by Zara Cox
I swallowed my knotted heartache and lowered the phone long enough to check the time. ‘I have to go, Mom.’
She didn’t respond for a long moment. ‘New Jersey isn’t the other side of the world, Neve.’
It felt like it most days. ‘I know. I’ll visit when I can.’
I ended the call with shaking fingers and lacerated emotions. I straightened my spine and attempted to pull myself together. My problems with my mother weren’t going to go away any time soon. But I was going to be late to dinner if I didn’t move my ass.
I was shown to our table mere minutes before Damian walked through the restaurant. His laser-sharp gaze fixed on me as he strode through the room, again oblivious to the heads he turned with the sheer jaw-dropping magnificence of his presence.
Even with the width of the table between us, his sexual dynamism hit me like a wild tropical wave. Right up until he froze, his eyes narrowing. ‘Is everything okay?’
I bit the inside of my lip, cursing the shaky composure that hadn’t quite righted itself since the call with my mother. ‘I’m fine.’
He sat down, no...he lounged as if he owned the place, drawing attention to the dark olive-green shirt that clung to his streamlined torso, the open collar revealing a swathe of hair-dusted skin that made me itch with that infernal need. The casual jacket and matching trousers were also dark, the overall effect nothing short of spectacular.
When he flicked open the single button to his jacket, I shifted in my seat, desperately wishing I were immune to his obscenely handsome face. A little perturbed, I busied myself powering off my phone, while attempting to tamp down my body’s involuntary reaction, deny the effect of that unnerving stare as it continued to sizzle deep inside me.
As there had been two years ago, there was a mildly puzzled texture to his stare that thrilled me with the possibility that he couldn’t help his visceral reaction to me.
Was that why he’d behaved so appallingly after our night together?
Why are you finding reasons to excuse his behaviour?
And what did it matter now, when I could use it to my advantage? ‘There are a hundred other deals out there that you could put your name to. Why are you intent on attaching yourself to Fantasy Rooms?’
His mouth twisted slightly and the heat lessened in his eyes. ‘So much for thinking this would be a cordial dinner.’
‘I don’t have time to beat around the bush.’
The waiter approached. Damian ordered a bottle of water, then raised his eyebrow at me.
‘A glass of Chablis, thanks.’
The waiter nodded and left.
Damian eyed me. ‘It’s a great business opportunity. The Mortimer Group owns thousands of hotel rooms across the world. A concept like this, with innovative marketing targeted at an exclusive clientele, could eventually add considerable revenue to the business. And once you get over your dislike of me you’ll realise this could be hugely beneficial to you too, regardless of my involvement. Or perhaps even because of it,’ he tagged on after a few seconds.
‘Deals struck on the show are binding, but there’s a cooling-off period, isn’t there?’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Are you attempting to insult me again?’
I shrugged. ‘I’m merely triple-checking facts.’
‘Triple-checking or trying to piss me off?’
I sent him a saccharine smile. ‘Which one suits you best?’
‘Careful, Neve, or you might get a reaction you’re not entirely ready for.’ His gaze didn’t stray from my face but I felt as if he’d stripped me bare, branded my skin with his words. And more.
‘I’m a big girl. I can handle myself. And while we’re discussing the subject of handling, let’s talk about your so-called role.’
One corner of his mouth tilted. ‘So-called? You make it sound imaginary.’
‘You know exactly what I’m talking about.’
‘You’re still hung up on rumours?’
I raised my eyebrow and waited.
‘Tell my why you looked troubled when I arrived and I’ll tell you.’
My stomach dropped in alarm. ‘We’re not here to get personal. We’re here to—’
‘Discuss business. I know. But my reasons are personal. And you’ve been probing all week. So those are my terms.’
‘I could get up and walk out of here. You know that, don’t you?’
‘And leave all those questions buzzing in your head unanswered? I don’t think so.’
I needed ammunition; to probe his weaknesses to achieve my own goals. If I had to give a little to gain a lot... ‘Phone call with my mother a little while ago. We have a...fraught relationship.’
His gaze remained steady on me. Penetrating. Almost...encouraging.
I dropped mine to the table, a little puzzled as to why I felt compelled to elaborate. ‘She’s my only remaining relative. The one I’ve had the longest relationship with even though it’s been difficult at best.’
‘And you hate failing. So you persevere,’ he stated simply.
Icy chills chased over my skin at those simple, insightful words. ‘I’m human. I don’t actively like failing.’
He continued to watch me, his gaze far too knowing. Slowly his expression altered, becoming... understanding. And not at all to what I wanted. ‘We both know it’s more than that. We’re all marked in some way by dynamics we can’t control until it’s too late. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.’
My instincts blared dire warnings. Much as they had two years ago. But I remained seated, arranging my own features into a question. One he was required to answer now I’d exposed a precious layer of my skin.
His lips compressed. ‘It’s true. I’m wrapping things up in the States. I’m returning to London in a matter of weeks.’
‘Because you’re bored?’
‘Because it’s long bloody overdue,’ he returned in a gruff whisper, as if the words were torn from his soul.
