But why was Belinda waylaying her here, wondered Hanna? Was she hoping to get Damian back and perhaps, thought Hanna, was a link to drawing close to him?
Considering the display on the dance floor which Hanna guessed many had witnessed, she couldn’t help but blush wondering what Belinda must have thought seeing that.
But Belinda looked far from antagonistic as far as Hanna could tell. “I’m sorry,” said Belinda in her cultured, smooth tone. “I didn’t mean to impose. I just didn’t know who else to approach with my information. I have the feeling Damian wouldn’t take this seriously if he knew it’s coming from me. But after what I overheard…I can’t stand by and let him come to harm.”
Hanna’s chest tightened at those words and she came alert immediately. “What did you overhear?”
Belinda lifted her narrow shoulders in the exquisite lime-colored lace gown. “Something that tells me Damian could be in great danger. After that attempt on his life with that car crash, I should have known they’d want to try again. But to show up at his charity event…” She shook her head in dismay.
Hanna had to clench her fist to curb her impatience. “If you know something, or even suspect something, you should tell me. Why exactly do you think Damian might be in danger?”
Belinda took Hanna’s arm and squeezed urgently. “I can’t talk here. Please, come with me. They could be watching. I think they realized I caught a hint of what they were discussing. Damian was making his speech then and they were standing just inches from me, murmuring. I only got to glean a few sentences but it was enough. If we act now, we can stop them from carrying out their nefarious plans. I think one of them even had a gun,” she added on a hush, and Hanna’s stomach dropped. It didn’t even occur to her to inform anyone else, like the police or even Damian himself. She only thought of how he was totally clueless that he might be a target at the event and there was no time to waste. Damian could well be on his way out to his limo to wait for her and they’d get him then…
“What do we do now?” Hanna said with urgency, already letting Belinda lead her away.
“You need to see something. I think I know where they intend to strike from. I was able to catch one of them making for one of the back rooms leading to the roof. They could easily reach any mark from there.”
“Oh my God. We need to hurry. Damian’s already planned to leave the party early. He’s probably out in the open now,” Hanna said in panic. She really wasn’t thinking. In a crowd full of people there was no way she could cause a stir by announcing to anyone that there were possibly would-be murderers on the loose. So she let Belinda hurry her out of the music-filled hall.
“They went this way,” Belinda said, her heels clacking fast on the wooden floors as she led Hanna past passageway after passageway. Hanna followed quickly, and saw they’d reached an unlit back room with some kind of ladder steps reaching to a skylight.
“Up there,” Belinda said hurriedly. “That’s the spot where they’ll probably have their marksman.”
Hanna gasped, already clutching at the ladder to spring up the steps. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if she did see anyone on the roof with a rifle or gun about to take a shot. All she could think of was Damian’s safety and how she just might be the only one to keep him from danger.
Hanna could hear Belinda climbing up after her and was glad that at least there’d be help if she needed it. Both women were now able to clamber on the roof and the first thing Hanna noticed was the chill from the wind biting in through her dress.
“Do you see anyone?” Belinda asked from behind her. Hanna’s eyes scanned the roof and the shadows that could be anything from crates to crouching figures lying in wait to commit some nefarious deed…
The hairs on the back of Hanna’s neck lifted and she realized suddenly that she could no longer hear Belinda behind her. Something made her turn her head and she was in time to see the other woman inch forward as if on tiptoe, arms outstretched. Hanna still had no clue what Belinda could possibly be up to. It was then she heard a loud shout from behind them.
“Stop, Belinda!”
Hanna jumped. That sounded like Damian! She spun round quickly and heard shuffling feet. Suddenly Damian appeared from the shadowed opening of the skylight followed by the guards he usually had with him. To her shock, they went straight for Belinda, grabbing her arms. Before the woman could even struggle they’d dragged her off while she screeched in fury.
“Damian, what’s going on?” Hanna exclaimed. He rushed forward, hands on her shoulders as he searched her face.
“Are you okay? Did she hurt you?” he asked with deep worry.
“No! She’s here to help. Damian, she told me about the shooters. She heard them talking…”
“Hanna, there are no shooters. Belinda’s a fraud. If I was seconds too late she was about to push you off the edge of the roof.”
“W…what?”
Damian didn’t speak again but pulled her to him and hugged her tight, like he’d never let her go. “I’ll explain soon enough,” he said when he finally drew back gently. “But we need to get off the roof.”
