waited.
His jaw rippled with tension. A shamefully heated part of me wanted to run my lips over the spot. To taste the chaos. ‘A prison sentence is finite, even if one’s release is via death. Mine is...fluid.’
‘And you think running from it will solve your problem?’
That bleak darkness I’d glimpsed two years ago blazed through his eyes. ‘You misunderstand. I’m done running from it. I’m returning to it.’
Facts gleaned from research clattered among the industry rumours I’d absorbed over time and informed my response. ‘You’re supposed to be co-CEO of The Mortimer Group and yet your title doesn’t state that.’
‘To be co-CEO I have to be an active member of the board. I’m currently not.’
‘Because of your fluid sentence?’
He cracked open his bottle of water, pouring it with an intense focus that made me think he wasn’t going to respond. Then he shrugged. ‘Like you, I don’t like failure. But I understand the wisdom of a tactical retreat. I didn’t expect mine to last three years.’
‘Who?’ I asked boldly.
Again, time stretched, a tensile cord that vibrated with every mercurial sensation that’d connected us since the moment we’d set eyes on each other.
It seemed a little obscene to be thinking of sex in this moment but the second his gaze clashed with mine, I was back on my knees in that hotel room, staring up at him with parted lips, inviting him to lose himself in me.
Intuitively, I knew he was in that moment too. His fingers curled a little too forcefully around his glass, his eyes gleaming with fiercer fire.
Through it all, my question clawed at the air between us. Demanding a response.
‘Gideon. My cousin. We had a disagreement. In hindsight, retreat was a mistake.’
His answers were bullet-sharp, wrapped in bitterness, a deeper, more potent strain of what I’d witnessed two years ago. Funny thing was it seemed aimed at himself.
This time I knew better than to entertain sympathy, to get carried away with even the remotest delusion of saving him. Hell, I couldn’t even save my own broken relationship with my mother.
‘What makes you think you can fix anything now? What makes you think you can reverse time and fix something you turned to ashes?’ I demanded with all the bitterness lodged in my heart.
Damian
WE’D TAKEN A wrong turn somewhere. And I didn’t need a compass to know that the fault was mine. My motives tonight hadn’t been wholly altruistic, true. But I hadn’t anticipated this...deep dive into matters I never discussed with anyone.
My plan when I’d challenged Neve into spending more time with me had been to delve into a conundrum of my own. To uncover why she still remained irresistible despite her bristling hostility. Why she made my cock hard by simply walking into a room when she was far from easy or accommodating.
The problem was that I wanted her. So bloody much it’d taken on a life of its own this past week. I wasn’t so far gone as to label it an obsession but...
My cock hardened, throbbing with a terrible ache that made me shift in my seat.
Bloody hell. Was I so fucked up now that this sort of thing turned me on? She was responsible for the broken curse on my libido, sure. Since our night in Boston I’d fucked three other women. Carefully vetted, willing women. None of them had come close to plumbing the depths of the peculiar hunger that had tunnelled itself into unreachable places inside me.
That hunger accelerated out of control with each moment I spent in Neve’s presence. But alongside that craving for the kind of filthy, sublime sex that’d taken me out of my head for a blessed few hours was another unspeakable yearning.
To simply...know her. I shifted again but this time my unease had nothing to do with the ache in my dick and everything to do with the need to answer the censure in her eyes.
‘The past is the past. It can’t be changed. But I can control how the future pans out.’
‘So he should simply accept that you’ve done your time? That you’ll impose your will on him whether he wants it or not?’ she demanded sharply.
‘I intend to lay out the evidence and let three years of time and distance provide their own clarity.’ And yes, if necessary, force Gideon to confront what we’ve both been hiding from—that the betrayal wasn’t as cut and dried as we initially believed. That, according to what the investigators had uncovered, he’d had a lucky escape.
Neve’s response was curtailed by the waiter’s arrival. He set our plates before us in a silent flourish before making himself scarce again.
She made no move to pick up her cutlery. I wasn’t in the mood to eat either.
‘What?’ I asked when she stared at me with mild disbelief.
‘I’m trying to decide if you’re that much of a hypocrite or just plain egotistical.’
I ignored the sharp pang in my chest. ‘I’ve been called many things in my time. Thankfully I have a thick skin. And I also think it’s time we refocus on why we’re here.’
The quicker we did that, the sooner I could address the pressing problem of the need to fuck this woman into oblivion at the earliest opportunity.
I watched her fight whatever was eating at her. Seconds ticked by before she blinked her gorgeous blue eyes and picked up her fork.
Something like relief spiked up my spine. ‘I asked my team to find a location for my Fantasy Room. As of half an hour ago it was a toss-up between Mortimer Plaza London and a château I own in the Bordeaux region of France.’ I locked my gaze on hers. ‘I’m leaning towards the latter.’
‘Why are you telling me this?’
‘We wrap up Raider’s Den filming next Wednesday. We can be in France by Thursday to inspect the second set-up.’
She froze. ‘You want me to go to France with you?’
‘Why not? I’m coming to Westport tomorrow. As majority partner in this deal, I thought you’d welcome the opportunity to see more than one. I’ve already spoken to Sam and Tyler. They’re on board with the schedule.’
‘You made plans with my partners without me?’ Hell, even her prickly tone was sexy. I suspected very little detracted from Neve’s allure.
‘We had a conversation. As a consultant, I believe I’m allowed to do that. If you object to any part of it, feel free to speak up when we meet tomorrow.’
‘I have a business to run. I can’t just fly off to France.’
‘You’re
