13. Damien
Damien
G abriella’s pink lips opened and shut.
I was fucking enjoying every second of her discomfort and planned to revel in it for a moment. “Since reminiscing is forbidden, let’s jump into business. What did Ms. Barns tell you?”
“I don’t remember. It all went fuzzy after she said that you called her, and she told me about this meeting.” Ella pushed her chair back and stood.
She was a vision—beautiful, smart, and so full of life. My eyes followed her every step, drinking in her straight posture, soft curves, the way her skirt accentuated her waist and the neckline of her blouse dipped low enough to see the top of her round globes. Although her clothes were professional and nonrevealing, as I imagined Ella without attire my circulation readjusted its flow.
After the way things progressed on Saturday night, I couldn’t walk away. I’d done that two years ago when she first left. I wasn’t going to let her walk out this time, not without a fight. The two of us belonged together in every sense of the word. Saturday night was the best fucking sex I’d had since…her. There was no way she didn’t agree. Six orgasms said she did. Her abrupt change of heart wasn’t because we weren’t good together.
Maybe it was because we were.
I cocked my head. “I didn’t call you,” I repeated. “That’s what you asked.”
She turned toward me, a pink hue moving up her neck to her cheeks. “No, you called my boss. You threw money at her and made yourself sound altruistic in the process.” She spoke and paced, spoke and paced. It was like watching a tennis match. “Millie said something about a coalition. Did you make this whole thing up, or did you and Mr. Sherman actually concoct it together?”
I smirked at the animated way she was speaking. “I would have Johnathon bring you a cup of coffee, but you seem to have too much energy.”
Ella spun toward me, her blue eyes blazing.
I lifted my hands. “No, your energy level is fine. However, if you want to burn some of it off, I can come up with a few options.” I lifted my hand palm up. “This table?”
Her arms flew out and then down, slapping her thighs with her palms. “I can’t work with you.”
“You can. It’s the only condition Van and I put on this venture.”
“I’m not doing that again.”
“There isn’t an again, Ella. We didn’t work together before,” I explained. “You worked for me. This will be different. You will continue to work for Beta Kappa Phi.” I shrugged. “It will just be here.”
“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.”
“I told her,” I said, leaning against the table, “I never should have let you go—from Sinclair Pharmaceuticals.”
Ella lifted her fingers to her temples.
It was the second time she’d done that.
“Are you feeling all right?”
“Headache.” She scoffed. “I probably should have consumed more than coffee and donuts.”
“Let me have Johnathon get you something to eat. I remember you liked the chicken salad from the deli.”
Ella sighed. “How do you remember things like that?”
“Because, Gabriella Crystal, you are impossible to forget.” I walked over to my desk and pushed a button on the phone. Johnathon answered on the second ring.
“Yes, Mr. Sinclair.”
“Go to the deli on the second floor and get Ms. Crystal a bowl of chicken salad and a raspberry tea.”
“Would you like anything?” he asked.
“No. I’m fine. Bring the food in as soon as you have it. Also, cancel my four o’clock.”
“Yes, sir. I will reschedule.”
“That will be good.”
I hung up the phone and turned. Ella’s blue gaze was on me. No longer was she seated at the table, but leaning against it as I had, her arms crossed over her breasts.
“You are so confusing,” she said.
“What’s confusing about ordering you food? You’re hungry.”
“That was kind.”
“Again, purely selfish. I remember your headaches, and if I can help before it gets out of hand, I want to do that. If you’re going to bed in a dark room for the next few days, I want to be there with you.”
“If you want to help Beta Kappa Phi, you can do it without my involvement.”
“I won’t,” I answered matter-of-factly.
“That’s why you’re confusing, Damien. One minute you’re summoning me here. The next you’re ordering me lunch. Then you’re back to being an asshole.”
Asshole.
“Most people refrain from calling me an asshole to my face.”
“That doesn’t mean they don’t call you that.” She let her hands fall to her sides. “Do you want to tell me about this idea for Beta Kappa Phi, or was it all a ruse to get me here?”
