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Chapter Seventeen
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“I have had it with people trying to make me do things that I don't want to do. That's the reason why I left my dad's company. It's the reason why I came here. But you don't care about that, do you? As long as you get what you want. But listen to me, I'm not going to let you use me to lie to your mother because your fiancée humiliated you by dumping you for your cousin. Here’s another thing you should know. Crap happens. It happens all the time. Get over it.”
Damon's hands closed over her shoulders. She tried to flinch away, but he held tight. There was honest regret in his eyes, but there was also determination. Stubborn determination.
“Sit down, Wendy,” he ordered in a low voice.
She gaped at him.
“Please.” he said.
It was the please that did it. Or maybe it was how tired and resigned he sounded.
Or maybe it was the bleak light that entered his eyes. Or maybe she was just a flami
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He blinked and then looked a little sheepish. “Okay, I get it. I’m an immature, egotistical man. The male ego is obviously a fragile creature. I think we can agree on that. Yes, it occurred to me to get a little of mine back on her by showing up with a gorgeous, stunning woman. Sue me. I even hatched the whole engagement scheme complete with the ring because I figured it was the best way to get them all off my back.” Damon said.Her shoulders shook and she closed her eyes. The man was nothing if not honest.She had to give him that much.“Wendy, look at me, please.” he said.His entreating tone had her turning once more to stare into those intense dark eyes. He looked earnest, and he looked…..worried.“I didn’t do any of this to hurt you, I swear. I thought if I just came out and asked you to do me this favor, you’d have never agreed to come with me, even with the promise of listening to your
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She looked down at her hand that was still underneath his. His thumb pressed into her palm, and his fingers lay still over hers, but the warmth of his touch spread up her entire arm and into her chest.She liked this man. Genuinely liked him, stupid ambush aside. He hadn’t sugarcoated any of it. And above all else, she liked honesty. He hadn’t shied away from how the entire situation made him look. It certainly didn’t make him appear very noble, but she couldn’t get beyond thinking he was just that. Noble and honest.The ring on her finger sparkled and glinted in the light. For just one moment, she allowed herself to imagine what it would be like if it were all real. Two seconds later she mentally slapped herself silly and told herself to get over her foolishness.She had a job to do. She had to impress this man with her brains and her creativity, her drive and her determination. She could do all that. And if it meant she had to go beyond the
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“Ah, I think I’m beginning to understand the fiancée thing more now.” Wendy said.He nodded. “Yes, I don’t harbor any illusion that Sam and Grace are some great love match. I had Grace, so Sam decided he wanted her. Grace saw Sam's appointment to CEO as her ride into a life of glamour.”“And were you and Grace? A love match, I mean?” she asked gently.He pursed his lips and blew out a long breath. “This is where I look like the jerk.” he said.Wendy chuckled. “Jerk? You? Surely you jest.”“All right, don’t rub it in,” he grumbled. “I’ve admitted my shortcomings.”“Do continue. I’m dying to hear all about what a toad you are.”She replied.Her eyes sparkled with mischief and amusement. He&rsq
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He wasn’t the only one who felt the magnetic pull between them. “What are we going to do, Red?” he murmured. He saw her swallow nervously. She hadn’t misunderstood, but neither did she respond.“I want you so damn much I hurt. I’ve hurt for weeks. Every time I look at you, I get so many knots that I can’t function. I’ve thought of all the ways I can explain to you that our business relationship has nothing to do with the desire I feel for you. But the simple truth is I don’t give a damn. I want you in my bed, and I don’t care what has to be done to make that happen.”Her eyes went wide and frightened. He hated that. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him.“You feel it, too. Don’t deny me that much.” Damon said.Slowly she nodded. Her fingers went to her forehead and she dug them into her hair. Still, he co
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He needed air and he broke away only long enough to pull oxygen into his starving lungs. She gasped along with him, and then he started at the corner of her mouth and licked and kissed his way across to the other corner.Her small hands slid up his chest. It was like a heating element sliding over his skin. She left a blazing trail of fierce need in her wake. His entire body came alive, and all she’d done was touch him. Innocently.They wound up around his neck and then her fingertips just delved into the hair at his nape. He shuddered, and it was all he could do to retain his tight hold on his control.His body screamed at him to haul her over his shoulder and drag her caveman-style to the bedroom. He’d rip off her clothes and spend the night taking her over and over until they both succumbed to exhaustion.His mind yelled at him to be careful. To take it slow. Not to push her so far away that she nev
