The Last Girl (Sand & Fog #7)

by Susan Ward

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  THREE DAYS WAS ALL I had left to resolve the conundrum of Damon, and the best plan I had was Cody’s get to know him advice. Which was no plan at all because it was the very thing I was trying to avoid.

  I stared at my closed bedroom door. Damon would be out there, like the waves relentlessly crashing up against the shore—it was unsettling to be the shore when you’re always the waves—scattering sand, forcing change, and never letting wonderful rest as it was, perfect and the end.

  I was distracted from my dismal thoughts by a knock on my door. “Can I come in, baby girl?”

  Great. Mom. Not that I don’t love her...

  “Sure, Mom.”

  The door inched open and she peeked in. “Are you doing all right?”

  I nodded.

  “You’ve been spending a lot of time in here.”

  I shrugged. “That’s nothing new, Mom.”

  Her lips pursed as she crossed the room. She sank down beside me on the sectional. “It is when we have guests at the house.”

  “Don’t go there. Damon’s only here to visit with Dad.”

  “If you believe that,” she said, amused, “then you have never paused to notice how Damon looks at you.”

  Wrong. I have. That’s why I’m in my bedroom.

  “He leaves soon. What would be the point?”

  “The point of what, dear?” Mom asked gently.

  “Starting something when it’s going to be over when he leaves here in three days.”

  “If that’s how you see things, I can understand why you’ve been avoiding him.”

  “There’s no other way to see it, Mom.” It choked my throat to say those words and I had to laser-stare at my feet to prevent tears. “A relationship with Damon is an impossible proposition. I can’t be out there with him, and he can’t stay indefinitely here with me. If I encourage him it’s only going to lead to heartbreak for us both.”

  Chrissie kissed me on the top of my head. “You deserve the best of everything, Khloe, every kind of wonderful even if it’s only for three days. You’re too young not to be enjoying life. Follow your heart, baby girl, and not your head. Be smarter than your mother was at your age. Don’t waste a single minute overthinking. Overthinking keeps us from what we want. No matter our age, none of us ever feel like we’ve had enough minutes and we all regret the ones we’ve wasted.”

  Hot, unfamiliar tears prickled my eyes. “But, Mom—”

  “There are no buts, sweetheart,” she whispered in my ear, all loving and comforting. “Three days. Three years. Thirty years. None of us know what we’re going to get when we decide to take the risk to open our heart to someone. That’s the extraordinary thing about love. It’s the only thing that can get us to jump into the unknown. But it’s also the only thing that can make us feel like we’ve lived.”

  Her eyes were sparkly with unshed tears as she released me. Her expression was one of absolute motherly love, and the love I felt for her was overwhelming.

  At the door, she looked back at me as if to confirm I understood, and I nodded. Her endearing smile filled her face.

  The door shut, and I slumped. Mom had Dad. What did she know of heartbreak? What did she know of a life of no tomorrows?

  I’M NOT GOING OUT THERE. I will not see Damon tonight. I opened the door. As I made my way down the hall, the first thing I noticed was most of the lights were out, and my feet slapping the wood floors was the only sound I heard.

  Where is everyone? I hadn’t missed dinner or sunset on the cliffs. There certainly should have been someone somewhere.

  I paused at the kitchen entry and glanced around. Empty. There wasn’t anything cooking either. We couldn’t be having a leftovers à la Manzone night with Damon here. No, that was too ridiculous. So why couldn’t I find food or my family?

  The recording studio was down the next hall and I went there. Maybe Dad was working, Damon was sitting in, and Mom...well, she could be just about anywhere. Nope, door open and no music.

  As I was in this part of the house, I made a fast stop in my parents’ bedroom, but the door being open told me I wouldn’t find anyone there even before I did a fast double-check.

  I tapped my nails against my teeth. Mom wanted me to stop hiding in my bedroom and now I couldn’t find anyone. That was so Mom, so Chrissie.

