The Dare Collection January 2020. Lauren Hawkeye
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when Mr Chen hadn’t had a sense of humour and disapproved of levity. Listening to Damian laugh was like a drug. It was deep and sexy and made me shiver every time I heard it.
You could get used to listening to that every day.
I opened my eyes again, watching Damian’s face as he smiled at something someone had said on the phone, and my chest ached. That smile was dazzling, making him even more gorgeous than he was already, intensifying his charisma to megawatt proportions.
Okay, so he had a sexy laugh and his smile made me want something I hadn’t even realised I wanted. But that wasn’t his laugh or his smile. It could be anyone’s. It was nothing to do with him specifically. Not when I only knew him as a public figure rather than a person.
Damian turned around, his tarnished-silver eyes met mine and that smile was suddenly focused in my direction, hot and wicked, and I had to catch my breath as my sex throbbed.
We’d already spent hours in bed. Surely I couldn’t want more, could I?
Oh, yes. I could.
Damian finished up his call then shoved his phone into his jeans and came over to where I lay. He was back in that soft grey T-shirt, which was a pity, as I preferred him naked with all that glorious muscle and bright ink on full display.
‘Sorry. Had to take some work calls.’ He stopped in front of the couch, eyes glittering as he surveyed me. ‘Hungry for something in particular, Sugar?’
‘Yes.’ I didn’t even bother to pretend. ‘You. Naked.’
His smile deepened. ‘Are you trying to get me into bed by any chance?’
‘Of course.’ I gave a lazy, sensual stretch, pleased by how his gaze followed my movement hungrily. ‘Is it working?’
His hand dropped to the front of his jeans, the outline of his hardening cock already obvious. ‘What do you think?’
I looked up from underneath my lashes, pleased with myself and enjoying flirting with him. ‘So what are you waiting for?’
He laughed, which made me shiver with delight. ‘You’ve got no idea how much I love an insatiable woman. But dinner won’t just happen by itself, even for super-powerful billionaires. And you need to eat.’
I pouted a little. ‘You’re always trying to feed me.’
‘Hey, it’s all pure self-interest. I want to make sure you’ve got enough energy for all the things I’ve got planned for you.’
Well, he wasn’t wrong. We’d missed lunch because we’d been too busy screwing each other senseless and I was hungry. Plus, I kind of liked being waited on. Made a nice change from having to do everything myself.
‘Fine.’ I gave him a mock-stern look. ‘But you owe me, okay?’
He grinned and sketched a cross on his chest. ‘Cross my heart and hope to die. Now, you need a drink?’
Five minutes later, I was sitting in his lap, a gin and tonic in my hand while he nursed a beer. And it felt natural to be there, leaning back against his hard chest, as if we’d been lovers for years instead of merely a night and a day.
‘So,’ he said after a moment’s comfortable silence. ‘Are you going to tell me how you got into the “reacquisition” business or do I have to guess?’
Oh. That.
I’d been hoping that if I didn’t answer and distracted him with sex he might forget about his questions. Sadly, that didn’t appear to be the case.
I still felt reluctant to talk about it, to give him any more details of my life, my guardedness by now instinctual. Then again, he’d promised he’d let me go after a couple of days, and that my livelihood wouldn’t be at risk. I probably shouldn’t have believed him, not when I didn’t know him, but I did anyway.
Or maybe it was more that I simply wanted to talk to someone.
He’ll remember you. He can’t meet that many women who do what you do.
Well, maybe I didn’t care that he wouldn’t forget me. Maybe I didn’t want him to.
‘Why do you want to know?’ I took a sip of my G&T, relaxing against his heat. ‘It’s not very interesting.’
‘Says the jewel thief who somehow got past my security, sneaked into my party and unlocked my securely locked office door,’ Damian purred. ‘Yeah, that’s definitely boring shit right there.’
I didn’t consider what I did exciting, but the way he said it made it sound as if it was.
My mouth twitched as a smile threatened. ‘I’m not technically a jewel thief. And most of that “boring shit” is actually quite boring.’
His fingers tangled in my hair, giving it a gentle tug. ‘Boring for you, maybe. But not for me. Come on, don’t leave me in suspense.’
‘You’re really interested?’
‘Is the Pope Catholic?’
I smiled up at him this time, and he grinned along with me. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Give your uncle Damian a smile.’
I laughed. ‘Now you sound like a pervert.’
‘Never pretended to be anything different.’ He gave my hair another gentle tug. ‘Gimme the news, Sugar, come on.’
‘What’s to tell? Mr Chen—that’s my mentor—picked me up off the streets when I was seventeen.’
‘What do you mean, picked you up off the streets?’
‘Well, you know the stories of kids left on the steps of the church for the nuns to find? I was one of those kids. I was left in a cardboard box on the steps of the local Catholic church when I was a baby.’
He frowned. ‘You’re shitting me. People actually do that?’
It was years ago and I didn’t blame my parents. They’d obviously had some crap choices to make and I was just glad they’d given me to people who’d cared what happened to me.
‘Sure,’ I said easily. ‘It happened to me.’
‘Jesus,’ he muttered, his expression darkening further. ‘That’s fucking appalling.’
His response scraped up against something unexpectedly painful. ‘It might be, but maybe my parents were desperate.’
‘Plenty of other options.’ There was a thread of tension in his voice that hadn’t been there before and suddenly I wished I hadn’t given him the truth. ‘You don’t have to leave a kid on the fucking steps of a building, for Christ’s sake.’
The painful thing dug deeper, and I shifted, leaning forward. ‘You don’t want to hear the rest.’
‘Yes.’ The hand in my hair tightened, pulling me back against him. ‘I do.’ His breath was warm on the side of my neck as he pressed a kiss there. ‘I’m not angry at you, Thea. And, sure, your parents might have been desperate, but that’s still no excuse. Like I said, there are other options.’
The heat of his body should have been too much, given the hot night, but it wasn’t. And I found myself leaning back against him, arching my neck for more kisses, the feel of his mouth soothing that painful thing inside me. ‘Maybe,’ I murmured, still not sure why I was defending my birth parents, not when I didn’t know anything about them. ‘But at least they left me somewhere that could take care of me.’
Damian only made a noncommittal noise, giving me another kiss before settling me back against his shoulder. ‘Go on. Let me hear the rest.’
‘Okay.’ I sighed and tried to relax, taking another sip of my drink. ‘Anyway, I ended up being fostered out to different families, and when I was sixteen I got sick of being sent from pillar