Chapter Six
Damian
The look of indignation that crossed Lydia’s face was one of the sexiest things Damian had ever seen. He loved strong women, though he’d yet to find one who could stand up to him in all areas of his life.
Until now.
Without a doubt, Lydia could not only stand up to him but also give him a run for his own money. He had to be careful how he played all this. Push too hard and surely she would push back. But living with him for the next two weeks was nonnegotiable. He hadn’t bothered telling her that he lived in a three-bedroom apartment but had turned two of the bedrooms into an office for the both of them. So she would have no choice but to be in his bed. Every night.Fuck, he got hard just thinking about it.
Of course he wouldn’t coerce her into having sex with him. He wanted her to beg for his cock because she wanted it, needed it. Just as he needed her. He wouldn’t have some half-assed fuck with her just because he said it was part of the deal.
No, that wouldn’t do.
“Now, I have a car waiting outside for us. Are you ready?” He leaned in, kissing the corner of her mouth, and almost jumped in shock when she struck out with her teeth, biting his lower lip hard enough that he thought she may have drawn blood.
“The only reason I am going home with you right now is because I can’t afford for what you know to be leaked.” Their gazes locked, and he was dismayed to see all the goodwill he had achieved by bringing her to the burnt house had been dashed away, replaced with resentment. “But make no mistake, I do not like being pushed into something I don’t want. And I will not forget this.”
Ducking under his arm, Lydia stalked out of the house and to the black town car waiting at the curb. She didn’t say anything about the fact that her car was no longer there. He’d had a driver come pick it up and take it to his garage. As long as she was with him, she would be driven wherever she needed to go. And not by any old chauffeur. No, her driver had been trained by the Secret Service and could evade anyone if the need arose. Not that he thought it would. The only enemies Lydia had were in the boardroom, and they rarely escalated things to a violent level.
During their painfully silent drive, Damian began to wonder whether he was going about this all wrong. At the time he formulated his plans, it had seemed like the only way he could command respect from a woman like Lydia would be to dominate, to not take no for an answer, within reason. But now, maybe he was taking it too far.
But in the next breath, he thought about having to drop her off at her own apartment that night and walking away. Even if it was for only a few hours, it felt unacceptable deep in his soul. He had waited too long to put his plan into action. The months of watching and waiting had grated on his nerves until he was one big exposed wire. Letting her return to her place tonight, or any night from that moment on, felt akin to ripping his own skin off his bones.
She’d come around. He’d help her.
They pulled up to his building, and before the driver could come around to open their doors, Damian hopped out and came around to let Lydia out. Ignoring his outstretched hand, she stepped onto the sidewalk and up to the front door of the building. The doorman quirked an eyebrow at Damian as he trotted after the obviously pissed-off woman. It seemed during the ride over she had managed to work up a good head of steam.
The air between them practically vibrated with the barely held anger emanating from Lydia’s entire body. The minute they stepped off onto his floor and he unlocked the door to his place, she threw her purse down on the couch and turned on him with fire in her eyes. Damian didn’t even give a shit whether he was about to get his ass handed to him by a woman half his size. His cock roared to life, turning to steel and throbbing inside his pants.
“If you think I’m fucking you tonight, you have another think coming.” She stormed up to him, thrusting her finger and red-painted nail into his chest. “I do not fuck men who manipulate me with a potential scandal, manhandle my life, and hack my computers and accounts. I don’t even know why I’m here. You saw a picture of me, read an article, and now you have some twisted obsession? Well, news flash. Just because you find me fascinating does not mean the feeling is mutual. You cannot twist things so that I fall into your bed.”
Damian had had just about enough. He never got violent with women, never laid a hand on them in anything but kindness or passion. But Lydia had twisted things in her mind during her silent brooding. Obviously, she had no intention of listening to him. Her face flushed red with the heat of anger, her chest rising and falling as she railed at him for being an obsessed asshole.
Snatching her wrist and forcing her back against the wall, Damian made sure not to hold her tight enough to hurt her, only to hold her still. Her other hand came up and slapped him across the face. Grabbing that wrist as well, he positioned it on the wall above her head and gripped both her delicate wrists in one hand. With the other hand, he covered her mouth so that she would shut the hell up and listen. Not an ounce of fear was present in her intense eyes. Anger, maybe even hatred, yes. But no fear.
