“I’d like to.” He whispered the word against her stomach before he dragged the silk down a few inches with his teeth.
More shivers danced over her. She tossed her head from one side to the other, ready for release, her hair tangling beneath her for a moment before he cupped her sex and touched her.
There.
The spasms were fast and hard, the orgasm a shock of sudden pleasure she hadn’t been ready for. Her nails scratched against the table and he helped her ride the waves. When she had almost caught her breath, he entered her.
Fully.
Lost and clinging to him, she said his name like a mantra. Wrapping her arms around him, she could only hold on, the pleasure so intense. She kissed his face, savored the stubble-rough jaw and finally locked her ankles around him to hold him deep inside her.
He moved faster. Slower. He unwound her arms long enough to kiss her breasts again. When he took her mouth, he kissed her with devastating softness. Sweetness. Thoroughness.
All the while, he built a steady rhythm inside her that stole her breath.
When the second orgasm shook her, she saw stars behind her eyes. She hugged him tighter, feeling his release in the tensing of every muscle. Sensation drenched her, tugging her deeper into love.
So much so, she realized as consciousness slowly returned, that the mantra she’d been repeating against his skin all that time wasn’t just idle sweet words.
It was: I love you. I love you.
The echo of the sentiment still hung in the small room, as if the words circled above their heads now that she’d said them aloud. Maybe hearing what Maresa had said, that Damon loved her, had given her the courage to say it tonight.
To hope he would say it back.
A year ago, it would have been perfectly normal for her to expect to hear it in return. But now, the room remained unnaturally silent except for their breathing.
Had she really said that?
Wrenching open her eyes, she peered up at him in the dimness only to see his gaze dart away as fast as hers alighted on him.
Her heart deflated along with all the hope she’d been feeling. Damon didn’t love her. He was only with her to hold his family together.
They didn’t speak about it as they dressed in silence, even though Damon tenderly kissed her temple and retrieved her clothes for her, even though he kept an arm around her as they walked to the elevator and rode it upstairs to their bedroom suites.
She would stay with him through the board meeting. Make sure she did everything in her power to help him win Transparent away from her father. But after that, she would have to walk away from this man who didn’t trust her enough to love her anymore.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Three days later, Damon understood in no uncertain terms that he’d screwed up irrevocably. As in, there was no going back. He’d wrecked things with Caroline beyond repair. His chest ached with the knowledge as he watched her from the railing of the second-story patio of the house in Los Altos Hills. They’d flown back from Manhattan the day before to be in Silicon Valley for the Transparent board meeting today. Now, she jogged toward him as dawn broke to the east, her golden hair catching the slanting sunlight while Wade, the bodyguard, kept tabs on her from a mountain bike.
She’d told Damon over dinner last night that she was working on her endurance so she could start pushing Lucas in a baby stroller while she jogged. And that had been about as much conversation as they’d shared since his colossal misstep with her that night in New York in the card room.
I love you, she’d told him.
And what did he say in response?
Nada. Zero. Zip.
He’d frozen up like a kid with his first girlfriend instead of a man intent on winning back his wife. He’d felt himself lock down at the notion of putting his heart in the line of fire again after the way she’d withheld Lucas from him when she returned. She’d believed the worst of him, thinking he didn’t care that she’d disappeared.
“Dude?” His brother Gabe called to him from a seat at the patio table where he was shoveling down his second plate of eggs. He’d flown in from Martinique with his nine-month-old son so he could attend the board meeting. Jager was in the air now, scheduled to arrive before the ten o’clock start time. “Have you heard a word I’ve said over there?”
Damon forced himself to drag his gaze away from his wife. If he hadn’t thought of a way to fix his mistake by now, chances were good he never would. There were some moments in life when a man didn’t get a second chance, and he would have to live with that. Too bad the realization crushed the air out of his lungs until he could hardly draw a breath. Why hadn’t he been able to simply return the words that might have kept her by his side forever?