She smoothed her hair self-consciously, knowing that she certainly didn’t look her best, and that even her best could never compete with Damon’s darkly glittering glamour. He looked incredible, wearing nothing more than a pair of snug-fitting jeans and a slate-blue linen shirt with the sleeves rolled back.
‘Why are you here?’ She lowered her arms, realising that she was hugging herself defensively as he jogged up the steps. His arrival had charged the air with electricity, changing the mood—her mood, specifically. Damon changed everything.
‘Hello to you too,’ he remarked dryly. ‘Why am I here? To take you on a moonlit drive.’
Lizzie shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. It’s far too late.’
‘I don’t know what kind of carriages you’re used to, Cinderella, but I can assure you mine is in no danger of turning into a pumpkin at midnight.’
‘Less of the Cinderella, please. I’m all out of glass slippers.’ He was close enough for her to feel his heat warming her, and to smell the faint scent of his exclusive cologne.
‘We need to talk,’ Damon insisted.
‘I agree,’ she said. ‘But why now?’
‘Why not now?’ Damon argued. ‘We can’t keep putting this off. Neither of us wants Thea to be confused, and she will be if we don’t get things straightened out between us.’
Thea was the magic word. He must know it would work. She could see the change in his eyes when she made her decision. ‘I’d need to go and get changed first.’
‘Okay.’ Damon shrugged. ‘You do that and I’ll wait.’
‘I’ll be as quick as I can.’
And only because it involved Thea, Lizzie thought as she raced upstairs to change out of her work clothes, with her heart hammering off the scale.
* * *
He drew the car to a halt on top of the cliff overlooking the bay, where there was no sound other than the cicadas chittering and the ocean breathing rhythmically below. Lizzie was freshly showered. He could still smell the shower gel she’d used. She’d changed into casual jeans and a top, but she was still strung out.
‘You need to relax,’ he told her.
‘How can I, when everything I care about is under threat?’
‘Not from me.’
She didn’t say anything, but her silence was a response in itself.
‘So, what do you want to discuss?’ she said at last. ‘Because I think I need to see a lawyer before we decide to do anything.’
‘Does it have to be so formal between us?’
She turned to stare at him steadily. ‘Yes. I think it does.’
‘Would it upset you to know that my asking you out tonight isn’t all about custody and visitation rights?’
She stared at him blankly. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘I needed to see you,’ Damon said bluntly, ‘and not to talk—not tonight.’
‘You’ve got me here on false pretences,’ Lizzie protested, clearly not impressed. ‘We can talk, or you can take me back. Please,’ she added as a tense afterthought.
‘You have to have a life too.’
‘You’re my counsellor now?’ She didn’t wait for him to answer. ‘For your information, I already have a life.’
‘Do you? Do you allow yourself to?’
She laughed that off. ‘I have the life I want.’
He let that pass, and reassured her by explaining that he wanted to get to know Thea slowly, and always with Lizzie around to help break any possible tension between them.
‘I know this is going to take time. And I know you think I’m impatient, which I am, but this is something different. I do understand that.’
‘For which I’m very grateful,’ she said.
He smiled at her spikiness. It reminded him of the old Lizzie, full of fire and defiance. He knew that Lizzie was still in there somewhere. It was just that this Lizzie had devoted her life to Thea at the expense of her own.
‘I want the two of you to come back to Greece and spend more time here. So you can both get used to the idea of having more options,’ he explained.
That was as far as he thought it wise to take it while Lizzie was so tense and insistent upon seeing everything as a threat.
‘Yes,’ she agreed, and this time she didn’t look away, but held his gaze steadily.
A different type of tension had been building between them while they’d been talking. Being enclosed in the confines of the car had something to do with it, and that tension would need an outlet soon.
‘What?’ he prompted, sensing that something else was troubling Lizzie.
‘Your life will remain largely unchanged,’ she pointed out, ‘while ours will be massively changed.’
‘You don’t think my life will change? Of course my life will change. How could it ever be the same again? And your life will be better—and easier,’ he insisted.
‘I won’t take your money!’ she exclaimed. ‘You seem to think that money is the answer to everything, but it can’t even come close.’
‘I have a daughter to think about now,’ he argued firmly. ‘Where are you going?’ he asked as Lizzie fumbled with the door handle.
‘Don’t!’ she warned when he leaned across to stop her. ‘I need to get out and have some space to think.’
‘On a cliff-edge?’ he cautioned.
* * *
She had to get out of the car—she couldn’t think straight with Damon so close and her whole being yearning for him. It could only lead to disaster if she stayed. How could she trust Damon? How could she trust anyone?
Part of her wanted to go back to the enclosed world she’d built with Thea, while the other part of her knew that that wouldn’t be fair to Thea, or even healthy for Lizzie. First and foremost she had to calm down. She’d never been a coward. She’d always faced things head-on.
She turned to face Damon. They were still touching. His hand was resting on hers as he tried to stop her getting out of the car, and his body was pressed tightly against her. Fighting him was never going to be a good idea. They didn’t have to do much to light the fuse between them, and there was far too much at stake now. Combine that with the passion Lizzie had been bottling up inside for eleven years, and this was a recipe for disaster.
‘Have you ever made out in a car?’ Damon asked, smiling faintly at her.
‘No. And I’ve no intention of ever doing so,’ she assured him, pulling back.
‘Really?’ Damon murmured, sounding not in the least bit dismayed ‘Sometimes I find a release of tension helps to clear the mind.’
‘I bet you do,’ she agreed dryly, straightening her clothes.
She’d barely done that when Damon adjusted her seat in a way that made it instantly flat, and she shrieked with surprise.
‘Well, it’s definitely possible,’ he observed, frowning as if he didn’t know that throwing that lever would result in landing Lizzie on her back.
‘I’ll just have to take your word for it,’ she said tensely, starting to struggle up.
‘You can do more than that...’
As she was about to discover.
‘Brute,’ she whispered shakily as Damon dropped kisses on her neck. ‘This is so totally unfair.’
‘I suppose it is,’ he agreed, working magic with his hands.
When Damon’s mouth closed on hers and his tongue plundered all the dark, hidden places, she felt the response spread throughout her body like wildfire. Moving into the footwell on his knees in front of her, he nudged her legs apart and continued with the teasing.
‘I think you like this,’ he observed as his hands worked lightly, skilfully and steadily.
‘You on your knees in front of me? What’s not to like?’ she somehow managed to gasp out.
He laughed, and she closed
her eyes so she could only feel and listen to the sounds of pleasure.
He swiftly disposed of her jeans and underwear and, lifting her legs, rested them on the wide spread of his shoulders, giving her just enough time to grab hanks of his hair before plunging deep.
The sensation was incredible. There might be very little room for manoeuvre, with Damon’s powerful frame taking up all the space, but he didn’t need it to prove how proficient he could be even in the confines of the car.
‘Theos! I’ve missed you,’ he growled.