He lifted his hand. “You fulfilled your part of the agreement. You owe me nothing.”
“But—” She lifted her hand to her throat. “But you said a year.”
“I changed my mind,” he said, giving her a wry smile. “Billionaire’s prerogative. I can’t buy your loyalty or your trust. I’m not sure I would want to if I could.” He shrugged. “I’m cleaning out my office. I’ve finished this project. You can take off the rest of the day. Except one thing,” he said. “I’d like you to make sure the paper in the shredder basket is destroyed.”
She looked at him in confusion. “Okay. Would you like me to do that now?”
“Yes, I would,” he said and stepped aside so she could go into his office to collect the basket. He caught a draft of her subtle, sweet scent as she passed him and clenched his jaw. He would never hold her again.
“Where do you want me to take it?” she asked.
“Somewhere off-site,” he said.
She dipped her head in surprise.
“It’s the report on Max De Luca,” he said.
Her jaw dropped and she looked at him in surprise, followed by hope, followed by confusion. Clearing her throat, she licked her lips and nodded. “I’ll take care of it right away,” she said softly.
“Thank you,” he said, meeting her gaze for a long moment, his mind replaying the times she’d smiled at him, the times she’d come to him and kissed him, the time they’d talked about wishes, and she’d made him start wishing again.
She looked away. “Thank you,” she finally said. “For everything.”
“Goodbye,” he said, more for himself than for her. She was never going to be his. Never.
Emma considered stopping to throw the shredded report away at a mall, a service station, a fast-food restaurant. None seemed right, so she drove all the way to her apartment.
She was in shock, numb. She’d been so furious earlier this morning when she’d realized he’d used her. Furious with him for pointing out her deception with him. She considered her so-called spying assignment with Damien to be the lowest thing she’d ever done.
Then when she’d learned he had information he planned to use against Max, information she’d helped him find, she hadn’t known who she detested more, Damien or herself.
It had taken everything in her to show up for work. She had to stick to the agreement for her mother’s sake. She was fully prepared to despise him and resent him for the rest of her life.
But then he’d let her off the hook. No reprisals, no you-owe-me, nothing. On top of that, telling her to destroy the remnants of the report about Max totally boggled her mind. She didn’t know what to think or feel.
Parking her car in the paved parking lot, she walked inside her apartment to get some matches and a pitcher of water. She returned to the parking lot, dumped the contents of the bin onto the pavement and burned them. Staring into the fire, she wondered what had made Damien decide not to go after Max. She wondered what had changed his mind.
As Damien had instructed, she took off the rest of the day. She caught up on cleaning her apartment and doing laundry, turned on the television for a while, then turned it off. Fighting a bone-deep restlessness, she escaped her apartment and visited a park.
She saw a couple and thought of Damien. She saw a golden retriever and thought of Damien. Frustrated with herself, she went to a movie by herself, a foreign film, French. Surely that would distract her. Except midway through the movie, an Italian character was introduced. She began to feel haunted.
Bedtime finally arrived and Emma crawled into bed, craving escape from Damien. Instead, she dreamed of him. She dreamed he died and she woke up in a cold sweat, screaming.
Hugging her knees to her chest, she gasped for breath. Something had changed, she realized. Without really knowing it, some part of her had begun to count on him. She’d been so busy doubting him, but something inside her had made another determination about him.
Her heart? Somehow, someway, she had begun to love him.
Her stomach twisted with the realization and she laughed, the harsh, bitter sound breaking the silence of the night. How futile was that? she thought. If ever a man was incapable of love, it was Damien.
Damien missed his next shot. He was winning against his brother, but not by much.
Rafe downed a shot of tequila and made a hissing sound. “You’re off your game, bro,” he said and chalked the cue.
“I’m doing okay,” Damien said, taking a sip of scotch.
“Got something on your mind?” Rafe asked, banking a shot that just missed the pocket. “Damn,” he muttered and raked his hand through his hair. “What’s up? You’ve been walking around crabby and distracted since you got here.”
Damien shrugged. “This was a big contract. Sometimes it takes awhile to wind down.” He took a shot against another ball. And missed. He swore under his breath.
“Sounds like BS to me,” Rafe said. He took a shot and sank it into the pocket. “Score,” he said, then missed the next one.
