The Sinful Art of Revenge

Chapter NINE


‘HOW GOOD ARE your contacts in Eastern Europe?’ Damion asked from across the breakfast bar, where he was finishing his coffee.

She looked up from the box containing the jade figurine she’d retrieved from Pascale Duvall. ‘The best in the business. Why?’

His gaze dropped to the figurine and back to her face. ‘I want you to reconsider my job offer.’ He raised his hand when she started to protest. ‘On a contract basis. I’m thinking of branching into Eastern Europe. My sources took far too long to locate the rightful owners of the Matryoshka dolls. Use your contacts to verify the pedigree of the pieces I acquire.’

‘You must have a thousand employees who can do that for you.’

‘One thousand and one has a nice ring to it.’

He named the price of her employment and her mouth dropped open. That sort of money would make a huge difference to the lives of so many in her support group.

When he reached over and tugged her chin up with one long finger, heat stole through her, followed closely by suspicion.

‘You wouldn’t happen to be making this offer because you’re hoping I’ll end up in your bed, would you?’

‘You’ll end up there whether you take the job or not.’

His sheer audacity stole her breath away. She didn’t bother to argue with him because she was beginning to recognise the futility of it. Instead she picked up the box, grabbed her bag and headed for the door. He was there before her, opening the door for her, a look in his eyes that made her alternately want to keep staring into those grey depths and run and hide.

She didn’t want to be the focus of Damion’s attention. And yet she wasn’t running in the opposite direction as she ought to.

He smiled, and a shiver, delicious and intense, washed over her. Desperately she pushed it away. She couldn’t afford to let her guard down where Damion was concerned. The woman he thought he was pursuing no longer existed.

‘Keep building those barriers against me,’ he drawled. ‘I’ll take great pleasure in knocking them down.’

‘I wasn’t building barriers. I was considering your job offer.’

He took the box from her and led her through the lobby towards the car. ‘And?’

‘I’m leaning towards yes.’

He smiled. ‘Bravo, ma cherie.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It means you’re not as afraid of this thing between us as I thought.’

‘Or it could be that that I can’t resist fattening my bank account with easy money.’

Damion waved away his driver and opened the door himself. Once they were in the car, he stashed the box on the seat across from them, reached across and pulled her body into his.

‘If you’re trying to put me off by making me think you’re mercenary, don’t forget I know what you did with the million dollars. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably what you intend to do with the commission money, and why you’ve liquidated most of your assets.’

Her stunned gasp earned a smug smile.

‘You’ve just confirmed it. What is it, exactly?’ he asked.

She licked her lips. ‘It’s a fund for victims of natural and man-made disasters,’ she murmured.

For several seconds he said nothing. Then he curved his fingers around her nape and yanked her against his body. His kiss was every bit as devastating as it had been last night, every bit as mind-melting. When he cupped her breast, the sensation was so powerful, so intensely arousing, she wanted to crawl into his lap and demand more. Instead she forced herself to pull back.

Darkened eyes stared at her from a face carved with arousal before they dropped to linger on her lips.

‘What was that?’ she asked through lips that tingled wildly.

‘A kiss. One of many that will form part of my artillery.’

She squeezed her eyes shut as her breath shuddered out. Even when he grasped her hand and trailed a path of kisses over it, she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. The weakening in her belly told her she’d need all of her reserves to fight what Damion seemed bent on doing to her.

‘Can we just go, please? I don’t want to be late.’

‘Certainement. Give me the address.’

She read it out to him and he passed it to the driver. For the hour-long drive to the crisis centre where she was meeting her client, Damion kept hold of her hand. Every time she tried to pull it back, he tightened his grip. In the end, she allowed him to keep it.

Returning the jade figurine that had been in her client’s family for countless generations brought a lump to Reiko’s throat that remained there long after she’d left the very grateful client behind.

She felt Damion’s heavy gaze on her before he spoke. ‘You’ve just proved my point.’

‘What point?’

‘That you don’t do this for the money.’

She shrugged. ‘I gave her my word that I’d find and return what was taken from her. She trusted me. I wasn’t about to let her down.’

‘Who do you trust, Reiko?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘If you trusted enough to share, you wouldn’t be carrying that rock of pain inside you.’

