by Maya Blake
His gaze dropped to the figurine and back to her face. ‘I want you to reconsider my job offer.’ He raised his hand when she started to protest. ‘On a contract basis. I’m thinking of branching into Eastern Europe. My sources took far too long to locate the rightful owners of the Matryoshka dolls. Use your contacts to verify the pedigree of the pieces I acquire.’
‘You must have a thousand employees who can do that for you.’
‘One thousand and one has a nice ring to it.’
He named the price of her employment and her mouth dropped open. That sort of money would make a huge difference to the lives of so many in her support group.
When he reached over and tugged her chin up with one long finger, heat stole through her, followed closely by suspicion.
‘You wouldn’t happen to be making this offer because you’re hoping I’ll end up in your bed, would you?’
‘You’ll end up there whether you take the job or not.’
His sheer audacity stole her breath away. She didn’t bother to argue with him because she was beginning to recognise the futility of it. Instead she picked up the box, grabbed her bag and headed for the door. He was there before her, opening the door for her, a look in his eyes that made her alternately want to keep staring into those grey depths and run and hide.
She didn’t want to be the focus of Damion’s attention. And yet she wasn’t running in the opposite direction as she ought to.
He smiled, and a shiver, delicious and intense, washed over her. Desperately she pushed it away. She couldn’t afford to let her guard down where Damion was concerned. The woman he thought he was pursuing no longer existed.
‘Keep building those barriers against me,’ he drawled. ‘I’ll take great pleasure in knocking them down.’
‘I wasn’t building barriers. I was considering your job offer.’
He took the box from her and led her through the lobby towards the car. ‘And?’
‘I’m leaning towards yes.’
He smiled. ‘Bravo, ma cherie.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means you’re not as afraid of this thing between us as I thought.’
‘Or it could be that that I can’t resist fattening my bank account with easy money.’
Damion waved away his driver and opened the door himself. Once they were in the car, he stashed the box on the seat across from them, reached across and pulled her body into his.
‘If you’re trying to put me off by making me think you’re mercenary, don’t forget I know what you did with the million dollars. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably what you intend to do with the commission money, and why you’ve liquidated most of your assets.’
Her stunned gasp earned a smug smile.
‘You’ve just confirmed it. What is it, exactly?’ he asked.
She licked her lips. ‘It’s a fund for victims of natural and man-made disasters,’ she murmured.
For several seconds he said nothing. Then he curved his fingers around her nape and yanked her against his body. His kiss was every bit as devastating as it had been last night, every bit as mind-melting. When he cupped her breast, the sensation was so powerful, so intensely arousing, she wanted to crawl into his lap and demand more. Instead she forced herself to pull back.
Darkened eyes stared at her from a face carved with arousal before they dropped to linger on her lips.
‘What was that?’ she asked through lips that tingled wildly.
‘A kiss. One of many that will form part of my artillery.’
She squeezed her eyes shut as her breath shuddered out. Even when he grasped her hand and trailed a path of kisses over it, she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. The weakening in her belly told her she’d need all of her reserves to fight what Damion seemed bent on doing to her.
‘Can we just go, please? I don’t want to be late.’
‘Certainement. Give me the address.’
She read it out to him and he passed it to the driver. For the hour-long drive to the crisis centre where she was meeting her client, Damion kept hold of her hand. Every time she tried to pull it back, he tightened his grip. In the end, she allowed him to keep it.
Returning the jade figurine that had been in her client’s family for countless generations brought a lump to Reiko’s throat that remained there long after she’d left the very grateful client behind.
She felt Damion’s heavy gaze on her before he spoke. ‘You’ve just proved my point.’
‘What point?’
‘That you don’t do this for the money.’
She shrugged. ‘I gave her my word that I’d find and return what was taken from her. She trusted me. I wasn’t about to let her down.’
‘Who do you trust, Reiko?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘If you trusted enough to share, you wouldn’t be carrying that rock of pain inside you.’
She inhaled sharply, the depth of the pain that lanced through her stealing her breath. ‘How dare you?’
‘You’re keeping me at bay because you’re afraid to trust your instinct.’
‘You threatened Trevor and me with jail unless you got your way. Five years ago you walked away from me without a backward glance. You think I ought to just drop everything and trust you?’
‘I’ve kept my end of the bargain—I’ve left Ashton alone. As of this morning, the balance of his debt is zero.’
Surprise shot through her. ‘You … Why would you do that?’
‘With you in jail, I don’t get what I want. And I want you.’
‘You paid off Trevor’s debts in the hopes of getting into my pants?’
A distasteful look crossed his face. ‘There’s your tell. When you feel backed into a corner, you become crude. Some men might find that sexy—’
‘But you don’t?’
‘I’m more concerned with the why. You were downing tequila shots last night because you can’t handle what is happening between us.’
Forcefully, she pulled away from him. This time he let her go. ‘Downing shots is way better than your alternative!’
He stiffened. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘You had a year-long affair with a married woman. A married woman with children!’ The depth of her disgust rose like bile within her.
