homes all around the world, including New York, Milan, France, and England. I’d never be able to run from Seascape. It was in the middle of nowhere.
Damien’s mother had hinted her eldest son might whisk me away tonight after the party, and she’d smiled as she’d delivered the news. Those other things she’d spoken of threatened to haunt my nightmares forever.
I refused to think of them now.
“You and I will spend the weekend at Seascape.” He gave a nod. “I believe that once you and I get to know each other better, you’ll relax around me.”
Did he mean sleep together?
“We have to wait—”
“Go back to the ballroom and pretend you want to be there. Then you and I will have the rest of the evening to ourselves.”
He let me go and I headed down the hallway. I was shaking uncontrollably.
“Pandora,” he called after me.
I stopped walking, waiting for him to continue without looking back, not wanting to see the victory in his eyes.
“Remember you’re a collector’s item.” Damien quickly closed the gap between us, standing right behind me to speak softly in my ear. “Behave as such.”
“There are other women out there you might prefer.”
He brushed a fingertip along my bare shoulder. “Be a good girl. Don’t make me regret not punishing you for your indiscretion.”
I nodded, feeling a shiver run down my spine. “Tell your brother to keep his hands off me.”
“I will deal with him. Now off you go.”
I hurried along the hallway in the direction of the ballroom, my heart pounding in my ears and Damien’s cologne clinging to me, his amber scent scorching my psyche. My continued yearning for him was poisoning me.
As I neared the ballroom where the prestigious guests had gathered for the evening, I raised my chin preparing to face all of these strangers again. I needed to put the fear out of my mind—the fear of being alone with Damien later in some secluded house.
“Miss Bardot!”
I turned to face one of the Godman’s staff—a burly man wearing a tuxedo.
“Senator Godman wants to see you in his office.”
Fine hairs prickled on the back of my neck. “Damien requested that I go directly to the ballroom.”
“This way, please.” The man gestured toward a door at the other end of the hallway.
I wanted to listen to my intuition and refuse to be in the same room alone with Gregor Godman.
The tuxedo-clad man was already opening the office door. “Don’t keep the Senator waiting.”
Where was she going?
From the end of the hallway, I watched Pandora walk elegantly into his office.
Her deportment was born out of a fierce schooling at the Institut auf dem Rosenberg in St. Gallen. Sadly, a place where she’d spent most of her life. Studying in Switzerland had kept her far away from her parents. It made me wonder if all that loneliness was the cause of her flaws; she’d been overindulged in everything. Except love, I suppose.
She displayed a natural grace, but suffered from a terrible naivety. And goddamn was she beautiful.
I’d ordered her to proceed directly to the ballroom.
I made my way down the hallway to my father’s office.
The guard outside raised his hand to stop me. “Sorry, sir. I’ve been instructed by the Senator that no one is to interrupt his meeting.”
“Seriously?”
He gave a nod. “Miss Bardot’s father is in there, too.”
That information lessened the tension by a fraction.
“Your father has a meeting with Salvatore Galante in ten minutes,” the guard added, hinting they wouldn’t be long.
That’s right.
Dad had invited over the Chairman and CEO of Real Nation One TV, the gnarly television executive who’d built a network from the ground up. Half the population was addicted to his wily news stories that pumped vitriol and well-fluffed lies onto the airwaves. Keeping Galante waiting would be as bad as pissing on a wedding cake in full view of the guests. The repercussions would be endless.
Backing off, I put some distance between me and the door and waited for Pandora to come out.
This could have been prevented. My instructions had been clear. I’d tried to protect her from my family, only so far she’d done a stellar job of leaving herself exposed to all of them.
Her scent lingered in my imagination, fanning the flames of my arousal. My dick chastised me for not banging her against the wall. Agreeably a monstrous act but I’d been in a bad mood for over a decade and couldn’t shake my arrogance. This was what my family did…we took what we wanted whether we’d earned