Damian felt like a complete dick as he watched Nicole start to shut down. He’d dropped the ball. He’d been too distracted thinking of her ex-husband in her office that he hadn’t given the security guys the full instructions. They’d kicked Raymond out of the building and returned to their posts. Now, the bastard had done this. Raymond Fields completely ignored his threats as if he thought he’d just been fucking with him. He swivelled her chair around and knelt in front of her, taking her face in his hands.“Hey, hey, look at me,” he whispered. “I can fix this. Okay? I’ll fix this.”Nicole’s eyes filled with tears.“Why would anyone want to do this to me?” Nicole said, her voice cracking. “I worked hard for this job. I earned it. And now everything is ruined.”Fuck. “Nothing is ruined,” he said, pulling her chair closer and taking her into his arms. “Don’t cry, Nicole. I have a team dedicated to scrubbing the image off the internet. We’ll sue him. Whatever we need to do. Okay? Pleas
Nicole felt her phone vibrate again in her bag and ignored it. She had already sent Casey a message that she would call her when she was feeling up to it, so the only other person who would blow up her phone like this was Andrew.He had always been jealous while married, and it worsened after the divorce. The only reason Andrew continued being a dick to her was because she had left him, not because he didn’t want her. He had found many little ways to keep tabs on her over the two and a half years.Even with his future wife at his side. Andrew seeing that picture would have been a blow to his ego.Thinking about it tightened her chest again. Once she had processed this, she would ask Damian who had done it and if he had got all the pictures—if there were more out there. She felt stupid for getting carried away in a public place. It was her fault. And now, her private moment, her dirty secret, was out there for everyone to see and judge.Everyone she worked with knew she had fucked her
Damian was still seeing red at the disgusting things that had come out of her ex-husband’s mouth. How anyone could have this woman underneath them shouting their name and still feel she was anything less than exquisite was beyond him. He had wanted to say a lot more to that dickless coward, but the tears on Nicole’s face had stopped him.Why did she even answer the fucking phone? Had he been right to assume that man wanted her back, and she was actually entertaining that thought? Was this another man he had to fight for her attention? Fuck.He put the phone on the table and stepped towards her, intent on claiming her once and for all. Nicole didn’t resist when he pulled her into his arms. He’d expected her to slap him away or ask him what the hell he was doing, especially after the day they’d had. He’d practically begged Nicole to resume their arrangement before she went off with her boyfriend for the weekend. But she didn’t slap him.She didn’t push him away. When his lips finally
Nicole hadn’t needed her clothes the first day or the next, and she hadn’t had time to think of what had happened. Damian was like some sort of sex beast; he hadn’t left her side for a moment, and the four days in New York paled in comparison.Her mind was blown. She’d thought they had great sex before; she’d thought she knew what that was. But Damian showed her how wrong that assumption was. She hadn’t known what she’d been missing.She hadn’t even thought it was possible to bend like that.The man pulled himself out of the pool, and she couldn’t stop watching the water droplets slide down his body. She knew he was watching her, and she could tell by the heat in her cheeks that she was blushing, but for the life of her, she couldn’t look away. He’d turned her into a nymphomaniac. Her life was falling apart, but all she could think of was when he would touch her again.“I think you need to cool off, Miss Avery,” Damian said with a sexy smirk as he picked up a towel from the lounger
Damian frantically sent messages as he waited for Nicole to join him in the lounge so they could go through to have dinner. Mrs Gilbert, his housekeeper, had suggested treating Nicole to a proper dinner for a change before they went back to the real world tomorrow. He’d been quite looking forward to that before turning on his phone for the first time since he brought Nicole home.Tom had sent him a message with some links he said were urgent, and he wished he hadn’t clicked on them. Everything was a fucking mess.There wasn’t much he could do about it now except have the teams who had been deleting pictures of Nicole start deleting this, too. But it was already too late.“Everything okay?”He looked up and saw the vision in the doorway, and his heart hammered in his chest. It had been doing that too much lately. Was thirty-two too young for a heart attack? Because that was what it felt like every time he looked at her.He put his phone away as she took all his attention. Nicole wore o
Nicole sat in her office all day, ignoring everyone as she caught up on the work that Damian hadn’t been able to delegate.Or at least she pretended to work. Damian had made a fool of her, and his betrayal cut her deeper than Andrew’s had.Every few minutes, her eyes would find the page open on her phone next to her keyboard. ‘Damian Steele's girlfriend confirms pregnancy.’Her heart squeezed. Even though she had seen them with her own eyes, she had so easily believed Damian when he said it had been over even before their first time on the roof. She had let him break down the walls she had built around herself since she finally dared to leave Andrew, and in turn, he had crushed her newly mended heart. She didn’t know what her next move was supposed to be.Which was pathetic.She should have told Damian where to stick it and handed in her notice. She should have called him out for his despicable behaviour.There were several other articles about Rebecca. If she did the maths right, th
