by Penelope Sky
“I didn’t say that. Just wondering what it’s for.” Once his tie was tied, he came up behind me and placed his large hands on my bare shoulders. His fingers gently dug into me, warm and callused.
“Charity.”
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my exposed shoulder. “Like I’m gonna let my beautiful wife go out alone dressed like this.” He kissed me again, this time moving to my neck. He smelled my hair before he straightened. He turned away and moved to his dresser, where his wedding ring sat. “And I’m happy to be with you, wherever you are.”
We stepped into the crowded ballroom where the attendees wore beautiful gowns and pressed suits. Waiters passed flutes on trays, and guests congregated at the bars for something stronger. Music from the string quartet played, and all the chandeliers were lit with a heavenly glow.
Liam’s arm was around my waist. “Beautiful place.”
“Yeah…” I didn’t expect to see Sofia for a while, not when it was this crowded, but after we got our champagne, I spotted her talking to someone with Hades beside her, her pregnant belly visible in her blue dress. Hades had his arm around her, wearing a dark blue suit like he’d intentionally tried to match her.
We moved toward them just as their previous guest left. “I think this party is a success.”
“Me too.” Sofia hugged me and looked me up and down. “Wow, you look beautiful.”
“Thank you. So do you.” I turned to Liam. “Let me introduce my husband. Liam, this is Sofia.”
Liam shook her hand. “Pleasure to meet you.” He turned to Hades quickly and shook his hand. “Congratulations on the baby. Didn’t know you were expecting.”
Hades returned the gesture. “It’s our second.”
“Then I should congratulate you twice,” Liam said. “Know what you’re having?”
“A boy,” Hades answered immediately. “This will be our second son.”
“That’s great.” Liam returned his arm around my waist. “How old is your first boy?” Their conversation faded away when I became distracted.
By the six-foot-three, sexy-as-hell, gorgeous man on the other side of the room. He held a glass of scotch while he spoke to a few gentlemen, his legs long and toned in the black slacks he wore. His black jacket fit his broad shoulders perfectly, and his jawline was clean-shaven, showing that sexy smile that he flashed once in a while. I knew I wasn’t the only woman in the room staring at him.
His presence hadn’t crossed my mind. I just assumed he wouldn’t be there because he had nothing to do with the Tuscan Rose, and it didn’t seem like the type of event he would want to attend anyway.
Damn, I was wrong.
4
Damien
I felt her before I saw her.
Like the distinct tingle on the back of your neck when the temperature changes in the room, or the ominous feeling you get in your gut when you feel someone watching you, or the inexplicable intuition you sense when you know something is about to happen…good or bad.
That was exactly what I felt.
And then I saw her.
She wore a skintight black dress with four-inch heels, her sexy hips narrowed into a petite waistline. Her sculpted legs were sexy and tanned, visible from mid-thigh all the way to her toes. Her tits were pressed together and perky in the tight ensemble, and the thing she’d done with her hair was sexy. It was exactly the way I pushed her hair off her face, and it made me wonder if she did that on purpose.
She must have felt the same feeling I did, because she turned my way when she felt my stare. Our eyes locked for seconds, both impossible to read. She was the first one to look away, returning to her conversation with Sofia and Hades…and Liam.
His hand was around her waist, his height and size diminishing hers. He seemed bored with the conversation, so he continued to drink the champagne, getting a new glass far quicker than everyone else.
Get a man’s drink, asshole.
I’d known she would be there, but that didn’t prepare me for the way she looked, the way she took my breath away just the way she used to when she was naked and riding my dick in the middle of the night.
It’d been a week since I’d seen her at the hospital. She’d given me a ride to the office, and as we sat in front of the entrance, we had the longest and most silent conversation in the world. It was intense…even though I had no idea what she was thinking.
But I knew what I was thinking.
I assumed after the initial tension was broken, she would become a former flame who dulled into a stranger. But it seemed to get more difficult for us to be in the same room together. When I saw her stained cheeks at the hospital, I didn’t think twice before I comforted her as if I were her man…and she was my woman. I knew she was worried about Sofia, and that triggered her own painful memories of losing her child. I couldn’t explain how I knew that, how I could read her eyes like words on a page, but I could. Knowing she was in pain broke my heart, and I immediately reverted to who we used to be, when I was the man who picked up the pieces of her pain and put them back together.
People continued to come up to me and talk to me, most of them people I knew from the bank. But sometimes, a woman would have the courage to flirt with me, to make small talk as she found an excuse to touch my tie, and then she would slip me her number.
I didn’t even have to try.
That should be a good thing, a victorious feeling. But instead, it made me lift my gaze to look at Annabella, to see if she’d noticed what just happened. She was married, so she shouldn’t care.
But I wanted her to care.
When I looked at where she’d been a moment before, she was gone. Liam was still there, having an intense conversation with Hades as he made punching moves like he was describing his last fight.
