by Penelope Sky
I inhaled a deep breath when I heard his statement. It was what I wanted, and he loved fighting so much that I knew this was hard for him. It was an incredible sacrifice, but he did it for me. “I don’t want you to resent me…”
“I won’t.”
It was too good to be true. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” He answered without hesitation.
“But what will you do?”
He considered the question for a long time. “We could try to have a family again…”
Last time we tried, it ripped us apart. And while I wanted to start a family, it didn’t feel like the right time. Liam and I were still rocky, and bringing a child into this marriage didn’t seem like the smart decision. “I’m not sure if I’m ready right now, but I’ll think about it.”
His eyes showed his disappointment, probably because he knew he was the cause of my hesitation. But he didn’t voice that sadness. Instead, he cupped my cheek and caressed my skin with his thumb. “Whenever you’re ready, I’m ready.”
I’d just parked in the parking lot at the hotel when my phone rang.
It was Damien.
I stared at his name for a while before I finally answered. “Hey…” He probably wanted to know what happened between Liam and me after the blowout last night.
He didn’t say anything back for a while. “You alright?” His deep voice was filled with the same intensity he always reserved for me, as if I was the only person in the world who made him this on edge.
“Yeah…I’m fine.”
“What happened?”
I didn’t want to answer because I felt pathetic for forgiving Liam so easily. “He apologized…and I forgave him.”
Damien was quiet.
“Thank you for telling me. I told him I showed up on my own, so he has no idea it was you…”
“I don’t care if he does know.”
I kept the phone to my ear and stared at my reflection in the rearview mirror. Even when we sat in silence, I could feel so much for him. It was like he was sitting right beside me in that car, his hand on mine.
“I just wanted to check on you.”
“Thanks…”
After a long pause, he hung up.
But I didn’t get out and walk into the hotel. I just sat there for a while… staring at my own reflection.
19
Damien
I sat at my desk and did nothing.
I had shit to do, calls to make, but I sat there and stared at the paperwork sitting on my desk. I was exhausted because I’d headed to the lab after Liam and Annabella left. Shit needed my attention. I’d called Annabella in my car before I’d stepped inside the bank. My thoughts had been on her all night, worried about the fight she was having with her husband. A part of me was afraid he would hurt her. I’d seen firsthand how all logical thought left his brain when he got angry. And apparently, he’d touched her before…
The thought made me insane.
I was eager to hear from her for another reason…to know if she’d left him. She took off her wedding ring and said their marriage wouldn’t survive. I wanted to know if that was true…for my own selfish reasons.
But she’d stayed.
She stayed with a man who made false promises, a man who forgot about her the second he was enticed by something better, a man who lost his temper and grabbed her. I knew he loved her, but that wasn’t good enough.
I knew Hades was outside my door before I saw him. His footsteps were heavy and quick, as if his hands were closed into fists because he was livid before he even saw me. We had gone our separate ways last night, and I’d left before he could punch me in the face. He called me hours later—but I ignored him.
I knew what was coming. Thought sleeping on it would calm him down.
Nope.
He barged into my office, his tanned skin red because he was furious. The door slammed into the wall, and he approached my desk with large strides. He leaned over the pile of papers and slammed his hand so hard into the desk, he almost made a dent. “What. The. Fuck?” He slammed his hand again, making my pens roll off the surface and my papers slide off from the vibrations. “What the motherfucking fuck?”
I got to my feet and avoided his gaze. “I had to say something, alright—”
“Why?” He gripped his skull before he threw his arms down. “I’ll never understand your goddamn stupidity. Do you try to sabotage everything I care about? Do you try to make my life difficult? After everything we’ve been through, why the fuck would you do this and risk—”
My temper flared, and my rage matched his. I didn’t care if everyone in the building could hear us rip into each other. I didn’t care about our clients sitting in the waiting area. “Because I love—” I shut my mouth when I realized what I was going to say. My temper unleashed my inhibitions, and fucking word vomit exploded out of my mouth. I clenched my jaw hard and kept my lips tightly together.
His demeanor completely changed, the anger slowly draining from his face once he’d completed absorbed my confession. He pulled his fists off the desk and straightened. His hands slid into the pockets of his slacks, and he sighed quietly.
I was glued to the spot, too rigid to move, too rigid to breathe. I didn’t finish the sentence because the words were frightening, but I also didn’t need to finish it because I already knew the truth. Now, it was obvious to me…really fucking obvious. I rubbed the back of my neck then dragged my hand down the front of my face.
Hades continued his stare. “Tell her.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “It’s gonna cause a lot of problems with Liam…” Our professional relationship would be completely destroyed. Not only that, but we would be his enemy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to ambush us both to make us pay for what we’d done. We’d lied to him, purposely misled him, and now we’d taken his wife away.
“Doesn’t matter.”
I turned to him, my eyebrow slightly raised.
“If that’s how you feel about her, then I don’t care about Liam. I don’t care about the consequences.”
