by Layla Wilde
“Damian, who called you? Did something happen? Talk to me, man!”
Once my shoes were tied, I slipped my bag over a shoulder and strode quickly out the door. I could hear my clothing director running after me and watched as he bounded in front of me. He’d always been fast. Pressing my lips together, my jaw tight, I stopped. When I tried to move around him, he cut me off.
“No… nope. Talk to me. Come on, how long have we been buddies?”
I eyed Rocco and shook my head. After a few seconds, I thrust the phone with the picture of the ultrasound at him.
His eyes went wide. “Oh, shit. Is that…?”
“Yes. I can’t do…” I pointed at the library. “I can’t do it anymore, Rocco. Not with everything else going on. I just…I need to go.”
He watched me as though I was an alien as I moved around him. Long strides took me to my car, and as I hopped inside, I started to feel sick. What the hell was I doing? With a hard swallow, I looked down at the phone and stared in awe at my baby.
“What are you doing, Damian?” I whispered to myself. “What are you doing?”
Stephanie
Two days later
“So you heard about what happened with Damian?”
“No.” I shook my head, barely paying attention. My mind had been on Damian the last few days, but I’d been trying to avoid the feelings that rose within me.
“Earth to Stephanie. Helloooo.” Darla waved a hand in front of my face, and I jerked.
I glanced away with a sigh. “Sorry. I just have a lot on my mind right now.”
“Apparently that big jerk does, too! I read in news this morning that he walked out on his highest-paying modeling agent and quit right there on the spot.”
I blinked a few times. Darla had my attention. “Why?”
“No one knows! It’s a huge mystery that everyone’s talking about. Maybe you should call him and ask him.” She smiled, wriggling her eyebrows. “If you find out, tell me immediately. I mean it. Because if you think about it, there are all kinds of questions that demand answers. Did he take over Future Tech? Come into even more money? Was there some kind of scandal? Was—”
I let out a small giggle and glanced sideways at Darla.
“What? Why are you laughing at me?” She looked at me with an expression of confusion.
“Because you sound like one of those reporters who makes stuff up about people, then publish it. I think that would be a perfect job for you.”
Darla looked at me in surprise and laughed. “You know, you have really lightened up over these last few months. I’m not sure what it is, but I like it. You almost seem… I don’t know, confident. Like all the things that used to scare you before don’t anymore.”
I smiled and sat down next to her at the table. We were at my place, going over some up-and-coming appointments. “When you get knocked up by a stranger, things change.”
Darla opened her mouth like she wanted to respond when the doorbell rang. We glanced at each other as we stood. I made it to the door first. When I opened it, I felt my heart flutter in surprise. Damian stood on the threshold.
“Oh. Hey.”
“Hey. I brought you a few things.” He held up a bag full of baby supplies.
My eyes widened with shock, and I automatically stepped aside so he could come in. “Come in. Darla’s here. I had no idea you were stopping by. If I had, I would have cleaned up a little. Or I would have…” I trailed off, my mouth closing when I saw Damian staring at me in what I could only assume was amusement. I was rambling, but I was nervous and a little scared.
“Well, look who it is.” Darla didn’t sound impressed. As Damian moved inside, I turned to look at her. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she glared at the father of my child. “You have some serious nerve, showing up here. Do you have any idea what you’ve put Stephanie through? Any idea at all?” She moved closer to him, reminding me of a lioness honing in on her prey. “You seduced her, banged her, and then left her as though she was a piece of meat. And then—oh, and then—you avoided her after she told you she was pregnant and all you did as support was throw money at her! What the hell is wrong with you?” When Darla paused, I thought it was over. It wasn’t. “And now you have the audacity to come over here like you want to make amends? But we all know you don’t care about Steph. You’re just in this for your image! For your own stupid reputation, you jerk!”
The silence between us stretched for ages. Finally, Damian spoke, and when he did, he surprised me. “I know. I know I’ve been an asshole.”
