by Jada Sioux
Swallowing her wry smile, Kiara gave a noncommittal shrug and ducked past Gwyneth.
“I’ll think about it. I’m sorry, I really need to run now!” Kiara called over her shoulder to the surprised-looking Gwyneth.
Her hand was already on the handle of the glass door when a sultry, deep voice called after her.
“Miss Lockett! I need to have a word with you, if you don’t mind.”
Kiara froze on the spot. She hadn’t been as fast as she needed to be. Steeling herself, Kiara closed her eyes for a second and said a little prayer, begging to the higher forces that she could keep a straight face when talking to Damien.
Before she could spin around, Damien was there, looming over her. His hand touched hers as he pushed the door open for her and gave her his trademarked rogue smile.
“I’ll take the silence as a yes, Miss Lockett. My office is just down the hallway,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear but low enough that she could feel the rumble it created in his chest as it reverberated through her.
She gulped and nodded, conjuring a warm smile on her lips.
“Of course, Mister Thatch. I’ll see you later, Gwyneth,” she said, turning to her boss.
She noticed the way Eliza was glaring daggers at her, arms crossed over her chest. That almost made it worth it – pissing off Eliza had become a bit of a hobby of Kiara’s. Despite her reluctance to be stuck in a room with the scorching hot billionaire, she had to admit that she didn’t mind the fact that it was probably giving Eliza heartburn.
Damien fell into step with Kiara as he led her down the hallway. She found herself clinging to her purse, as if it were some kind of lifeline that would keep her afloat. Even walking next to Damien made her knees go to jelly, and she felt the inexplicable desire to swoon like a fangirl meeting her biggest idol.
Just knowing the things his tongue could do to her, and the way his body felt under her touch… Or how his huge cock felt when he thrust in and out of her… Ugh. Made it damn hard to concentrate, even on walking.
She’d managed to combat that distraction during the meeting by pretending he wasn’t even in the room, but it was a lot harder when it was just the two of them. Damien showed her to his office, and she stepped in uncertainly. She bit the inside of her mouth as she heard him lock the door from the inside.
Kiara walked to the big windows, looking out on Los Angeles. The city was teeming underneath them, people going about their little lives, completely unaware that Kiara was suffering through the worst case of could-she-couldn’t-she she thought possible. A part of her wanted desperately to throw herself at him, to kiss him until he let out that sexy growling noise he made when he was enjoying himself, and to have him fuck her right on his office table.
Yet, the other, equally as big a part of her, wanted to put as much distance between her and Damien as she could, lest she tell him everything she wasn’t supposed to.
“You did a good job with the presentation, Kiara. I like that you really used the info I gave you when we talked on the boat,” Damien said idly, walking up behind her.
He put his hand on her waist like it was the most natural thing, and her breath hitched a little. He just chuckled, leaning in behind her and planting featherlight kisses on her neck – the kind that make a girl squirm and beg for more. But no, she had to be strong.
Kiara pulled away from his touch, and it almost killed her to see the surprise on his face.
“Anything wrong?” he asked, wiping the look away and again becoming the Damien Thatch the world knew – impassive, powerful, commanding.
It was only Kiara that knew that he was hiding a softer side to him, one that looked to love and to be loved. It was that side of him that she had to keep as far away from herself as possible.
“Yes. We can’t do this anymore,” she said, fighting to keep the tremble out of her voice.
His touch still burned hot on her body, reminding her of all the things she’d missed so badly. Since she’d seen him last, she’d spent most of her free time wallowing in her own personal misery, and when she wasn’t busy with that, she had been moaning into her pillow, thinking of him. She had kept the shirt he had loaned her during their visit to the Napa Valley mansion, and she had worn it almost every day. It was getting kind of pathetic, really.
“Why not?” he asked, walking to the bar and pouring himself a drink.
She wondered if it was just so he could keep his back to her for a bit, so she couldn’t see his face as she talked.
“Because you’re my boss, sort of. And even if you don’t hire Mirrorview, I’m still far too close to you. I want to make a career in this town, and that can’t happen if people think I’m sleeping my way to the top.”
The words felt like poison as she spoke them. They even hurt her, let alone him. Kiara wanted to scream that they weren’t true, but she couldn’t. For herself, for her baby. Eliza had set an appointment for Kiara to terminate the pregnancy in a few days, and Kiara was convinced that if she spent more time with Damien, she’d end up breaking and telling him all about it before she could rein herself in.
She wasn’t sure if she was going to go through with the abortion. But Eliza had given her no choice but to understand that keeping it and telling Damien was not an option. Soon she would start to show, and even if she kept it, Damien would realize that it could be his. She didn’t want to drag him into this, and she wanted even less to mar his name with some interracial baby drama that would have been a prime candidate for all the gossip rags from here to China.
“So you’re saying you won’t see me anymore because I’m bad for your career?” Damien queried, turning around.
He looked perfectly impassive, almost smirking. That cut Kiara. His blue eyes were hazed over, but every fiber of his being told Kiara that she was making far too big of a fuss of the whole thing. Hell, maybe all those flowers had come from his secretary? Maybe all those messages were from some kind of messaging service, just there to make her think she was special, when actually, she was just like any other girl he was fucking?