  I texted her then frowned when there was no response. Radio silence from Mom? This was starting to be ridiculous. Somewhat annoyed, I crossed my folks’ room to the wall of glass facing the ocean.

  Voilà, there was Damon.

  I conceded I probably should have gone to the patio first. My gaze roved over his strong physique as I wondered where he’d disappeared to all day.

  He’d left the house before breakfast. He’d sent me a text shortly after tai chi, a sweet apology that he would be gone most of the day. There hadn’t been details of what he was doing. It shouldn’t have bothered me, but I found that it did because even though I avoided him I wanted to know everything he did.

  It must have been something exciting, important.

  He looked every inch an HRH, a powerful magnet and sensually handsome man, that it made my flesh burn just from looking at him. The rakish fall of his chestnut hair was the only part of him not neat perfection. It was the part of him I liked best. How his hair defied him...and how his tiger eyes brightened with a smile when they looked at me.

  This man had followed me from Paris. Even for a girl who had a life like mine, all the gifts and magical things I’d been given by my parents, it was beyond belief.

  It was then I remembered how I was dressed: comfy leggings and an unspectacular tank top. My face and hair were a hot mess, but then I hadn’t decided to join him tonight until I’d done it.

  Great, Khloe. If he hadn’t held an air of waiting expectance, I would have scrambled back to my room to spruce up a bit as it was clear tonight was going to be a dinner for two again thanks to Mom and Dad being MIA again. People in love were so undependable...

  I adjusted my shirt like it would make a difference before I exited the house to join him. It wasn’t like we were having a date or anything, and seduction didn’t seem Damon’s go-to move even if I were starting to wobble in that direction.

  “Look what the cat dragged out of the house,” I announced as cheerily as I could. It was stupid—the words tumbled from my mouth out of nervousness over how I looked.

  Damon whirled toward me and the delight peeking through his otherwise impassive face made me want to undress him with my teeth and obliterate the unknown in the one way I didn’t doubt I’d enjoy.

  “God, you look beautiful, Khloe.” His eyes shimmered as they swept over me, and with those few simple fibs I became hot and needy. “I can’t remember ever seeing a girl lovelier than you.”

  “I should probably leave now while I’m ahead.” He laughed at my flippant remark and my stomach quivered. My mind was torn between the weirdness that was us and how right it felt when we were together. “Do you know what’s happening for dinner?”

  “Us on the cliffs.”

  I opened my mouth to say what? and he shut me up with a kiss. He deepened it in slow degrees until there was no protest left in me and my hands went to his hair, tugging as I arched my body into his.

  His mouth swallowed a surprise gasp as my nipples hardened and his hand slipped under my shirt to cup my bare breasts with his long fingers, kneading and squeezing them in a delicious rhythmic pattern.

  “Damon.”

  “Don’t say no. Not this time, Khloe. Tonight we do things my way.” Then his mouth was doing what it did best—keeping me his with the play of his tongue—as his fingers rolled my aching nipples. “You came out without a bra...oh, God...new rules when you don’t play fair.”

  His mouth surrounded the tip of my breast, and I groaned as his body coaxed me on fire, reminding me how much I want him and how long I’d pretended I didn’t.

  I’d never been so ready for a man in my life. I was ne
ar mindless from my need to be naked with him. If he’d wanted to finger-fuck me there in open view on my parents’ patio, I would have let him.

  Damon was breathing hard as his mouth and hands savored the discovery of my breasts. His face was flushed. I didn’t look but I didn’t doubt he had a full erection. I could do nothing more than respond helplessly to him.

  Then his mouth was back on my face, trailing my cheeks in kisses.

  “You’re blushing. I plan to keep you that way tonight.”

  “Yes.”