Nicole told Casey everything that night. Everything except how she felt. She borrowed a spare toothbrush and one of Casey’s oversized T-shirts to sleep in. Then she remembered to put her clothes in the washing machine so she could wear them again in the morning.It occurred to her that if anyone was hanging around to take her picture, they would see her in the same clothes, and then some dickhead on the internet would have something to say about it. But she was past caring about that now. She would never be as glamorous as Rebecca, so what was the point of even pretending?“I’m sorry I told you to go for it,” Casey said as she brought her a cup of tea after dinner. They weren’t drinking alcohol today because Casey had an early start the following day and also because she wanted a clear head to decide on her future.“It’s not your fault, Casey. I should have stopped this the moment it started to get inappropriate, long before the whole thing on the roof happened. I knew about Rebecca
Damian couldn’t say how long he waited outside the apartment block before he drove away. Nicole didn’t answer her phone and refused to tear herself out of her boyfriend’s arms.His fist clenched around his steering wheel.He should have expected Nicole to run back to her boyfriend. She was an expert at disappearing without hearing him out. But how could she even be with another man after their week together? The double standard was ridiculous. Sure, he’d fucked up, and there was some shit in the paper, but couldn't she just give him the benefit of the doubt? Couldn't she have waited a little bit longer before crushing him like this?Now, both women were not taking his calls. He couldn’t even make things right with Nicole if Rebecca hung over their heads, so he drove to the supermodel’s apartment. The shitbag reporters were hanging around outside hers as well, but he could bet a million pounds that she was enjoying this. That was a big difference between Nicole and Rebecca. Nicole ha
Damian sat on a sofa in the middle of his bedroom, tapping his foot. Why was he nervous? It wasn’t like this was the first time. Music played in the background, and it was his favourite playlist. He bit his lip and groaned. This was taking too long. He’d been instructed to remove all his clothes and wait, and it had already been fifteen minutes. He was famished. Thinking about what was coming made him harder. He’d been hard all fucking day, but he wasn’t going to rush this. He would make sure she enjoyed it, too. He could do that; he wasn’t a teenager who couldn’t control himself. “Are you rea—”“Yes.”He grimaced and bit his lip. That had been too quick and sounded too needy even to his own ears. But it had been months, damn it. What did she expect?And then there she was, dressed in a white sheer gown and nothing else. Absolutely nothing. The light from the bathroom shone behind her so he could see everything through the material. Every curve, the strip of red, curly hair between
Dawn was breaking when Tom finally drove them through the gates of his house. It had been a long night of tests and police statements. Andrew was charged because he was the idiot who had put evidence of an unconscious woman all over the internet, and Nicole was given a clean bill of health. The doctors assured them that the drug Andrew used on Nicole wouldn’t harm the baby.He had never been more grateful than at this moment, with Nicole safe in his arms.To think that he had believed that message to start with. But if he hadn’t gone after her to demand answers, what would have happened?He pushed her hair out of the way and rained little kisses on her face.“We’re home,” he whispered.Nicole’s emerald eyes opened, and she smiled at him as the car stopped. He gently kissed her lips, savouring the feel of them against his briefly before he opened the door and helped her out. “Thank you, Tom,” Nicole smiled as Tom took some bags out of the trunk.Casey had taken his car from Andrew’s h
Damian watched the knife and studied that certain twinkle in that dick’s eyes that told him Andrew had been waiting for this confrontation for a while. He should have ended this man sooner.“Where’s Nicole?”Andrew smirked as he gripped the knife tightly at his side. “It doesn’t matter. Nic’s finished with you. I won,” Andrew laughed. “Run along back to your posh little neighbourhood and leave us the fuck alone.”Damian looked around the hallway for anything he could use as a weapon. The other rooms were dark, but this was a big house in a nice neighbourhood. He could understand why a leech like Andrew wanted to keep a hold of it. It was all about status with him.“Did you hear me?” Andrew snapped.He looked up at the younger man and narrowed his eyes. Was this how he’d been when he was married to Nicole?“You’re off your head if you think that little toy knife is going to keep me away from her,” he said, stepping closer.As he had expected, Andrew took a small step back. He was stil
