Chapter Fifteen Damien
Itold myself not to do it, that following Kelsie to the resort bar was a bad idea. Creepy, even.
But what else could I do? I wasn’t going to go back to my room while she sipped a cocktail and smiled at some stranger.
I’d drive myself crazy wondering if her pretty grey eyes softened for him the way they did for me, if she’d lean in close so they could talk intimately in a noisy bar.
If she’d kiss him with the same passion that I experienced just this afternoon.
I had to go to the bar. Kelsie didn’t know it yet, but she was mine. It might have taken me too long to realize it, but once the thought crossed my mind, it sank deep. Permanent and possessive and maddening.
If she thought she was moving on with some asshole trying to steal her from me, she was completely wrong.
I wasted time trying to talk myself out of crashing her date—that word turned my stomach—so by the time I showed up at the bar, she was already sitting at a table with the guy.
I glanced at him just long enough to get the impression of dark hair and casual clothing, but as I weaved my way through the crowded bar area, my eyes were locked on Kelsie, desperation rising as I tried to read her body language.
She looked relaxed in her chair, legs crossed and a fruity drink in her hand. Her attention was trained on the man sitting across from her at the small table, and there was a smile curving her lips.
That killed me. I wanted her attention. Her smiles. Everything else that I’d had over the last two years and took for granted like an idiot.
The man leaned forward and said something, placing a hand on her arm. Anger rose up sharp and hot inside me, but there was a small comfort in Kelsie’s muted reaction. She didn’t pull away from him, but she didn’t move closer or seem to invite further contact either.
It wasn’t much to ease my burning jealousy, but I’d take anything I could get.
When I reached their table, Kelsie’s eyes shifted to me, and for a split second, I saw it. The warm happiness that used to be there every time she looked at me, long before I realized how significant it was.
It was quickly replaced by surprise and anger, but I could handle that because I saw the truth of her feelings for me first. She still cared about me, no matter how much she tried to shut down her emotions.
I knew she was doing that because of my words and actions, and I would have kicked my own ass if I could for having hurt her the way I did.
But that was over now. I just had to find a way to get her back, and my first move was to end this fucking date.
I turned to the man, plastering a smile on my face that felt more like a grimace.
“Hi, there. My name’s Damien.”
I held out my hand, ignoring the way that Kelsie’s eyes burned into the side of my face. Pissing her off was an unfortunate necessity.
“Henry,” the man said, grasping my hand.
Of course, he has a stupid English accent that every woman in the world would find attractive.
I squeezed his hand harder than necessary, but he didn’t flinch. I felt a reluctant flicker of respect for him.
Still didn’t like the guy on principle, though.
I pulled out a chair at their table, plopping down even as Kelsie opened her mouth to protest.
“What are you doing?” she hissed at me with narrowed eyes.
I grinned at her. “Just joining you and your friend.”
“Henry is my date.” Her tone was clipped, and she pointedly reached across the table to take Henry’s hand.
For his part, he looked back and forth between the two of us with a furrowed brow and dawning realization.
“And you two are…”
He trailed off, leaving us to fill in the blank.
“Dating,” I said.
“Friends,” Kelsie’s response overlapped mine, and it took a second for what I said to sink in for her. Then, her head snapped in my direction so fast that I was worried she might give herself whiplash. She yanked her hand away from Henry’s. “What did you just say?”
“It seems like I might be getting into the middle of something,” Henry cut in, looking uncomfortable.
“No, you’re not,” Kelsie said, but she was biting her bottom lip and didn’t look like she believed her own words. “Damien’s kidding. Trust me, he’d be the first to tell you that there’s nothing between us.”
Okay, I deserved that. It still stung, though.
“Tell me about yourself, Henry,” I said, knowing that arguing the point with her wouldn’t get me anywhere. “You live here on the island?”
I caught the waitress’s eye and pointed to Henry’s beer. She nodded in understanding and headed to the bar.
“Yes,” Henry said. “I came here for a vacation about five years ago and just never left. Bought a little house with a view of the ocean and started making handmade pottery to sell at the market.”
“And you often find women briefly visiting the island to spend time with?”
I made sure to put emphasis on the right part of my question so that my meaning wouldn’t be misunderstood. I wanted him to know that I didn’t approve of him trying to seduce Kelsie. Henry leaned back in his chair, his expression cool.
Meanwhile, Kelsie was a fidgety bundle of nerves.
I could see her twisting her fingers together in her lap out of the corner of my eye, and I wanted to reach over and put my hand on top of hers to calm her, but I had a pretty good idea that wouldn’t be well-received.
Best to keep my attention on my competition for now.
“I find that many women come here looking for an escape from their real life,“ Henry said. “If they want to connect with a local while they’re here, who am I to say no?”
He wouldn’t be connecting with my girl. Not tonight or ever.
“Kelsie’s special,” I said as the waitress placed my beer down and walked off. “She deserves the world from whatever man is lucky enough to have her attention.”
“Damien, you really shouldn’t be here.” Kelsie sounded almost sad, like it pained her to hear me talk like that about her. “I think you should go.”
“Or maybe I should leave,” Henry said, already pushing back his chair. He stood, pulling out his wallet. “It’s a shame it didn’t work out, but I recognize a man willing to fight for what’s his. I’m not looking for that kind of trouble.”
