Chapter 2
Harm was holding her, his arm still wrapped around her waist, the hand at her shoulder slipping down her arm. She stared at him stupidly and the awkwardness of bumping into him not even two feet from the door. She felt the warm spread of a blush and immediately shored up her walls.
"Hi." Mac cleared her throat when the word came out so softly she was sure he couldn't hear her above the jazzy Christmas tunes. "Hi back. You can let me go now."
He stared at her more than a little confused as his brain began to work again. Besides that hug in Tehran, this was the closest he'd been to her in years. And damn did she feel good in his arms, the time apart had only served to make her sexier.
She wore subtle make up, a little eyeliner and mascara to make her amazing eyes shine. A brush of light pink lipstick over pouty lips his eyes helplessly dropped to. Her hair was long, dropping to her shoulders and curled at the ends so that it framed her elegant face. As his arms dropped away, he stared appreciatively at the red dress that was mostly hidden beneath an opened black coat. It came down just above her knees, exposing a little bit of skin that was otherwise hidden by knee high black suede boots.
"Sorry. Just making sure you didn't teeter off those heels." Harm helped her out of the coat, turning to place it in the closet by door. When he turned back to face her, he got a better view of that dress. She would put all other women to shame including the Academy professor Mikey's wife was trying to set him up with. The blonde was stunning but Mac was radiant and he mentally kicked himself yet again.
Since their last meeting he wondered how the surefire litigator in him could clam up so badly before a woman he still loved, a woman he raced to in effort to conquer. Harm didn't need to leave the Allegiance or follow the NCIS agents. Besides his help on the carrier he had nothing else to offer.
It was her. He practically cajoled his way to tag along all for her. Once she stepped out of that black SUV in an empty parking lot his heart exploded. His nerves had never been so on edge, it would have been easier to trap a Tomcat at night on heavily pitching decks. She was all cool, confident and Harm knew his awkwardness showed.
He actually extended his hand to shake hers only to have Mac bat it away in order to embrace him. That was his chance, the opening she gave him.
There had been at least eight different conversations he planned to have with Mac. Four used words, one involved his lips on hers and the rest required a soft bed with long hours of lovemaking.
How was it that all of his bravado, his questions, his attempt to get them back together failed completely? When they met again at the hotel bar he was at a loss for words. Arrogantly he thought that grand gesture of coming to her meant something. It backfired just like it had
at that blasted cab stand in Paraguay when Mac destroyed him with a few calculated words.
She'd been just as meticulous and he was just as upset only this time, he was angry at himself. Fate had brought them together yet again, it was a chance most would never get and he blew it. Like some prepubescent idiot he floundered and gave up. Once he came to his senses, Mac was gone, having hopped on a plane back to the States as fast as those heels could carry her.
The flight back to the Allegiance had been one of deep introspection. He'd be hard pressed to understand how they split or why they never married. He thought they were happy and realized too late that neither of them were. Their dynamic had fizzled, he became complacent and simply tried to fix everything rather than find why it was broken in the first place.
She was unhappy and he blamed himself for it which was why leaving to a carrier made sense. He'd leave, give her space not knowing it would wreck whatever good was left of them.
Nine years. A split that he believed wouldn't last more than a few months had stretched into nine mostly miserable years. Without Mac there was nothing to fill the empty spots in his life so he threw himself into work and advancement.
There had been a few women in his life, a couple he knew weren't the forever kind but he needed the distraction once he was back on land. None of them could hold a candle to Mac. It pissed him off that he couldn't move on so he just stopped trying. But when her name was said over that video call, Harm felt that fate had placed her in his path.
Tonight, it seemed like fate was trying again, maybe a little too hard given how he nearly knocked her off her feet.
Mac motioned with her head towards the party. "I'd better see if Harriet needs me."
"I was hoping I'd see you." Harm spat out before she slipped away. His eyes scanned her fully now, how the dress wrapped around her curves and a simple linked silver necklace exposed her neck. "You're beautiful...I mean, that dress...that dress is beautiful."
She raised a brow, an action Mac did out of amusement or annoyance, this time it was a combination of both. A fire was building inside of her and it wasn't the good kind so that when he leaned in to touch her, she backed away. "Oh, he speaks."
Crap. Mac thought, wincing when he did. That wasn't a fair blow given how she never let him speak or offer time for Harm to gather his thoughts. He'd been shell shocked to see her again, the sudden meeting had even left her apprehensive. What was it that Hetty said? 'The final chapter isn't written yet.'
"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for." Mac raised her hands in surrender and sighed. This time, when he reached for her she let him, shivering when his palm moved over the bare skin of her arm.
"No, you're right. I flew out there to see you and...and I didn't know what to say. It was surreal...I should have kept in touch. We were best friends once."
In a way, he was the only best friend she ever knew. The one who would run to a war zone to save her, the one who knew about her past and still stood by her side. She was just as terrible at keeping in touch but heartache did such things.
"I didn't call or write to you either and you're right, we were best friends...Somehow we lost that."
"I want that back."
"Yeah. Me too."
Mac extended her hand to him once he took it she spoke. "Hi, I'm Sarah MacKenzie...You can call me Mac."
"Harmon Rabb Jr." He shook her hand and ignored the same electric charge, the warmth which spread between them as it had when they first met at a rose garden. "Call me Harm."