I blinked several times and looked at Darla. She stared at him as though he’d grown multiple heads. She straightened and nodded, her chin jutted out. “Yeah. You have been. So… Stop it.” She looked flustered and confused as she rushed by me and out the door.
“Darla?” My heart pounding, I moved past Damian and onto the front steps. “Darla, where are you going?”
“I have some things I forgot to do!” She slammed the door of her car and took off.
The abruptness of her exit left me speechless, and my heart dropped in my chest. Panic rose, and I inhaled deeply several times in order to stay calm. I had no idea why Darla was leaving me with Damian, but she was my only real support system. More than that, she had just yelled at the father of my child. The last thing I wanted to do was get involved in conflict of any kind. I walked back inside and managed to say, “Please bring everything over to the table.”
I heard him close the door and follow me. When I reached the kitchen, I watched him place the bag of baby supplies on the table.
“Thank you. I’m sorry about Darla.” My voice sounded several octaves higher than normal. I was right on the edge of a full blown-panic attack, and the person I usually went to when I felt like I was in trouble had just left.
“It’s okay.” He placed his hands on my shoulders and squeezed.
Slowly, I looked up at him. My eyes felt wet, and they stung. Nausea clenched in my gut, and all I wanted to do was hide. The only place I could hide, though, was in Damian’s arms.
“She’s just… It’s everything. She’s always been really protective over me. And since this happened, she’s been acting so strange, like she’s as scared as I am.”
“No. I deserve it. And she probably is as scared as you. I can tell you’re really important to her.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and I tilted my head and stared into his eyes. “Damian…” I breathed a little easier before I asked him the question that had been nagging at me: “What happened on the set?”
He looked hesitant. “Can we sit down?”
Without saying anything, I nodded and walked into the living room. As I sank down onto the couch, Damian sat next to me. He was so close, our knees and sides were touching.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since I saw the baby with you—when you had your ultrasound.” He stopped talking and licked his lips. I’d never seen him this nervous. “I’m going to be the owner of Future Tech, one of the largest technology companies in the world. I’m going to be a dad. And I didn’t realize how huge those things were until I saw her.” He placed a hand on my belly. “When you sent me that picture, I had just started a scene. They kept yelling at me, and I got tired of…”
“Being treated like a piece of meat?” Hurt flickered across his face, and I cringed. I looked away and held my breath.
“Ouch.” Damian frowned but reached out and touched my chin. He drew my face up, making me look at him. “But yes.”
“I’m…” Before I could get the word ‘sorry’ out, his lips were on mine. It shocked me so much that I drew away. I stared at him, searching his face. When I didn’t see anything malicious, I touched his jaw and leaned closer. I kissed him, initiating contact for the first time. My eyes closed as pleasure thrummed through me, and I sighed. I felt his tongue press against mine, and a whimper rose in my throat.
He kissed me harder and pushed me down onto the couch. He slid on top of me and
quivered with a desire that had been hidden since the last time our lips had met. His hands squeezed my breasts. With a moan, I arched my back, pushing my chest into his hands. I reached for his belt, kissing him wildly, passionately. All the emotions poured out of me, but the tears had finally stopped. Damian had chased away the fear.
I was frantic as I tried to pull his belt off. The buckle kept slipping, and the buttons wouldn’t come loose. He was so calm as he reached down and unbuckled his belt for me, opening his pants in the process. Gasping for air, moaning as he kissed me, I pulled his length from his pants, squeezing and stroking it. I still felt strange doing this, but I wasn’t as shy as I had been last time—or as afraid.
He pushed at my shirt and pulled at my pants. I tugged his shirt away from his body and tried to help him with my own clothes. The fabric was so tight and so confining. I felt too hot, and it was a relief when it was suddenly gone. I didn’t care how or where we were at that point. I just wanted him.