The floor fell away from under Kiara, and she swallowed the tears she knew were coming. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
“Yes. It was fun, but I think it’s time to stop.”
Damien looked at her wordlessly. He set down his drink without having taken a sip of it and inclined his head thoughtfully.
“Perhaps you’re right.”
Kiara was shuddering all over as if she were coming down with a bad flu. Every nerve in her told her that she was making a mistake and that the right thing to do was to run to him, wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him like the world was ending. But she didn’t.
“Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?” she asked, forcing the words out, though her throat felt like it would collapse any second.
“Just that you send those materials to us digitally as well, along with your presentation slides. We need to go over them with the board tomorrow morning,” Damien replied, walking back to the door and unlocking it.
He pulled it open and held it for Kiara. She paused for a moment, her hazel eyes meeting his blues. It felt so… final. For a second, all the time they had spent together flashed before her eyes – all those hot, stolen moments on his boat, at the offices, in his bed. The way he could kiss her and she would feel her body come alive under his touch. The way his cock throbbed when she swirled her tongue over the head.
Fuck. Don’t think about any of it, she told herself desperately, her nails digging into her purse.
She walked out of his office, and as she stepped out, his voice rang after her.
“Goodbye, Kiara,” he said.
It cut like a knife.
The door closed behind her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Damien
Damien hadn’t left the office for more than five hours a day for the past four days. The time he did spend away from being chained to his desk, laptop and phone were s
pent partying at the hottest clubs in L.A., trying to get blackout drunk, and failing miserably.
As much as he may have wanted to deny it, Kiara’s words had stung like hell. He visibly cringed when he remembered walking her out of that very office, and he scuffed his hand through his sandy hair, his brows furrowing.
Just work. Don’t think about her, he chanted to himself, willing himself to keep her off his mind.
But of course, it was entirely impossible.
Woozy with sleep deprivation and last night’s whiskey still on his breath, he got up from the desk, kicking the chair back so hard it toppled over. He didn’t care. Damien shoved his hands in his pockets and walked to the window, looking out grimly. It was early evening, and the city was just buzzing to life again from the afternoon lull, humming and swimming with cars. Usually, that kind of hustle and bustle made him feel at ease, but now it just seemed to add to the edge he was already walking.
Damien Thatch was currently not a happy man. Not only had he discovered that there was a woman left in the world who could resist his charms, but also that this woman happened to be the only person he was interested in. To say that stung was putting it mildly.
Each night, he’d tried to go out and forget all about Kiara – about her soft thighs, her heavy breasts, the way she mewled when he nibbled on her nipples, all of it. But with every drink he had, the mental images just got clearer. He couldn’t even look at other women. They only made him see what he’d lost.
How the mighty have fallen, he mused darkly, rubbing a hand across his stubbly chin.
He’d closed three major deals over the last few days and had caught up on all his work. Jasmine was overjoyed, and his secretary at Divinad could barely keep up with him, but all of it barely gave him any pleasure at all. Life seemed to have lost its flavor.
He rolled the realization that she didn’t want him around in his head again, like an alien life form that needed to be studied and considered before decisions could be made. Had he been too forward? No, that couldn’t be it. He remembered how she blossomed when he pushed her to try things she hadn’t before, and how she learned to really embrace her pleasure when he was rough with her.
Was she serious about the career thing? If anything, being a marketing exec in Los Angeles, sleeping around with one of the biggest businessmen in the country would have upped her street cred.
So if it wasn’t either of those things, the fuck was it?
A third option lingered in his thoughts, but he pushed it aside, as he had done every previous time he’d thought of it. It was far too depressing to consider.
Morosely, Damien chuckled to himself. He would never have expected himself to turn into this sad sack of a man because of a woman – too bitter to drink properly, too angry to fuck. At least he’d retained his business sense. If Kiara leaving had taken that from him as well, he might have lost his mind altogether.
What if she’s just not interested in you, he thought absently, that third possibility swimming up in a moment of weakness and biting him in the shoulder. It’s happened to better men.
Still, he was Damien Thatch, and as far as he was concerned, that was pretty much impossible.
There was a knock at the door, and without paying any heed to it, Damien called over his shoulder.
“Come in.”
“It’s your four o’clock, sir. Will I show him in? And, um, sir, do you need some coffee?” his secretary asked.
Damien smirked to himself. He must have reeked of alcohol if his usually so mindful and quiet secretary dared speak up. Damien didn’t even want to know what he must have looked like.
He paused for a moment, letting his current situation swim through his thoughts. Was that really the best way to get his woman back? Feeling sorry for himself and looking like shit?
He didn’t need his assistant or anyone else to answer that question.
“Tell you what, Kiara. Have one of the VPs take the meeting. I hear what you’re saying. Get me some coffee and a fresh change of clothing, please. And plan that meeting with the board – we need to make a decision on Mirrorview and Sunstreak once and for all.”