She inhaled sharply, the depth of the pain that lanced through her stealing her breath. ‘How dare you?’

‘You’re keeping me at bay because you’re afraid to trust your instinct.’

‘You threatened Trevor and me with jail unless you got your way. Five years ago you walked away from me without a backward glance. You think I ought to just drop everything and trust you?’

‘I’ve kept my end of the bargain—I’ve left Ashton alone. As of this morning, the balance of his debt is zero.’

Surprise shot through her. ‘You … Why would you do that?’

‘With you in jail, I don’t get what I want. And I want you.’

‘You paid off Trevor’s debts in the hopes of getting into my pants?’

A distasteful look crossed his face. ‘There’s your tell. When you feel backed into a corner, you become crude. Some men might find that sexy—’

‘But you don’t?’

‘I’m more concerned with the why. You were downing tequila shots last night because you can’t handle what is happening between us.’

Forcefully, she pulled away from him. This time he let her go. ‘Downing shots is way better than your alternative!’

He stiffened. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You had a year-long affair with a married woman. A married woman with children!’ The depth of her disgust rose like bile within her.

His hauntingly beautiful face hardened, his cheekbones standing out so prominently, he seemed hewn from marble. ‘Don’t presume to think you know—’

‘Oh, please! Everyone knows you destroyed Isadora Baptiste’s marriage, then discarded her when it suited you. Is it true you wouldn’t let her see her children for six whole months?’

His jaw clenched. ‘No. That’s not true.’

‘You can have any woman you want, Damion. Why would you break a family apart like that?’ Her throat felt raw.

‘I didn’t—’

‘You know what? This really isn’t any of my business. Just like my life is none of yours.’ Rapping on the partition, she asked the driver to pull over.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ he demanded.

‘I have a sudden urge to feed my goldfish. I don’t know when I’ll be back, so don’t wait up for me.’

Stepping out, she struck out blindly—just plunged into the throng of people and let them carry her. She didn’t realise where she was until she heard the eerie, hauntingly familiar sound of an approaching train.

Desperately she tried to step back. Panic clawed at her insides. A scream scrambled to get out despite her every effort to keep it down.

The train arrived and she felt herself being pushed forward.

No!

Almost as if she had no control over her limbs, Reiko went with the crowd … and stepped onto the train.

Paralysed with fear, she clung to the nearest pole. She wouldn’t break down. She couldn’t. They’d arrive at the next stop in minutes.

Think about something else.

Taking huge gulps to calm her nerves, she scrambled around—and shut her eyes with a sense of inevitability when her mind alighted on its favourite subject.

Damion.

Ever since Damion had crashed his way into Trevor’s house and back into her life, she hadn’t been able to take a full breath. Her body and mind felt on edge, as if she was on a roller coaster that was speeding faster and faster, every sign pointing to its careening out of control. And, try as she might, she couldn’t find the ‘off’ button.

This is crazy.

‘It’s nothing compared to what will happen if you ever run from me like that again.’ The deep, quietly livid tones of the man haunting her made her already hammering heart skitter out of control.

Reiko swivelled to find him behind her, molten grey eyes glaring down her, his chest heaving as if he’d ran a marathon.

She wanted to demand why he’d followed her, why he was in her head so she couldn’t think of anything else. But she knew if she dared to open her mouth her whole world would collapse. So she stared up at him, fighting just to keep breathing. Frantically, she searched for the countdown to the next stop.

‘Don’t think I will hesitate to restrain you if you try to run from me again.’

Reiko didn’t doubt he meant it. But staying on the train was so much worse than Damion’s threats. Distressed, she bit her lip. His gaze dropped to her mouth, then rose to rake her face. His dark frown intensified.

‘Reiko? Are you okay?’

Lips clamped shut, she desperately shook her head.

His arm surrounded her immediately, caging her in his protective warmth. The scent of his aftershave filled her nostrils. Helplessly needing him, she clung to him for dear life. His arms tightened around her and she raised her head to look at him.

He stared right back at her, then gave a grim smile. ‘We’ll go and feed your fish. Then we’ll talk. No excuses this time. It’s time to remove these barriers between us once and for all.’