She could be anywhere, and there was no way I would find her. But my body seemed to know exactly where she was, like a silent sonar that could pick up her movements through crowds and walls.
And I spotted her through the cracks of people as she headed outside to the balcony. The doors were closed because it was too cold, but she went out there anyway as if she had an objective.
I finished my scotch and left the empty glass on the table before I followed her.
The second I stepped onto the patio, the vapor left my mouth and evaporated into the dry hair. It was thicker than the smoke from my cigars. My suit was a heavy material so I was immune to the cold, but she only wore a little dress that looked practically like lingerie.
I didn’t see her anyway. The patio was large and overlooked the city with lots of seating for guests, but she was nowhere in sight. I walked to the right where the windows disappeared, and I spotted her around the corner where there was a small section of balcony area left. It was out of sight from the building, so it was totally private.
She stood with her hands on the rail, looking out at the lights that shone from the cathedral a few blocks away—where she got married. The wind moved through her hair gently, and her skin was already turning pale because of the cold. Her eyes were lifeless as if she were focused on her thoughts with deep concentration.
I approached her from behind and stripped off my jacket so I could place it around her shoulders. I purposely made my footsteps loud, so she knew she wasn’t alone when I came close. But she seemed to know I was there because she didn’t flinch as the jacket was placed around her petite shoulders. I pulled it tighter over her body so my body heat would stay close to her skin as long as possible before it escaped.
She pushed her arms through the sleeves then hugged it across her body. “Thank you.”
I leaned against the rail with my back to the city, my eyes on the stone wall that comprised the exterior of the ballroom. It was a freezing night, but somehow, I wasn’t cold, not even with the loss of my jacket. “This is where Hades and Sofia spoke for the first time.”
That seemed to distract her from whatever she was thinking about. “Really?” She turned her head toward me, her curls str
etching down one side of her chest. In this light, she looked beautiful, the distant illumination from the cathedral making her eyes glow like she possessed the spirit of an angel.
I nodded. “She was just eighteen, and he was in his twenties.”
“I didn’t realize he was older than her.”
“You would never know, huh?” I slid my hands into my pockets. “But all that booze and cigars will catch up to him soon.”
“And they fell in love right then?”
“No. Hades said she was too young for him. But Sofia didn’t like that answer, so she grabbed him and kissed him so hard, he never forgot about her.”
She smiled.
“And four years later, their paths crossed again…and that’s where it all started.”
“He loves her so much. I can tell by the way he looks at her.”
I nodded. “Yeah…they’re soul mates.”
Her eyes softened when she looked at me. “You believe in that stuff?”
“More than you’ll ever know.” I turned my gaze back to the wall as I remembered the last few years, everything Hades did to keep Sofia as his wife. There was nothing he wouldn’t have done for her.
“You believe there’s one special person out there for everyone?”
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I think some people are soul mates. That’s all.”
“Any other soul mates you know?”
I shook my head. “He’s the only one.”
“Why do you think they are meant for each other?”
I would never tell her the story. She would think I was crazy. “I just do.”
“Like how you just knew the baby would alright?”
“Just like that, actually.”
She stared at me for a while before she looked out at the city. “Why do I feel like there’s something you aren’t telling me?”
How did she know me so well? We were only together for a short time, but she read me in a special way. “Because there is.”
She pivoted her body to me this time, looking at me head on.
“But you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
I stared at her pretty face and almost considered it. “Maybe someday.”
Her pretty eyes continued to shift back and forth and look into mine, her body covered in the enormous jacket. It was the same way she looked in all my clothes, as if she were wearing a blanket. Her curves were covered and her slender neck was nearly invisible, but she still looked so damn beautiful.
Holy fuck.
I kept my hands in my pockets as I stared at her, noticing the way her big diamonds reflected any little flicker of light. She was a woman who wasn’t just sexy in a traditional way, with those long legs and that tight stomach. She had a special glow to her that was unmatched by anyone else. Her beauty was radiant, pure. As I stared at her in that moment, I could honestly say she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
And I’d let her go.
Regret started to wash over me like waves upon stepping into a cold ocean. She was with a man who didn’t deserve her. She was a diamond that had been handed over to a jeweler to be carved into pieces when she deserved to be one magnificent rock.
She held my gaze, her thoughts invisible to me.
I’d give anything to know what she was thinking, to feel her emotions in real time. Did she come out here because that woman gave me her number? Or did she come out here because Liam went into the details of his last victory?
I didn’t ask because the answer wouldn’t make me feel better. “You look beautiful tonight.”
She dropped her gaze for just a moment, the compliment enough to make her cheeks blush with a rosy color that was unmistakable. The cold had pulled her blood away from her extremities to conserve heat, so that reaction was a spike in temperature.
She was the only woman who valued my compliments, who blushed at the simplest words. The only woman who believed in my positive qualities and couldn’t see my flaws. She was the only woman who stared at me like this…as if I was the only man she would ever love.
Why did I let her go?