“Not a ruse at all. Van and I met Sunday for breakfast…”
We both retook our seats at the table as I explained the premise of the coalition. The idea wasn’t mine or Van’s. It was his wife, Julia’s, the CEO of Wade Pharmaceutical. Big Pharma had always been a danger to smaller companies. The sheer size made them less vulnerable and more influential. The coalition brought multiple pharmaceutical companies together in basically a super PAC. Combining our efforts gave us more clout.
In less than fifteen minutes, Johnathon arrived with Ella’s chicken salad and raspberry tea.
I continued talking as Ella ate. “The best part of Julia’s plan was not to combine competitors. The point was to bring in each company with a strong reputation in one or two particular drugs or pharmacological formulas, to work together in a non-competitive manner.”
“Mr. Sherman’s wife set up the coalition?” Ella asked.
“It was Julia’s idea. Luckily, she happens to be married to one of the smartest and business-savviest men I know. Julia also brought some high-power hitters to the Wade executive board. Do you recall Lena Montgomery?”
Ella shook her head. “I don’t recall her from when I worked here, but her name is familiar.”
“Let’s just say, she’s right up there in the business savviness. Van and Lena did the legwork, but without Julia’s idea, we’d all be worse off.”
“It seems unusually generous. I remember things in the pharmaceutical sphere being more cutthroat. There was an issue with the local university over the fight for a patent.”
I nodded at the memory. It had been a vicious fight. “That’s the thing about Julia—she’s as far from cutthroat as one could be. Honestly, she’s like you, good and kind. I’m not sure how Van convinced her that he deserved her.” I grinned. “I could ask for pointers.”
“Mr. Sinclair, you don’t need pointers. You do need restraint.”
“Oh?” I quirked an eyebrow. “I have some. Just not here.” I began to list my inventory. “Fur-lined handcuffs, silk ties, nipple clamps, blindfolds.” I grinned. “Those along with a few more toys are in a box in my closet.”
As a rosy hue filled her cheeks, Ella shook her head. “Restraint as in self-restraint in respecting other people’s boundaries. Like when being asked that you not make contact.”
“We’ve already established that you asked me not to call and I didn’t.” I looked at her nearly empty bowl. “Are you feeling better?”
Ella leaned back. “I am. Now that I understand the coalition, tell me about your idea for Beta Kappa Phi.”
A notification caused me to look down at my watch. As the words of an email I’d been awaiting scrolled across the screen, I noticed the time. “It’s nearly five. Johnathon has your badge, parking space, and office.”
“Office?”
I went on, “It will probably take him a little while to get you totally set.” I lifted my cheeks in a smile. “We can continue our meeting tonight at dinner.”
Ella shook her head. “Damien, I live in Carmel. I don’t have the energy to drive home and come back downtown.”
“I think you remember that I also live north. Since you just ate, after you meet with Johnathon, go home and rest. I’ll pick you up at seven thirty.”
“This is what I don’t want,” she said. “We can’t date.”
“Not a date, Ms. Crystal,” I explained. “There is simply more information to share and tomorrow my schedule is filled. The natural answer is to continue our meeting tonight.”
She sighed. “If I say no, will you contact Millie?”
“Only if it’s my last resort. I know what I want, and I want you here.”
She dropped her chin and lifted her gaze. “Tell me again why I need a Sinclair Corporate badge, parking space, and an office when I’m not working for Sinclair.”
“You, Ms. Crystal, are what we call an independent consultant. You will continue to be employed by Beta Kappa Phi. This structure is complicated. Logistically, it makes sense for you to work in this building. You will be privy to information that should not be accessed in another location.” Before she could argue, I went on. “My legal department has been working with Beta Kappa Phi’s throughout the day. I just received the notification that the agreement has been reached.”
“You’re impossible.”
I stood. “I prefer resourceful.” I offered Ella my hand. “Do we have a deal?”