Damien gritted his teeth and lined up his next shot.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with that pretty assistant you brought onboard when you visited South Beach a few weeks ago, would it?”
Damien scratched the table with his cue and glared at his brother for his bad timing. “I wouldn’t go there if I were you.”
“Why not?” Rafe asked. “If I keep pushing on that raw place, I may win. Then I can hold it over your head for years.”
“In your dreams,” Damien said.
Rafe chuckled but missed his next shot.
Damien swallowed a growl and chalked his cue.
“She must not have liked you. Did she dump you?” Rafe taunted.
Damien clenched his jaw, then forced himself to relax.
“Did she decide she wanted a man with a heartand brains?”
Rafe’s words cut close, but Damien ruthlessly turned him off. He focused on his shot and sank the last ball into the pocket. Taking a deep breath, he heard Rafe swear and lifted his glass of scotch in salute.
“How do you do that? Even on an off day,” Rafe said.
“I’m hungrier than you are,” Damien said. He felt not an ounce of satisfaction at beating his brother. “I always have been.”
“Hungry enough to go after Miss Emma Weatherfield?” Rafe asked.
Damien met Rafe’s gaze. “I’ve been hungry to survive, to succeed. Women come and go. I’m usually glad when they go.”
“But not this time,” Rafe said with a knowing glance.
Damien sighed. “You can be a real pain in the butt.”
Rafe stretched his lips in a sharklike smile. “Part of my charm.” His brother moved toward him and clapped him on the back. “I think you’ve met your waterloo.”
Damien shook his head, not wanting it to be true. But it was. “She despises me. I—” He paused. “I seduced information out of her. She’ll never forgive me.”
“If she surrendered to the seduction, then she can’t totally despise you,” Rafe said.
Damien threw him a sideways glance.
“Unless you blew it in some other way.”
Damien shifted from one foot to the other.
“Like omitting the four-letter word that starts withL, ” Rafe said.
“What makes you an expert?” Damien asked, feeling as if he was being fried alive.
Rafe lifted his hand. “Nothing. I’ve just heard that women really want to hear the L word. For some of them, it’s a requirement. But if she’s not a keeper, then—”
“She’s a keeper,” Damien retorted.
Silence followed and he met Rafe’s gaze again.
Rafe lifted his eyebrows. “I think you just answered your question.”
Damien sank into a leather chair and exhaled. “It’s not that easy. I screwed it up.”
“That hasn’t stopped you from succeeding with your business or anything else you’ve wanted. Why would it stop you now?”
Damien raked his fingers through his hair. “You don’t know.”
“I don’t have to,” Rafe said. “I just know that if this woman makes you feel like you found home, then you better find a way to keep her or you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it.”
Emma pulled her Tesla Roadster into a parking spot just outside her condominium and cut the engine. Sitting for a moment, she leaned against the steering wheel and stared out the window.
A familiar restlessness rippled through her. Maybe it was time for her to leave Las Vegas. Maybe it was time for her to leave Megalos-De Luca.
The mere notion was shocking. She’d thought she would stay at MD forever, but lately she’d felt dissatisfied and unhappy. She felt like Goldilocks, except there was no “just right.”
Sighing, she dismissed her ongoing dissatisfaction and rose from her car. She had a great job with excellent pay, a fabulous car and nice friends. She had no reason to whine.
Since Damien had completed his contract with MD, she’d been reassigned to a new VP, a nice older gentleman planning to retire in two years. Her stomach no longer knotted in apprehension as she arrived at the headquarters. Her heart didn’t race. Everything was back to normal.
Emma had never thought she’d want anything but a normal, stable life until now. She missed Damien. She missed his passion. She missed his strength. She even missed his flaws.
“You can’t have him,” she whispered to herself. “So stop thinking about him.”
Stepping inside her apartment, she closed the door behind her. She heard a scratching sound and—A bark? Seconds later, a small mass of fur with long floppy ears ran toward her barking and wagging its tail.
Emma gaped at the puppy and immediately kneeled to the floor. “Who are you? And how did you get in here?”
The white-and-caramel colored spaniel jumped into her lap. How had the dog gotten into her apartment? Emma laughed as the puppy licked her chin.