by Taylor Hart
“Why weren’t you careful?” Engrid demanded.
“It was one time, a month ago, and he was about to leave on a business trip,” she rambled, feeling defensive. “He’d paid yet another round of medical bills, and he was just … and my mom puts so much pressure on me about him.”
“Screw your mom!” Engrid yelled.
Madison hesitated, not wanting to discuss this with her friend right now. “I know.”
“Then get rid of it.”
“Engrid!” She was shocked she would even say that. Madison would never do that. “You know I can’t do that.”
More curse words. “I know. I don’t understand in your belief in God, but I know you choose to believe anyway.”
“Yes.” They’d debated the existence of God so many times. “I do believe in God, and I believe in life. I can’t do that.”
“What about your life?” Engrid pushed back. “What about protecting yourself? Do you think Herbert will let this be? Do you?”
“No,” she said quietly.
Some loud banging followed—Engrid slamming things around, most likely. She’d always had a temper, especially when it came to defending Madison.
“Eng, stop throwing things.”
“Madison, you need to get out of there. You need to leave.”
“You don’t think I’ve thought of that? That I could just come live with you and—”
“Yes, that’s what you’ll do,” Engrid said quickly. “You come to London, you live with me, you have the baby, and we go from there.”
“What about my mother?”
“The pain in the butt comes, too.”
Madison smiled. Engrid had never cared for her mother and her socially pleasing ways.
“Come. Get on a plane and come now.”
Madison closed her eyes, wishing it were that easy. “Mom needs the doctors here. She has to have regular checkups to make sure the transplant is still taking.”
Engrid cursed again. “What are you going to do? From what you’ve told me, he’s not the type of man to let this go.”
“No, he’s not.” Madison looked around, suddenly nervous. “Speaking of that, I’ll call you later. I’d better get back to the party.”
“Madison, you can’t do this. You can’t marry a man like this.”
Her hand shook and she felt herself falling apart. “Eng, I’ll call you later. I promise.”
“Mad-i-son!”
“I’m sorry.” She pulled her phone back to end the call. “Love you.”
“Love you, too!” Engrid called out.
Madison stared at her phone, sucking in a long breath before shoving it back into the little purse that matched her silver dress. She stared up at the sky and the stars. She had to think. There had to be another way.
A light hand touched her shoulder, and an arm around her waist pulled her closer. “Hey.” Herbert kissed the side of her neck. “I wondered where you went.”
She jolted, then pushed away the tiny bit of fear pricked the edges of her heart. “Hey.” She forced herself to relax, but his touch felt different right now. It was still sinking in that he’d asked her to marry him. “I needed a break from the socialites.”
He pressed his lips gently to her jawline, sending shivers up her arm. “I didn’t warn you I was going to ask.”
She felt herself freeze. Of course, Herbert would know she wouldn’t want to be surprised like that. He’d worked closely with her on this fundraising project for almost a year. They’d been dating, officially, for four months. She spun to face him. Surprises weren’t her thing. She liked controlled, concise planning. Plus, how did you tell a man like him no? “No, you didn’t.”
Lightly, he kept one hand on her waist and put his other on her shoulder, staring deeply into her eyes. “Are you mad at me, Madison?” His hand skimmed from her shoulder down her arm to her hand.
She shivered again at his touch; it was unnerving how the man could vacillate from kind to ticked off. Only once had she experienced the receiving end of his anger, and that was enough. “Yes,” she said, meaning it.
He laughed, pulling her closer. “Well, you’ll have to get over it, because you said yes up there on that stage, and it’s a done deal publicly.”
Sensing that he was kidding only partly, she softly laughed, telling herself that the best parts of this man were what counted.
He pressed his lips to hers, and she felt herself give in to his passion. Before he could deepen the kiss, she pushed him back and said, “I am not happy with you asking me in such a public way.”