I was shocked he’d said that. “Why?”
“Because I know exactly how it feels to love a woman.”
I arrived at Charlotte’s doorstep and rang the bell. Our relationship didn’t deserve this formality, but if I did it over the phone or through a text, she would just hunt me down until this conversation happened.
She opened the door, her eyes lighting up with joy. “Damien.” She immediately moved into my chest to kiss me.
I grabbed her by the arm and steadied her. “Char, we need to talk…”
Her happiness faded. “Okay…”
I didn’t even try to come inside. “It’s time we go our separate ways.” I didn’t sugarcoat or make excuses. I wanted her to understand that those midnight text messages wouldn’t make a difference, that showing up on my doorstep in nothing but lingerie wouldn’t entice me. The idea of kissing her made me sick to my stomach…now that I knew how I really felt. “I wanted to tell you in person so you would understand I’m serious.”
She was shocked for a couple seconds, probably because a man had never dumped her in her life. “Why?”
“It doesn’t matter why. I don’t want to see you anymore.” I felt like shit for bringing her around Annabella. I knew how it felt to see Annabella with Liam, and I did the same thing to Charlotte when I shouldn’t have.
“I don’t understand.”
“There’s nothing to understand, Charlotte. It’s over. Period.” I knew I was being harsh, unnecessarily cold, but Charlotte wouldn’t stop pursuing me until she got what she wanted. She played by her own rules, wouldn’t go away no matter how many times I pushed her away. “I wish you the best.”
Now she was speechless, her eyes slightly wet but also furious.
I lingered for another moment in case she wanted to say something, but when silence continued, I turned around and left.
I sat in front of the fire with the game on the
TV. It was just me and a bottle of scotch for the evening, the one thing that had cured my loneliness for over a decade. I was in my sweatpants, with my cheek propped against my closed fist.
The bedroom door opened, and Hades stepped inside.
I glanced at him without turning my head. “Grab a glass.”
He was in jeans and a t-shirt, ditching his suit after he returned home from the office. He grabbed the decanter and filled his glass before he took a seat on the same couch as me, sitting at the opposite side. In silence, he watched the game with me.
These were the moments I’d missed the most when he’d left my life. The quiet evenings when we didn’t feel obligated to say anything. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, not when we were so close. We could watch the game and not mutter a word for hours.
Hades took a few drinks and held the glass on the armrest. “Why haven’t you told her?”
“I just broke it off with Charlotte.”
“Alright. Then why are you sitting here?”
I watched the TV with blank eyes, not reacting when a goal was scored. “I’m not exactly looking forward to the conversation.”
“Why? Every minute you wait is another minute she’s with Liam.” Now that he knew how I felt, all his loyalty to his client disappeared. He was on my side—one hundred percent.
“I don’t even know what to say to her.”
“Tell her what you told me.”
“And I barely confessed anything to you.” I’d never felt this way about anyone, and I only acknowledged it when it looked me straight in the face. “This isn’t me. I don’t do this kind of shit.”
“I didn’t either…until Sofia.”
“Well, I never thought I would be a pussy-whipped asshole.”
He chuckled. “It’s not so bad.”
I stared into my glass before I took a drink.
“Just do it, Damien. When you see her face, the words will come to you.”
Would they?
“She’ll leave him immediately. She’ll be in your bed before the sun sets. And everything else…doesn’t matter. Liam won’t be happy, but we can handle him. I’ll kill him if I have to. No problem.”
“I thought you were loyal to him?”
He nodded. “I am. But not nearly as loyal as I am to you.”
The solidity of our friendship meant the world to me. The moment he knew I was serious about Annabella, he was willing to move mountains to give me what I wanted.
“Sofia told me she’s in the ballroom tonight—for a wedding.”
I turned his way.
“It’s the perfect chance to get her alone…and end up in a hotel room.”
20
Annabella
Now that spring had arrived, I was in charge of booking weddings for the hotel. It was a romantic place to get married, and many generations of families had their events in that very ballroom. It’d been renovated many times, but the energy from the years of celebrations was cemented into the structure of the building.
When the final glass of champagne was finished and guests cleared out of the room, I was left to clean it up with the staff. Dishes from the sliced cake were carried to the dishwasher in the kitchen, and the empty glasses were collected in a bin to be cleaned later. Unopened bottles of champagne were returned to the bar, and the leftover flower arrangements would come home with me…whatever I could fit into the trunk.
Most of the staff went home, so I finished up in the ballroom alone. I pulled the tablecloths off the round tables and placed them in the crate so they could be taken to the laundry on my way down.
I’d wanted a job that was during business hours only, but when Sofia had asked me to do this, I didn’t dare say no. At first, I was bitter about seeing new couples pledge to love each other forever since that hadn’t worked out so well for me. Now, Liam offered to retire because it was important to me, proving to me that I was his biggest priority.
It was exactly what I wanted…I just wished it had happened sooner.
Maybe I would still be madly in love with my husband if it had.
