Page 38 of Abundance of Obsession

Holy shit…

Chapter 10

Zoe

I’m heading home in a taxi, and I’m angrier than I’ve ever been. Well, maybe it has happened a few times before, but that’s beside the point.

To be exact, I’m taking a taxi home by myself.

After my exchange of messages with Eli, Damien’s phone started vibrating. And it didn’t stop until he got up from the table, apologizing, to answer it.

Deep down, I felt this was the turning point where everything would fall apart. For a change, I was the center of someone’s attention, and it felt nice. Really nice.

With a gloomy expression, Damien returned to the table. Before he could say what was wrong, I could already see it in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, but this time I have to cut our date short.”

“Oh.”

“Unfortunately, it’s a matter of work responsibilities I can’t really postpone. But please know that I truly regret this.”

“I understand. Sometimes work gets in the way.”

Moments later, we were already leaving the restaurant. The taxi Damien had ordered for me was waiting outside. He refused to budge, insisting it wasn’t safe and wouldn’t listen to my protests or assurances that I could manage alone.

This gesture warmed my heart.

“I’m sorry again. I’ll make it up to you, Lily. Promise, I will,” he said. We stopped by the taxi.

I gave him a smile, yet it didn’t reach my eyes. It was forced—and I’d had plenty of those.

Damien peered at me. He brushed a stray strand of hair from my forehead, and the whisper of his touch sent a shiver down my spine as his voice, barely audible, asked, “I’d really like to kiss you goodnight right now. Can I?”

Eli’s words returned to me; lost lambs finding their way home. Fuck. I shouldn’t care about them. I shouldn’t even consider them at all. We have nothing in common. We mean nothing to each other.

Then why did those words give you goosebumps?

I pushed the thoughts of Eli out of my head.

“See for yourself.”

Damien’s lips met mine, warm and soft. They tasted of mint, even after dinner. It was a slow kiss, full of promise. The only thing I was unaware of was the nature of that promise.

And I kissed him back. Matching his rhythm. It was a stark contrast to kissing Eli. Eli craved my lips, but Damien was content to wait. Eli made the universe spin and then vanish, whereas Damien…

Well, he didn’t give me an earthquake.

But that didn’t mean anything yet. The first time isn’t always the most passionate. Sometimes tenderness is what a woman needs.

Damien pulled away from me before I could slip my tongue between his lips and test my theories. Disappointment crept into my heart like an unwelcome guest. I covered it with another fake smile.

“I’ll call you tomorrow.” After those words, I slipped into the taxi and he closed the door after me.

So here I am. Pissed off, disappointed, and confused, I’m heading home alone. And I have no intention of thinking about any of this anymore. Even though the need to argue with Eli right now, to yell at him, is burning inside me like a raging fire. How dare he do this to me again?

Does he have some damn radar inside him that tells him when he should interrupt my romantic encounter with a man? I’m also pretty sure that, given his reputation as a playboy, he’s a hypocrite in all this. I bet he was fooling around with some girl only half an hour before he flooded me with messages.

I was supposed to stop thinking about it.

Crossing the threshold of my apartment, I slam the door behind and shut out thoughts of those two men.