Damian didn’t know what to think as the traffic through the city slowed him down. Casey said Nicole would never willingly return to that house, but she sent him that message, too. He wanted to believe it was a lie, but Nicole had a habit of running away whenever something happened.She had been alone all day. Maybe Rebecca had contacted her and said some shit. Or other past women. He’d been with a lot of women the past two years while trying to stop lusting after Nicole. Unfortunately, Nicole had spoken to some of them when they tried to reach him at work. Or maybe he really had come on too strong. Was she running scared? “Nicole said you told her you love her.”He looked at the woman who had jumped into his car as he was about to drive away.“I do.”“Bullshit! You don’t even know her,” Casey said.His eyes narrowed on her before he turned his attention back to the road. Was this woman the reason Nicole ran off? “What did you say to her?”“What I say to my best friend is none of yo
Nicole watched her ex-husband put his dinner plate on the table and then pick up a napkin to wipe his mouth. He was acting as if everything was normal. She rubbed her painful shoulder, waiting to see what he would do next. Would he drug her again? Tie her up? How was he planning on keeping her here?“I redid the place how you had it,” Andrew said with a smile. “I couldn’t quite remember everything, but how did I do? The couple who bought it from us stripped it down and changed everything.”She didn’t know how to respond to that. Andrew was talking as if she wasn’t there against her will.“Would you like some pudding?” he asked.She frowned. “Andrew, what are you planning? You know this isn’t a logical solution to what is happening online—”“Would you like some pudding, Nic?” he cut in.He was so calm that ice filled her veins. Andrew had never been this terrifying. She had to play it safe here.“That would be nice. Thank you,” she said politely.“Stay here. I won’t be long,” he said,
For a moment, Nicole thought she was dreaming. She was in her old bedroom, exactly how she decorated it soon after her wedding when she’d been in love with Andrew. She struggled to keep her eyes open. Her vision swirled, and the pastel-coloured wallpaper in front of her blurred. She tried to rub her eyes, but her limbs were too heavy to move. It was only when she forcibly lifted her head that the pain made her wince, and it all came flooding back into her head. That bastard!Her shoulder hurt when she tried to roll off the bed to get on her feet. Andrew had knocked her hard into the wall before he had put something over her nose and mouth. Her struggle had only lasted seconds before her body became weak and heavy. She had flashes of being led to a car and nothing after that. She’d been out cold. Completely vulnerable. With Andrew.Her whole body went cold at the thought of what he could have done to her. It wouldn’t be the first time.Forcing her feet to the floor, she managed to si
Damian put their dinner on the kitchen counter and smiled at the flowers arranged all over the apartment. Buying them felt good even though he hadn’t known which she preferred. He had a whole lifetime to find that out, though.“Nicole?”He pulled his tie off and unbuttoned his shirt as he walked towards the bedroom. It had been a long day full of meetings and paperwork, and every task had been tedious because all he had wanted to do was come home to Nicole. His future wife. He was still pinching himself about that. She said yes.He hadn’t even thought that far, but having her in his arms felt so right that it was the only option. But he would propose again the right way. He would do the whole production so they had something to tell their children. It wasn’t like he could say, ‘Yeah, I came so fucking hard, then it popped out of my mouth because I was desperate to have your mum in my life forever.’They were going to grow old together. He smiled again as he opened the door to his bed
Nicole hadn’t left the apartment in five days. This was becoming a habit every time she spent time with Damian. Her cheeks coloured as she walked out of the building, although no one would know what she had been constantly doing the past few days.Damian had been more insatiable than usual, and she liked it. A lot.He had also been very attentive. He’d made her meals, and they had talked a lot—really talked. That was something they hadn’t done before, and that was causing all these doubts to surface now. She didn’t know much about him on such an intimate level.She wanted to be with him, but was she ready to be married again? Was this not happening too quickly? She had dated Andrew for two years before he had popped the question. Her parents had met him before they had passed on, and they had liked him, too. Maybe that was what made her agree to marry him even though she had just turned eighteen. But Andrew had been so perfect in those two years that she had believed it was the forev
Nicole just blurted it out.That wasn’t how she’d wanted to tell him, but as she sat here listening to him speak, her heart got lighter and lighter.But now those words just hung in the air, silencing Damian.“I mean, I haven’t gone to the doctor yet,” she continued, wringing her hands together. “I just took a bunch of tests.”She couldn’t tell what Damian was thinking. Had she just assumed things? Had she jumped the gun? Just because Damian said he had been attracted to her for two years didn’t mean he wanted to have a baby with her. And it didn’t mean he loved her the way she loved him.What the hell had she been thinking? Looking away from him, she picked at the hole in the knee of her favourite pair of jeans. She probably looked desperate, like all the other women who had briefly been part of Damian’s life. How could she have just blurted that out when she had been in charge of turning away a few women who’d claimed the same thing after Damian broke up with them? Another though