I stepped closer to her, my face coming into close proximity with hers. It was like at the hospital, when I lost my mind as I tried to comfort her. My hand moved on top of hers on the rail, feeling how cold it was in the nighttime air. My palm smothered her hand and brought it back to life with warmth.
My free hand moved into that curtain of hair, and I tilted her face to meet mine. I stared at her for a long time, my eyes shifting back and forth to see hers doing the same. My thumb brushed over her cheek and touched the corner of her lip. I remembered every kiss, every sweet whisper in the middle of the night, and I suddenly felt empty…like I’d just lost all those things.
My hand cupped the back of her head, and I moved in, transfixed by her beauty, intoxicated by the way she stared at me, moved by the memories of our past. I didn’t think about Liam or anyone else. All I thought about was her, the woman I hadn’t stopped thinking about since the moment she stepped into my office.
And I kissed her.
Her lips were warm and soft, just as I remembered, but they were also now rigid and still. She took a deep breath when she felt me, her body tightening under my grasp.
I kissed her again, feeling that old inferno spark to life at the simplest touch. My chest rumbled with the fire in my heart, and my cold fingertips suddenly felt scalding hot. My hand left hers, and I circled her waist, wanting to pull her into me so I could feel her heartbeat through her clothes.
But I never got the chance.
She pushed me off and stepped back, her fingers moving to her lips like I’d punched her instead of kissed her. She closed her eyes for a moment, self-loathing written on her face. She wiped away my kiss on the jacket before she opened her eyes and looked at me again. There was no desire there anymore. Now, there was just contempt like she hated me. “I’m married.”
I felt terrible. Her rejection stung, but the pain in her voice hurt me more.
She stripped off the jacket and threw it at me. “He cheated on me, but I would never do the same. I’m better than that. I’m bigger than that.” Ferocity was in her gaze, as if she’d lost all respect for me. “Stop doing this, Damien.”
“Doing what?” I asked quietly.
“Using me. You know how I feel about you, and you play me—”
“I’m not playing you.” Was that how it seemed? My feelings were one-hundred-percent genuine.
“Yes, you are. What was your plan? Push me up against that wall and fuck me right here? Then pretend like nothing happened?” Her voice was loud and hysterical, as if she didn’t give a damn if anyone overheard us.
“Annabella, I didn’t have a plan—”
“Fuck you, Damien.” She threw down her arms. “You dumped me because you didn’t want me. You told me not to marry Liam even though you don’t love me. You just want me on your hook. You want me to pine for you because it inflates your ego—”
“That’s not true at all.”
“Just stay away from me, Damien. I mean it.” She held up her hand to keep me back. “You turn me into a person I don’t want to be. You make me desperate, irrational—and now you’re turning me into a woman who cheats on her husband. That’s not who I want to be. That’s not who I’m going to be.” She turned around and walked off.
“Annabella.”
She didn’t stop. She went back into the ballroom and left me there.
Alone.
5
Annabella
I hadn’t realized love could turn to hate so quickly.
Damien played me for a fool, made me sing like the strings of a violin. He turned me into an imbecile, a stupid woman who would abandon everything for a beautiful man.
I was not falling for it…not this time.
I knew who I was, and I wouldn’t falter. I wouldn’t abandon my beliefs just because of the pain in my heart. I wouldn’t
betray the man who loved me. I told Liam I was committed to our marriage, that I wanted to try again. Hooking up with Damien was disrespectful and just wrong.
Damien was an asshole for putting me in that situation. He’d had his chance to be with me, and he declined.
And I wouldn’t be his goddamn side chick.
I sat at the vanity and removed my diamond earrings before I unclasped the necklace from around my throat.
Liam was visible in the reflection behind me. He sat on the edge of the bed and untied his dress shoes before he slipped them off. Then he sat there, staring at me with those intense blue eyes. It wasn’t a gaze packed with desire. It was a different look altogether.
I returned his stare, just as prey looked at the predator before they were attacked.
“Did I do something?” His deep voice shattered the silence of the room, quiet but still innately powerful.
I dropped my gaze in shame. “No.” I’d been angry with Damien since the event on the balcony. After I’d walked inside, I’d calmed down in the bathroom, but when I found Liam in the crowd, I said I was ready to leave…even though the party had just started. “It wasn’t you…”
“Then tell me.”
I hadn’t decided if I was going to tell Liam what happened, but it seemed wrong to lie about it now. When he was with another woman, he came clean and told me. I didn’t appreciate what he did, but I did respect his honesty. He deserved the same from me. “I went to get some air on the balcony…and he joined me.”
Confusion came over his face, digesting the equation I’d just thrown at him. When he cracked it, he turned cold again but also angry. “And what did he do?” He straightened on the bed, his hands gripping each of his thighs, taking a defensive stance.
I dropped my gaze. “Kissed me.”
He wasn’t visible, but his reaction was potent, like deadly gas filling the entire room, entering our lungs and making our eyes smart.