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Cold. Icy. Closed-off.
Even more so than I was.
I did my best to keep my sigh under wraps and grabbed my coffee. I glanced back as I left the room, but he didn’t pay the blindest bit of attention to me. He stayed where he was, fingers moving quickly over the keyboard, eyes focused wholly on the screen. I went back upstairs to his room where my purse and my clothes were. I had makeup in my purse, and if I caught a cab to the bar where my car was, I knew I’d find a change of clothes in my office.
I knew there was a reason I kept sweats and sneakers there. Apparently, this was it.
I set my coffee on the nightstand and grabbed the small pouch holding my makeup out of my purse. I didn’t need much, just enough to look human, so a brush of powder and lick of mascara later, I was heading back into the bedroom and grabbing my clothes. I dressed quickly, even with the move of a contortionist to do the zipper up in my dress. Perching on the edge of the bed with my coffee in one hand, I called my preferred cab company and had a car come to Damien’s.
I was ready to go home. If I was honest with myself, I didn’t know why I was still here. I should have gone home last night—heck, I shouldn’t have come here last night.
My attempt to play his game had backfired on me. My curiosity had done the same thing. Both had led me close to emotional danger, because last night, he’d been more than the man I knew him to be. He was funny and relaxed and playful. Warm and teasing and the kind of person I liked to be around.
I’d assumed that last night had changed our relationship.
I was wrong.
A fact that was proven when I went downstairs to a silent house.
He hadn’t left, so he was somewhere here, basically hiding.
I didn’t care to look for him.
With my purse on my shoulder and my heels in my hand, I walked outside, barefoot, closing the door loudly behind me.
***
“He’s offered a significant amount,” my lawyer said down the line.
I balanced the phone between my ear and shoulder, dumping a stack of papers into a box. I was finally done organizing all Dad’s stuff, and I didn’t want to be dealing with another offer from the Fox family, especially after last night and this morning. It’d been eight long-ass hours since I’d left Damien’s house, and now, I was on the phone with my lawyer because his father had put in another offer for my not-for-sale business.
“I don’t care, Geoff,” I said, grabbing the phone and perching on the edge of the desk. “I’m not selling. I don’t care if he offers me his entire savings. You know that.”
“I know, but I am obligated to tell you.”
“Well, in the future, it’s an automatic refusal of any and all offers unless I tell you otherwise.” I paused. “And you can send Benedict Fox and his son a Cease and Desist for their offers on any of my property unless they’re notified of an intent to sell.”
Geoff coughed. “If you’re sure.”
“Perfectly.”
“They’ll have it within the hour.”
I ended the call and sighed, pressing my hand against my face. I slid it up over my forehead and into my hair, sweeping it back from my face before running my fingers completely through it.
Anger fizzled in the pit of my belly.
I was beyond frustrated. Humiliated. I’d never felt anything close to this before in my entire life. My entire body burned with embarrassment as the realization that my attempt to play along with his plan had backfired more spectacularly than I’d ever imagined it could.
Mia had told me that Damien Fox used people to get what he wanted.
That was all last night had been.
I knew that. Deep down, I knew that. So why did I pick up my phone to see if he’d called or texted me even though I knew he hadn’t?
Because I was an idiot of the highest level. I was a freaking idiot who had an angel on her shoulder telling her last night had been real and the devil telling her it wasn’t. Two sides of me warred, both of them right and wrong at the same time.
Last night had been real if only a little bit. At least, for me. I’d felt it. Felt the moment I saw the real side of Damien for a few, short hours. Not that the time made it any less important to me.
That was also the reason it was wrong. Wrong because I’d wanted to know about him, not know him specifically. Knowing someone for who they really were was dangerous, and the longer I thought about last night, the more I realized I’d underestimated Damien’s powers of…whatever the hell they were.