The waiter arrived, setting down our drinks with barely a murmur, as if afraid of disturbing the atmosphere. We ordered our food after a cursory look at the menu and I barely registered his retreat.
‘You sound as if it’s been a prison sentence.’ The mild scorn I attempted failed. In its place was a quietly churning urgency. A fierce need to understand this man. To understand why.
I wrapped my fingers around the bulb of my wine glass and waited.
His jaw rippled with tension. A shamefully heated part of me wanted to run my lips over the spot. To taste the chaos. ‘A prison sentence is finite, even if one’s release is via death. Mine is...fluid.’
‘And you think running from it will solve your problem?’
That bleak darkness I’d glimpsed two years ago blazed through his eyes. ‘You misunderstand. I’m done running from it. I’m returning to it.’
Facts gleaned from research clattered among the industry rumours I’d absorbed over time and informed my response. ‘You’re supposed to be co-CEO of The Mortimer Group and yet your title doesn’t state that.’
‘To be co-CEO I have to be an active member of the board. I’m currently not.’
‘Because of your fluid sentence?’
He cracked open his bottle of water, pouring it with an intense focus that made me think he wasn’t going to respond. Then he shrugged. ‘Like you, I don’t like failure. But I understand the wisdom of a tactical retreat. I didn’t expect mine to last three years.’
‘Who?’ I asked boldly.
Again, time stretched, a tensile cord that vibrated with every mercurial sensation that’d connected us since the moment we’d set eyes on each other.
It seemed a little obscene to be thinking of sex in this moment but the second his gaze clashed with mine, I was back on my knees in that hotel room, staring up at him with parted lips, inviting him to lose himself in me.
/> Intuitively, I knew he was in that moment too. His fingers curled a little too forcefully around his glass, his eyes gleaming with fiercer fire.
Through it all, my question clawed at the air between us. Demanding a response.
‘Gideon. My cousin. We had a disagreement. In hindsight, retreat was a mistake.’
His answers were bullet-sharp, wrapped in bitterness, a deeper, more potent strain of what I’d witnessed two years ago. Funny thing was it seemed aimed at himself.
This time I knew better than to entertain sympathy, to get carried away with even the remotest delusion of saving him. Hell, I couldn’t even save my own broken relationship with my mother.
‘What makes you think you can fix anything now? What makes you think you can reverse time and fix something you turned to ashes?’ I demanded with all the bitterness lodged in my heart.
CHAPTER FIVE
Damian
WE’D TAKEN A wrong turn somewhere. And I didn’t need a compass to know that the fault was mine. My motives tonight hadn’t been wholly altruistic, true. But I hadn’t anticipated this...deep dive into matters I never discussed with anyone.
My plan when I’d challenged Neve into spending more time with me had been to delve into a conundrum of my own. To uncover why she still remained irresistible despite her bristling hostility. Why she made my cock hard by simply walking into a room when she was far from easy or accommodating.
The problem was that I wanted her. So bloody much it’d taken on a life of its own this past week. I wasn’t so far gone as to label it an obsession but...
My cock hardened, throbbing with a terrible ache that made me shift in my seat.
Bloody hell. Was I so fucked up now that this sort of thing turned me on? She was responsible for the broken curse on my libido, sure. Since our night in Boston I’d fucked three other women. Carefully vetted, willing women. None of them had come close to plumbing the depths of the peculiar hunger that had tunnelled itself into unreachable places inside me.
That hunger accelerated out of control with each moment I spent in Neve’s presence. But alongside that craving for the kind of filthy, sublime sex that’d taken me out of my head for a blessed few hours was another unspeakable yearning.
To simply...know her. I shifted again but this time my unease had nothing to do with the ache in my dick and everything to do with the need to answer the censure in her eyes.
‘The past is the past. It can’t be changed. But I can control how the future pans out.’
‘So he should simply accept that you’ve done your time? That you’ll impose your will on him whether he wants it or not?’ she demanded sharply.
‘I intend to lay out the evidence and let three years of time and distance provide their own clarity.’ And yes, if necessary, force Gideon to confront what we’ve both been hiding from—that the betrayal wasn’t as cut and dried as we initially believed. That, according to what the investigators had uncovered, he’d had a lucky escape.
Neve’s response was curtailed by the waiter’s arrival. He set our plates before us in a silent flourish before making himself scarce again.
She made no move to pick up her cutlery. I wasn’t in the mood to eat either.
‘What?’ I asked when she stared at me with mild disbelief.
‘I’m trying to decide if you’re that much of a hypocrite or just plain egotistical.’
I ignored the sharp pang in my chest. ‘I’ve been called many things in my time. Thankfully I have a thick skin. And I also think it’s time we refocus on why we’re here.’
The quicker we did that, the sooner I could address the pressing problem of the need to fuck this woman into oblivion at the earliest opportunity.
I watched her fight whatever was eating at her. Seconds ticked by before she blinked her gorgeous blue eyes and picked up her fork.
