Damien tried to reason with Emma, but she recoiled at his touch. Concerned for her emotional state, he insisted on calling his driver to take her home. She left his condo without a backward glance.
The way she’d looked at him, as if he were a monster, sliced at his gut, but he pushed it aside. He had what he needed to bring down Max De Luca. For the sake of his family, he couldn’t stop now.
Damien decided, however, that he wanted an opportunity to talk with Max before he took his final action. Giving his assistant a call, he was immediately put through to Max, and the VP agreed to meet with him.
He carried the report sealed in an envelope in his inner jacket pocket. In a way, he may as well have been carrying a loaded weapon. Max’s assistant informed him of Damien’s presence and he was ushered inside the VP’s richly appointed office.
“Good morning, Damien,” Max said. “Sarah, can you get us some coffee please? How do you take yours?”
“Black,” Damien said.
Max nodded. “Same. Please have a seat,” he said, motioning toward the leather chairs and sofa on the opposite side of the room as the desk. The magnificent view from the floor-to-ceiling windows revealed the mountains in the distance.
“Nice view,” Damien said. It occurred to Damien that Max had never spent a day of his life outside the lap of luxury, a life far different than that of his family.
“I prefer the mountains to the strip. More serene.”
Sarah delivered the coffee and excused herself.
“I understand employees who are being laid off will receive the news tomorrow?” Max asked, taking a sip of his coffee. “I have to confess I was against you from the beginning. Your reputation precedes you. When I look at the new organizational chart, however, it looks as if you skillfully used a scalpel instead of a hatchet.”
Surprised by the praise, he nodded. “There is a right way and a wrong way to reorganize. Sometimes it takes an objective eye to spot redundancies and stay current with changing economies and needs.”
“It’s a painful process, but I think you made it as humane as possible. So, what do you have going next?”
The conversation felt surreal. Damien was talking to the man he’d targeted for most of his life. He worked to access his contempt for the man, but for some reason it wasn’t as strong as before.
“I may take some time off. I have a brother in Florida who is always bugging me to visit him.”
Max lifted his eyebrows. “Time off? You don’t strike me as the type. I know I wasn’t until I got married. Lilli changed my priorities. Hell,” he said. “She changed my life.”
“The love of a good woman,” Damien said.
Max nodded. “Yeah, although I would have been the last man to believe it was possible. Being a father will turn you around, too.”
Silence lingered for a moment. “I’m curious,” Damien said. “Did you know your grandfather well?”
“No. I do know that he was very focused on the company. He was determined to expand the empire, so to speak. My father had his own issues. It was left to me to try to rebuild the De Luca name. I had a half brother, but that’s another sad story. What makes you ask?”
“Are you familiar with the MD Chateau on the outside of Florence, Italy?” Damien watched Max’s face carefully.
Max furrowed his brow in concentration. “It’s not in the city? Right?”
“No. It’s in the countryside.”
“I have a vague recollection, but I don’t think I’ve ever visited it.” He lifted his hand and met Damien’s gaze. “Why? Is there a problem with it?”
“More the way it was acquired,” he said.
“Okay,” Max replied, leaning forward, lacing his fingers together. “What do you know about it?”
“I know that Chateau Megalos-De Luca was once Chateau de Medici and it belonged to my grandfather.”
Fifteen minutes later, Damien walked out of Max De Luca’s office feeling much different than he had going in. He stepped into the elevator thinking that Max De Luca had actually been somewhat reasonable. The damning report about the man felt as if it were burning a hole in his coat pocket.
Damien had spent most of his life fighting one thing or another, the loss of his family, an abusive foster parent, and poverty. He’d always thought that taking down Max De Luca would rid him of one of his biggest demons at the same time it would help right the wrong done to his grandfather.
Now that he had the chance to do it, his appetite for revenge had fled. It wasn’t that Max De Luca was Mr. Nice Guy, because he wasn’t. During that conversation with Max, though, Damien had seen glimpses of himself in the man he’d been prepared to hate.
Max was a family man. His top priority was taking care of his family. That was why he’d protected his half brother. Max’s growing-up situation didn’t sound all that rosy, either. His eyes lit up when he mentioned his wife and baby.
Exiting the elevator, Damien couldn’t squelch his envy at the man’s personal happiness. He couldn’t help thinking about Emma and how he felt when he was with her. Just her presence made the world seem better. It was odd as hell, but she made him want to be better.