Damion barely succeeded in hiding his relief when she sagged into him, but his insides clenched with the knowledge that something was seriously wrong with Reiko. Her face was pale and her grip tightened on his jacket at the barest movement of the train. Confusion rumbled through him.

There had never been a choice as to whether he’d follow her or not. In fact the need had been so visceral he hadn’t paused a millisecond to examine it. His head of security would probably be having a coronary, because Damion was sure the team hadn’t made the train. He’d barely made it.

He, who’d never chased a woman in his life, who took pains to extricate himself from a liaison at the first sign of clinginess, had just chased a woman down a heaving subway and through several train carriages, a chasm of fear gaping wide at the thought that he’d lost her.

She cast furtive glances at him. He remained silent. He needed time to process exactly what was going on inside him.

His gaze wandered over her slightly parted lips, the wide, beautifully shaped eyes, the wild abandon of her hair, the small but perfectly shaped body, the thin edge of the scar that ended beside her right ear.

He wanted her as he’d never wanted another woman—so much so his insides quaked with the thought of not having her.

What he didn’t understand was why. He’d taken steps never to associate himself with the sort of woman he’d found Reiko out to be shortly after he’d walked away. Women like his mother, and especially his grandmother, who’d created so much unhappiness in his own childhood.

And yet here he was …

‘How many more stops?’ he asked, absently noting that his voice wasn’t quite as steady as he wanted it to be. He wanted to get off the train. To drag her into a distant cave, look into her eyes and uncover her every last secret. He wanted no secrets between them.

He’d pretended Isadora’s secrets were harmless until it had been too late …

‘One more.’

‘Do you live alone?’ The sudden thought that she might not hit him with a force of a tornado.

‘No, I have a boy toy tied to my bed. You’d just be cramping our—’

He grabbed her chin and shut her up the best way he knew how. Her breath whooshed into his mouth, sending a hot tide of want surging through him. Damion didn’t care where they were or who was watching. The kiss fired up his whole body, making him yearn, making him crave her …

Mon Dieu, it was almost as if … as if … he was obsessed.

He jerked back from her, a sudden chill slamming through his need. His head reeled.

Her eyes widened, looking up at him with an almost frightened expression. He wanted to tell her not to be frightened but he knew he couldn’t make such an assurance.

The train pulled into the station and he lifted her in his arms. The look of naked relief on her face finally clued him in as to what was going on with her. His pace quickened as he mounted the steps with her arms clamped tight around him. The contact fired through his whole body, adding to the sheer surrealism of the whole situation.

He kept her close, protecting her from the lunchtime throng as they made their way out of the station into the sunlight. When she tried to wriggle free, he held on.

‘Which way?’

‘Past the traffic lights and up the hill. My apartment is on the left,’ she murmured.

He moved before she’d finished speaking, his stride long and purposeful, fuelled by a need so strong he felt every inch of skin suffused by it.

Obsession …

No, he was overreacting to a word that had no bearing on what was going on between him and Reiko.

Obsession had been his father and his grandfather’s disease.

It had been Isadora’s.

He’d left every connotation of it behind in Arizona. The fact that it had popped into his head as he’d kissed Reiko meant nothing. It held no power over him if he didn’t give it room. He sucked in a deep breath.

‘Put me down, Damion. Your bodyguards are watching us. How did they get here so fast anyway?’

He kept on walking, his arms tightening around her. ‘GPS on my phone. They’ve been following us since we came out of the train station.’

The SUV rolled behind them as they strode up the hill.

‘And they’re going to be camped outside my apartment the whole time?’

‘Unless you attack me with a butter knife. In which case I hit the alarm on my watch and they crash in commando-style.’

The smile he’d been looking for didn’t materialise. In fact she grew paler the closer they got to her apartment. She knew the brevity of the next few hours.

So did he.

Her apartment was spacious, light and tastefully decorated. Eastern-influenced rugs decorated the wooden floors and Chinese and Japanese art graced the walls. A huge painting of a cherry-blossom tree took up almost one entire wall. One extra-large sofa dominated the room, behind which stood a very masculine-looking oak screen.

After dropping her bag on a nearby table, she hit a switch.

The opposite wall glowed yellow, then red. The next minute three fat orange holographic goldfish glided past.