Something like relief spiked up my spine. ‘I asked my team to find a location for my Fantasy Room. As of half an hour ago it was a toss-up between Mortimer Plaza London and a château I own in the Bordeaux region of France.’ I locked my gaze on hers. ‘I’m leaning towards the latter.’
‘Why are you telling me this?’
‘We wrap up Raider’s Den filming next Wednesday. We can be in France by Thursday to inspect the second set-up.’
She froze. ‘You want me to go to France with you?’
‘Why not? I’m coming to Westport tomorrow. As majority partner in this deal, I thought you’d welcome the opportunity to see more than one. I’ve already spoken to Sam and Tyler. They’re on board with the schedule.’
‘You made plans with my partners without me?’ Hell, even her prickly tone was sexy. I suspected very little detracted from Neve’s allure.
‘We had a conversation. As a consultant, I believe I’m allowed to do that. If you object to any part of it, feel free to speak up when we meet tomorrow.’
‘I have a business to run. I can’t just fly off to France.’
‘You’re looking to expand into Europe. This could be the perfect opportunity to do some on-the-ground scouting.’
Her lips compressed, drawing my attention to them. Reminding me how it felt to slide my length between them, how enthusiastically she’d sucked me off. My balls hardened to stone.
Fucking hell.
‘I don’t need to. I know exactly where my expansion vision will take me.’
Her bristling demeanour told me she didn’t intend to share it with me.
I sighed. ‘Look, I know you don’t want me anywhere near this deal but I have no intention of walking away so it’ll benefit us both if we’re on the same page when it comes to dealing with Sam and Tyler.’
‘What will it take to get you to walk away?’
For one dirty little second I was tempted to give in to my basest instinct. Tell her another night in her bed. Another mind-blowing night fucking her every which way she allowed me, just so I could be cured of this insatiable craving.
But that knotted need in my gut stopped me. That need that had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with...something else.
Jesus.
‘Right now, in this moment? Nothing, darling. But feel free to ask again in a month’s time.’
Her eyes darkened with quiet fury. ‘Don’t call me darling.’
‘Why? Does it remind you of Boston?’ I dared because one of us had to acknowledge this entity threatening to consume me alive. And as much as she’d pretended otherwise, I’d seen her checking me out all week when she thought I wasn’t looking. ‘Does it remind you of when you begged me to make you come, darling? Make that tight, wet pussy even wetter with my tongue before I pounded you into a screaming orgasm?’
A deep blush stained her cheeks and her fork clattered to the table. With adorably uncoordinated movements, she called over the waiter, snapped open her purse and handed over her credit card. ‘I think I’ve lost my appetite.’
‘All your appetites? Or just for food?’
She surged to her feet and I got a control-shredding view of the way her dress clung to every mouth-watering curve. Curves I wanted to plunder in every decadent way available.
‘This meeting was clearly a waste of time.’
I dragged my gaze to her stunning face. ‘I disagree. I’d say we’ve both learned a few things about each other.’
Her chin lifted. ‘Like what?’
‘Like the fact that this insane chemistry between us isn’t going away. The fact that I want to pin you up against the nearest wall and taste every delicious inch of you, starting with your pussy, which I’m willing to bet is wet right now. If you stop bristling long enough to take a breath, you’ll admit you want that too.’
The charged step she took towards my chair granted me an even better view of her spectacular legs. And the hard bullets of her nipples outlined clearly against her dress.
&nbs
p; Fuck.
My breath knotted in my lungs as she bent forward, placed her hand on my chest and brought her lips to my ear. ‘Here’s the thing, darling. You’re right. I won’t deny that something about you makes my pussy ache. Something about you makes me want to rip your clothes off and ride you until one of us stops breathing. But tell me, Damian, why would I lower myself into fucking an asshole who will only turn around and stab me in the back again come morning?’
It was a testament of my shoddy state of mind that she was halfway out of the restaurant before her words registered.
But not even the cold drench of those words could put out the flames in my groin as I staggered to my feet and went after her.
Neve had a few things to answer.
Right before I fucked us both into next week.
Neve
I’d barely kicked off my shoes and tossed my clutch onto the sofa before he knocked. Hard and insistent.
Just like last time, I didn’t bother checking the peephole before I opened the door. ‘This feels like déjà vu. Of the unpleasant kind.’
His shrug was easy. Self-assured and sexy as hell. ‘Last time I invited you to tell me to leave. This time I’m not going until we clear up a few things.’
‘This isn’t your hotel. I can have Security up here in minutes.’
‘But you won’t. I’m not a physical threat to you and we both know it.’
I hated how he could read me. How he could tunnel past all the bullshit to the heart of my unwelcome needs. Like right now. He was looking at me as if he knew not only the anger in my heart but how much I was still turned on from our little exchange downstairs. He wasn’t exactly smirking about it but the knowledge was a solid, writhing thing between us.
‘What do you want, Damian?’ I snapped, hanging on tight to the door handle despite the frantic need to seize my chance, throw it wide open, let him in. Let him inside me.
‘First of all, you forgot this.’ He held up his hand to show my credit card tucked between his fingers.