She felt his hand on her shoulder. ‘When you see me again it’ll be at the office on Monday morning, fighting fit as usual.’
Tears clogged her voice, but she dragged in a slow, steadying breath and shook his hand off. Then she forced herself to turn and look at him. ‘And if I told you I loved you and asked you not to do this, would it make a difference?’
His hand stilled on his tie, his complexion paled, accentuating the pinprick stubble that had appeared overnight. ‘Oh, Kate…’ Apart from the sound of her name, stunned silence filled the room. So quiet she could hear the sound of her own heart cracking.
‘I am what I am.’ He shook his head slowly. ‘You don’t want to love me.’
‘You’re damn right I don’t, but there you are.’ Her words seemed to come from somewhere outside her. ‘We don’t always get what we want and we don’t seem to be able to choose who we fall in love with either.’ She hugged her dressing gown tighter around herself and by sheer force of will she kept her eyes pinned to his.
She’d never seen Damon like this—face drawn, skin tight around his mouth. For the first time she was seeing what lay beneath the super-confident and often arrogant façade, right down to the man. But even now he was fighting against that damaged part of himself. Yes, damaged. She could see it so clearly now.
‘I’m not what you need in your life, Kate.’ The hunger, the raw emotion she saw in his eyes belied his words. ‘You need someone who’ll give you what you deserve. A home, a family.’
‘I’m a career girl.’ She had to believe it. Anything else, without Damon— ‘Think about this while you’re risking your life jumping off buildings and cliffs and heaven knows what else. There’s one risk you’re not willing to take, Damon. The most important, the most daring risk of all.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AFTER Damon left—without breakfast, without a word of goodbye—Kate made a decision. She was going to take the day off. Her career wasn’t her life—too bad she’d taken so long to realise it. The irony was she had Damon to thank. She rang Sandy to tell her before Damon could arrive and take the call.
She’d never taken a day off when she wasn’t physically ill. It left her feeling empty, with nothing to do and too much time on her hands. Perhaps she should have gone in. But no—seeing him would be too painful; she’d be no use to their customers at all. So she washed curtains and vacuumed floors. Scrubbed the bathroom within an inch of its life. Went to bed exhausted but unable to sleep, with the futile hope that Damon would ring and tell her he’d changed his mind.
When Saturday dawned, she knew he hadn’t. So she disconnected her phones because she couldn’t face talking to anyone.
Her sister let herself in later that morning and found Kate sitting at the kitchen table staring at the clock. ‘I thought we were going shopping,’ Rosa said, looking her over. ‘Your phone’s not working, your mobile’s off…what’s wrong?’
Kate looked at her and the tears she’d dammed up sprang free. ‘Rose, I’ve done something stupid.’
Rosa sat down next to her and stroked her hair. ‘What is it, Kate?’
‘I’ve gone and fallen in love.’
A moment of silence. ‘Oh, Katie.’ Another pause. ‘Would I be right in guessing it’s Damon Gillespie?’
Kate nodded, grabbed a tissue from the box on the table. ‘My boss. You know my rules about romance in the workplace—after what happened with Nick.’
‘Nick was a bastard. Still is, always will be. But it doesn’t have to be that way. People fall in love with guys at work all the time.’
Kate swiped at her leaky eyes. ‘Not me. You’d think I’d have learnt my lesson.’
Rosa’s eyes filled with sympathy. ‘I take it Damon doesn’t return the feeling.’
‘I don’t think he knows what he feels.’ Lately she’d seen something in his eyes, heard something in his voice. And, oh, when he made love to her… But knowing Damon, he probably made every woman he slept with feel special. She shredded the tissue between her fingers. ‘He’s all wrong for me, Rose. What is it with me and my judgement of men?’
‘We haven’t had a chance to talk about this particular one. Why don’t you tell me about him?’
Kate felt her mouth curve into a tiny sad smile at that. ‘You got three hours?’
Rosa grabbed Kate’s hand and began tugging her to the sofa. ‘I’ve got all day.’
The odour of sweat and adrenaline spiked the air inside the elevator as it shot its load of BASE jumpers to the top of the KL Tower. Damon, Seb and Seb’s mate Brad had strapped on single parachutes for the ride down and now mingled with others on the open-air deck. The concrete ledge where they’d launch themselves into thin air was only a few steps away.