He glanced at her. Despite her drawn features, a small smile curved her lips. ‘You didn’t believe me, did you?’

‘I’m interested to see how the feeding part comes into it. It is, after all, the reason you ran away from me.’

She looked him square in the eye. ‘I’ve stopped running.’

The jolt that went through his system threatened to knock him off his feet. When she turned away from him, Damion curbed the strong urge to pull her back. Instead he shoved his restless hands in his pockets and followed her into the kitchen.

‘You’re willing to open yourself up to me?’

She stiffened in the process of pulling open the fridge door. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Baron. Like my lovely goldfish out there, I’m an acquired taste. I’m pretty sure the minute you find out what’s lurking underneath you’ll run a mile.’ A shadow of pain crossed her face.

His jaw tightened. ‘You’re making presumptions again, Reiko.’

Her small smile held even more pain. Somewhere in the region of his chest, a dull fire of anger took hold of him.

‘We’ll see. I can make us some lunch. Are you allergic to anything I should know about?’ she asked.

‘Only being prejudged. What happened on the train?’

Her fingers tightened around the bottle of sake she’d pulled out from the fridge.

‘Don’t you want something to eat?’ she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

‘No.’ Food was the last thing on his mind.

When she remained frozen where she stood, he opened cupboards until he located glasses. He took the bottle from her hand, poured and handed one glass to her.

The sake was the vilest he’d ever tasted, but he drank it anyway.

‘The train, Reiko? What happened?’

She made a sound of distress, sagged against the sink and closed her eyes. ‘My father … The crash two years ago … It happened on a train in Osaka.’

Reiko heard his sharp inhalation, felt the force of his fixed gaze upon her, knew the moment he strode forward and gasped as he lifted her into his arms. With quick strides he went into the living room.

When he deposited her at the end of the sofa, she finally opened her eyes. She saw him disappear into the kitchen and return with their drinks.

Her heart hammered as he took a seat next to her. She knew with every fibre of her being that once she told him he would leave and she’d most likely never see Damion again. The thought made her heart ache. Her gaze travelled over him, avidly keeping a record of the perfection of the man sitting a mere touch away.

‘You’re breaking the rules.’ The edginess in his tone belied the lazy hand he lifted to take a sip of his drink.

‘What rules?’

‘Keeping our hands off each other until we’ve talked.’

‘But … I haven’t touched you!’

‘Ce n’est pas vrai. Your eyes are touching me as surely as your hands yearn to. But first things first. If your father died in a train crash, why do you think it was your fault?’

Her breath caught. ‘I … I forced him to go on the train. He didn’t want to. I blackmailed him into it.’

‘How?’

Reiko licked her lips, acute anxiety rolling through her at the thought of what she was about to reveal. ‘I … He wanted me to … make some changes in my life. I wouldn’t agree until he’d reconciled with my mother. They’d been separated for six months. He came to tell me he was going to divorce her. I didn’t want him to.’

A pained look crossed his face. ‘Not every marriage is destined to succeed. Sometimes walking away is the best option.’

‘I know, but these were my parents. My mother isn’t the most wifely or maternal of women, but even as flawed as she is I knew she wouldn’t survive without my father. And in his own way he loved her. He agreed to give it one more try.’

‘You were lucky. My parents stayed together and they died because of it.’

Shock rammed through her system. ‘Oh, my God. How … ? What happened?’

His gaze darkened until the grey was almost black. ‘Obsession. They were cursed by their obsession.’

She stared back at him. ‘What—?’

He waved her question away. ‘We’ll leave the sordid details of my childhood for another time. You were telling me what happened.’

Fighting the need to do something about his pain, she continued. ‘I was living in Osaka when Dad came to see me. He hated taking trains, but I insisted because driving to Tokyo where my mother was would’ve taken longer.’ The tight knot of pain that was never far away grew in her chest. ‘Twenty minutes into the journey, the train crashed in a tunnel. We were trapped for two days. My father held my hand the whole time. By the time I finally got the courage to tell him I was sorry, he was dead. When my mother found out, she blamed me. Since my accident I’ve only seen her twice.’

She wasn’t aware she was crying until Damion handed her a tissue. When he took her in his arms, the tears fell faster.

‘Are your nightmares about the crash?’

