But that wasn’t to say that part of Damien hadn’t been much more, well,alert,since Mandy Keeling had been hired. He wouldn’t go so far as to say he wanted to have sex with her, but he was attracted to her.
Okay, he wanted to have sex with her.
That alone was something of a miracle given that he had thought himself incapable of any emotional or physical interest in another human being.
“Maybe you should.”
“Should what?” Damien had lost the thread of their conversation.
“Have sex with your assistant. A little island fling. Sex on the beach.”
“That wouldn’t be professional.”
Rob crossed his feet on Damien’s desk, making him itch to shove them off. His sense of neatness and order was offended by Rob’s shoes nudging his stack of papers a little to the left.
“She’s hot.”
“Excuse me?” Damien stared at Rob, not sure he was following him again. His foot tapped impatiently on the carpet while his hand rattled the change in his pocket. He needed to get to the airport.
“Mandy. Your assistant. She’s hot.”
“Is she? I hadn’t noticed.” He remembered finding her pretty in that initial meeting, but now he couldn’t even dredge up a memory of what she looked like, not in any detail anyway. The niggling attraction he felt had more to do with her wit, her intelligence, her sharp sense of humor.
“If you haven’t noticed, I’m worried about you.” Rob dropped his feet to the floor, relieving Damien’s blood pressure. “She’s got that simple rich-girl look going on, like she went to a girls’ school during the day, then snuck out at night to go skinny-dipping.”
“You’ve given my assistant a lot of thought.” Which somehow infuriated him. A feeling he had no right to claim. Rob was probably more Mandy’s type anyway.
“Just scoping chicks for you, man, since you won’t do it for yourself.”
“Maybe there’s a reason for that. Maybe I’m not interested.”
“Damien.” Rob’s voice was soft, serious. “This isn’t healthy for you... You’ve got to move on, do something besides work twenty-four/seven. She died, not you.”
As if he didn’t know that. He fucking felt that guilt every day. And it had eaten a piece out of his soul that could never be replaced.
Damien just stared at Rob, coolly, eyebrow raised. He didn’t say anything, didn’t blink. Until Rob squirmed and straightened his tie.
“I just think you work too much. There has to be more to life than that.”
Picking up his suitcase, Damien nearly told Rob to fuck right off. But there was genuine concern on his friend’s face, one of his only friends. Most had abandoned him during the investigation, and since he’d lived in New York, he hadn’t bothered to make any new friends.
“I’m fine. My life is the way I want it.”
But if it was, why was anticipation coursing through his veins for the first time in over three years?
Chapter Five
Mandy finished washing her hands in the miniature sink in the airplane loo and smoothed her hair back off her face. She had been doing so wonderfully. Until the plane had taken off. Then her stomach had stayed at ground level while they’d shot straight up to thirty thousand feet.
She hadn’t waited for the seat belt sign to go off before rushing to the restroom and reacquainting herself with kissing the porcelain throne. Or in this case, stainless steel.
When she opened the door to stagger back up the aisle, Damien was standing there, his fist up as though he’d been about to knock.
“Are you okay?” he asked, leaning forward and studying her closely.
Mandy almost cringed under his scrutiny. The mirror in the restroom had not shown good things. Her hair was limp and her cheeks pale. So indignant at being sent hurdling back into morning sickness, Mandy gave no thought to politeness. This stupid trip was his idea, so it was his fault she felt as if she’d been tumbled in a hot clothes’ dryer.
“No, I’m not okay. I just threw up in an airplane loo, which means my face was hovering over a metal toilet. All ofhumanity deposits their filthy germs in an airplane restroom. It’s horrifying.”