When he slid his hot, hard member into me, my thighs opened, clenching around his hips. I gasped and let out a cry as my hands gripped his shoulders and my fingers dug in against his skin. I turned my face away so I could breathe, and his mouth found the length of my neck. He kissed it slowly and sensually, and I moaned, a hand gripping his hair. I could feel my sex clamping around him, trying to drag him in further. He obliged and thrust deeper, forcing me further into the cushions of the couch.
“Damian… That feels so good.” I didn’t even know how he did it. I had no idea what kind of magic he wielded, but I didn’t care. I just wanted more of it.
“Stephanie,” he murmured hotly against my ear.
I shuddered, my ankles hooking around each other above the small of his back. Almost shyly, I reached down and gripped his butt cheeks. Pulling at him, I dragged him tighter to my body, feeling him moving against me. Our wet, sweaty skin slid together, slapping sometimes. I could hear him breathing, huffing and panting in my ear. I called his name again, breathless and beyond any pleasure I had experienced before.
As he picked up speed, I tried to move with him, but the softness of the cushions made that difficult. I gripped his hair and his rear while I turned his head so I could kiss him again. His mouth was divine and tasted just as wonderful as it had the last time. He seemed softer now, though… gentler.
“Damian, harder… I want you to…” I felt my cheeks flush. “I want you to fuck me harder.”
There was a pause in his movements, and I felt his lips leave my own. We looked at each other for a moment, and I was sure I was as red as a strawberry. His mouth twitched as though he was amused before he kissed me again. I felt like I could barely breathe. Dizziness swept through me, but it was exhilarating. As I moaned and panted for breath, he slammed his body against mine. I let out a yelp but hung onto him, keeping him close. With each slam, I felt a new thrill, a new zing. His hands were over my breasts again, and his fingers tugged, flicked, and rubbed my nipples. I felt like I was going to go insane.
I orgasmed suddenly, crying out and thrashing beneath him. My eyes widened and I struggled to breathe. I saw stars, and my whole body ignited in ecstasy. Clinging harder to him, my feminine walls pulsating and throbbing around him, I gasped his name over and over again. I could hear him as he called my name, too, and he broke the kiss so he could wrap his lips around one of my nipples. I squirmed, my toes curling, goosebumps and heat rushing under my skin. With his back bowed, he pounded into me deeper, harder, and faster. The couch shifted with each powerful thrust, and I felt as though I would go flying into space if I let him go. All I could do was cling to him and hang on for the ride.
A second orgasm swept through me, this climax even more intense than the first. I screamed, and I heard him cry out with me. His hot seed jetted into me, warming me from the inside out. I grabbed his face and pulled him up to kiss him again, wanting to tangle my tongue with his. I whimpered with every breath, my mind completely paralyzed with pleasure. I couldn’t think about anyone or anything else except for him.
“God,” I managed to choke out, my breasts heaving against his chest. I ran my hands down his back and his sides, feeling his sculpted form.
“You’re so beautiful.”
Once again, Damian Masters shocked me. I smiled at him and hugged him close as I studied his eyes. His arms were around me, and I actually felt, for the first time in a very long time, completely safe. The anxiety was there just beneath the surface, but it was held at bay by his presence.
I didn’t respond verbally for many minutes. All I wanted to do was hold him and feel him inside me. I never wanted him to leave. Finally, though, the question I desperately wanted an answer for slipped from my lips:
“Damian, do you like me?”
“Yes. I like you.”
I felt my heart skip a beat. “I like you, too. I mean, I really… really like you. For a while I felt like we hadn’t connected, but I want this to work between us, Damian. I know you’re so busy all the time, and I see you running around all over the place, but all I can remember is that first night we spent together. Do you remember how wonderful that was? It was one of the best nights I’ve ever had in my life, and this, what just happened here… It felt like that again. I finally got to see you again.”
He smiled at me and clutched me close. His lips brushed the top of my head. “I know. But things will get better. I’ve been…” He sighed. “All my life I’ve avoided commitment. My father cheats on my mom, and she knows about it but stays with him anyway. She’s miserable while he’s off gallivanting with other women. I grew up seeing that, and I promised myself I would never hurt someone like that. It’s always been easier: no commitments, no strings attached. That way, no one can get hurt.”