She nodded against his chest. ‘Sometimes I see him dying; sometimes I’m trapped in the twisted metal and I can’t get to him. But it’s always about the crash.’

‘If your therapist was any good, she would’ve told you, despite what your mother thinks, your father’s death isn’t your fault.’

The warm note of sympathy in his voice made her tears flow faster.

‘It doesn’t matter what anyone says. I was selfish. I couldn’t see beyond what I wanted. I didn’t want to admit that maybe they were better off without each other. Dad loved her in his own way, but I know he was only seeking the reconciliation because of me—that given the choice he’d have divorced her. I also let him believe that my lifestyle choice was in some way his fault.’

‘What lifestyle choice?’

Her heart lurched, then hammered. Reiko opened her mouth but couldn’t find the strength to utter the words. Shame raked through her.

‘What lifestyle choice?’ he asked again.

The edge was back in his voice. When she glanced at him, she saw the rigid tension freezing his body.

She licked her lips. ‘The partying … the men.’

Silence throbbed in the living room. His hand on the seat tightened into a fist. ‘How many were there?’ he finally asked into the charged atmosphere.

‘Damion—’

‘How many?’

She named the figure. Damion’s face turned ashen beneath his normally healthy tan. Before her very eyes she saw him recoil. His throat moved as he visibly swallowed.

And every second Reiko lived through the look in his eyes made her want to sink into the ground.

He surged to his feet. And without another word he walked out.

Reiko wasn’t sure how long she remained frozen on the sofa. She knew it was a long time because her throat felt raw from crying and the living room was cloaked in darkness save for the intermittent glow from her goldfish.

Damion had left, just as she’d predicted. The small part of her that wasn’t writhing in pain felt relieved. Really, she’d been saved from compounding his disgust with her by not letting him push her into revealing her outward scars. She couldn’t have borne him recoiling from her scars the same way he’d recoiled from her other admissions.

She traced the scar on her face, fresh tears falling when she recalled Damion kissing it only a few days ago.

Pity. It had just been pity. Her fingers massaged her temple, and then she realised the pounding she could hear wasn’t just in her head.

She dropped her hand, and her gaze flew to the door as the pounding grew louder.

‘Reiko! Open the door,’ came the firm command.

She stood and swayed with light-headedness. One shaky hand scrubbed across her face as the pounding came again.

Sniffing back more tears, she lit the nearest lamp and opened the door. ‘What do you want, Damion?’ she asked the imposing figure filling her doorway.

He stepped forward, shut the door behind him and held up a bottle of expensive red wine. ‘That sake you served was an affront to my taste buds. I thought we’d need something more palatable.’

‘You left … to buy wine?’

‘This isn’t just any wine, ma belle. It’s a Bordeaux from my personal vineyard.’

His words were easy enough, but his gaze held a grim purpose that stopped her breath.

‘Damion …’

‘We haven’t finished talking.’ He went to the sofa and set the bottle down on the table unopened. ‘Come and sit down, Reiko.’

‘Why did you really leave?’ she asked.

His lips firmed, and she thought he wouldn’t answer. Then he shoved a hand through his hair. ‘Most men don’t like to think of a woman they’ve made love to making love with other men. In my case the thought makes me slightly insane.’

Surprise scythed through her. ‘It does?’

His intense gaze rested on her. ‘Remember what I said earlier about obsession?’

She nodded warily.

‘My father suffered from obsessive behaviour, as did my grandfather when my grandmother was alive. On the train today, it struck me that I might be headed that way where you’re concerned.’

She gasped. ‘You love me?’

His laugh could have frozen water. ‘Never confuse obsession with love, Reiko. Making that mistake made my childhood one no child should be put through.’

‘What happened?’

‘I was the pawn my father used to try to keep my mother in line. She was trapped in a marriage she didn’t want, and he wouldn’t give her a divorce because he thought she belonged to him. He eventually killed her and then took his own life.’

Her horrified gasp produced a grim smile.

‘When I went to live with my grandparents, I fooled myself into thinking things would change. They didn’t. My grandmother used me to cover her infidelities—I won’t tell you the number of times I was late to school because she needed to see a friend—and my grandfather knew but was so besotted with her he forgave her. Each time it happened I saw him lose a piece of himself.’

