“I’m starting to wonder if I have.” I say, knowing just how crazy I sound. But I know I’m not.
I look up at him and inch forward. Then I raise my hand to his face. I cover half of it, leaving my fingers parted for his eye, and I gasp. “It’s you.”
Damien sits up. “What are you talking about?”
“You were at the masquerade,” I tell him.
“What masquerade? When?” Damien sits all the way up. I stand up and run my hands through my hair; holding them on my head for a moment.
“The charity gala. It was open to the public, and my sister Rachel dragged me there because I’d just gone through a breakup. I saw my ex, and a man came over, a man who worked there, to make sure I was okay. He got me another drink and took me to the VIP section of the hotel and then…we…”
“Shit,” Damien whispers. I look at him and search his eyes to see if I am wrong. Because if I am right, this is all a very, very wild coincidence.
“I’m right…aren’t I?” I ask carefully as my heart hammers into my ribcage.
But Damien doesn’t answer. He simply gets up and puts his clothes back on.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“Home,” he says as he buttons his shirt in record time.
“So you’re not denying it,” I say, following him out into the living room.
“What is there to deny?” he asks without looking at me. Then he just turns and starts walking toward the door. The words he says next aren’t exactly what I am hoping for. “I’ll see you at the office.”
With that, he’s gone. For a moment, I just stand in my kitchen in my underwear. On the upside, he implied I still have a job. But at the same time, he admitted that it was him I was with six years ago. It makes sense because that hotel is a sister hotel to the Redwood.
“Fuck!” I let out, pressing the heels of my palms to my eyes. How did I not think about that? Worse yet, how did I actually manage to reverse Cinderella this shit? In my defense, I was distraught and slightly drunk that night, but still. You would think that the best sex of my life with the hottest man I’ve ever been with would be so memorable that I would recognize him if I saw him again, mask or not.
That night changed my life in more ways than one. It rekindled my faith that not all men are selfish lovers. It reminded me what it means to be with a dominant man who knows what he wants and knows what women need. It’s also the night that I am almost completely without a doubt certain resulted in my pregnancy.
I stumble over to the couch and collapse onto it as my brain connects the string of staggered dots.
I had sex with a hotel owner that night.
That hotel owner was apparently Damien Graves.
I got pregnant with Luca that night.
Which means…
“Damien is Luca’s father.”
Chapter 28
Damien
“It means nothing.”
Diego and I are grabbing coffee at work because when I got there today, though I saw Annelise’s car in her spot, she wasn’t waiting for me in my office as usual.
“You went to her house?” Diego says a little louder than I’d prefer, and I shoot him a death stare before stirring the splash of cream into my Americano.
“To vet her,” I say as I toss the stir stick into the garbage can.
“Over a month into her employment?” he sniggers. “Okay, boss.”
“I needed to get a better idea of who she is,” I snap back. “If she is going to be my personal assistant, I need to know everything about her.”