I looked into his eyes and closed my teeth over my lower lip. “But then you miss all the best things, Damian. You miss the excitement and the bond that can grow between two people. Living like you do means that you skim the surface of what being with someone is like, but you don’t actually get it.” With a sigh, I looked away from him and cuddled closer. It felt good to open up like this and to have him open up in return. “My last relationship was going really well. We’d been together for almost a year, and I was supposed to move in with him. On the day I showed up at his place with my stuff, he met me at the door and told me it was over. My heart shattered. He didn’t tell me why he didn’t want to be with me, he just told me it was over. And that was it. Before that, I can’t remember ever being so happy.”
“Was it worth it?”
“Yes.” I nodded and squeezed one of his hands. “Yes… it was absolutely worth it. And I would do it again if I had to. If you want something badly enough, you have to fight for it no matter what anyone else says.”
He chuckled softly above me. “There’s far more to you than meets the eye, Stephanie Sanders.”
“There’s a lot more to you, too. You try to hide it inside because… I don’t know, maybe you’re scared of commitment, like you said. But you’re really sweet, Damian. And you have a big heart. I just don’t think you realize it.”
He was silent after that, but I felt him squeeze my hand. The smile on my face grew, and I closed my eyes to listen to the sound of his heart beating.
Damian
I felt peaceful waking up with Stephanie in my arms. When I opened my eyes and looked at her, it was just like the first night we’d spent together. The only difference was I got to watch her open her eyes. When she saw me, I smiled and my lips pressed against hers. They were chapped but soft. She still tasted amazing.
“Morning,” I whispered.
“Morning.” There was something like hope in her blue gaze as she looked up at me and touched my face. I turned my cheek into her hand. My eyes closed, and I actually felt content. Everything was so warm and gentle, like all my worries had been taken away. Even though I knew the folly of thinking that way, why couldn’t I enjoy it for a little while?
“You’re still here.”
I sm
iled again and kissed the tip of her nose. “Yeah, but I shouldn’t stay too long. I have some meetings to prepare for.” It was a lie, but she didn’t need to know that. The talk last night after we’d had sex had filled my gut with fear. I’d never opened up to a woman like that.
“That’s okay.” She slid her hands down my neck and gripped my shoulders so she could kiss me.
Conflict tugged my mind one way then the other as I sat up. I offered her my best reassuring smile and took one of her hands, kissing the back of it. My acting skills had been honed through both experience and necessity, and I needed them now more than ever if I didn’t want to bolt out of her house. I wanted to pull away from her even though I’d never felt so comfortable, but it was that sense of comfort that terrified me more than anything else.
“I really do have to go. I’m sorry.” I turned her hand over and kissed her palm.
“Before you go…” She drew in a deep breath. “Thank you.”
I froze. “For what?”
“For caring. I thought for the longest time you didn’t.”
Alarm bells blared in my head. Oh God, I thought. Get the hell out of here, Damian. This is a giant mistake.
“Of course I care.” As I spoke, I looked for my clothes. I pulled them on as quickly as I could without looking like I was in a major rush.
I watched out of the corner of my eye as she pulled a blanket up from the bottom of the bed and curled into it. She smiled at me as though we were lovers. I felt breathless, like someone was sitting on my chest. Panic attacks were unusual for me, but so were circumstances like these.
Once I was dressed, I turned to her and leaned down to offer her a quick but soft kiss. I made sure it was convincing despite how overwhelmed I felt. “I’ll see you later, okay, honey?”
Her eyes gleamed when I said ‘honey,’ but she smiled and nodded, her cheeks flushing with color. “Okay, bye.”
I blew her a kiss as I backed out of the room, then turned and slipped out the door. When the cool air outside hit me, I drew in a deep, gasping breath. Swallowing hard, I trotted down her front steps and walked with long strides to my car. I seriously couldn’t get out of this place fast enough.