I pulled the tablecloth off the table and shook the fabric so the crumbs fell to the floor. Then I folded it, which was stupid because they were going to be washed anyway. I walked back to the crate to toss it inside.
That was when I realized I wasn’t alone.
I lifted my gaze and came face-to-face with a beautiful man with green eyes, wearing a short-sleeved shirt that showed all the individual muscles of his forearms. He was ripped in every single place, from his wrists to his calves. A shadow was on his sharp jawline, and he was still as he watched me, like he’d been there for a while.
I inhaled a deep breath when the adrenaline passed. My hair was pinned back in a braid wrapped into a bun, and I wore a purple gown, earrings in my lobes. It was my job to look nice for the reception but also to blend in at the same time. So, I’d gone through my closet and found this in the back. I’d stopped wearing it because it didn’t fit anymore. But those extra pounds had left my hips and thighs, making the fabric fall around me perfectly.
I straightened and stared at him, seeing the way he gazed back at me with equal fascination.
His eyes combed over my features, taking in the diamonds in my ears, the blush on my cheeks. Without blinking, he studied me as if I were a work of art, a painting that belonged on the wall in the Louvre.
As always, I didn’t know what to say to this man. I was illogical, shy, and, frankly, stupid. I was a schoolgirl who turned silly whenever I was around the cutest boy in class. But Damien wasn’t just the cutest boy in class…but the sexiest man in the world.
He clearly wasn’t going to say a word, not explain his presence at all. His shirt was olive green, a perfect color for his tanned skin. Black jeans were loose on his hips, his tight stomach making the fabric flow down his body.
“What are you doing here?” I turned and walked back to the table I was working on. It was near the balcony doors along with the others. My heels tapped against the floor as I moved, the echo loud because there was nothing to absorb the sound…except our souls. When I reached the table, I started to pull off the material.
He grabbed the cloth and pulled it from my hands. He let it drop back to the table, a wrinkled mass.
I was hostile toward him, but I had no idea why. He was the one who’d called me…and saved my husband’s life. But when he looked so gorgeous under the lights from the chandelier, I just became so angry…so angry that I couldn’t have him. One hand moved to my hip, and I looked across the ballroom, remembering the last time we were in this place together.
“Look at me.” His voice was quiet but still packed with so much intensity.
My eyes obeyed on their own.
He came around the table and stepped closer to me, looking at me so hard.
I took a deep breath when he came near, my skin prickling with the energy transferring between us.
When he was close enough for us to touch, he stopped. His chin was tilted down to look at me, his green eyes so bright, they were like stars. He looked at me like he’d never really looked at me before, like he’d missed so many of my features in the past. “I love you.”
My lungs sucked in a breath of air when I heard the words leave his lips. His tone was deep, matching the desire in his eyes. I knew I’d heard it, there was no mistaking it, but instead of bringing me joy…it brought something else. I automatically took a step back. “What…what did you say?” Last time we were here, he’d kissed me on the balcony, ignoring the ring on my finger. Now, he took it a step further, crossed a line so thick, it had to be purposeful, not an accident triggered by the candlelight, the alcohol, and the beautiful night in this gorgeous city.
One of his hands moved to the table, his fingers pressing against it as he watched me. “You know exactly what I said, Annabella. I’ll say it again if you want, but we both know I just said those words, out loud, and straight to your face.”
I’d fantasized about this mome
nt so many times, but months had passed, and I’d stopped believing it would ever happen. When I married Liam, I gave up all hope. Damien broke my heart, and from that moment on, I vowed I would never give it to him again. “What do you expect me to say to that?”
His eyes slowly fell, as if this was not how this conversation played out in his head at all. “You say it back.”
“Damien, I’m married. There’s only one man I should say that to.”
“Then leave him…and say it to me.”
I took another deep breath, trying to process this crazy reality. “Are you insane?”
“I just told a woman I loved her…so, yes.”
I didn’t crack a smile at the joke. “I gave you a chance before I married him—and you didn’t want me.”
“I told you that wasn’t true. And I didn’t love you yet. I fell in love with you…” He sighed quietly, his eyes shifting back and forth as he tried to search for the memory in his brain. “I don’t know when the fuck it happened. It doesn’t matter anyway. But the words tumbled out of my mouth in my anger…and that was when I knew.”
“Damien…” I shook my head slightly, doing my best to keep the tears in my throat and stop them from getting to my eyes. “You’re too late. I’m married to someone else, okay? It’s over.”
His eyes narrowed, his entire body tightening in a subtle hint of rage. “You don’t love him. He’s a goddamn rebound, and you fucking know it.” He raised his hand from the table and placed it over his heart. “You love me. Don’t sit there and bullshit your way out of it.”
“I’m not—”
“We’re gonna continue to sit in restaurants and hold hands like lovers? We’re gonna hug like it’s an adulterous affair? We’re gonna act like there’s not something real here? You’re really going to do that?”