‘I saw you together at the exhibition. You seemed close.’

Damion lids lowered. ‘There were times when my grandmother wasn’t around that he seemed a different man. It made the nightmarish times easier to bear.’

Several pieces of the puzzle that was Damion fell into place. ‘That’s why you’re trying to find the painting, even though you detest your grandmother?’

He picked up the bottle and started to remove the foil. ‘His last wish is to be buried with the Femme sur Plage. I won’t stand in the way of that wish.’

The finality of the statement told her it was time to move on. But she couldn’t. She cleared her throat. ‘So … you’re becoming obsessed with me?’

His fingers stilled. ‘I hope not, because that could be bad news for both of us.’

She licked suddenly dry lips. ‘Wh … why?’

He looked up and speared her gaze with his. ‘You’ve never asked me how I found out about that other man.’

She swallowed. ‘How did you?’

His laugh was a harsh sound that echoed in the semi-darkness. ‘I flew back two weeks after I left because I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I tracked you down to your favourite wine bar in Tokyo. You were in a corner, kissing him. When you left, I followed you.’ He shrugged at her gasp. ‘When you took him to your apartment, I wanted to kill you both. That’s when I knew I had to stay away.’

‘And now?’

His gaze darkened. ‘I can’t bear the thought of you with other men, but to hate you for it would be hypocritical.’

‘Damion …’

‘Was it because of me? Did you sleep with him because I left you?’ he grated out.

That was the one question she’d been dreading. To answer would be to reveal how much power he’d had over her. But she couldn’t lie. ‘Yes. I was devastated that you’d lied to me about who you were, then tried to pay me off like I was some sleazy mistake after my grandfather died. I hated you, but I think I hated myself more. It happened only once. I … I never saw him again.’

He cursed under his breath. ‘Je suis désolé. There were many times when I wanted to tell you, but each day that went by made it harder.’ He shrugged. ‘I guess I wanted you more than I wanted your forgiveness. I’m sorry, but I’m not perfect.’

The tight knot loosened inside her. ‘I think we’ve established conclusively that neither of us are.’

He rounded the table and came towards her. ‘I still want you.’

She backed away from him. ‘Wait! I think there’s something you should know.’

A fierce gleam lit his eyes. ‘I don’t want to hear about the men, Reiko.’

‘That’s just it. I went out with a lot of them, but after that first one I didn’t sleep with any of them. I stupidly let my father think the worst of me so he’d stay with my mother.’

His eyes widened in surprise. His chest expanded on a heavy exhale. Then he renewed his pursuit. ‘Reiko—’

She retreated. ‘That doesn’t mean I’ll … You’re … I can’t sleep with you, Damion.’

His stride didn’t break. ‘Ah, oui, your little nugget about not being able to have sex. We still haven’t discussed that bombshell.’

She shook her head. ‘You don’t want to hear it, Damion. It’s not pretty.’

‘Sex rarely is, ma petite,’ he growled. Then he tried to reach for her again.

She backed away until her back touched the screen that had belonged to her father. ‘Stop. I can’t have you going all growly on me if you want this conversation to continue.’

He stopped and folded his arms, but his eyes, which had gone a dark, stormy grey, never left her face.

She licked her lips and the look in his eyes turned so forcefully primal her heart lurched.

‘Seven months after the accident, my therapist thought it was time for me to stop hiding away, to try to make new friends, form new relationships. I gave it a try. I even went on … one date …’

His biceps flexed as his folded arms tightened. ‘What happened?’

Pain racked through her as she recalled that night. ‘It was messy. It was embarrassing—and … bloody. And it was one of the most painful experiences of my life. I really don’t know why it happened. One moment everything was okay, the next my whole insides froze. I felt as if my body was physically rejecting him from the inside out. It … it was scary.’

Damion cursed, long and heavy, in French. When he jerked away from her, she was convinced this time when he left he wouldn’t return. To her surprise, he went to the window. His silence was so complete, so humiliatingly deathly, Reiko was sure she could hear the dust motes falling to the floor.

He stood there for a long time; tension screamed from his body, so forbiddingly rigid her insides started to crumble.

‘I told you you would be disgusted.’ The pain straining through her made her voice emerge reed-thin and broken.

