Page 29 of Insatiable


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“Your track record with women isn’t exactly one of long, committed, happy relationships, Damien.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” he replied sourly. “That doesn’t mean things can’t change. What if she ends up being the love of my life?”

“Are you in love with her?”

He grunted. “Jesus, Sam, I met her a day ago.”

“Plus, you’re not capable of love, remember?” Sam said, treading out onto thin ice, walking a line between friend and employee. “You told me that in college. You said you were just like your dad, and you swore he never loved anyone except his kids.”

“I don’t have to be just like my father,” Damien snapped before realizing his friend was making him argue something Damien had always held as an unchangeable fact.

Christ, was this woman really messing with his head so much after just twenty-four hours? Was he seriously questioning something he’d always believed about himself because he’d spent one night in her bed?

He threw his head back and glared at the ceiling. “This is crazy.”

“I’m glad you’re realized that. I’m also glad you’ve realized nobody is prewired to automatically fail at every relationship in his life. Now go fall in love...with any woman other than Viv Callahan.”

“I don’t want anyone else,” he muttered.

“She can’t be that important to you after one day, right?” his friend said, his voice soft, his tone annoyingly reasonable. “There are a lot of women in the world. So please, Damien, for all our sakes, let this one go. Just forget about her.”

Let her go? Forget about her? Impossible.

No, he might not be in love with her—he had never been in love, wasn’t even sure he would recognize the emotion. But he wanted Viv, he craved her as an addict craved a drug.

There was more, though. Since he’d spied her in the parking garage yesterday, and heard about her no-good, very bad day, he’d felt protective of her. The image of that thug groping her hadn’t left his mind, and the dark visions of what she’d experienced on a daily basis here were almost worse. He was responsible for all of that, for running a company where such things could happen. Where such things could happen to a woman he was rapidly becoming infatuated with!

No. He couldn’t give her up. Not because his lawyer said he should. Not even if it meant putting his new company—the one thing he felt positive about in his business life—at risk. The other stockholders might try to use the bad press or sanctions from the league to force him to step down or sell out. But if they did, they’d have one hell of a fight on their hands.

He always fought for what he really wanted. Which was why he wasn’t about to say goodbye to Viv.

“Please, at least consider it?”

A long pause. Finally, a low breath. “All right.” He rose from his seat. “Thanks for your help today.”

Sam rose, too, and extended his hand. “You’ll be in town for a while, I guess? To make sure this thing blows over?”

He’d be staying for a lot more reasons than that. Well, only one more reason—but she was a major one. “Yes, I will.”

“You’re welcome to stay with me if you want out of the hotel. I have a huge place, and there are a lot of single women in my building.”

He managed a small smile. The guy just never gave up. He had to wonder, not for the first time, what on earth his sister had done to make Sam give up on her.

“I think our partying bachelor days are behind us.”

“Okay, just...”

“Don’t.”

Sam shrugged helplessly.

Few people had ever been able to make Damien do something he didn’t want to—one of the big reasons he’d never gotten along with some members of his family. Sam had pushed as much as he could. Because Damien was in no way ready to give up Viv Callahan.

There was so much to explore between them, but they’d start with the truth. Who he really was, where he’d been for most of the day. He’d lay it all out and ask what she thought about them continuing to see each other. Maybe it would last a few nights, maybe months. Or, hell, he was thirty years old—maybe he’d finally found someone who could make him hear the word family and not immediately want to get to the nearest airport. Stranger things had happened, hadn’t they?

But when he got to the hotel, walked into the penthouse and heard a thick silence that could only be caused by utter emptiness, he began to worry. “Viv? Where are you?”

His heart picking up its pace, he hurried through the huge suite, checking both bedrooms, the living area, dining room, media center and bathrooms. The patio was empty, as was every closet. Well, except for one, in which he found something strange. A pair of shoes—women’s shoes. They were strappy heels, sexy and designer, and, he realized when he picked one up and checked the sole, brand-new.

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