He flashed a smile at her, showing off his straight, white teeth. It was a smile she’d seen many times as he shook hands and put on a political show. With his dark hair and pale green eyes, he was charming; she would give him that. “But you are happy, right?”
She hedged but matched his smile with one of her own. “We never discussed marriage.”
For a moment, his smile crumbled. “I thought it was implied by the way I’ve been telling you I’m madly in love with you. And,” he said, hesitating, “we did kind of seal the deal a couple of weeks ago, right?”
Anger at herself for not being stronger bubbled into her chest. What could she do? Not having an answer for this, she pressed her lips to his.
He accepted them and held her tightly. After a few moments, he pulled back and slid his hand to hers. “I’m sorry, but we need to mingle.”
Relief filled her, followed quickly by guilt. Even if she was going to tell him she couldn’t marry him, she couldn’t do that right now. “No problem.”
“I need to talk to Senator Ulrich from California,” Herbert sighed. “She’s intense about finding solutions to working with the EPA in regards to oil and gas drilling. It could be a huge opportunity for my family.”
Herbert’s family. His father had been a big-oil-and-gas guy, the one who’d actually made all the money. Often, it felt like Herbert was just trying to live up to his father’s expectations. Being governor helped, but he was constantly trying to “innovate” and generate more money. It could get on her nerves, even though his money was the thing that helped the hospital and her project the most. Not to mention her mother.
Her mother. She was still miffed by her mother’s money-grubbing ways. She gave him a tight smile, wanting this night to be over as quickly as possible. “Let’s go.”
He tugged her toward the ballroom door. “Oh, I see more people I wanted to introduce you to. This Russian guy and this billionaire inventor computer guy who I want to get on my side during election time.”
“Always running for office,” she said, only a little bitterly.
Pulling her hand to his lips, he kissed the back of it. “Gotta be a big dog in the system to change the system, right, princess? To be able to give to projects like yours.”
She hated it when he called her “princess,” but he said it a lot. “Uh-huh.”
He weaved through some people, and she found herself at a table with only two men. “Fellows,” Herbert called out.
When Madison recognized one of the men, she felt like she’d been sucker punched. His eyes were sharp and he cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Damon, Ivan … let me introduce you to my fiancée.”
The man next to Damon, who held a cigar, was the first to clasp hands with Herbert, then reached out to her as well. Her mouth went dry, but somehow, she shook his hand.
She was distracted by how different Damon looked. The scar was gone.
She nodded but could hardly focus. Damon was staring at her, his eyes burning her skin like heat lamps.
“Hello.” Damon’s eyes betrayed nothing. He put on a pleasing smile and shook Herbert’s hand first. “Governor.” Then he took her hand, and turned it, kissing the back of it as his eyes held hers. “Congratulations on the engagement.” He dropped her hand.
Fire burned within her. She knew her cheeks would be blazing red. “Uh-huh.”
Herbert turned back to her and asked, “Do you two know e
ach other?”
Here was her chance to tell him the truth, but there was no way to explain that summer, nor the dreams she still had about the man. Plastering on a smile, she said, “No, we don’t. Nice to meet you, Mr. …”
Damon’s looked at her with hooded eyes, and she felt that prick of mischievous bad boy in the pit of her gut. The feeling had been smoldering in the ashes until this moment, and now it ignited. “Duke,” he offered, and a sort of tantalizing happiness flashed through his eyes that she hadn’t given away their secret.
“Oh.” She knew her cheeks would definitely be red now.
Damon cocked an eyebrow, his eyes twinkling. “Wait.” He snapped his fingers. “Your last name is Knight, right? Weren’t dukes the ones who were the land owners and the knights did their bidding?”
Madison couldn’t hold back a smile, and her adrenaline kicked into gear. “Ha, I’ve never even thought about that. Wait, I don’t know. Whatever it was it must have been during the Victorian ruin.”
Explosive laughter burst out of Damon at her inside joke, making him look like the boy she’d once known. He slapped a hand onto Herbert’s back. “A real firecracker you got here.”
