Flirting With Desire (Contemporary Romance) Complete Collection (15 page)

“Okay,” Hanna said simply. Damian grinned, a flash of sexy, lethal white that lit up his beautifully dark eyes. Hanna’s world spun round and round and she didn’t care anymore about who was right or wrong. She just wanted to feel again all the sweet agonies of pleasure only he could create within her.

Once the music ended they broke apart, hands lingering on each other before they finally split, Damian turned away with one last smile and Hanna stepped back with breathless excitement. She could barely look about her at the surrounding crowd before she spun around and started to make her way for the exit.

A hand stopped her with its grip on her arm and she frowned, looking back in surprise. She stopped in her tracks when she came face to face with the redhead who’d been staring so intently earlier.

“Ms. Simms? Hanna?” the woman said with a bright smile that didn’t reach her startling green eyes. 

“I’m sorry. Have we met?” Hanna asked curiously.

The woman smiled. “You don’t remember me. Belinda Scott.”

“I’m really sorry, but…” Hanna’s confusion cleared as she suddenly placed the face. She wanted to blush when she realized who this was: Damian’s ex.
Or one of them. Hanna had long lost count in the past of how many women she’d seen walk through Damian’s life. Some after merely weeks or at most a month or two of holding his attention.

Belinda had been a slightly different mold from Damian’s usual pick of bimbos. She came from old money with a family who had almost as much influence as Damian’s. They’d even attended the same top ranking college but had never had anything until later when both got to meet over business between their respective family-run companies.

Hanna remembered their romance as being whirlwind and then crashing just when Belinda had expected things to progress into something more permanent. Hanna had heard rumors from the gossip rags of Belinda having a nervous breakdown but she’d never verified it. All Hanna could remember was having to send masses of flowers to Belinda’s family home where she’d been said to be recuperating.

But why was Belinda waylaying her here, wondered Hanna? Was she hoping to get Damian back and perhaps, thought Hanna, was a link to drawing close to him?

Considering the display on the dance floor which Hanna guessed many had witnessed, she couldn’t help but blush wondering what Belinda must have thought seeing that.

But Belinda looked far from antagonistic as far as Hanna could tell. “I’m sorry,” said Belinda in her cultured, smooth tone. “I didn’t mean to impose. I just didn’t know
who else to approach with my information. I have the feeling Damian wouldn’t take this seriously if he knew it’s coming from me. But after what I overheard…I can’t stand by and let him come to harm.”

Hanna’s chest tightened at those words and she came alert immediately. “What did you overhear?”

Belinda lifted her narrow shoulders in the exquisite lime-colored lace gown. “Something that tells me Damian could be in great danger. After that attempt on his life with that car crash, I should have known they’d want to try again. But to show up at his charity event…” She shook her head in dismay.

Hanna had to clench her fist to curb her impatience. “If you know something, or even suspect something, you should tell me. Why exactly do you think Damian might be in danger?”

Belinda took Hanna’s arm and squeezed urgently. “I can’t talk here. Please, come with me. They could be watching. I think they realized I caught a hint of what they were discussing. Damian was making his speech then and they were standing just inches from me, murmuring. I only got to glean a few sentences but it was enough. If we act now, we can stop them from carrying out their nefarious plans. I think one of them even had a gun,” she added on a hush, and Hanna’s stomach dropped. It didn’t even occur to her to inform anyone else, like the police or even Damian himself. She only thought of how he was totally clueless that he might be a target at the event and there was no time to waste. Damian could well be on his way out to his limo to wait for her and they’d get him then…

“What do we do now?” Hanna said with urgency, already letting Belinda lead her away.

“You need to see something. I think I know where they intend to strike from. I was able to catch one of them making for one of the back rooms leading to the roof. They could easily reach any mark from there.”

“Oh my God. We need to hurry. Damian’s already planned to leave the party early. He’s probably out in the open now,” Hanna said in panic. She really wasn’t thinking. In a crowd full of people there was no way she could cause a stir by announcing to anyone that there were possibly would-be murderers on the loose. So she let Belinda hurry her out of the music-filled hall. 

“They went this way,” Belinda said, her heels clacking fast on the wooden floors as she led Hanna past passageway after passageway. Hanna followed quickly, and saw they’d reached an unlit back room with some kind of ladder steps reaching to a skylight.

“Up there,” Belinda said hurriedly. “That’s the spot where they’ll probably have their marksman.”

Hanna gasped, already clutching at the ladder to spring up the steps. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if she did see anyone on the roof with a rifle or gun about to take a shot. All she could think of was Damian’s safety and how she just might be the only one to keep him from danger.

Hanna could hear Belinda climbing up after her and was glad that at least there’d be help if she needed it. Both women were now able to clamber on the roof and the first thing Hanna noticed was the chill from the wind biting in through her dress.

“Do you see anyone?” Belinda asked from behind her. Hanna’s eyes scanned the roof and the shadows that could be anything from crates to crouching figures lying in wait to commit some nefarious deed…

The hairs on the back of Hanna’s neck lifted and she realized suddenly that she could no longer hear Belinda behind her. Something made her turn her head and she was in time to see the other woman inch forward as if on tiptoe, arms outstretched. Hanna still had no clue what Belinda could possibly be up to. It was then she heard a loud shout from behind them.

“Stop, Belinda!”

Hanna jumped. That sounded like Damian! She spun round quickly and heard shuffling feet. Suddenly Damian appeared from the shadowed opening of the skylight followed by the guards he usually had with him. To her shock, they went straight for Belinda, grabbing her arms. Before the woman could even struggle they’d dragged her off while she screeched in fury.

“Damian, what’s going on?” Hanna exclaimed. He rushed forward, hands on her shoulders as he searched her face.

