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Sofia shouldered her purse and lingered. “Your plan is to never see Damien again?”
“No…I just don’t think I should be in those situations anymore.”
She gave me a disappointed look.
“The wound is still fresh, you know?”
She nodded in agreement, but her eyes showed a different story. “Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight.” I watched her walk out before I returned to my work. I could go home whenever I wanted, but I kept finding things to do because I wasn’t anxious to head back to my place. Damien was constantly on my mind, and it was impossible not to think of him around Liam. A part of me wished that Damien had never told me, that he wasn’t so arrogant to assume I would leave my husband for him at the drop of a hat.
Nearly thirty minutes later, someone stepped into my office. Their footfalls announced their presence.
I looked up to see those deep green eyes looking into mine. I dropped the pen I was holding and inhaled a deep breath the second I felt his presence. It was like a disease infecting my cells. It entered my body, and the symptoms showed just seconds later.
A pizza box was in his hand, and he set it on my desk. “I thought you’d appreciate the leftovers.” He was in his suit and tie, as if he’d left the office and headed straight to dinner with Hades.
I didn’t open the box out of defiance. The enormous desk was between us, and I was glad such a solid piece of furniture formed some kind of boundary. As long as I stayed in my chair, he couldn’t get to me.
He slid his hands into his pockets and continued to stand there.
My stomach betrayed me and growled loudly.
A subtle smile moved over his lips.
I still refused to take a slice. “In case it wasn’t clear, I didn’t join you guys for dinner because—”
“You’re avoiding me. I know.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket and rubbed his fingers through the hair at the back of his neck. His chin tilted to the floor, and he sighed before he lowered himself into the white armchair facing my desk. “But I don’t want you to avoid me.”
“I have to…”
His green eyes studied mine, so intense that this desk didn’t seem thick enough to keep me safe. “I would never put you in a compromising situation, Annabella. You’ve made your stance on adultery clear.”
I felt more at ease, but not much. “You should feel the same way about adultery too.”
He rubbed his hands together. “I’ve been with married women before, so I don’t share your morality. But I respect you for it.”
I shouldn’t expect anything less. He was a drug lord and a notorious criminal. Why would he respect something like marriage, especially when a woman was throwing herself at him?
He continued to stare at me. “I don’t want it to be this way…”
“I have no other choice.”
“Nothing has changed, so why does it—”
“Exactly,” I said with a sigh. “Nothing has changed, so it needs to change. I can’t be around you without wanting you. I can’t look into your damn eyes without wishing you were mine. I haven’t been physically intimate with you, but I’ve been with you emotionally every single day… It has to stop.” My hands covered my face for a moment, and I breathed through the emotion before I dragged my fingertips to my lips. I closed my eyes for a few seconds before I looked at him again.
His expression didn’t change.
“How am I supposed to make this marriage work if I’m still hung up on some other guy?”
“Exactly.”
I shook my head slightly. “We aren’t having this conversation again…”
“But it’s a valid point. Why force a marriage that’s not working?”
“Who said it’s not working?”
“Liam,” he snapped. “The guy was going to go behind your back and jump back into the ring. He’s had one foot in and one foot out—just the way you have. Neither one of you has been one hundred percent committed. So, call it quits and move on.”
“He is one hundred percent committed. He wouldn’t have retired if that weren’t the case. He made a huge sacrifice…and I need to do the same.”
His expression showed how much he disagreed with that. “If you tell him the situation, he might bow out.”
He couldn’t be more wrong. “You don’t know Liam the way I do. If I told him what happened, he would hold me tighter. He would move us to France or England so we could start over away from you. And honestly, that’s not the worst idea.”
His eyes narrowed in pain. “He’s not worth it, Annabella.”
“I don’t want to keep talking about this, Damien. I picked him—end of story.”
He inhaled a deep breath. “But you picked the wrong man.”
“You should go…”
He didn’t move. “What are you afraid of, Annabella? You think, if you choose me, I’ll just hurt you?”