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“Then there are the people, like me, who are allergic to physical activity.” Wendy said.He snorted and sent an appraising look over her body. She ignored him and continued on.“These are the people who watch sports. They’re tuned in to every game. The players. The teams. They run the gambit from the fanatic to the casual observer. They’re the people who will buy your sportswear not because they’re going to worry over the functionality. They don’t care. They want to look cool. They want to immerse themselves in the aura of the sports world. You’re a brand, a label. It’s a status symbol.”Her excitement mounted with every word. He was listening intently. She had him.“So you do dual marketing. You go after the die-hard fitness enthusiast with the sweaty workout commercials. The driven athlete who’s going to be the best and wearing your brand the entire time.” She said.Again she paused to
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Damon cocked his head to the side. “Just how well do you know him?” he asked.Before she could reply, Damon's phone rang. She tuned into Damon's conversation when he said her name. He was obviously talking to his mom.“We’ll be there this afternoon. Four o’clock. Yes, I know. I won’t miss it. Dinner afterward. Wendy and I are having lunch together down by the marina. We’ll meet you back at the hotel in time for rehearsal. You have my word.”He hung up and let out a sigh as he tucked the phone back into his pocket.“The woman is convinced I’ll flake on the wedding. I wonder how on earth she got that idea?” he said.It was said so innocently that Wendy burst into laughter. Damon joined her and business was effectively put back out of the way once more.-------------------------The nice lunch by the harbor never happened. As Damon and Wendy were leaving th
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Damon made a strangled noise and promptly took a long drink of his wine. Wendy kept a perfectly straight face as she took in the reactions of Damon's family.Martha looked wary. Debbie was smiling. Grace looked murderous. Sam had a strange look that could only be interpreted as a cross between regret and sadness, his father, Ben looked distracted, while Ross nodded approvingly. He reached over to slap his son on the back.“You’ve got yourself a winner here, son. I heartily approve. This one will keep you on your toes well into your old age. I like her.” he said.Greaaat, Wendy thought. She had the approval of her fake father-in-law to be. She looked over at Damon as guilt swamped her. She’d gotten carried away and hadn’t been able to resist the opportunity to needle Damon a bit. Though he deserved it, she still felt bad about carrying things so far.To her surprise, he was staring thoughtfully at her, his eyes
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THE CEO'S CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT Chapter Seventy Seven
"Oh, Damon" Wendy said, her eyes filled with tears. "I love you too. I never stopped. I always will"Damon smiled and wiped a tear that had fallen with his finger. "Don't cry, honey" he said, "You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that. And it makes what I'm going to say next so much easier"Wendy laughed and wiped her cheek with her palm. "Oh.... There's more?" she asked.He nodded. "Hell yeah" he replied, then his hand moved to stomach and he cupped it. "You remember when I found out about the baby and I asked you to move in with me?" he asked."Yes" she replied softly."At first I didn't like that you said no, it pissed me off in fact, but I realized that it was a crappy thing to say. We are having a baby, Red. You, me and that tiny human growing inside of you. And we love each other, so if we are going to do this, I want us to do it right, so...... "
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“You are so beautiful,” Damon drawled, then gave a small cough. “Red, i have missed you so damn much, so much that I stayed up at night thinking about you. It was never just about sex for me".Wendy smiled up at him, tracing lines on his chest with the tip of her finger. "I have missed you too. I'm so sorry that I hurt you, Damon. I didn't mean to push you away like that. I cared but I was just so worried about what people thought so much, that I didn't know I was torturing myself, and hurting you too, but now.... With the baby, I don't care so much anymore. My priorities has changed all of a sudden"He laughed—and it sounded so good. To see him relaxed, smiling, was like glimpsing somehow a different man, and all she knew was that she wanted more of this. He ran his hand over her warm, naked body and she squirmed with pleasure, couldn’t believe she was lying naked in his arms in the middle of the day and feeling only beautiful.