“Right on it, sir,” she said cheerfully, leaving him alone with his tortured thoughts once more.
He refused to accept that there was nothing he could do to fix things. Damien was willing to give Kiara a few days to think things over, but if she thought he’d give up so easily, she had another thing coming. With renewed confidence, he spun around and walked back to his desk, plopping into his chair.
He could do it all. Rule his empire, live his life and get his woman.
And dammit, he wasn’t going to let anything stop him from achieving all he wanted. First thing on the agenda – have that meeting with the Divinad board he’d been postponing for days.
Second thing – show Kiara how wrong she was about him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Kiara
Kiara was nothing short of a teary-eyed, blubbery mess since walking out on Damien. It had seemed like the right thing to do.
It was the right thing to do, she corrected herself for the umpteenth time that day.
So why did it make her feel like shit?
Sure, it could have been the pregnancy, but Kiara had managed to fool herself with that excuse for only a few days. It wasn’t just the hormonal changes. It was Damien, and how much she missed him.
Kiara sighed to herself, flipping through the channels on her TV without focusing on any program for more than a few minutes at a time. She’d taken time off from work after the meeting with Divinad, and Gwyneth had gladly allowed her all the time she needed.
That was another thing that made Kiara feel less than awesome. Gwyneth was so happy with her work, but Kiara knew she could have probably done more. Or less, depending on how she looked at her current relationship with Eliza and Damien. Kiara was convinced there was no way Divinad would choose Mirrorview now that she had not only made an enemy out of the company’s main visionary, but also dumped the CEO.
Great going, Kei, she told herself, laying a hand on her stomach.
She wasn’t showing yet, but she kept wondering how she would look when she did. If she did. The abortion was scheduled for the following afternoon, and Eliza had made a point of letting Kiara know that she would drive her to the clinic herself – ‘hold her hand’ as Eliza had said.
Kiara knew what that meant – Eliza just wanted to be sure that the deed was done. But that only made one of them.
Just thinking about it made her eyes well up again. Could she go through with it? Do that to her unborn child, even if it was probably better than being born into a one-parent household, never knowing the father and living with a mother, who would always blame herself for stupid past mistakes? She didn’t think it was fair, but at the same time, she wasn’t entirely convinced that she wouldn’t be able to give the baby a happy childhood.
There were plenty of single mothers who made it work, through thick and thin. Of course, things wouldn’t be perfect, but they would manage. Kiara Lockett was a tough woman, and she’d come through everything in life with flying colors so far, so why did this drive her so out of her mind?
Oh, right, because usually she didn’t have some crazed ice bitch out to ruin her life. She’d almost forgotten about that tiny tidbit of her current existence.
It’s the guilt… God, Kiara, you’ve made such dumb mistakes!
She bit her lip, flipping through a few cooking shows and landing on a sappy Latin soap. That’s how her life felt like – some TV drama that would never end and just kept getting more and more ridiculous every week.
Inches from falling into another bout of inconsolable tears, Kiara was stopped just in time by the appearance of Tasha, carrying a bowl of popcorn. Tasha shoved it in Kiara’s general direction, and Kiara took a big handful, trying to force down the tears at the same time.
“So what are we watching?” Tasha asked, nudging Kiara’s feet to the side and plopping down on the couch.
“My life, with more gesticulating,” Kiara said glumly, shoving the popcorn in her mouth.
“Oh, so we’re still feeling great, I see.”
Tasha gave Kiara one of those looks that Kiara could only translate as both knowing and judging – but with the best of intentions in mind. She nodded quietly, chewing on the popcorn and wondering if she would ever get used to the odd cravings she was having lately – like for example, right now she really wanted to put chunky peanut butter on the popcorn.
You won’t have to get used to it if you go through with the abortion… And then, Eliza won’t go to war against you.
“You know, that popcorn won’t get any better from you staring at it,” Tasha said.
Kiara stirred from her revelry and looked up, realizing she’d been staring at her palm for a while.
“Oh. Right. Sorry, I’m not quite myself right now.”
“No kidding. What’s got you so worked up? I thought you’d be calming down now that the big business thing’s dealt with. And Damien’s out of your life too, right? Smooth sailing from here. You can only get happier and fatter and more pregnant here on. Sounds awesome to me,” Tasha said, grinning.
Kiara didn’t find the energy to smile back. She knew Tasha was dreaming of becoming a mother one day, so sitting next to her, contemplating the unspeakable choice given to her seemed far too horrific for words.
“That is what’s going to happen, right? You have been telling me about everything that’s been going on, right Kei? Don’t you dare hide things from me. You know I’ll find out one way or another,” Tasha said, giving Kiara a makeshift glare, pierced by a wide smile.
Kiara almost couldn’t meet Tasha’s gaze.
“Not entirely,” she started, wanting to choke on the words. “I did call things off with Damien, that’s true. I didn’t think it was fair to him… Well, that, and I knew he would have called it off soon anyway – I can’t imagine a man like him would keep chasing a marketing specialist for very long. But I have an appointment tomorrow, and if I don’t go, Eliza will skin me alive.”