DAMIAN I bit my lips to stifle a groan. My fingers unconsciously massaged my temples where I felt a headache building. The sound of rustling paper made me look up. My secretary had merely paused to turn over another page of the report she was reading. Beside her, two men, members of my staff were hanging on to her every word, making notes in the margin of the documents in front of them. My secretary saw me looking in some dismay at the remaining pages of the report she had yet to read. "Should I... go on, sir?" she asked after a moment's hesitation. "Yes. Please do," I replied. The men who had looked startled at the idea that I could abruptly call off the meeting that hadn't even lasted for up to twenty minutes, now looked expectantly at her as she once more began droning on about the project. I fought to keep my expression bright and alert, like everyone else, but I found myself spacing out once more. Damn! But I was so goddamn tired. Lately, I had been even under more
AMELIA I was still basking in a postcoital glow when the sound of a door closing made me thoroughly wake up. I sat up. Beside me, Damian stirred. "What's the matter?" he said. His words punctuated by yawns which he tried to stifle unsuccessfully with one hand. "It's my mother. I think she's back. She went on the blind date Anton planned for her today," I explained further. "Oh." Interest flared in Damian's eyes. He sat up quickly and began hunting about for his clothes. "We have to go find out how it went. I'm curious." "I'm very curious," I said. I pulled on my clothes. Together Damian and I went downstairs. We met my mother just returning to the living room from the kitchen. We exchanged greetings, and then I could rein in my curiousity no longer. "Tell me, mum. How did it go?" I asked. She plonked down on the sofa. I perched on the sofa close to hers, and Damain settled down beside me. "It was..." She hesitated and shrugged. "It went okay
AMELIA "Hello, Amelia," she drawled. "For a moment there I thought you had developed some kind of sixth sense that told you I was here. I thought you would never come." "This is the exact time I come here everyday," I said shortly. While I spoke, my mind was going a mile a minute. Lora was again up to no good. That much was certain. Damian had told me everything about his meeting with her at the motel room, how she had tried to get him to say something incriminating. No doubt she had come to try the same tactic with me. My eyes skimmed over the skintight jeans and blouse she wore. I wondered whether she was wearing a wire under those clothes. I just had to be careful not to say anything that I wouldn't want recorded. "Nice place you got here," she said, staring at me with a malevolent look in her eyes. "I need us to talk about something very important. I assume there's a place where we can talk." I seriously considered telling her to go to hell when she added, "Or we can tal
AMELIA "WHAT?" I could physically see how my confession hit my mother like a train. Her eyes were wide like she had seen a ghost. "Tell me... this isn't true," she said. I opened my mouth to say it wasn't true, to lie my way out this situation, but I knew deep down that it was no use. I could feel her eyes boring into my skin. She could read my expression. She knew me too well and I was sure it was plain on my face that I had spoken the truth, at least this time. "Amelia..." She took a turn around the room and came to stand before me once more. "Amelia, I wouldn't have believed this of you. You disappoint me." "I didn't have a choice, mum." "You did. Everyone has a choice, but sometimes it's just easier pretending that you don't. What made you even decide to get into this?" "Damian made the offer..." I told her about the condition of Damian's getting his uncle's company, about getting my revenge on Noah by marrying his hated business rival. "So... revenge and m
AMELIA "I feel a strong connection between you and Damian." I tried not to groan. I had known this was coming. For most of the drive to the airport, my mother had been strangely quiet. That usually meant that she had something weighty to say, and considering her frequent topic of discourse was usually about Damian and I, I could not say I was surprised. Since I quite agreed with her sentiments, I was half inclined to shed tears of vexation, so I settled for 'joking' about Anthony. "I thought you were quiet because you've been thinking about seeing Anthony," I said. She took her eyes off the road to give me a reproachful look. "Don't make jokes. I'm being serious. You seem well suited to each other. I feel something... strong and probably genuine between you two and if I, a third party can feel it, I'm sure you and Damian do." Ugh! Getting her to talk about Anthony usually guaranteed her not talking about anything else. I heaved a sigh. "Mum, need I remind you that our ma
AMELIA I couldn’t get my mother’s words out of my head as I drove back home. If she had noticed my feelings for Damian, it truly meant it was getting out of control. I was falling for a man who would never feel the same way for me. I was stabbing myself in the heart with no hope of healing. “Just one year, Amelia.” I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration and tucked a strand behind my ear. “How can you be so stupid?” I knew what I had to do but I didn’t know if I could do it. Shutting Damian out wasn’t going to be easy, it was no trip to the park. But I had to shield my heart from him. If I didn't do it now, it would only get harder in the future. Already, like a creeper, he had wound himself around my heart. I hadn't been aware of how he had done it so insidiously. I had to cut him off to set myself free before he dug his hooks further into my already damaged, bleeding heart. As soon as I got home from the airport, I purposefully marched to our bedroom to pac
DAMIAN I woke up the next morning thinking that Amelia would have finally gotten over whatever was making her act so weirdly the previous day. I was wrong. When I went downstairs, breakfast had been prepared as usual, but a place had been laid out for only one person. As I lowered myself into my seat, I glanced at my watch. It was a few minutes to 7. Amelia didn't leave for the bakery until half past 7 or thereabout. Wasn't she going to work today then? Was she ill or just letting her staff handle business for the day? "Good morning, sir. Do you need anything else?" The housekeeper, Molly, had appeared at my elbow. I swallowed the bit of toast lodged in my throat so fast I almost choked. Molly would know where Amelia was. "Where is my wife?" I asked her. "Has she had breakfast already?" "I should think so, sir although I didn't see her eating. She was up very early this morning." I frowned. So Amelia was still sticking to having her meals alone. "And she's now in h
AMELIA The restaurant Colin had invited me to was chic and nice and I was really surprised. The Palm was a five star restaurant and it took weeks to get a reservation. Colin had always had impeccable taste and I couldn’t deny that. He must have made a lot of enquiries and effort to get a reservation in hours. After I had admired the exterior of the place to my satisfaction, I made a mental note to myself to add a little of their decor to my business, if the need for renovations ever came up. As I went in, Colin spotted me before I saw him. He was sitting at what had to be the best table in the place. He smiled and waved me over. I could see no signs of his bodyguards. "Is it just me, or are you looking even better than you did at the airport?" he teased. "Really? Well, I think you need your eyes examined.” We laughed and I felt myself already relaxing. Colin beckoned to someone over my shoulder. A waiter came forward to take our orders. As we waited for him to bring our f