Hanna nodded mutely and followed, shaky, with her head in a whirl.
*
The police had just left and Hanna heard Damian return to the room. She felt like she was still in shock, and almost started when he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
Sighing, she let her head rest back against his chest.
“You’re safe now. I’d never let anyone hurt you,” he whispered in her hair. Just hearing him say that put her mind at ease.
“I know,” she replied, voice soft. She thought about all she’d found out tonight. Belinda Scott had been the one behind Damian’s car crash. It hadn’t seemed probable till Damian gave her the full story.
“Six months ago Belinda came to me with a business proposition, supposedly with the backing of her father. It involved a contract worth millions and while we were mapping out negotiations, work turned into play,” Damian said with a bitter twist to his lips. “I’m not proud of the fact I had no qualms taking her as a lover. She was using me just as much, so I told myself. It wasn’t meant to count for anything. It was just as Rush Enterprises was about to sink loads of money in the deal that we found out Belinda had involved us in a scam she’d cooked up with her boyfriend, who also happened to be her ‘dealer’, feeding her addiction to prescription meds. My father and I decided not to press charges out of respect to the friendship between families. I don’t think even her parents were aware how far into depression and other psychological issues Belinda had fallen into from her teenage years after her mother and father broke up. As you’ll expect, things ended between us after that. Her parents got her help and for a while she seemed okay but she kept relapsing and meeting up with her dealer ex. To fund her addiction she’d almost run her family’s business to the ground. I would never have dreamed she was behind the sabotage of my car if camera footage showed it was her boyfriend who was seen sneaking into my underground garage at the company and tampering with my vehicle. The police only made a positive ID tonight, after she confessed. The most important help came from her parents who called me while I was about to leave the party. They said she’d escaped her carers who’d been assigned to her and that she’d dressed up as if for a party. They guessed she was headed for my charity event because they saw a newspaper opened to the page where it was being advertised in an article. I came straight back in to look for her and I was just in time to see you follow her out of the ballroom. I was too far away to stop you and I went berserk thinking I wouldn’t get to you in time. Something told me she was up to no good and I was right. She really would have shoved you off the roof and she finally confessed to it at the station.”
“But why me? I never did anything to hurt her,” Hanna whispered.
“Hanna, Belinda is a sick woman. And she’s hopefully going to get the help she needs. Her family are going to make more certain of that this time. On the out
side people like that seem like you and me but they’re far from normal. They have a warped sense of reality and just thinking that she could have hurt you makes my blood run cold. She tried to kill me for foiling her plans of cheating the company out of millions. When she realized she couldn’t get at me with all the security, she decided you were an easy target – all to make me pay.”
“I caught her watching us at the party. She must have realized we had something together and that’s why she decided to make her move by tricking me into following her. Oh my God, I was such a fool…” Hanna shook her head in disbelief.
Damian shushed her and drew her close again. “Now you’ll understand why I don’t intend to let you out of my sight after this. This time it was Belinda – tomorrow it might be anyone else trying to hurt the people I love just to get to me.”
Hanna’s immediate urge to protest at his high-handedness cut short when his words fully sank in. Hurt the people I love…She forgot all about her anger at what he’d said about not letting her out of his sight – and dissolved inside from processing the tail end of his sentence.
Did he even realize he’d made that slip? Even she was beginning to doubt she’d heard right. She felt him turn her round to face him and could only stare up at him in confusion and a hope she almost didn’t dare to show.
“Hanna, is the anything I have to do to make you stay with me?”
When he was the aggressive Damian he was hard enough to resist – but when he turned on that molten charm with his eyes burning and his voice deep and rough, Hanna couldn’t even tell her left from her right.
“I don’t want you to think you have to do anything,” she began, heart thumping because she knew she was lying, sort of.
He cupped her face. “Hanna, I know you need…things. And I don’t mean material stuff. But I know you want a man who can give you romance and all the frills.”
Hanna shook her head quickly. “Maybe I thought I did, in the beginning. But it took meeting you and knowing you to realize the truth. You opened my eyes to the things I really wished for. You made everything seem brighter, warmer. The only thing I could ask for to make it complete was knowing it wasn’t just a game of control for you. I needed you to invest your emotions as well. And now…”
“Now?” Damian pressed, looking at her with those piercing eyes of his that seemed to wrench every hidden element from her very soul.
