Business stuff."
"You okay? You sound weird."
Harper stared at her phone. Was she okay? She was not sure anymore.
"Just tired. Talk tomorrow?"
"Sure. Love you."
"Love you too."
Harper got ready for bed, but she could not stop replaying the evening. The zipper incident. Sebastian's hand on her back. The way he had looked at her when he said "Look at her" to the investors.
In his room, Sebastian was having similar thoughts. He had crossed a line tonight. Multiple lines. He should not have let his hand linger on her back during the zipper incident. Should not have kept touching her all through dinner. Should not have looked at her like she was someone real instead of someone he was paying to play a role.
But Harper had felt so warm under his hands. And when she had looked up at him with those eyes, Sebastian had forgotten for a moment that this was pretend. He had forgotten about the contract and the arrangement and the careful boundaries they had established.
That was dangerous. He could not afford to forget what this was. Harper was helping him solve a business problem. That was all. The fact that she was beautiful and smart and made him laugh did not change anything.
Except it did. It changed everything.
Sebastian pulled out his phone and stared at it for a long time before typing a message.
"About tonight. I may have crossed some boundaries. I apologize."
He deleted it without sending. That would just make things awkward. Better to pretend nothing had happened. Better to go back to the careful distance they had been maintaining.
His phone buzzed. A text from Harper. "Thanks again for helping with the zipper."
Sebastian stared at the message. It was just a thank you. Nothing more.
"Anytime," he typed back.
Except he knew that if he helped her with a zipper again, if he touched her back again, if she looked at him again the way she had tonight, he was not sure he would be able to maintain the professional distance this arrangement required.
In her room, Harper read Sebastian's response and felt her heart do something complicated in
her chest.
This was a problem. A big problem. But she did not know how to fix it without admitting that something had shifted between them tonight.
Something neither of them was ready to acknowledge.