He whirled, a look of astonishment on his face. ‘Disgusted? Why would I be?’

‘You’re on the other side of the room, barely wanting to be within sniffing distance of me. The dots are surprisingly easy to connect.’

What happened next clarified the term greased lightning.

Because somehow she was in Damion Fortier’s lap, her chin held firmly in his grasp as he commanded her attention.

‘I’m not disgusted. If you even think like that about yourself, I’ll find those thumbscrews you’ve been hankering for and take delight in applying them. After I’ve spent one night proving you wrong.’

His arrogance made her blink. ‘Wow—a whole night?’ she said snarkily.

He didn’t take the bait. ‘I’m thorough. You know that.’

The kiss he pressed against her lips was gentle, tear-jerking.

‘Stop doing that!’ She tried to wrench her chin from his grasp but he held firm.

‘What?’

‘You’re making me hate you less. And since I’ve spent the last five years hating you, it feels … weird.’

‘Weird as in escaped-from-a-zoo weird? Or helplessly-attracted-to-you weird?’

‘More of the former, less of the latter.’

His smile lifted the mood, easing the ache in the chest. ‘I’m thinking it’s the other way round, oui?’

‘Oui—non! You’re confusing me, Baron. And that irritates the hell out of me.’

She tried to get away from him. A strong hand clamped on her waist. In the process of turning, she nudged the very real force of his erection. Heat washed over her face. Her furtive glance caught him still watching her, hawk-eyed. His smile had widened.

‘I confuse you. You turn me on. Right this moment every bone in my body wants to prove it to you in a thousand different ways.’

‘Because you’re such a connoisseur of women?’

‘Because the chemistry between us is as potent as ever. I can’t wait to see you naked again,’ he breathed against her cheek.

And just like that every single atom in her being froze.

‘Arrête!’ he rasped against her jaw.

Reiko tensed even more. Frustration built inside him. Never in his life had getting through to someone been so difficult. And never in his life had he wanted to try with every fibre of his being.

He looked at her—the fight in her face, her desperation to hide her vulnerability—and something squeezed inside his chest. He forced himself to relax.

‘Stop tensing. It’s not good for your muscles. As for freezing me out—we’ve gone way past that.’

Her lips started to pout in annoyance. It took several deep breaths for him to resist the urge to taste her again. The time would come soon enough.

First he had more secrets to disclose. He took another breath.

‘I met Isadora Baptiste soon after I left Tokyo.’

Tension gripped her harder. He ran his hand over her knee to clasp one warm, shapely calf and massaged gently until she started to relax.

‘I’m not proud of it, but I tried to use her to forget you. It was only ever supposed to be temporary.’

Her lush lips firmed, and she wore a look of pained contempt. ‘She was a married woman.’

‘No, she wasn’t. She’d been divorced for three years when I met her. But her fashion house was tied into her husband’s business. Shares would’ve hit rock bottom if the public had found out she was no longer married to Antoine Baptiste.’

‘So it was better to be branded an adulteress in the interests of a healthy share price?’

‘Don’t sneer. Empires and dynasties have risen and fallen on the right marriage alliances. It’s as real in the twenty-first century as it was in the first.’

‘What about her children? Did she really abandon them?’

Damion’s insides clamped painfully. His guilt at knowing he’d unwittingly exacerbated the situation pierced sharply as much now as it had when he’d found out.

‘Oui, that is true.’

Her face reflected anger and disappointment. His heart raced with the need to obliterate both emotions.

‘Three months after I met her, she asked me to meet her children. I didn’t think I was equipped to be any sort of influence on children. I refused. She took it to mean I didn’t like children. I didn’t realise she’d cut them out of her life until her ex-husband informed me.’ Remembering what else Isadora had done, he felt his insides congeal with the familiar mix of pity and anger. ‘It turned out she wasn’t quite stable.’

Her eyes darted to his face and stayed. Slowly a breath eased out of her. ‘Why did you break up with her?’

‘Because I realised too late she epitomised everything I was trying to turn my back on.’

‘She was obsessed with you?’

He nodded. ‘After her husband told me she’d cut her children out of her life, I confronted her. It didn’t go well. Two hours later I found her in the bath, with her wrists slashed.’