“I can tell that you do mean to be all you can be, for me. I think you’re ready to try.”
“I’m more than ready,” he said with heartfelt conviction. “Marry me, Hanna, and I’ll spend as long as it takes to prove myself.”
Hanna pulled back in shock. She hadn’t been expecting that. As much as it was the fulfilment of her hopes and dreams, she was never the type to think a ring on her finger held any more symbolism than being just a seal on paper that could be broken at any time. But when you had a seal on someone’s heart, that counted for more than anything.
“Damian, I’m not saying no to us being together. I already know we have so much to share and I’m happy to explore the prospect of more time in a relationship. After a few months, maybe…”
“No,” Damian said, gruffly. “I can’t wait that long to make you mine, truly mine. I know I messed up at the start with my domineering antics and I’ll make it all up to you, I promise. But I want you as my wife, sharing my life and everything it entails. I can’t keep holding back, Hanna. I’m in love with you.”
“I know.” Hanna’s heart sang and she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing his lips. He seized her tighter to him and deepened the exchange, delving deep to devour her in ways that sent quivers through her core.
“Why would you even think we need more time?” Damian growled against her lips, making her giggle as he added, “I just spent the last several months courting you though neither of us even knew it. Ostensibly we were boss and assistant, but in our hearts we knew that things ran deeper than we were both ready to admit. You know everything there is to know about me and it’s the same with me about you. Now we simply need the whole world to know we belong together. Once we go shopping for the ring we can start planning the biggest wedding this town has ever seen.”
“No big wedding,” Hanna said with a firm shake of her head. “Nothing fancy, Damian. Just family and a few friends.”
His grin told her she’d fallen for the bait. “So the answer is yes?”
“Yes,” Hanna said, and it was the easiest one she ever had to give. She squealed when he gave her an impossible tight hug. Then he carried her to bed and slowly stripped them both off and made love to her into the night. As he pulled her close in his warm embrace some hours before dawn, she kissed him on the lips and whispered her words of love, and could have sworn she saw a glistening in his eyes in the moon-lit bedroom. She smiled and rested her face on his shoulder, already in dreamland moments later as she mapped out their beautiful future together.
THE END
*
Popular writer Lucia Jordan is proud to release Four Series Collection Volume 4 containing four of her Bestselling Series.
Desire
Sandra Eckhart is a woman who is used to being alone. Raised on the same college campus she now teaches on she is hardly the type of woman to have a one-night stand at a writer’s conference, but that is what she does. Connor Beaumont is a rich and talented writer who has no plans to settle down, his late wife was the woman who understood the turbulent and dark passions that drive him and he had never met anyone else who did, until Sandra. Can they teach other how to live and love again?
Risking Attraction
A week after breaking off her engagement to Christopher, Amy’s friend and colleague convinces her to go to a Halloween masquerade ball hosted by the illustrious and mysterious, Joshua Hunter. Reluctantly, Amy agrees to go. She never had intentions of meeting anyone, especially not Joshua himself. But she catches his eye, and then he catches her, intent on making her his submissive for just one night. It’s an offer Amy can’t refuse.
Finding Passion
Myrna never dreamed Zach Snow would look twice at a woman like her, not when he’d also seen her sexy, willowy blonde of a cousin Ashley. Both women met the enigmatic hunk one evening and Myrna is shocked to soon discover she was the one he wanted. Men always picked Ashley. But Zach’s motive was clear: “Ashley can’t give me what I want – you can.” And what he wanted from Myrna was the fulfilment of dark desires untold. Would she indulge in the delights he promised? Or would she let her deeply rooted insecurities deny her the exciting new enticement she craved?
Forbidden Love
Olivia is by no means shy or afraid of the darker side of herself. However, when her boss sends her to a local ‘alternative’ club to gather information about the lifestyle for an article she has to write, Olivia is intimidated and overwhelmed. When a Dom, Master Dean, takes an interest in her, she’s thrust into a world she never knew existed. It’s exciting and it awakens her in a way she didn’t know was possible. But when Dean asks her to become his sub, she must make a choice: tell him the truth about why she was there in the first place and risk him never speaking to her again. Or she keeps her secret and indulges in a new, exciting world with Dean as her guide.
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Volume 3 is a seriously hot and provocative collection by Lucia Jordan, written in her signature style of passion, searing depictions and high emotion.
Flirting With Desire (Contemporary Romance) Complete Collection Page 12
