by Eliza Quinn
“I don’t know…” Charlie wasn’t sure she wanted to know. What if her worst fears were confirmed? What if he was just here to take advantage of her? It had been so easy the first time to end up in bed with him. And holy hell…look what they just did now in the alley by the deli! Did she trust herself? Did she trust him? She’d gone from rage to plastered against the side of the wall for goodness sake.
“If you don’t like what I have to say, you can leave. I promise. No pressure.” Damien stroked the softness of her palms and watched the battle going on behind her eyes. He hoped whatever happened, the battle was going in his favor.
“Fine. Tomorrow by eight. If you’re late, I’m not going anywhere, understood?” she said firmly.
“Yes,” Damien confirmed, fighting the urge to grin. His little spitfire was going to be just as great to get to know as he’d always thought.
Chapter Six
“Charlie! That’s the second time you’ve zoned out in the last five minutes. Should I be doing inventory myself?” Celine waved her hands in front of Charlie’s face to drag her back from wherever she’d gone to. Charlie sighed and tried to refocus on the task at hand. She was terrible at it. Her mind had never been so muddled before.
“Sorry. Sorry. I’ve just…I’m just all over the place and not in a good way. I dunno.” Charlie sighed.
“Want to talk about it?” Celine asked, setting aside the stack of books she’d been trying to get Charlie to organize.
“Yes…no. I don’t know.” Charlie sighed again.
“Definitely means we need to talk about it then. You are all over the place. C’mon, let’s take a quick lunch break and get some perspective with Kay. I’m sure whatever you’re agonizing over is not as bad as you think it is.” Celine dragged Charlie away from the shelves. She signaled to Kay, who was dropping a stack of books for a customer who’d just sat down. Kay gave her the thumbs up to let her know she would be done soon.
“What’s up?” she asked as she entered.
“I’m going on a date with Damien,” Charlie said.
“And?” Celine asked, somehow intuiting there was more.
“I kissed him or he kissed me. There was heavy touching. Like orgasm type of touching. In an alley,” Charlie told them. Her voice was getting softer and softer. Both girls stared at her in shock.
“Woah. You move fast.” Kay laughed.
“You guys! It was fantastic. Almost better than the last time we touched. But I agreed to go out on a date with him. I don’t know if that was a good idea – I don’t want him to think that I’m welcoming him back with open arms, especially since he left without a freaking word and has been gone for close to six years. I don’t want to be hurt. What if I’m just something he’s using to pass the time?” Charlie wondered.
“I think you should hear him out and then decide. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself,” Celine said.
“I agree. Maybe he has a good reason. You never know.” Kay patted her arm.
Charlie sighed and nodded her head firmly. Lust-addled decision or not, she would see it through and decide for herself. She didn’t trust him, but maybe he could change her mind.
Charlie smiled at the hostess who led them to their seats in the restaurant. She carefully smoothed the fabric of her dress over her upper thighs. The dress was one of the shorter ones she owned, a silver sequined dress with a deep v in front and at the back. Though it showed quite a bit of skin, it still maintained a classy look, adhering to her curves and stopping just above her knees. Damien had shown up on time. The dressed-down tux he wore made her glad she’d taken the time with her dress. It would have stung to be under or overdressed. He led her into his car, a sleek black Maserati, and drove them to Roche’s, one of the more expensive restaurants in New York. Charlie heard they usually had waiting lists.
The hostess led them to a table for two at a corner of the restaurant. The waiter brought the complimentary bread basket and the drinks menu, discreetly leaving them to make up their minds. Charlie couldn’t have cared less if the waiter had dropped a glass of flat warm soda on the table. She was more engrossed in the man sitting across from her. Who was he?
“You have questions,” Damien said, sighing at the way she stared at him. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and keep her there for as long as he could. He couldn’t believe that it had taken six years to meet her again. She had pulled the door open wearing a metallic dress that looked like the sexiest iteration of armor he’d ever seen. Charlie was incredible to look at with her blonde hair curled just so, framing her face. Her grey eyes matched her dress and the blue sapphire that hung from her neck seemed to set her eyes alight with the fire that was her. He’d been stunned. Of course, Damien knew she was beautiful, but every time he saw her it was like he discovered it all over again.
“Of course. I was giving you time to give me an explanation. I was promised one wasn’t I?” Charlie arched her brows expectantly. She smiled at the waiter and ordered filet mignon to go with her wine. He ordered the same dish with her.
“Ah well. Where do we begin?” Damien asked. Charlie narrowed her eyes at him.
“When we met at the club, were you married then?” Charlie picked the thing that had been bothering her the most. The idea that she’d been the other woman made her extremely uncomfortable.
“Yes,” Damien said quietly, avoiding her gaze for the first time that evening. He didn’t want to see the condemnation he knew he would find in her. He was ashamed of how things had played out, how he’d reacted to some news and the way he’d disappeared after without a word. He’d tried to find her but he didn’t even know her name.
