AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We don’t even know that Damian is here to see me yet. For all we know he’s here to rip us all a new one because an Aldridge crashed his party.”
Celeste appeared in the doorway of Elaina’s room just then. Her lips were tight and her cheeks pink. Elaina and Abby stared at each other, wondering what happened between her and Damian. “Actually, he’s here to see you, Abby.” Celeste’s brows were creased as if she couldn’t believe Abby had caught Damian’s interest after all.
She was insulted that her own mother seemed so surprised that a man might be interested in her. Not that she thought Damian really was interested…she was sure he wanted to speak with her for some other reason. But still, it was very insulting. To her annoyance, Elaina appeared equally shocked. “Oh my God, you spoke to him as yourself, and he’s interested. I don’t get it.”
Grabbing the brush from Elaina’s hand, Abby slammed it down and glowered. “Thank you for the confidence in my ability to interact with a member of the human race! God, you’re acting like I really want him to like me. We hate him. Remember that.”
“He assumes you live here,” Celeste said. “Don’t let him know otherwise. If he grows fond of you maybe we can use that to keep the house, at least.”
Abby refrained from reminding her mother that she hadn’t yet succeeded in seducing the man, so there was no certainty that he would become fond of her any time soon. Standing up, she smoothed the long-sleeved purple silk top that Elaina loaned her. It was a little loose around the chest. “Don’t you have anything smaller? You know from your pre breast implant era?”
“No …,” Elaina said, hating to be called out for any work she’d had done. Abby smirked. At least the pair of black jeans fit perfectly. She wasn’t the fashionista her mother wanted her to be. She had even worried about her lack of style when she landed her dream job in New York, but she knew she could have maneuvered her way around that fashion scene just fine. She might have even called Elaina for advice and they’d have something to talk about instead of hurling insults at each other.
She sighed as she slipped her feet into black, half boots, still thinking about the job she gave up to come home and be with her family. Maybe Wyatt was right. Maybe she would have been better off staying in New York. She’d moved back home just to be used as an instrument for revenge.
She sighed again. You’re the one allowing yourself to be used. It was true. Her current predicament was her fault. She’d agreed to the scheme because she hated Damian Coldwell just as much as Celeste and Elaina seemed to. Heading down the stairs, she allowed her resentment of the callous jerk to take over. It would help her to remember why she was doing what she was doing. Her steps faltered at the last stair. He hadn’t been a jerk when she’d spoken to him anonymously, had he? No, he’d seemed ... likable.
Whatever. Her father was dead because Damian was a power-hungry son-of-a-bitch. He was going down. She kept that same energy as she searched the living room and foyer for him. The front door stood ajar. She walked toward it, wondering why he chose to wait outside in the cold rather than inside. Maybe his guilt was too heavy for him to set foot into the Aldridge home. Yanking the door open further, Abby had to fight down the same wave of attraction she’d felt the night before. How could she still be attracted to him after finding out who he was?
There Damian stood, his imposing figure clad in a long, black coat. He was looking every bit a mobster. Perhaps he’d been a mob boss or a henchman before he acquired his wealth. Maybe that was how he’d gotten the money to start out in the business world. Her imagination ran wild.
In the light of day, she got a much better look at him. His hair wasn’t black but rather a coffee-brown that appeared black in some lighting. It was medium length—long enough to move with the wind—with a stubborn lock falling over his brow. His nose was slightly crooked as if it had been broken before. That along with his dark eyes, which seemed to hold many secrets, only made him look scarier, yet sexy as hell. She gave herself a mental kick for that last thought.
Undeniably, Damian was attractive in a rugged kind of way. He was worlds away from the soft, polished businessmen she was accustomed to seeing. Even the planes and angles of his face were sharp and chiseled, most likely making him intimidating to everyone he ever did business with. Not only did he look like he could take someone down with a mildly delivered right hook, he also oozed the tough guy vibe, especially with the thin, long scar sitting above his top lip.
Abby blinked—self-loathing filling her. Why did she have to find him so alluring? He was the enemy.
“Abby Aldridge,” Damian said, his obsidian eyes sliding over her from head-to-toe. Meeting her gaze, his expression hardened. “We meet again.”