“Are you okay? Did she hurt you?” he asked with deep worry.

“No! She’s here to help. Damian, she told me about the shooters. She heard them talking…”

“Hanna, there are no shooters. Belinda’s a fraud. If I was seconds too late she was about to push you off the edge of the roof.”

“W…what?”

Damian didn’t speak again but pulled her to him and hugged her tight, like he’d never let her go. “I’ll explain soon enough,” he said when he finally drew back gently. “But we need to get off the roof.”

Hanna nodded mutely and followed, shaky, with her head in a whirl.

*

The police had just left and Hanna heard Damian return to the room. She felt like she was still in shock, and almost started when he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

Sighing, she let her head rest back against his chest.

"You're safe now. I'd never let anyone hurt you," he whispered in her hair. Just hearing him say that put her mind at ease.

"I know," she replied, voice soft. She thought about all she'd found out tonight. Belinda Scott had been the one behind Damian's car crash. It hadn't seemed probable till Damian gave her the full story.

“Six months ago Belinda came to me with a business proposition, supposedly with the backing of her father. It involved a contract worth millions and while we were mapping out negotiations, work turned into play,” Damian said with a bitter twist to his lips. “I’m not proud of the fact I had no qualms taking her as a lover. She was using me just as much, so I told myself. It wasn’t meant to count for anything. It was just as Rush Enterprises was about to sink loads of money in the deal that we found out Belinda had involved us in a scam she’d cooked up with her boyfriend, who also happened to be her ‘dealer’, feeding her addiction to prescription meds. My father and I decided not to press charges out of respect to the friendship between families. I don’t think even her parents were aware how far into depression and other psychological issues Belinda had fallen into from her teenage years after her mother and father broke up. As you’ll expect, things ended between us after that. Her parents got her help and for a while she seemed okay but she kept relapsing and meeting up with her dealer ex. To fund her addiction she’d almost run her family’s business to the ground. I would never have dreamed she was behind the sabotage of my car if camera
footage showed it was her boyfriend who was seen sneaking into my underground garage at the company and tampering with my vehicle. The police only made a positive ID tonight, after she confessed. The most important help came from her parents who called me while I was about to leave the party. They said she’d escaped her carers who’d been assigned to her and that she’d dressed up as if for a party. They guessed she was headed for my charity event because they saw a newspaper opened to the page where it was being advertised in an article. I came straight back in to look for her and I was just in time to see you follow her out of the ballroom. I was too far away to stop you and I went berserk thinking I wouldn’t get to you in time. Something told me she was up to no good and I was right. She really would have shoved you off the roof and she finally confessed to it at the station.”

“But why me? I never did anything to hurt her,” Hanna whispered.

“Hanna, Belinda is a sick woman. And she’s hopefully going to get the help she needs. Her family are going to make more certain of that this time. On the outside people like that seem like you and me but they’re far from normal. They have a warped sense of reality and just thinking that she could have hurt you makes my blood run cold. She tried to kill me for foiling her plans of cheating the company out of millions. When she realized she couldn’t get at me with all the security, she decided you were an easy target – all to make me pay.”

“I caught her watching us at the party. She must have realized we had something together and that’s why she decided to make her move by tricking me into following her. Oh my God, I was such a fool...” Hanna shook her head in disbelief.

Damian shushed her and drew her close again. “Now you’ll understand why I don’t intend to let you out of my sight after this. This time it was Belinda – tomorrow it might be anyone else trying to hurt the people I love just to get to me.”

Hanna’s immediate urge to protest at his high-handedness cut short when his words fully sank in.
Hurt the people I love
...She forgot all about her anger at what he’d said about not letting her out of his sight – and dissolved inside from processing the tail end of his sentence.

Did he even realize he’d made that slip? Even she was beginning to doubt she’d heard right. She felt him turn her round to face him and could only stare up at him in confusion and a hope she almost didn’t dare to show.

“Hanna, is the anything I have to do to make you stay with me?”

When he was the aggressive Damian he was hard enough to resist – but when he turned on that molten charm with his eyes burning and his voice deep and rough, Hanna couldn’t even tell her left from her right.

“I don’t want you to think you have to do anything,” she began, heart thumping because she knew she was lying, sort of.

He cupped her face. “Hanna, I know you need...things. And I don’t mean material stuff. But I know you want a man who can give you romance and all the frills.”

Hanna shook her head quickly. “Maybe I thought I did, in the beginning. But it took meeting you and knowing you to realize the truth. You opened my eyes to the things I really wished for. You made everything seem brighter, warmer. The only thing I could ask for to make it complete was knowing it wasn’t just a game of control for you. I needed you to invest your emotions as well. And now...”

“Now?” Damian pressed, looking at her with those piercing eyes of his that seemed to wrench every hidden element from her very soul.

“I can tell that you do mean to be all you can be, for me. I think you’re ready to try.”

“I’m more than ready,” he said with heartfelt conviction. “Marry me, Hanna, and I’ll spend as long as it takes to prove myself.”

Hanna pulled back in shock. She hadn’t been expecting that. As much as it was the fulfilment of her hopes and dreams, she was never the type to think a ring on her finger held any more symbolism than being just a seal on paper that could be broken at any time. But when you had a seal on someone’s heart, that counted for more than anything.

“Damian, I’m not saying no to us being together. I already know we have so much to share and I’m happy to explore the prospect of more time in a relationship. After a few months, maybe...”

“No,” Damian said, gruffly. “I can’t wait that long to make you mine, truly mine. I know I messed up at the start with my domineering antics and I’ll make it all up to you, I promise. But I want you as my wife, sharing my life and everything it entails. I can’t keep holding back, Hanna. I’m in love with you.”