And she was tall. Five-nine, five-ten with a model’s bearing. A model’s way of wearing her clothes, too, so that the expensive butterscotch leather blazer, slim-cut black trousers and high-heeled black boots made her look like she’d stepped straight out of the pages of Vogue.
A few short months ago, he’d have done more than look. He’d have walked up to her, smiled, asked if she, too, were lunching at Portofino’s…
But not today.
Not for the foreseeable future, he thought, his mouth thinning.
No matter what she looked like behind those dark glasses, he wasn’t interested.
He swung away, handed the taxi driver a couple of bills. A driver behind his cab bleated his horn; Damian shot a look at the car, edged past it, stepped onto the curb…
And saw that the woman had taken off her sunglasses. She was looking straight at him, her gaze focused and steady.
She wasn’t stunning.
She was spectacular.
Her face was a perfect oval, her cheekbones sharp as blades, her nose straight and aristocratic. Her eyes were incredible. Wide-set. Deep green. Heavily lashed.
And then there was that mouth. The things that mouth might do…
Hell!
Damian turned hard so quickly he couldn’t believe it but then, he’d gone three months without a woman.
It was the longest he’d gone without sex since he’d been introduced to its mysteries the Christmas he was sixteen, when one of his father’s many mistresses had seduced him.
The difference was that he’d been a boy then.
He was a man now. A man with cold hatred in his heart and no wish for a woman in his life, not yet, not even one this beautiful, this desirable…
“Hey, dude, this is New York! You think you own the sidewalk?”
Damian swung around, ready and eager for a fight, saw the speaker…and felt his tension drain away.
“Reyes,” he said, smiling.
Lucas Reyes smiled in return. “In the flesh.”
Damian’s smile became a grin. He held out his hand, said, “Oh, what the hell,” and pulled his old friend into a bear hug.
“It’s good to see you.”
“The same here.” Lucas pulled back, his smile tilting. “Ready for lunch?”
“Aren’t I always ready for a meal at Portofino’s?”
“Yeah. Sure. I just—I meant…” Lucas cleared his throat. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You should have called. By the time I read about the, ah, the accident…”
Damian stiffened. “Forget it.”
“That was one hell of a thing, man. To lose your fiancée…”
“I said, forget it.”