Swearing under his breath, he walked into his private office and paced the length of it. He pulled the envelope out of his pocket and stared at it. This was the opportunity he’d been waiting for most of his life. He had the gun and the bullet. All he had to do was pull the trigger.
Five minutes later, he’d made his decision and his deed, as far as he was concerned, was done. Hearing the door to the office suite open, he glanced into the outer office, surprised to see Emma.
His heart stuttered in his chest. “I didn’t expect you to come in,” he said.
She met his gaze, her eyes colder than ice. “I made an agreement. I try very hard to keep my word.”
She slid into her chair and turned on her computer. She clearly hated him. The knowledge stabbed at him. The pain he felt took him by surprise. How had she become so important to him? He’d thought he had everything under control.
“I’ve done some thinking about our agreement,” he said.
She shot him a look of suspicion, but said nothing.
“I’m terminating it effective immediately.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t know how long it will take me to pay you back that kind of money, but—”
He lifted his hand. “You fulfilled your part of the agreement. You owe me nothing.”
“But—” She lifted her hand to her throat. “But you said a year.”
“I changed my mind,” he said, giving her a wry smile. “Billionaire’s prerogative. I can’t buy your loyalty or your trust. I’m not sure I would want to if I could.” He shrugged. “I’m cleaning out my office. I’ve finished this project. You can take off the rest of the day. Except one thing,” he said. “I’d like you to make sure the paper in the shredder basket is destroyed.”
She looked at him in confusion. “Okay. Would you like me to do that now?”
“Yes, I would,” he said and stepped aside so she could go into his office to collect the basket. He caught a draft of her subtle, sweet scent as she passed him and clenched his jaw. He would never hold her again.
“Where do you want me to take it?” she asked.
“Somewhere off-site,” he said.
She dipped her head in surprise.
“It’s the report on Max De Luca,” he said.
Her jaw dropped and she looked at him in surprise, followed by hope, followed by confusion. Clearing her throat, she licked her lips and nodded. “I’ll take care of it right away,” she said softly.
“Thank you,” he said, meeting her gaze for a long moment, his mind replaying the times she’d smiled at him, the times she’d come to him and kissed him, the time they’d talked about wishes, and she’d made him start wishing again.
She looked away. “Thank you,” she finally said. “For everything.”
“Goodbye,” he said, more for himself than for her. She was never going to be his. Never.
Emma considered stopping to throw the shredded report away at a mall, a service station, a fast-food restaurant. None seemed right, so she drove all the way to her apartment.
She was in shock, numb. She’d been so furious earlier this morning when she’d realized he’d used her. Furious with him for pointing out her deception with him. She considered her so-called spying assignment with Damien to be the lowest thing she’d ever done.
Then when she’d learned he had information he planned to use against Max, information she’d helped him find, she hadn’t known who she detested more, Damien or herself.
It had taken everything in her to show up for work. She had to stick to the agreement for her mother’s sake. She was fully prepared to despise him and resent him for the rest of her life.
But then he’d let her off the hook. No reprisals, no you-owe-me, nothing. On top of that, telling her to destroy the remnants of the report about Max totally boggled her mind. She didn’t know what to think or feel.
Parking her car in the paved parking lot, she walked inside her apartment to get some matches and a pitcher of water. She returned to the parking lot, dumped the contents of the bin onto the pavement and burned them. Staring into the fire, she wondered what had made Damien decide not to go after Max. She wondered what had changed his mind.
As Damien had instructed, she took off the rest of the day. She caught up on cleaning her apartment and doing laundry, turned on the television for a while, then turned it off. Fighting a bone-deep restlessness, she escaped her apartment and visited a park.
She saw a couple and thought of Damien. She saw a golden retriever and thought of Damien. Frustrated with herself, she went to a movie by herself, a foreign film, French. Surely that would distract her. Except midway through the movie, an Italian character was introduced. She began to feel haunted.
Bedtime finally arrived and Emma crawled into bed, craving escape from Damien. Instead, she dreamed of him. She dreamed he died and she woke up in a cold sweat, screaming.
Hugging her knees to her chest, she gasped for breath. Something had changed, she realized. Without really knowing it, some part of her had begun to count on him. She’d been so busy doubting him, but something inside her had made another determination about him.
Her heart? Somehow, someway, she had begun to love him.
Her stomach twisted with the realization and she laughed, the harsh, bitter sound breaking the silence of the night. How futile was that? she thought. If ever a man was incapable of love, it was Damien.
Damien missed his next shot. He was winning against his brother, but not by much.
Rafe downed a shot of tequila and made a hissing sound. “You’re off your game, bro,” he said and chalked the cue.