His hauntingly beautiful face hardened, his cheekbones standing out so prominently, he seemed hewn from marble. ‘Don’t presume to think you know—’
‘Oh, please! Everyone knows you destroyed Isadora Baptiste’s marriage, then discarded her when it suited you. Is it true you wouldn’t let her see her children for six whole months?’
His jaw clenched. ‘No. That’s not true.’
‘You can have any woman you want, Damion. Why would you break a family apart like that?’ Her throat felt raw.
‘I didn’t—’
‘You know what? This really isn’t any of my business. Just like my life is none of yours.’ Rapping on the partition, she asked the driver to pull over.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ he demanded.
‘I have a sudden urge to feed my goldfish. I don’t know when I’ll be back, so don’t wait up for me.’
Stepping out, she struck out blindly—just plunged into the throng of people and let them carry her. She didn’t realise where she was until she heard the eerie, hauntingly familiar sound of an approaching train.
Desperately she tried to step back. Panic clawed at her insides. A scream scrambled to get out despite her every effort to keep it down.
The train arrived and she felt herself being pushed forward.
No!
Almost as if she had no control over her limbs, Reiko went with the crowd … and stepped onto the train.
Paralysed with fear, she clung to the nearest pole. She wouldn’t break down. She couldn’t. They’d arrive at the next stop in minutes.
Think about something else.
Taking huge gulps to calm her nerves, she scrambled arou
nd—and shut her eyes with a sense of inevitability when her mind alighted on its favourite subject.
Damion.
Ever since Damion had crashed his way into Trevor’s house and back into her life, she hadn’t been able to take a full breath. Her body and mind felt on edge, as if she was on a roller coaster that was speeding faster and faster, every sign pointing to its careening out of control. And, try as she might, she couldn’t find the ‘off’ button.
This is crazy.
‘It’s nothing compared to what will happen if you ever run from me like that again.’ The deep, quietly livid tones of the man haunting her made her already hammering heart skitter out of control.
Reiko swivelled to find him behind her, molten grey eyes glaring down her, his chest heaving as if he’d ran a marathon.
She wanted to demand why he’d followed her, why he was in her head so she couldn’t think of anything else. But she knew if she dared to open her mouth her whole world would collapse. So she stared up at him, fighting just to keep breathing. Frantically, she searched for the countdown to the next stop.
‘Don’t think I will hesitate to restrain you if you try to run from me again.’
Reiko didn’t doubt he meant it. But staying on the train was so much worse than Damion’s threats. Distressed, she bit her lip. His gaze dropped to her mouth, then rose to rake her face. His dark frown intensified.
‘Reiko? Are you okay?’
Lips clamped shut, she desperately shook her head.
His arm surrounded her immediately, caging her in his protective warmth. The scent of his aftershave filled her nostrils. Helplessly needing him, she clung to him for dear life. His arms tightened around her and she raised her head to look at him.
He stared right back at her, then gave a grim smile. ‘We’ll go and feed your fish. Then we’ll talk. No excuses this time. It’s time to remove these barriers between us once and for all.’
Damion barely succeeded in hiding his relief when she sagged into him, but his insides clenched with the knowledge that something was seriously wrong with Reiko. Her face was pale and her grip tightened on his jacket at the barest movement of the train. Confusion rumbled through him.
There had never been a choice as to whether he’d follow her or not. In fact the need had been so visceral he hadn’t paused a millisecond to examine it. His head of security would probably be having a coronary, because Damion was sure the team hadn’t made the train. He’d barely made it.
He, who’d never chased a woman in his life, who took pains to extricate himself from a liaison at the first sign of clinginess, had just chased a woman down a heaving subway and through several train carriages, a chasm of fear gaping wide at the thought that he’d lost her.
She cast furtive glances at him. He remained silent. He needed time to process exactly what was going on inside him.
His gaze wandered over her slightly parted lips, the wide, beautifully shaped eyes, the wild abandon of her hair, the small but perfectly shaped body, the thin edge of the scar that ended beside her right ear.
He wanted her as he’d never wanted another woman—so much so his insides quaked with the thought of not having her.
What he didn’t understand was why. He’d taken steps never to associate himself with the sort of woman he’d found Reiko out to be shortly after he’d walked away. Women like his mother, and especially his grandmother, who’d created so much unhappiness in his own childhood.
And yet here he was …
‘How many more stops?’ he asked, absently noting that his voice wasn’t quite as steady as he wanted it to be. He wanted to get off the train. To drag her into a distant cave, look into her eyes and uncover her every last secret. He wanted no secrets between them.
He’d pretended Isadora’s secrets were harmless until it had been too late …
‘One more.’
‘Do you live alone?’ The sudden thought that she might not hit him with a force of a tornado.
‘No, I have a boy toy tied to my bed. You’d just be cramping our—’
He grabbed her chin and shut her up the best way he knew how. Her breath whooshed into his mouth, sending a hot tide of want surging through him. Damion didn’t care where they were or who was watching. The kiss fired up his whole body, making him yearn, making him crave her …
Mon Dieu, it was almost as if … as if … he was obsessed.