Good.
“You got your say. Now you will listen to me. Am I obsessed with you? Maybe. The moment I saw your face I knew I had to have you. But the more I’d learned about you, I knew it wasn’t for one night. For a fuck. I want you for life. I want to put a ring on your finger and for you to put one on mine. Not because I’m manipulating you, not because it would be a smart business move, but because you are just as obsessed with me.” The emotions raging through him were entirely unknown. Before this woman, he had been numb to everything. No amount of group sex or one-night stands could ever compare to her mere presence. To the fire in her eyes. “How would you have suggested I go about seducing you? Ask you on a date? From what I understand, the men you have waiting for you on the side who have tried that you’ve dropped faster than a plummeting stock. Not that I blame you. You’ve been filling your time with the wrong men. They barely fulfill your needs. Why do you think you need the club? It is the same reason I used to need group sex.”
I paused and watched as the truth of my words sunk into this stubborn woman’s head.
“Believe it or not, I had no intention of going to Club Zion last night. I had only found out you were a member last week. As you know, Stephan keeps his secrets and others’ very well. I’m an investor, and I didn’t even know. But then I found the financial trail that led to your club fee.” Her eyes blazed with anger once again at the revelation that I had tracked her financial records. “I wasn’t going to go. I didn’t want to see you with anyone else. But I heard the details of your room and figured I could just watch, make sure no one went too far. But all those people bringing you pleasure, the wild look on your face as they backed off over and over again. I couldn’t stand back. I had to be the one who pushed you over the edge. It killed me seeing all those other people touching you, but giving you that orgasm, watching you as you totally came apart at the seams thanks to my hands, well, it made up for the torture. And it cemented in my mind that I needed you in my life and in my bed.”
A little bit of the tension in Lydia’s limbs seemed to slip away. Damian didn’t know whether it was his words or that she had just grown tired of fighting, but he would take it. Letting go of her wrists, he swept her up into his arms in a bridal carry and made his way toward the master bathroom.
“You do have one thing right though. I’m not going to fuck you tonight. I’m going to take care of you.” He set her down on the edge of the vanity and began filling the two-person tub with water and bath salts. “You’re going to take a bath. I’ll bring you wine. I will read to you aloud while you relax. If you are anything like me, you don’t get to read often anymore.” He couldn’t decipher the look on Lydia’s face, but she wasn’t yelling at him or trying to get away, so he kept going. “Then I am going to feed you, and finally, I am going to strip you naked and hold you while we sleep. Because even though I won’t fuck you tonight, as long as you are in my bed, you will be naked.”
“Who said I was going to be in your bed tonight? What if I am more comfortable in the guest room?” There was no conviction behind her words. She wanted in his bed just as much as he wanted her there.
“There is no guest room here. I had it renovated to be an office for you since I wasn’t sure if you would like sharing mine.”
“So I get a choice about sharing a workspace with you, but not a bed?” Lydia quirked one eyebrow up in a look of disbelief, and Damian could have sworn he saw the shadows of a smile at the edges of her lips.
“Now you’re catching on.” He winked at her, then helped her stand to her feet and strip off her dusty, sweaty clothes.
Never before in his life had Damian had to control himself as much as he did during her bath. The moan she released as she slipped into the warm, scented water. The vision of her breasts glistening with water and soap bubbles. The way she tipped her head back and closed her eyes while he read fromPersuasionby Jane Austen. It all chipped away at his resolve to keep his hands to himself. But he had to follow through. Had to show her that despite the way he had gone about getting her here, he was still a man of his word. A man she could trust.
After pulling her from the tub an hour later and wrapping her in a fluffy robe, he laid out the meal he had requested from the restaurant downstairs on the floor of his living room, picnic-style. Whether it was the wine, the food, or the bath that had helped her to relax, he didn’t know, but she seemed to be at ease with him finally. They talked about their families and friends. Their careers. Their ambitions. All the things he normally couldn’t care less about when he met a woman. He found them endlessly fascinating coming from the lips of Lydia St. James.