“You’re an asshole. The worst kind. The cheating kind of asshole and you made me complicit in it. I don’t think I could ever forgive you for that,” Charlie whispered. She’d suspected, but hearing it confirmed just made her sick to her stomach. She stared at his handsome face, willing herself to hate him and feeling disgusted with herself because she could not.
“Charlie. I’m not trying to excuse what I did but if you’d let me explain.” Damien tried to speak.
“What could you say that could possibly make this any better?” Charlie asked hotly.
“My wife, I had just found out she was planning to divorce me. I found out because the papers were on my desk when I returned from work. She kissed me at the door, we ate dinner together and I went into my office to do some work. I saw an envelope on my desk. Something I didn’t put there. It took a while, a really long while for me to even understand what I was even reading. I confronted her. She told me that she knew I loved her but she had fallen in love with someone else – her personal trainer, like some fucked up cliché. A personal trainer I paid for to come to the house to give her private workout sessions. I felt like the worst kind of fool. I got angry and left the house. Just drove around the streets looking for some sort of distraction, anything to chase away the taste of betrayal,” Damien said quietly.
Charlie saw the raw pain reflected in his gaze. He must have loved his wife, and she couldn’t even begin to comprehend the betrayal.
“That was why you left afterward. You ran, more like,” Charlie guessed.
“You were so alluring. Your friends were dancing together on the floor but you stood some ways away from them. You were alone and yet so happy to be so. I had just found out my wife was going to leave me and I was angry at the thought of being alone. I think that should have been a clear indication that I had fallen out of love with her, that the idea of being alone bothered me more than the idea of losing her. I couldn’t resist you but afterward, I remembered how happy you looked. My life was in upheaval. If I had stayed I would have sucked you in. I convinced myself you would be happier without me. I told myself that you didn’t need whatever shit I dragged around with me. I had just gotten out of a relationship. The last thing I absolutely needed was another woman, one deserving of all the love I was incapable of giving. I left because I thought it would be easier,” Damien explained.
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Charlie took a deep breath. Perhaps it wasn’t his choice to make for her but what had she known about love at twenty-one? She probably wouldn’t have stayed. Charlie sighed. Okay, so she wasn’t the other woman in the actual sense of the word. Damien struck her as being honest right at the moment but he had left without a word. How was she supposed to trust that he was here to stay? Did she even want him to stay? She wasn’t desperate for a relationship but maybe that was because no other man had measured up to the fleeting idea of who she thought Damien was.
“Say something,” Damien urged quietly.
“Where is your ex-wife?” Charlie asked.
“Somewhere in Monaco at the moment. She calls when she needs money but that’s about the extent of our communication,” Damien said truthfully. He had to give her money, court-ordered alimony, but that didn’t stop her from trying to get more. She was under the mistaken impression that because he had once loved her, she had him wrapped around her little finger.
“When you showed up at the library did you know that was where I worked?” Charlie asked.
“No. Asher and I have been friends since his parents shipped him off to Eaton when he was barely a teenager. Since I was back in the States I decided to pay him a visit, perhaps donate money into the library as a welcome back celebration to myself. I didn’t know you worked there and seeing you there took me by as much surprise as your seeing me there,” Damien answered.
“Was that why you ignored me?” Charlie asked with a huff, still stinging from the slight.
“I didn’t ignore you. I was unsure of how to explain how we met to Asher because he would have asked questions.” Damien chuckled at the very idea that she thought he was ignoring her. He’d barely absorbed the shock of seeing her so unexpectedly after he’d searched. “Asher is your boss,” he continued, “so I figured it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell him I knew you because we fucked at a club after meeting each other for the first time. I could have made something up but I don’t like to lie, especially not to people I care about. I thought you might lead. Since you didn’t say anything, I didn’t either.”
Charlie chewed her lip in thought. It felt great to know that he hadn’t been ignoring her. Of course, hearing his side of things helped answer some of the questions she’d had about what happened that night.
“Okay okay. I was searching everywhere for you after you left. I guess I just felt abandoned after something that was probably the best sexual experience of my life. Then again at the library.” She looked at him from underneath her lashes, finally giving herself permission to enjoy the sight of him.
“I know the past had its downsides but I’m here and I would like to give us a shot, if you would be willing to give us a chance. I want to get to know you. Six years and my want for you hasn’t weakened. Would you be willing to try?” Damien asked.
Charlie pondered his words. Would she be willing to give this a shot? This was the man she had dreamed about for years. He was finally there, in the flesh, begging for a chance. She wasn’t crazy enough to turn it down.
“Yes. I would love to give us a chance,” she breathed.
The breathy nature of her voice went straight to his cock. He had wanted her since he’d seen her again at the library. He wanted her now. He had to remind himself to keep his hands away from her. Damien didn’t know if she wanted him with the intensity he wanted her. He didn’t know if she’d decided that she wanted him too.
“Good. No more running away from this. I’m ready to take it at whatever pace you want. I don’t want to rush you, so as fast or as slow as you want.” Damien took her hand in his, stroking the soft skin of her wrist.
