AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Although they never discussed it, he was aware there was another reason she wouldn’t let him see her at the office. They were walking a fine line, that whole fraternization thing looming large in his mind. He could handle Sam if the attorney made an issue of it. But as a subordinate, Viv couldn’t. Nor did he want her to have to explain that she was dating the team’s owner to anyone else.
“Dating,” he muttered, laughing under his breath at the word. He hadn’t dated in forever. And yet that’s what it felt like they were doing. He would pick her up at her place, they’d go out for dinner or, even one night, a sappy movie that he hated and she adored. There would sometimes be a long drive in the limo afterward, where they made slow, seductive love. Other nights it was right back to his suite, or her place, for hotter, louder sex.
They’d done things he’d only ever fantasized about. He’d made good on his threat to tie her up...and then had let her repay the favor.
Christ, what a night that had been.
What a week, really. The best one of his life. Worth every long phone call or video conference he’d had to make to keep up with work, and every snarky email he’d ignored from his family about why he was staying away for so long.
“What did you say?” she asked, eyeing him from the other side of the elevator. He was riding with her up to her apartment, but, as if not trusting him not to seduce her during the trip—as he usually did when they were in the elevators at the Black Star—she’d edged to the far corner and put up a hand to stop him when he’d tried to join her there.
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“About the fact that we’re dating.”
She sucked in a tiny gasp, her eyes widening, as if she hadn’t really considered that, either. “Are we?”
“I think so. I’m picking up you at your door, and escorting you back to it.”
She snickered. “Uh, well, until today, you haven’t been stopping at the door, buddy. In fact, you haven’t been stopping until you’re through my bedroom door and naked in my bed.”
“Are you complaining?”
“If I ever do, you’d better stick a thermometer in me and run a CAT scan, because I’m obviously sick in the head.”
He slid an arm around her waist. “It’s all right with you? I mean, I know you didn’t want to have to deal with me after that first night.”
She gazed up at him, her blue eyes bright, her lips soft and moist, and slowly smiled. “It’s fine with me, Damien,” she whispered. “In fact, I’ve come to enjoy having you around.”
He brushed a kiss across her lips, murmuring, “Ditto.”
They reached her floor and stepped off the elevator. Viv lived in a newer Arlington high-rise that catered to young city professionals. Impersonal enough that he’d never seen the same neighbor, but still warmer and cozier than the rather cold hotel room he’d been living in for weeks.
That wasn’t really a huge change for him. He was used to living in hotel rooms, since he tried to stay on the road as much as possible. Running a hotel chain did have its perks. But those perks did not include homey touches like family photos on the wall—there were tons of Viv’s family on her walls, especially all those big, athletic brothers. There was a worn rocking chair that she said her parents had given her, one used to rock her and her siblings as babies. On it was draped a tenderly crafted afghan, made for Viv by her late grandmother, and which he suspected was one of her favorite possessions.
Her furniture was inexpensive, but comfortable, the TV an old console with a grainy picture, the dishes colorful but mismatched. Everything about the place screamed home and, truthfully, he’d come to prefer being here with her, rather than at the penthouse. And it was definitely better than the ice castle that had replaced his father’s once warm home on a hot, sunny, Florida beach.
Inside, just to prove her wrong about what she’d said in the elevator, he purposely did not head for the bedroom. Instead, he watched as Viv went into the kitchen and put the foam container full of her leftover dinner in the fridge. She always got to-go boxes from the restaurants they frequented, taking the leftovers for lunch the next day. He’d laughed when she’d admitted it was because she didn’t trust him enough to leave the building to go out and get food, for fear he’d be lying in wait to seduce her to the hotel.
“I’m going to go change,” she said, when she returned, heading past him toward her room.
“Okay.” He noted that she didn’t invite him to come along, and wondered at her mood. She’d been quiet throughout dinner, not her usual vivacious self. He hoped nothing had happened at work today, but considering they weren’t allowed to talk about it, he hadn’t asked.
