Page 30 of Damian’s Conquest

She jumped up from the sofa. “What the fuck would I do with your keys?” she asked, this time truly stunned. She hadn’t touched his keys though she had to admit she’d looked for them, but that was before they’d kissed.

Damian rose slowly. In that moment he reminded her of a tiger who was stalking his prey.

“Somebody broke into the storeroom early this morning using a key, shortly after I fell asleep after we had sex the second time.”

“You’re accusing me of breaking in? How dare you?”

“I know you tried the door earlier. I saw it on the surveillance camera. Your red cape was hard to miss.”

Shocked, she gasped. Yes, she’d tried several doors in the Employees-only area, but except for the breakroom they’d all been locked. She hadn’t broken in, and if he had her on camera, then he knew that already. “I got lost, okay? I was looking for the restrooms, and yeah, so I was a little tipsy. But I didn’t break into a storeroom or anything else.” Which was technically the truth, because the door to Damian’s office hadn’t been locked. “And if you really have me on camera then you would also have seen that I didn’t break in later after we had sex. So if you saw somebody with a red cape on your surveillance video, that wasn’t me.”

“The person breaking in wore a different costume during the break-in, black and white and a Venetian facemask.”

At the description, Naomi realized that Mrs. Zhang had seen the person who’d presumably broken into the storeroom as he’d made his getaway. But she couldn’t tell Damian about that, because it would give away that she was investigating the club.

“You probably realized at that point that you were on camera, and that I would recognize your outfit, so you disguised yourself.”

Naomi narrowed her eyes at him. She had to defend herself, without giving away what she knew. In fact, Damian was giving her the perfect excuse to extricate herself from him. “I didn’t steal anything from you. Not your keys, and not whatever was in the storeroom of your fucking club. Go ahead, search my place. You’ll find nothing. And then I want you to leave. And to think that I actually enjoyed sleeping with you! How stupid of me! I should get my head examined!”

Yes, she realized, it was best this way. This was the perfect pretense to get him out of her flat and out of her life. She’d find another way of trying to figure out what was going on at the Mezzanine. It was safer not to be in his presence anyway.

She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her back to him. “You know where the door is.”

There was silence behind her. She heard only Damian’s breathing and her own heartbeat. What was he waiting for?

“Tell me one more thing. Why did you follow me tonight?”

Fuck! He’d noticed her tailing him. What now? How could she explain why she’d followed him? She had to stick as closely to the truth—or a version of it—as she could.

“Okay, I followed you!” She spun around and glared at him. “I was on my way home, and I saw you in your car when you were stopped at a light in the Mission. I followed you, okay? It was impulsive, I admit that. And yeah, a bit stalkerish. But I wasn’t doing any harm. I… I…ahm, I wanted to see you again, but I didn’t want to be too obvious, so I thought I could just accidentally run into you. But then I lost you in traffic, so I drove around a bit, trying to find you. When I couldn’t, I drove to the Mezzanine. Now you know how pathetic I am. You never asked me for my phone number last night. That’s why I left. I didn’t want that awkwardness in the morning where you would promise to call me when you really had no intention of doing so.”

Oh God, she was waffling. Did he buy it?

“I should have never stalked you. It was stupid.” She gestured to the door. “I didn’t steal anything from the club, and I didn’t touch your keys. But you clearly don’t trust me. And you’re not interested in anything else anyway. So, what are you still doing here? Just leave.”

Naomi turned away, not because she didn’t want to be caught in a lie, but because she suddenly realized that part of what she’d said was the truth: she had been afraid that the morning after would be awkward, and that Damian would realize that she wasn’t as sexy and desirable in the light of day as under the dim lights of the club, despite everything he’d said during their passionate encounter. She’d been afraid of him rejecting her and regretting having slept with her. That’s why she’d left without saying goodbye. To preserve the memory of their night of passion. Yeah, she was pathetic.

15

Damian let Naomi’s words sink in. Had he been wrong about her after all? Did she really have nothing to do with the theft of the bottles of blood? Her claim that she’d followed him to initiate a coincidental meeting wasn’t too far-fetched. Other women had done it before: figured out his habits, so they could run into him and make it look random. And Naomi lived in the Mission. It was entirely possible that she’d seen him in his car after he’d left Scanguards. After all, there were only so many main roads leading from her office at the San Francisco Chronicle to her home in the Mission, and one of those streets passed right by Scanguards’ headquarters.

Even Naomi’s explanation why she’d left while he was still sleeping was conceivable. He’d noticed during their night together that she wasn’t as confident about her body as she should be. Most likely, men and women had told her often enough that she looked fat, though he couldn’t fathom why. Her curves were perfect, and any man not seeing that was blind.

Damian ran a hand through his hair. His night with Naomi had been too good to be true, and maybe that was the reason why he questioned her motives. He’d been looking for a woman like her ever since he’d started dating, and now that he’d found exactly what he wanted, he was scared that it was a fluke, a mirage, or a trick somebody was playing on him. Add to that the theft of the bottled blood and the resulting risk of exposure, could anybody really blame him for going off the rails? Still, it didn’t excuse how he’d treated her.

“I don’t want to leave,” he finally said and stepped closer to her. “I’m sorry, Naomi. I didn’t mean to lash out at you like that. It’s just…” He sighed. “When women come on to me, they always have an ulterior motive, be it that they think I’m rich, or that I have the right connections, or that they want a trophy boyfriend, but they never really want me.”

“I don’t quite believe that,” Naomi said, but still didn’t look at him.

“Don’t get me wrong: I’ve always liked the attention. I’m not gonna lie about that. But I never seem to attract the kind of woman that truly appeals to me. A woman like you.”

She scoffed. “Please don’t.”

“It’s true. But I do owe you an explanation.”

Naomi finally looked at him.

“The break-in has rattled me and my team. And when I saw at what time the break-in had happened, and that the person looked to be about your height, I started doubting why you went to bed with me.”