He jerked back from her, a sudden chill slamming through his need. His head reeled.
Her eyes widened, looking up at him with an almost frightened expression. He wanted to tell her not to be frightened but he knew he couldn’t make such an assurance.
The train pulled into the station and he lifted her in his arms. The look of naked relief on her face finally clued him in as to what was going on with her. His pace quickened as he mounted the steps with her arms clamped tight around him. The contact fired through his whole body, adding to the sheer surrealism of the whole situation.
He kept her close, protecting her from the lunchtime throng as they made their way out of the station into the sunlight. When she tried to wriggle free, he held on.
‘Which way?’
‘Past the traffic lights and up the hill. My apartment is on the left,’ she murmured.
He moved before she’d finished speaking, his stride long and purposeful, fuelled by a need so strong he felt every inch of skin suffused by it.
Obsession …
No, he was overreacting to a word that had no bearing on what was going on between him and Reiko.
Obsession had been his father and his grandfather’s disease.
It had been Isadora’s.
He’d left every connotation of it behind in Arizona. The fact that it had popped into his head as he’d kissed Reiko meant nothing. It held no power over him if he didn’t give it room. He sucked in a deep breath.
‘Put me down, Damion. Your bodyguards are watching us. How did they get here so fast anyway?’
He kept on walking, his arms tightening around her. ‘GPS on my phone. They’ve been following us since we came out of the train station.’
The SUV rolled behind them as they strode up the hill.
‘And they’re going to be camped outside my apartment the whole time?’
‘Unless you attack me with a butter knife. In which case I hit the alarm on my watch and they crash in commando-style.’
The smile he’d been looking for didn’t materialise. In fact she grew paler the closer they got to her apartment. She knew the brevity of the next few hours.
So did he.
Her apartment was spacious, light and tastefully decorated. Eastern-influenced rugs decorated the wooden floors and Chinese and Japanese art graced the walls. A huge painting of a cherry-blossom tree took up almost one entire wall. One extra-large sofa dominated the room, behind which stood a very masculine-looking oak screen.
After dropping her bag on a nearby table, she hit a switch.
The opposite wall glowed yellow, then red. The next minute three fat orange holographic goldfish glided past.
He glanced at her. Despite her drawn features, a small smile curved her lips. ‘You didn’t believe me, did you?’
‘I’m interested to see how the feeding part comes into it. It is, after all, the reason you ran away from me.’
She looked him square in the eye. ‘I’ve stopped running.’
The jolt that went through his system threatened to knock him off his feet. When she turned away from him, Damion curbed the strong urge to pull her back. Instead he shoved his restless hands in his pockets and followed her into the kitchen.
‘You’re willing to open yourself up to me?’
She stiffened in the process of pulling open the fridge door. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Baron. Like my lovely goldfish out there, I’m an acquired taste. I’m pretty sure the minute you find out what’s lurking underneath you’ll run a mile.’ A shadow of pain crossed her face.
His jaw tightened. ‘You’re
making presumptions again, Reiko.’
Her small smile held even more pain. Somewhere in the region of his chest, a dull fire of anger took hold of him.
‘We’ll see. I can make us some lunch. Are you allergic to anything I should know about?’ she asked.
‘Only being prejudged. What happened on the train?’
Her fingers tightened around the bottle of sake she’d pulled out from the fridge.
‘Don’t you want something to eat?’ she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
‘No.’ Food was the last thing on his mind.
When she remained frozen where she stood, he opened cupboards until he located glasses. He took the bottle from her hand, poured and handed one glass to her.
The sake was the vilest he’d ever tasted, but he drank it anyway.
‘The train, Reiko? What happened?’
She made a sound of distress, sagged against the sink and closed her eyes. ‘My father … The crash two years ago … It happened on a train in Osaka.’
Reiko heard his sharp inhalation, felt the force of his fixed gaze upon her, knew the moment he strode forward and gasped as he lifted her into his arms. With quick strides he went into the living room.
When he deposited her at the end of the sofa, she finally opened her eyes. She saw him disappear into the kitchen and return with their drinks.
Her heart hammered as he took a seat next to her. She knew with every fibre of her being that once she told him he would leave and she’d most likely never see Damion again. The thought made her heart ache. Her gaze travelled over him, avidly keeping a record of the perfection of the man sitting a mere touch away.
‘You’re breaking the rules.’ The edginess in his tone belied the lazy hand he lifted to take a sip of his drink.
‘What rules?’
‘Keeping our hands off each other until we’ve talked.’
‘But … I haven’t touched you!’
‘Ce n’est pas vrai. Your eyes are touching me as surely as your hands yearn to. But first things first. If your father died in a train crash, why do you think it was your fault?’
Her breath caught. ‘I … I forced him to go on the train. He didn’t want to. I blackmailed him into it.’
‘How?’