Page 121 of Damaged

We fling ourselves to each other and kiss. We keep kissing as we both walk over to the leather couch, and we both misjudge the height of it.

It’s a good half a foot lower than we think, and we plop down hard. We laugh for a moment and then keep kissing.

My lingerie in my suitcase will have to wait. My heart throbs too hard to care about being sexy.

I’ll admit it—I’ve been James’s since Egypt. Since he rescued me and kissed my forehead. But this is the first time he’s admitted that his heart belongs to me.

We sit on the couch and kiss for five minutes. Ten.

We keep kissing without a care in the world like a couple of teenagers.

The amount of love we feel for each other keeps the lust away. But it’s only so long before I want more of James than just his lips.

He’d left his phone on a hall table by the entrance to the suite, and it’s rung twice since we started kissing. Now, we can hear it vibrating on the wood a third time.

“Fuck. Just let me mute it.” James stands up.

“Even better. Just take me to the bedroom,” I shout, but James is already walking towards his phone. My request was intentional. I didn’t want him to be distracted if there was some work problem. But he wouldn’t let anything interrupt us now, would he?

I can’t see him from where I sit on the couch, and he’s not back in the few seconds it would take for him to turn his phone off.

The butterflies in my stomach turn into little lead sinkers one by one until there’s nothing but a plummeting feeling in my gut

“James?”

He comes into view ten seconds later. I can tell from his eyes that something happened. “What? What is it?” I ask.

“I have tickets for the orchestra tonight. The Vienna Philharmonic is in town. To be honest, it’s part of the reason I wanted to take you here. Not just for fries and gravy.”

“Oh.”

“They’re doing Tchaikovsky. It’s romantic.”

I’m nervous where he’s going with this.

“It starts in seven hours. We’d have to be there in six and a half.”

“And?” My eyes stare up at his forehead. He’s started tosweat.Suddenly my heart kicks into overdrive. Seeing James this anxious is unnerving.

“I have to go.”

“No, you don’t.” I almost laugh out the words. “You’re joking.”

“I wouldn’t say this if it wasn’t serious.”

“What is it, James? You have to save another client?”

He’s quiet for a moment. I can tell he’s debating telling me the truth, and I don’t interrupt. I let him spit it out. “I’m being blackmailed,” he says finally. “For the second time this year.”

“Blackmailed with what?”

“I don’t know exactly. But I think I have a pretty good idea.”

“You did something bad?”

James is facing the floor, but he lifts his green eyes to stare at me.Dangerous.

He knows that I know he is. But am I okay with that? I can’t even answer. I’d walk on fire to be with this man.

---