“I’m doing okay,” Damien said, taking a sip of scotch.
“Got something on your mind?” Rafe asked, banking a shot that just missed the pocket. “Damn,” he muttered and raked his hand through his hair. “What’s up? You’ve been walking around crabby and distracted since you got here.”
Damien shrugged. “This was a big contract. Sometimes it takes awhile to wind down.” He took a shot against another ball. And missed. He swore under his breath.
“Sounds like BS to me,” Rafe said. He took a shot and sank it into the pocket. “Score,” he said, then missed the next one.
Damien gritted his teeth and lined up his next shot.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with that pretty assistant you brought onboard when you visited South Beach a few weeks ago, would it?”
Damien scratched the table with his cue and glared at his brother for his bad timing. “I wouldn’t go there if I were you.”
“Why not?” Rafe asked. “If I keep pushing on that raw place, I may win. Then I can hold it over your head for years.”
“In your dreams,” Damien said.
Rafe chuckled but missed his next shot.
Damien swallowed a growl and chalked his cue.
“She must not have liked you. Did she dump you?” Rafe taunted.
Damien clenched his jaw, then forced himself to relax.
“Did she decide she wanted a man with a heart and brains?”
Rafe’s words cut close, but Damien ruthlessly turned him off. He focused on his shot and sank the last ball into the pocket. Taking a deep breath, he heard Rafe swear and lifted his glass of scotch in salute.
“How do you do that? Even on an off day,” Rafe said.
“I’m hungrier than you are,” Damien said. He felt not an ounce of satisfaction at beating his brother. “I always have been.”
“Hungry enough to go after Miss Emma Weatherfield?” Rafe asked.
Damien met Rafe’s gaze. “I’ve been hungry to survive, to succeed. Women come and go. I’m usually glad when they go.”
“But not this time,” Rafe said with a knowing glance.
Damien sighed. “You can be a real pain in the butt.”
Rafe stretched his lips in a sharklike smile. “Part of my charm.” His brother moved toward him and clapped him on the back. “I think you’ve met your waterloo.”
Damien shook his head, not wanting it to be true. But it was. “She despises me. I—” He paused. “I seduced information out of her. She’ll never forgive me.”
“If she surrendered to the seduction, then she can’t totally despise you,” Rafe said.
Damien threw him a sideways glance.
“Unless you blew it in some other way.”
Damien shifted from one foot to the other.
“Like omitting the four-letter word that starts with L,” Rafe said.
“What makes you an expert?” Damien asked, feeling as if he was being fried alive.
Rafe lifted his hand. “Nothing. I’ve just heard that women really want to hear the L word. For some of them, it’s a requirement. But if she’s not a keeper, then—”
“She’s a keeper,” Damien retorted.
Silence followed and he met Rafe’s gaze again.
Rafe lifted his eyebrows. “I think you just answered your question.”
Damien sank into a leather chair and exhaled. “It’s not that easy. I screwed it up.”
“That hasn’t stopped you from succeeding with your business or anything else you’ve wanted. Why would it stop you now?”
Damien raked his fingers through his hair. “You don’t know.”
“I don’t have to,” Rafe said. “I just know that if this woman makes you feel like you found home, then you better find a way to keep her or you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it.”
Emma pulled her Tesla Roadster into a parking spot just outside her condominium and cut the engine. Sitting for a moment, she leaned against the steering wheel and stared out the window.
A familiar restlessness rippled through her. Maybe it was time for her to leave Las Vegas. Maybe it was time for her to leave Megalos-De Luca.
The mere notion was shocking. She’d thought she would stay at MD forever, but lately she’d felt dissatisfied and unhappy. She felt like Goldilocks, except there was no “just right.”
Sighing, she dismissed her ongoing dissatisfaction and rose from her car. She had a great job with excellent pay, a fabulous car and nice friends. She had no reason to whine.
Since Damien had completed his contract with MD, she’d been reassigned to a new VP, a nice older gentleman planning to retire in two years. Her stomach no longer knotted in apprehension as she arrived at the headquarters. Her heart didn’t race. Everything was back to normal.
Emma had never thought she’d want anything but a normal, stable life until now. She missed Damien. She missed his passion. She missed his strength. She even missed his flaws.
“You can’t have him,” she whispered to herself. “So stop thinking about him.”
Stepping inside her apartment, she closed the door behind her. She heard a scratching sound and—A bark? Seconds later, a small mass of fur with long floppy ears ran toward her barking and wagging its tail.
