Moody Bastard

She lowered her face.

His lips pursed.

“It’s my fault,” he groaned. “You were trying to…I can’t…” He groaned. “Sydney, tell me you’re not getting involved with him.”

“Court…..” She thought of Damien and the women, but then she thought of the possessive manner in which he looked at her, the heat and wanting in his eyes coupled with jealousy and….maybe something else.

Something that she felt but couldn’t put a word on too.

Court raised his eyes, hopeful and almost pleading. “Is it temporary?”

She thought of Damien, the passion they shared, the man she’d always wanted, one who thought he was the black diamond, who pushed her away feeling unworthy. She would love the unworthiness out of him if he let her, and he would let her, she knew his weakness now. He wanted her desperately and she would use her body any way she had to, to keep him bound to her as her heart was bound to him.

Her throat hurt as she spoke the words. “I don’t think I’ll ever really get over him, Court. I don’t want to hurt you and I need to be honest with myself, even if he’s a guy who can hurt me, I can’t think of anyone but him right now and I need to see this through.”

Even if he’s the end of me.

Court stared at her as if he couldn’t comprehend why she’d do something so irrational. “He’ll hurt you, Sydney.”

“If he does, he’ll hurt himself too. Because I think he cares for me too Court. I really do.”

She headed into the back room when Court called after her, “What do I do with this painting? Don’t tell me it’s for him?” he asked after her.

Realizing he’d peeked, she hastily walked back into the main room, trying to appease him. “We’re selling it,” Sydney told him, trying to come up with a story. “I want to sell it because I know that everybody looking for love, or familiar with this emotion, will resonate with it.”

Sensing Court started to feel appeased, she smiled at him, removed the fabric completely along with the protective wrapping, and set it against one of the gallery display walls, smiling as the words screamed out I love you to the world in general.

“I want to buy it. I’m buying it for you.”

“Court…” she said helplessly, staring into his panicked eyes.

It was as if he’d finally awakened, as if the jealousy of losing Sydney had finally opened his eyes.

She had a sudden vision of what life with him would be like. Art shows and galleries, sweet talks and even sweeter kisses, holding hands and comfort. With Damien it would be fire and fights, passion and sex, sometimes sweet kisses, possibly sometimes art shows, who really knew with him?

Sydney reached into her heart and tried to quiet her fears, searching for what was truly there. She took his hand, repeating his name, in a different tone, and told him the truth. “Court, I love you. I got this painting for you.”

ten

“It’s losing pink…” the master cutter had called Damien moments ago to say. Damien was not happy to hear it. Now, he loomed behind the cutter and gazed into the half-cut beautiful fancy pink diamond, all its promise of glory fading before his eyes.

“Do we keep going?” he asked, turning the stone, evaluating it from every angle.

Damien gazed down at the stone with a sense of urgency. If they kept going, he could lose it, but he could also make it happen. Great things never came from comfort zones, and inside this building, no pussies were allowed.

“Keep going,” Damien growled. “If it’s a floozy, it’s a floozy whatever we do. Let it shine. Let it be what it wants to.”

He headed to his office and stared out the window, nothing but Sydney on his mind. She better be there tonight or he’d go find her. She was like that pink diamond, and he would not stop until he had her.

Hell he fucking loved her.

He’d never felt like this. His chest hurt, he had to see her. He felt restless not being close to her. This was what he’d been fighting for too long, what he knew deep down ever since she’d come to him would happen. This girl would be his downfall.

Damn, it had never felt better to be a fallen man.

Sydney was trembling when she headed that evening to Damien’s place, her stomach burning with knots at the thought of what she wanted to tell him. She was not going to pick with her brain, a m

an would be compatible to her, who wouldn’t abandon her. She was following her heart to a man who had a harem at his doorstep but who looked at her like no man had ever looked at her before.