  His grin was both lust and fantasy filled, and it made my heart beat almost too painfully as I watched him kiss the tips of my fingers before he guided me out onto the lawn.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To dinner.” Holding my hand, the pad of his thumb rubbed my palm and everything in my core tightened. My sex rippled from his grazing finger, the rawness of my want leaving me quick light kindling no matter where he touched me.

  When we reached what I’d begun thinking was our spot on the cliffs, my inky brows shot up in surprise. We were having dinner there.

  Beneath an awning of sheer white flowing gossamer, one of my dad’s beautiful antique Persian rugs purchased from Sotheby’s covered the grass. Upon it was a white-linen-covered table with two heavy wood and gilt chairs. There were candles lit, the dance of the flames reflected in the china and crystal.

  My mouth dropped.

  It was dreamlike.

  “When did you do this?” I asked, amazed.

  “By phone, while I was on appointments...with the help of your dad.”

  My dad...oh my.

  He pulled back my chair and I was a little stunned as I slipped onto it. Of my two parents, my dad was the cool one, but to do this for Damon and me...

  “Wow,” I whispered aloud without knowing it.

  Damon’s gaze sharpened. “What?”

  “My dad.” I settled back on my chair and stared out across the moonlit ocean.

  “Your dad what?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing.”

  But it wasn’t nothing.

  Damon on the cliffs was a pivotal moment for me.

  The kind when all your mistakes jumped out to form a clear picture and fill the holes of what’d been missing in your life.

  In trying to protect the people I loved from hurt during my illness and pain when I died, I hadn’t shared all of me with anyone in a very long time, perhaps ever. It was unkind and hurtful to do that to the people I loved. All they wanted was to know and love me.

  Damon was right when he said whatever it is that makes you push people away will never be half as bad as it makes you feel pushing them away.

  That was the aching hole inside me that persisted everywhere I went, no matter who I was with or what we did.

  Europe with my wandering circus.

  Those passion-filled nights with my lovers.

  My months home with my family.

  I kept everyone at a distance and, conversely, that kept everyone I loved distant from me. Each of Damon’s comments that had so upset me rocketed through my head.

  Damon cupped my face, lightly brushing his thumb across my cheek. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. Better than all right,” I admitted breathlessly, my voice huskier from emotion than usual. “This is extraordinary. Thank you, Damon.”

  I watched as he poured champagne.

  “I took no chances that there would be a single thing you might not like given that this is romance stuff. There’s nothing here that you don’t like, I hope, including me.”

  He followed that with a heated and adorable smirk.

  “Liking you was never the issue, Damon.” My fingers tightened around my flute. “I liked you in Paris. You drive me crazy. You terrify me. But all I want every second of the day is to be with you. It made me nuts today not knowing where you were and waiting to see you. My heart turns over every time you text. And I tell myself no, but I go to you anyway.”

  “I know.” My gaze darted frantically to his, but there was nothing there to scare me. It was rich with promise. “I’m in the exact same quandary. Every reason in my head not to be here with you, and only one to stay. But the one wins every time.”

  I swallowed hard. “The one.”

  “This, Khloe.” He slowly lifted my fingers to kiss them. My eyes closed against the near unbearable fire and pull that was us. He set my palm on the white linen and kept his hand atop mine. “This will keep me with you always.”

  My heart jumped.

  He was vulnerable and in control.

  Sexy and gentle.

  Beautiful, more inside than out.

  I was under Damon’s spell, and turning back now wasn’t possible.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  WE DANCED ON THE CLIFFS beneath the stars without music.

  Damon leaned in and our mouths fused. He was all I felt. It kept thought away and all but stopped time.

  “Come. I need this so much,” he declared, and when he opened his eyes those amber orbs were raging. “Tell me I can have you. No more noes tonight.”

  “No more noes,” I whispered, curling around his arm in silent supplication to take me to his room.

  What I was doing should have scared me. I never craved a man as I did Damon. I knew I would not be the same after him. I didn’t lack for experience, but this was different. I would go through a new door with him.

