Page 30 of Remembering Passion

“What?” Her eyes opened wide. “Here. No. No. Hell no.”

“Johnathon has your badge, and he’s secured you a parking spot on the first floor.”

She lifted the tips of her fingers to her temples. “Why, Damien? Why are you doing this?”

Because I could. I didn’t tell her that, but it was the truth. There was more to it. Watching her Saturday night at the gala, I knew she was what Sinclair needed. The fact I want her back in my life was bonus.

Pushing my chair away from the table, I leaned back and lifted my ankle to my opposite knee. “Ms. Crystal, as I explained to Ms. Barns, Sinclair Pharmaceuticals and Wade Pharmaceutical believe in Beta Kappa Phi’s objectives to promote the concepts of health, knowledge, and humanity.”

Ella reached for the back of the chair where she had sat for a moment, her fingers blanching as her grasp tightened. “You’re full of shit. Do you know that?”

“As I recall, you were the one who had problems with regularity when traveling.” I brightened my smile. “Me, on the other hand” —I gestured with my hand slicing through the air— “clean as a whistle.”

She shook her head. “Fine. I’m here. If we talk, can this be over?”

“I’d like to talk.” I’d like to do more than talk, but it’s a start.

“Damien.” She sighed as she retook her seat, her expression sobering.

I didn’t want her melancholy.

Placing my foot back on the floor, I leaned forward. “I’m not giving up on us, Ella. Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t enjoy being with me Saturday night, that the next day, you didn’t remember the way it felt to have me inside you, or that your body wasn’t so completely satiated that you slept like a baby.”

She fidgeted with her hands on her lap before looking up. “I didn’t sleep that well.”

“Neither did I, but it wasn’t because I didn’t just have amazing sex. It was because of the abrupt change in you.”

Ella shook her head and slowly lifted her beautiful blue eyes my way. “You don’t understand what you do to me.”

Good. She was talking.

“I know what you do to me,” I confessed. And if I were truthful with myself, it was happening now just being alone with her.

Her blue stare met mine. “Who are you when you’re with me?”

It was an odd question. “What do you mean?”

“Who are you?” she repeated. “Are you different when you’re with me than when you’re with other people or alone?”

“Is this about me, the things I say to you? Ella, I can’t forget our past, our closeness, and our passion. Those things affect who I am when I’m with you.”

“I’m not me when I’m with you.”

“You are.”

“I ended things the other night because I started feeling…” She exhaled. “I disappear. I’m obscured by the magnitude of you. It’s why I left you two years ago.”

“To make a life without me.” It was what she said Saturday night.

Ella nodded.

“You’ve done that.” It was my turn to stand. “Gabriella, you were astonishing Saturday night. Having the pleasure of watching you in action, the way you worked the room and the donors…” I turned to meet her gaze. “I was awestruck. Beta Kappa Phi has been good for you, and you have been good for it. I have no desire to take that away from you.”

“Really?” she scoffed. “Because after Millie’s announcement about this meeting, I almost quit my job.”

“Fuck no. I meant what I said about you being a star. Not only in that window but doing your job. Ms. Barns explained to me that you had taken the lead on planning the entire gala.” I shook my head. “She had many complimentary things to say about you.”

“She was the person you spoke to after I left here, the woman who called you for my reference.”

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