Herbert’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “Yep.”
Madison felt light-headed and took a step back. Damon was here.
Damon grinned wider, the edge of his lip turning up, and she wondered what kind of surgery he’d had to remove that scar. “Your fiancée is beautiful,” he said quietly.
Herbert gave him a sharp look. “Yes, she is.”
Damon jerked his head back to Herbert. “So you have a project we might be able to help you with?” He looked innocent.
The Russian turned to Herbert. “Yes, explain it to us.”
Herbert switched into politician mode. “Yes, we do. I’d like to discuss different ways of extracting the oil with you gentlemen. Ways that won’t hurt the environment but will still allow jobs to continue. I’m thinking you could facilitate this project between the EPA and my company. In fact,” he said, searching the room, “let’s go talk with Senator Ulrich. She had some ideas on it.”
Madison felt her hand trembling and gripped it with the other one to keep the jitters at bay. Damon was here. Memories of the last night they’d been together rushed through her brain: the feel of that grass ring on her finger, Damon swearing she would always be his …
Ivan dove into different ways they could help Herbert with their algorithms. All the while, Damon kept his gaze on her, unabashedly daring her to look away.
Her heart would not calm down as she stared into the eyes she’d thought about for a decade. Without warning, emotion clogged her throat. She felt naked in front of Damon. Vulnerable. She couldn’t believe that on the night she’d been proposed to, Damon Duke had shown up. It felt like the universe was playing a bad joke on her.
“Excuse me,” she said to Herbert, her hands starting to shake. “I need to go to the ladies’ room.”
He turned to her, frowning again. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” She took off, winding through a sea of people, and tried to not make eye contact with anyone who might intercept her. She wound through different paths, feeling more lost with every turn.
Then she felt the light hand on her back. Damon’s voice murmured in her ear as he guided her through the crowd, making her heart kick up a notch. “If you’re trying to exit quickly, you should always go straight to the wall, not through the people.”
“Get away from me,” she said, knowing she would throw up soon. It didn’t really matter, because it felt like the whole party melted away, leaving just them. “Why are you here?” she asked, focusing on the door that would lead to the hallway.
He snorted, then met her eyes, still directing them through the people. They reached a wall, but he didn’t go the direct route to the hallway. He took her hand and pulled her out a side door.
“Damon, stop.”
He didn’t stop. He led her out onto the patio and then back inside, to the library. She had been at the governor’s mansion a couple of times, but Herbert didn’t live here, so they were mostly only here for formal events. And there was always security following them around, so she’d never explored on her own. Luckily, the nausea abated as she half jogged to keep pace with Damon.
The library was empty at the moment. There were huge wall-to-ceiling bookcases full of books. The room was set up so groups of men could hunker away and talk politics after a formal dinner. There was a large group of chairs clustered together around a fireplace.
Damon dropped her hand and spun to face her.
Her breath caught, and she smelled some type of cologne on him. Something spicy. She liked it. A familiar spark of electricity coursed between them—it had always existed, but now it was more intense.
Damon raked a hand through his hair and let out a shaky breath. “Hi.”
The whole thing was felt surreal, like she was watching someone else’s life on a movie screen. “Hi.” She was seventeen all over again.
Crossing the gap between them, he gently put his hand on her face and smiled. “You’re beautiful.”
Madison was struck by his touch, and every part of her felt shaken. She couldn’t help but blurt out, “What happened to your scar?”
He moved his hand to her hair, ignoring her question. “This hair.” He let out a laugh. “You have no idea how many nights I went to sleep thinking about this color.” He took a tendril of it and pulled it to his nose, then let his eyes flutter shut. “It smells wonderful.”
She could not believe this was happening. He was here, they were in the library, and he was smelling her hair. She tugged away from him. “This is …” She didn’t know what to say, so she asked the thing she’d wanted to ask since she’d gotten that response from him all those years ago. “You sent me that letter,” she accused.
