hadn’t been you sitting next to me, I would have kept my mouth shut. You listened to me, gave me your total attention. I’ve never had a guy who truly listened to me, like what I had to say was important.”
“Never settle for a man who doesn’t recognize how damn lucky he is to be with you, Nicole,” he demanded.
“I don’t think any of them ever felt lucky,” I mused, thinking about all the halfhearted men I’d had in my life.
“Idiots. All of them,” he said irritably.
I smiled wider. “Because none of them ever gave me a screaming orgasm?”
“No,” he answered roughly. “Because they had you, and never appreciated what an extraordinary woman you are.”
My heart ached at his words. “I’m not quite sure how to handle you sometimes,” I admitted. “You see things in me that nobody else ever has, and it’s a little bit scary. I’m not exactly a femme fatale, Damian. I’m not putting myself down, but men like you just aren’t attracted to a woman like me. They date supermodels, A-list actresses, or other wealthy, gorgeous socialites. Not an ordinary woman who owns a small business, and is perfectly happy on a beach somewhere, swilling lattes with her friends.”
“I’ve dated supermodels,” he said with a masculine sigh. “They can’t enjoy a meal without thinking about every single calorie they put into their mouth. They’re painfully boring, and perpetually unhappy most of the time. Same thing with A-list actresses and the social elite. Appearances matter to most of them, and they don’t really matter to me.”
“Please, don’t tell me that you don’t care about how people perceive you. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Maybe I just seem to care,” he suggested. “So I can spend more time with you and get you into my bed.”
My body let go of a small shudder. “I’m already in your bed.”
“Don’t remind me,” he said with a grunt. “And I’m in no position to give you a good shag.”
For a moment, I let myself bask in the warmth of Damian’s unexplainable desire to fuck me senseless. “I like the way you want me.”
“I’m glad you like it, because it’s driving me fucking insane,” he replied grumpily.
I actually giggled at his self-deprecating tone, and I was a woman who never giggled. “I’m starting to believe you,” I told him, and it was the truth.
If I took Damian at face value, and assessed everything I knew about him personally, I’d say he was a stuffy, workaholic suit who rarely made time for a woman, and when he did, it was brief, and in between his other obligations.
Not a single thing I knew about him painted him as some kind of womanizer.
Damian was finally completely still, and within moments, I could feel his breathing even out, telling me that he’d allowed the sleep he so desperately needed to take him away.
I was careful as I snuggled back against him, but he seemed to sense the motion, and tightened his hold on me.
I relaxed my body, and let myself wallow in the pleasure of having my body plastered against his rock-hard chest, stomach, and powerful thighs.
My body might still need him with a fierceness I could barely contain, but as I drifted off to sleep, my heart was completely content exactly where I rested.
CHAPTER 20
Damian
“ARE YOU READY?” I asked Nicole as we pulled up in the long, circular drive of my mum’s home.
We’d left the gaggle of reporters at the end of the driveway. They weren’t allowed inside the gate.
Nicole’s eyes widened. “This is where you live? It looks more like a castle than a home.”
I lifted my gaze to the impressive stonework of the Lancaster country home, Hollingsworth House.
To me, it was nothing more than the home I’d grown up in, but I supposed I could understand Nicole’s look of total astonishment.
For one, the property was enormous, especially by English standards, and probably a bit imposing. Some of the stonework on the front of the home was original, but the entire estate had been added to, fastidiously remodeled and updated over time.
“It’s been in my family since the seventeenth century,” I explained. “Every generation has put their stamp on it, changed it, or added something, so it’s a hodgepodge of tastes, I’m afraid.”
“It’s…extraordinary,” she sputtered.
I grinned as I noticed that Nicole was still gawking out the car window at the house.
I jumped out of the leather seat of the Phantom, and jogged to Nicole’s side of the car. “Let’s go then,”