“I don’t want to take it slow,” Charlie said. The fingers stroking her wrist started an answering ache between her legs.
“Me neither. I want to touch you. I want to bury myself inside you,” Damien said huskily.
“So what’s stopping you?” Charlie challenged with a smirk.
Charlie didn’t give herself time to second guess her decision. As soon as Damien pulled over in his private garage, she jumped him, pushing her lips against his mouth, kissing him deeply. He groaned into her open lips, sucking the soft flesh of her lower lip into his mouth. He wanted to savor the taste; she wanted to devour him. He clutched the back of her dress, touched her bare heated skin and felt his control snap. The soft satiny feel of her skin pressed against him had him lifting her with such speed it made her head spin. She moaned into the kiss and latched on as he took her through the house to his room.
Charlie knew the moment she tasted his lips, she had found her new addiction. She grabbed his back, wrapping her legs around him and rocking against his already hard cock, moaning when the length of him pressed and jerked against her. Her body was not her own but a mass of needy nerve endings and they all wanted one thing. Him.
“Damien.” She tore her mouth from his long enough to moan his name.
“I know my love,” he said, untangling her body from his and setting her down on the floor. He pushed the fabric of her dress down her shoulders until the shimmering cloth pooled around her feet. She stood in the low light, covered in nothing but scraps of lace and satin.
“So fucking beautiful,” he whispered reverently. How could he not? He was in the presence of a goddess.
Charlie watched him through hooded eyes. His hair was rumpled, this time because she ran her hands through the soft strands. The outline of his cock strained rigidly against the dress pants he wore. Her fingers found purchase on the buttons of his shirt. She peeled the fabric away and exposed the sculpted skin underneath. She liked that he seemed to be carved from bronze – her very own Adonis to worship. She pressed her hands against his skin, silk against steel, and watched as he swallowed and his eyes heated.
The soft unsure strokes of Charlie’s fingers set his skin on fire. He shrugged off his shirt and undid his pants. His cock tented his boxer briefs and she stared at them with a hunger that left her grey eyes stormy. He lifted her off the floor, pushing her bra aside as he feasted on her pebbled pink nipples.
“Fuck!” Charlie screamed as he expertly latched onto her nipples, sucking and licking deeply followed by a slightly dragging bite that twisted pain into pleasure. She wanted to be touched this way by this man. Her cries turned wild as her hands tangled in his hair and he drew her nipples deeper. The flimsy fabric of her underwear soaked through and slowly she wrapped her legs around him until his cock grazed teasingly across her soaking wet labia. They moved in sync, needy folds against cloth-covered cock. Charlie felt pleasure fizz through her blood like a drug. The friction was maddening and hot, yet not enough to push her over the edge.
“Take me,” she begged him.
Damien was all too eager to give her what she wanted. He pulled her panties down and spread her legs open. Her pink, glistening pussy called to him and he couldn’t resist. He leaned down, pushing his boxers down as he freed his cock. Her eyes widened at the sight.
“Damn,” she moaned as her empty walls clenched at the sight of his beautiful cock. He leaned down, pushing the broad head of his cock in slowly, giving her the time to adjust to his size. He clenched his teeth as the tight walls of her pussy gripped him so hard he saw stars.
“I’m going to fuck you now,” he bit out in warning. She groaned and moved her hips as he pushed out of her and drove his cock back in.
“Yessss!” she hissed. It was hard and fast, filling her to the brim and reaching places she never knew needed filling. Her hands clawed at his back as he plunged into her, fucking in hard fast strokes that drove both of them insane. Damien wanted to crow with how good it felt. Right. Sweet. He gripped her hips, angling his cock deeper into her so he could hit the hidden place inside her that brought her to screaming pleasure. She twisted her hips, taking it, taking him until her vision went hazy with pleasure and it whipped her blood into a frenzy. It drove her until she screamed out her climax and until the tightness of her pussy clamping down on him drove him to his.
They fell asleep wrapped in each other, wondering if six years could be erased in one evening. It felt like it could be.
Chapter Seven
Damien watched Charlie sleep. He knew it was creepy but he couldn’t help himself. The last six years had been hell for one reason or the other but mostly because his ex-wife Elizabeth seemed to have made it her life’s mission to make his life a living hell. Through it all, he had not forgotten Charlie or the brief time they had spent together. He’d tried to tell himself that he’d been angry and that’s why he’d fucked her in that club without knowing her name. He’d told himself it was a great way to say a big fuck you to his ex-wife but he knew those were just lies. Charlie and Liza were as different as day and night. He’d taken her because she was incredible and sweet. She had been the woman he wished he’d married. He’d left because he couldn’t fathom a universe where she’d wish he was the man she’d end up with. Now he had her, it would be impossible to let her go. He sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. She smiled in her sleep and snuggled next to him, making his heart flutter. He knew right then that he was ready to take the risk with her. Whatever happened, he was all in.
