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A low chuckle and then, “What will I do with you?”
“Funny, I was wondering the same about you just this morning.”
The lace ensemble beneath my T-shirt and shorts practically sears my skin. I know exactly what Damon plans to do with me.
My pulse skyrockets when he stares at me that way. Like he wants to throw me on top of the table and make a meal of me.
I clear my throat, changing the subject as I hand him the plate I’ve made. “Was becoming an app developer always a dream of yours?”
The gesture relaxes his gaze a touch.
“Actually, I wanted to be a fisherman. I even had these grand plans of owning my own boat, living off the sea, and traveling the world port by port.”
“So… you wanted to be a pirate?”
That earns me a smirk.
“After Grandad passed, the whole idea sort of lost its luster. Chuck was moving back home to New York, where his mother lived, and not having anything else going for me at the time, I ended up following him to NYU, and we both studied computer science and analytics.”
I take the plate he’s made for me and set it down before swiping a slice of cheese.
“Did Chuck not want to move with you to LA?”
He watches my hand rise to my mouth in a moment of silence.
“When Chuck met Brandi, I was in a weird place mentally. Living in New York was fun for a time, but I was depressed. And rooming with the two of them was… Well, you’ve seen them.”
We share a smile at that as I nibble another piece of cheese, eager to learn anything more about him.
“I got on with Triggerz, which filled the void for a while. And then I met Susan.”
A big gulp of wine fills my mouth. I was starving, but I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.
“What happened then?”
He shakes his head, swallowing a sip of wine before continuing. “Things were great. She was everything I was searching for at the time. Wild, blunt, full of this fire I felt I’d been missing, and I knew I had to marry her.”
Jealousy burns an ugly hole through my stomach. Picturing Damon with another woman in any capacity is unsavory, but especially intimately.
“But I was still working my way up at Triggerz, and she was never particularly supportive of my work ventures. Her love for all things chaos and my affinity for structure was a recipe for disaster.”
I swirl my finger over the rim of my glass. “Did she initiate the divorce?”
He scoffs. “Yeah. Right after I found her with another man in our apartment.”
“What?”
I study Damon with his face still painted and his gaze hardening over with hurt, and a piece of my heart cracks right off the side.
“She made sure to hit me where it hurt on her exit from my life.” He pauses, shaking his head. “Coming up to my job, yelling and carrying on about how I never made her a priority.”
It takes a great amount of effort to watch him down what’s left of his wine instead of crawling into his lap and tucking him against me.
When his eyes find mine, he notes my pained expression.
“It’s fine. I’ve come to terms with what I’ve done.”
I start. “What do you mean?”