He focused his piercing blue eyes onto hers, frowning. After a moment, he shrugged. “The scar, well, I had surgery about five years ago.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Thought I could attract the ladies without a scar.”
Her heart raced, and she wanted to … to … what did she want? Her thoughts had been scattered like Yahtzee dice. “You said you didn’t love me!” She’d been humiliated all those years ago.
Damon blinked rapidly, then sighed. “I promised I would come to Texas, remember?” His expression softened. “And you’re here, too, Mads.”
With those words, she was brought back to that summer, to all those nights together. She remembered it all as if it were yesterday. How many times had she thought about those promises he’d made back then?
His eyes grew serious. He stepped closer to her, looking at her lips. “Mads …”
She knew what that look meant. Too bad it wasn’t ten years ago. Too bad she’d just accepted a marriage proposal from someone else. She put her hand out. “Don’t touch me.”
He was already leaning in, snaking an arm around her waist, his lips pressed to hers.
Flames erupted between them, and she felt herself give in to him. That was all it took. His hands pushed through her hair, taking handfuls of it and tugging it back. She grabbed his broad shoulders, unable to stop comparing the Damon of ten years ago to the Damon of now.
He left a trail of kisses down her neck, and she put her hands on his face, staring into his eyes. It was too much. This intensity. The memories. All the feelings she’d kept locked down. Tears filled her eyes as she recounted how cruel Troy had been to him that summer. She ran her thumb down the line that had been the scar. “I liked the scar,” she said, and she meant it. What else was this man hiding beneath a polished veneer? “Why did you have it removed?”
He pulled her back, sucking in a breath and grinning like a madman who’d just slain a beast. “That summer. It was real, wasn’t it?” He leaned forward, trying to dive in for another kiss.
She frowned, pushing hard against his chest. “It was to me, but you said it wasn’t real in that letter.” Unable to stop herself,
she got lost in his deep blue eyes. “You hurt me.”
His eyes misted and he caressed her cheek. “I know. I had to tell you that. It was complicated then.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “But you have to know that I’ve missed you for so long. I’ve never stopped thinking about you.” Again, he leaned in. “And we’re both here now.”
“Don’t.” Her mind whirled in confusion, and she put her hand to her stomach; everything was different now. “I’m engaged, Damon.”
“Ah, Mads.” He tugged away from her and cursed under his breath. The way he spoke her name felt so familiar and right. He cursed again, took her left hand, and held up her ring finger.
Madison was struck by the effect of this man on her. All she wanted to do was reach up and touch his blond locks, the perfectly messy gelled locks. She’d wondered so many things about him for so many years. “Damon …”
“You don’t love him. You can’t love him. I saw the look on your face when he proposed. You weren’t sure about it. And the way you just kissed me …” He squeezed her hand and gestured back and forth between them. “Tell me you don’t feel this.”
Rapid-fire jitters went off in the pit of her gut. How did Damon do that? He’d always been able to see through her, even all those years ago. “I …” She clamped her mouth shut before she could tell him the truth. No. She might not know what she was going to do, but she wouldn’t tell Damon.
“Mads,” he said, leaning in again to kiss her.
Before she knew what was happening, she slapped him right across the cheek. “Don’t do that!”
He stared at her, dumbfounded. Slowly, he smiled. “See? I can still evoke the most passion from you.”
Adrenaline spiked through her as if the shot had just gone off at the beginning of a race. She yanked her hand out of his. “This is not happening.” She stormed toward the library door.
“Do you want to know how many times I’ve dreamed of you? At least once a week. At least …”
She stopped and looked back.
His expression looked tortured. “Mads, I want to explain everything. I need—”
“I pined for you for a year, locked away in a boarding school. When I finally got free of my parents, I went back there. I hunted down Frankie, and he told me you had enlisted.” She was shaking. She backed up, reaching for the wall for support. “And I sent you that letter. I bared my soul to you. I would have done anything for you.”