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“Don’t hold onto those thoughts, Red, just let them go.” And she tried, really tried to just relax as his hand cupped her bottom and lifted her enough to slip off the shorts and knickers in one. But the movement erased what had been achieved, embarrassment flooding in as her flesh was exposed, her knees lifting instinctively and her hand moving down in a futile attempt to cover herself. Wanting to hide her body from his gaze. It had been a while since they'd been this way together.“Don’t fight,” he ordered, but he was soothing her with his words. “Don’t think about that anything else, just think about this.” His hand hovered over her stomach until she caught her breath.She wanted the contact again and he was very gently tracing tiny endless circles around the little hill of her abdomen as his lips dusted her cheeks. Oh, how much she'd missed him. He was kissing away the salty tears that were spilling from her eyes with his other hand around
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The sun blocked out as he hovered over her, her eyes still closed as she blissfully attuned to the feel of his lips lightly on hers until it wasn’t enough. He was waiting for her bidding, she instinctively knew that. She could smell the bitter orange and bergamot undertones of his cologne, his breath mingling with hers, and after seconds that seemed to drag for ever she gave him her consent with her mouth, pressed her own lips into his. The greeting was acknowledged by the reward of his cool tongue parting her lips, slipping inside, and that delicious taste of him, the intimate feel of his mouth inside hers, his tongue languorously capturing hers, playing a slow teasing game, long strokes that made her want more, countered by a tiny feather-light stroke on the tip of her tongue and then a gentle sucking as he dragged her deeper into him. And it was the most erotic of kisses yet the most frustrating, because still nowhere else did he touch her. Only their mouths were touching only the
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She turned abruptly away, terrified he’d read the naked lust in her eyes. She took a long drink from her water bottle then, blowing her fringe skywards and trying to keep her voice normal, determined not to make a fool of herself again, to be absolutely sure she wasn’t misreading things, she said, “You should try meditating if you want to be relaxed.”“It wouldn’t work,” Damon dismissed.“It won’t if that’s your attitude...” She could feel the atmosphere sizzling between them, knew that if she said what was on her mind then she’d be crossing a line, playing the most dangerous of dangerous games. “Try it,” she breathed, her eyes daring him to join her. “Why don’t you lie back and try it now?”“Now?” Damon checked, a dangerous warning glint in his eyes, which she heeded, but it only excited her more.“Now,” Wendy affirmed. “Just lie back.”“Then what?” Damon's impatient voice demanded instruction as,
THE CEO'S CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT Chapter Seventy Two
Absolutely the last person she was expecting to see at this hour as she thought she wouldn't be back from work so early. He was dressed in his inevitable dark suit, but there was a slightly more relaxed stance to him. He held a brown paper bag in one hand and he didn’t look in his usual rush—his usually perfectly knotted tie was loosened, the top button of his shirt undone. But his dark eyes were shielded with sunglasses making his closed expression even more unreadable if that were possible.“You’ve done a lot of work. I can see.” he said.“It’s getting there.” She nodded. “And if I keep going at full speed, I could still be done with this by early next week.”He didn’t say a word, he didn’t have to. Just a tiny questioning lift of his eyebrow from behind his dark glasses was enough for Wendy.“I am allowed to take a break,” Wendy retorted.“I didn’t say anything!” he said, but she could see
THE CEO'S CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT Chapter Seventy One
His mouth brushed her cheek, sweeping along her cheekbone till she could feel his breath warm on the shell of her ear then moving back, back to her waiting lips, slowly, deliberately until only a whisper separated them, till his mouth was so close to hers that she was giddy with expectation, filled with want —deep, burning want, a want that suffused her, a want she had never, even in their most intimate moments, experienced, and he hadn’t even kissed her. Her breath was coming in short, unyielding gasps, his chest so close to hers that if she breathed any deeper their bodies would touch.It was the pregnancy, she thought. Everything seemed to be heightened.She was torn between want and dread, her body longing to arch towards his, her nipples stretching like buds to the sun, his hand still on the wall behind her head, and all she wanted was his touch.As if in answer, his mouth found hers, the weight of his body pushing her do
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Damon smiled. "Well, if it makes you feel better, your plan worked out fine"Wendy smiled back and withdrew her hand slowly from his, missing the feeling instantly, "I should go now" she said, trying to unlock her car. "Did you bring your car""Yes, but I will follow you home"Wendy grinned at got into her car, and she could see him through the mirror as she drove home. "---------------“Home!” she said, when they were at her place and both got out of their cars.He didn't leave then, but followed her up.“Should you be climbing the stairs everyday? Now that you are... You know.”She laughed."I'm not paralyzed Damon" she said, "Besides, it's good exercise"They were at her front door now. “I know what I said before, but thank you for coming, Damon. It’s been, er...pleasant. I mean... Having
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"You really have to ask? Damon, for the past weeks all we have done is fight. We simply can't stand each other. We can't agree about a single thing, and now you think all that is just going to magically go away because we are having a baby together? Even you have to admit that that's ridiculous ""I honestly don't think it is. I think we can work through things and find a way to make it work""Well I don't" Wendy replied, rolling her eyes, "And you can't just come in here and expect me turn my life around just because you said so. Have you ever considered the fact that I might have my own plan? No you don't. You think that all of your idea is gold and I'm just supposed to agree with whatever you say"Damon didn't want to fight or argue with her, especially not in this room, so he took a deep breath. "Fine. I'm sorry I didn't ask you first. I just wanted to be helpful not piss you off" he said. "What are your plans?"