Emma gaped at the puppy and immediately kneeled to the floor. “Who are you? And how did you get in here?”
The white-and-caramel colored spaniel jumped into her lap. How had the dog gotten into her apartment? Emma laughed as the puppy licked her chin.
“Lucky dog,” said a low, familiar voice from the doorway.
Emma’s heart stuttered. She jerked her head upward and stared at Damien as he leaned against the doorjamb. She blinked to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.
“What are you—” Her chest squeezed so tightly that she couldn’t finish her question.
“Doing here?” he finished for her and pushed away from the doorjamb, walking toward her. “Some people would say I’m a glutton for punishment, but when I find something I want, I don’t like to quit.”
Emma bit the inside of her lip. “Something?” she said.
“Someone,” he said and extended his hand.
She slid her hand in his strong, warm palm and allowed him to help her stand.
“You like your new dog?” he asked, his lips lifting in a faint smile as the puppy danced at their feet.
“Mine?” she echoed. “I work all day. I shouldn’t have a dog. It’s not fair to him.” But how could she possibly resist those eyes? she thought.
“What if you didn’t need to work all day? Or what if you could bring your dog to work?”
“MD would never go for that,” she said, giving a short laugh at the idea.
“I would,” he said. “You could come to work for me. I’d double your salary.”
Emma dropped her jaw.
“Or,” he said, carefully watching her. “You could put me out of my misery and marry me.”
Emma’s head was spinning. It took her a full moment to find her voice. “Misery?” she said.
He stepped closer and slid his fingers through her hair, tilting her head so that she could see his face, the ruthless scar and dark gaze full of passion and something far deeper. “I’ve been missing a home most of my life. Being with you makes me feel like I finally found where I belong.”
Emma’s knees weakened and she felt her eyes well with tears. “Oh, Damien,” she whispered. “I never thought this was possible. I never thought you would let me into your heart.”
“Trust me, woman. You’re in,” he said in a rough voice.
Emma saw the love shining in his eyes and felt as if she needed to pinch herself.
“You think you can go the distance with me? You turned me away before.”
Emma shook her head. “I was afraid of how much I felt for you. And then you told me to leave.”
“That was pure hell. I didn’t want you to stay because I was forcing you.”
She studied his face. “And part of the reason you decided not to go after Max—”
“Was you,” he finished for her. “It just didn’t seem as important anymore.”
Emma shook her head. “We’ve both made mistakes.”
He took a deep breath and expelled it, looking away from her. “I thought you hated me.”
“I thought I should,” she said, feeling a deep stab of pain even as she said the words. “I hated myself for trying to deceive you.”
“I understood.”
Emma felt her throat knot and her eyes sting with unshed tears. If he’d come back after she’d turned him away, then she needed to bare her heart to him. It was only fair. “You’re an amazing man. I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, you became my soulmate, my rescuer. Somewhere along the line you made me belong to you.”
His nostrils flared as he drew in another breath. “Amazing, huh. Amazing enough for you to marry?”
Her heart stopped. “Do you love me?”
He closed his eyes for a moment and her heart seemed to sink into the floor.
“I don’t know much about love, but I know I love you. More than my life. More than I ever thought possible.”
Emma couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. “Oh, Damien.” She slid her arms around the back of his neck, craving his closeness. “We could have given up on each other. The thought of it terrifies me.”
“It wouldn’t have happened. If I couldn’t convince you, then I hoped the dog would.” His gaze turned serious. “More than anything, I wanted to hear you say you believe in me.”
“I do,” she said, lifting her hand to his cheek. “I’ll believe in you for the rest of our lives.”
Damien pulled her off her feet against him. “And I love you. Lord, you feel good. How do you feel about getting married in Vegas?”
She smiled, feeling giddy. “Anywhere is good.”
“And how do you feel about a honeymoon in Italy?”
She drew back slightly to look into his face. His lips turned up at the edges and his eyes glinted with happiness. “I talked with Max. He did some research into the dirty deal his grandfather did with mine and he has set aside a cottage for the Medici family forever.”
Stunned, she stared at him. “You’re kidding.”
He shook his head. “He’s a stand-up guy just like you said.”
“You’re the most stand-up guy I’ve ever met,” she said, thinking of how many times he had already come through for her. She was the luckiest woman in the world.
“I love you,” he said simply. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life making your wishes come true.”
“I love you, too.” She knew, with all her heart, that he was telling the truth. She also knew, with all her heart, that her biggest wish had just come true.