  He brushed the coolness of the ocean air from my cheeks, and we just stared at each other as we walked to Damon’s room.

  It was a long walk across the lawn. My heart was beating so erratically and quickly that if not for his steady strides and his arm around my waist I didn’t know if I would have made it to the house.

  Every fragile piece of my body was on overload. How he made me feel would normally scare me enough to pull back. Extreme moments were dangerous things even when pleasurable. I didn’t test the limits of me, not ever. But I’d never wanted anything so much in my life as I wanted Damon.

  The sound of the waves faded, and we reached the terrace doors to his bedroom. A light breeze teased my hair, the strands wrapping around Damon and clinging to my lips.

  Damon flattened me against the glass and kissed me as if the walk had left him starving for the taste of me. I melted into him, my sensory wakefulness off the charts. A moan of delight escaped me and he lifted his face, flushed and breathing hard.

  “I’ve been on fire since that afternoon by the pool.” He didn’t have to explain which one. His eyes gleaned as they had roving my bikini-clad body. “Too much to see because it wasn’t enough. Nothing short of all of you will ever be enough, KK.”

  “So greedy.”

  “For you.” His voice caught as he ran a finger along the mound of my breasts then traced a circle popping through my shirt. “Are you as wet as I am hard?”

  Oh hello, there was a bit of naughty hidden in Damon. His gaze was intense, and the effect of his words traveled through my body. He rocked his hips gently into me, taunting where I pulsed with his hardness.

  He nipped my lower lip. “Why so shy?”

  I was flushed. “I don’t know.”

  I grew aware I was quaking like a leaf. I touched my lips to the tiny square of flesh at the base of his neck, the taste of him lapping through my veins like fire as I eased my hips upward into him. “Maybe you’re not as hot as you think you are.”

  “Think?” In fierce waves his cock ground into me, and my back bowed, begging for the touch of him on my breast. A whisper escaped me, and he stilled, smiling at me, triumphant. He was heart-stoppingly beautiful, his amber eyes confident and dazzling.

  “Oh yes, you want me, too.”

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the bedroom. Laughing, I skirted away from him and glanced around the room to catch my breath.

  It was my favorite room in this wing of the house. It didn’t surprise me Dad had put Damon here. It was bold and elegant, unlike the rooms my mother had decorated. The furnishi
ngs were extravagant polished wood and it was dominated by a massive four-poster bed that faced a blue-tiled full-wall fireplace. It could be lit year-round regardless of temperature if the button wasn’t pushed to emit heat.

  There was very little here that was Damon’s. A laptop, a briefcase, and one suitcase. I found it odd he traveled so light in America, but then maybe the rest of his things were with Zane.

  “What are you thinking?”

  I turned to find his gaze intently on me, his expression soft. Tilting my head, I made a silly face. “That you’re very neat. If I’m going to be sleeping in here it’s good you’re not a slob.”

  “Either way it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to let you sleep.” He strode slowly toward me. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

  The muscles deep in me clenched in sweet pain. “I can’t know. You haven’t showed me yet.”

  “You do know.” He caressed my chin and I bit my lip. “Or you wouldn’t use that body of yours to taunt me.”

  He pulled off my shirt as he placed light kisses across my chin and the corners of my mouth. Slowly he unbuttoned and peeled off his own, and we were bare from the waist up.

  “Oh, you are so gorgeous.” He exhaled, ragged. “Every inch of you I unwrap is more beautiful than the last.” His fingers slipped beneath the band of my leggings then they were gone. “Let’s not rush tonight. Let me savor the first instant I get to see each new part of you.”

  Don’t go slow, Damon. Make love to me now.

  “No rushing,” I murmured, my voice fading on each syllable.

  The kiss that followed was so much more than any of the others had been. Frenzied and wild and filled with the passion which made us inevitable. Our hands fisted in each other’s hair and we were fucking with our mouths the way I could feel our bodies were ready and desperate to.