Page 56 of Rekindling Desire

Gabriella

A new day.

New battles.

Damien woke me with kisses over my shoulder and arm as his erection probed my lower back. Last night, he’d done as I’d asked and made the world go away. If only for a momentary time, we relished the bubble of our own making.

Shower sex was followed by dinner, delivered from a local restaurant, eaten naked in bed with our respective bottles of wine. There was brutal honesty spoken as we ate. I learned more about Amber. Nothing made me like her.

Of course, I could choose to not believe Damien about their marriage.

It was that I did believe him.

I’d watched and listened to this man speak in personal meetings, small groups, and to large auditoriums. Damien was a man who set goals and achieved them. In the depths of his being, he believed in the future of Sinclair Pharmaceuticals. I’d seen the tears he tried to hide when facing the reality of his father’s ill health. I’d witnessed his wrath when he confronted Darius in the hospital. Those were emotions I’d experienced recently and in our past.

When it came to business, he could be ruthless, cutthroat, and abrupt.

The one thing I’d never witnessed in Damien Sinclair was untruthfulness.

He could answer that everything was fine when it wasn’t. He’d claimed that late hours and long days didn’t exhaust him when in fact they did. Once I recalled him pretending to like a dessert my mother made—in his defense, it was terrible.

Those were not lies.

Those weren’t even untruths.

They were placations.

Words said to ease the burden on someone else.

When it came to things that mattered to Damien, he could be brutally honest.

That was why as we dined on sushi and wine, I made the decision to trust the man I’d fallen for a second time. A marriage license was filed, unbeknownst to him, with his signature—of which he admitted signing.

After the take-out containers were thrown away, our lovemaking was less about making the world go away and more about making our world stronger. Intimate touches and caresses occurred as we explored one another’s bodies. Kisses and licks sent goose bumps over our flesh. The vigor and urgency of our shower sex was replaced by savored encounters, slow and steady. We were both in need of what only the other could provide.

As one of us would nod off to sleep, the one still awake would rouse the other, needing to know that we were still here for each other.

With dawn awaking beyond the blinds, I rolled to face Damien. Bringing my hand to his scruffy cheek, I saw the engagement ring I’d agreed to wear. My gaze met his. “Good morning.”

His deep baritone timbre reverberated through me. “Good morning.” He tipped his forehead to mine as his hands roamed my body beneath the blankets. “I’ll make this right.”

“We’re right. Us, here.” I sighed. “Why can’t life be simple?”

He grinned. “If it were, you and I would be married, living in the house I bought for us, with one or two little Sinclairs.”

A giggle came from my throat. “Oh, you think one or two little Sinclairs would be simple?”

“If they’re like their mother they would be.”

“I’m simple?”

“No, you’re very complex.” He rolled to his back, bringing me with him until I straddled his torso. Stretching his neck, he caught one nipple and sucked before doing the same to the second. “You’re also perfect in every way.” He splayed his fingers on my hips and lifted me.

I was the one who directed his now-erect penis.

My eyes closed as I slid down, feeling the stretch. With my hands on his shoulders, I bent my knees, moving up and down. It was as I opened my eyes that I became lost in the kaleidoscope of his orbs. Different shades of blue swirled within, pulling me into Damien’s orbit, a magnetic attraction I couldn’t break if I wanted to.

All at once, we switched positions—my head on the pillow and Damien above.

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