“I’m not his,” Kelsie protested weakly as Henry tossed cash onto the table, enough to cover all three of our drinks.
Henry didn’t seem angry or even disappointed as he looked at Kelsie with an apologetic smile. “Maybe that’s so, but I was just looking for a good time with a beautiful woman. Things have gotten tense, so I’m going to head out.”
“Nice to meet you. Have a good evening,” I called out cheerfully as he walked away.
I took a sip of my beer as my eyes shifted to Kelsie, giving her all of my attention and bracing myself for her inevitable anger. But I couldn’t bring myself to regret what I just did, no matter how mad she was.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked, and my dick twitched in my pants as I saw the fire in her eyes. It wasn’t ideal, but it was a reaction, a genuine emotional response that let me know she felt something.
“Nothing, now that he’s gone.”
Kelsie let out a soft, disgruntled sound as her eyes followed Henry out of the resort bar. “I can’t believe he just left like that.”
“I think he knows a lost cause when he sees one. At least he had the good sense to bow out early.”
Kelsie stood so abruptly that her chair fell back onto the floor with a crash that drew attention from just about everyone in the small bar. Her face flushed in embarrassment, and I rushed to pick up the chair for her.
Unfortunately, she took advantage of my distraction and hurried away from me. She was fast, making it all the way out of the bar by the time I realized what she was trying to pull.
But I wasn’t going to let her get away. Hurrying after Kelsie, I caught up with her in the lobby. She was standing in front of the elevators, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for one to open up.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” I said, coming to stand beside her.
She kept facing forward as she rolled her eyes at me. “That’s quite a change of heart for you.”
Taking her arm, I turned her to look at me. “Hey, I never wanted distance from you. I’ve been right here all along. I’ve been blind as fuck, but my eyes are open now.”
Kelsie let out a groan and yanked her arm out of my grasp.
Without acknowledging what I just said, she marched off, slamming her way into the stairwell nearby.
Of course, I followed her. She was stomping up the first flight of stairs when she stopped so suddenly that I nearly ran right into her.
Hands on her hips, she glared down at me two steps below her.
“I want to know what’s going on in your head,” she said, her chest heaving in her anger. I told myself not to look at her chest, but it was eye level, and I was only human. “Why did you crash my date?”
“To end it.”
She let out a short, disbelieving laugh. “Get to the point, Damien. Why do you care if I go on a date? Why did you follow me to the bar?”
She knew the answer to that. I might have fucked up when I told her that sleeping together was a mistake, but Kelsie knew me. She had to know that I regretted that and wanted to be with her. But if she needed to hear me say it, fine.
“I couldn’t let you go on a date with someone that isn’t me.”
“We are not dating.”
“But I want to. I want to be with you, Kels.”
I reached for her hand, but she spun around and kept going up the stairs.
I caught up to her just as she reached the next landing.
Before she could protest, I pinned her against the wall, my body flush against hers.
Her breath hitched, and the feel of her curves made my cock turn to steel.
I knew she could feel it, but she didn’t react.
Her grey eyes shone with defiance, and she placed her hands on my chest. But when I thought she’d push me away, her hands fisted my shirt.
Lips parting, she stared at me while the air crackled with sexual tension.
“Y-you can’t say things like that,” she said. “You can’t keep messing with my emotions like this.”
Bringing a hand to her face, I marveled at the warmth of her skin as I traced my thumb over her cheekbone and down to her lips. Her cheeks turned pink, and I couldn’t help smirking at her reaction to me. She was perfect, and I couldn’t believe that I didn’t see it sooner.
“I’m not messing with your emotions. I’m waking the fuck up.”
Shifting my hand to the back of her neck, I held her in place as I pressed a searing kiss to her lips. For a moment, Kelsie froze, unmoving. Then, I licked along her bottom lip and she melted against me, opening up to allow my tongue to tangle with her own.
Her taste was everything, feeding a hunger deep inside of me that I never knew existed. How the hell could I have missed this for so long? The connection, the attraction—it had been consuming me since the first night we spent together, even as I tried to tell myself that it was something to regret.
Now, all I regretted was the thousands of missed opportunities that I’d let pass by over the last two years. Well, that and calling what we had a mistake.
That would haunt me forever.
But I’d show her just how wrong I was, right here and now.
She was wearing a dress, so I tugged up the skirt until I could grasp the back of her thighs and lift her upward.
Her body jolted in surprise, but she didn’t fight me as I pulled her legs around my waist. Instead, her heels dug into my ass, and she moved against me, grinding the bulge of my erection against her core. I swallowed her needy moan.
“Damien,” she gasped, ripping her mouth away from mine. “We shouldn’t…”
I wasn’t going to think about what we should or shouldn’t do. I was tired of that shit.
Holding her up with one hand on her ass, I managed to slip the other one between us and open my pants.
My erection ached for her, and I didn’t waste any time.
Looking into her eyes, I yanked her panties to the side and drove my hips forward and up.
Gravity did the rest, and she sank down onto my cock all the way to the hilt.
“Fuck.” My voice was loud in the stairwell, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. “You feel so good, baby.”
Kelsie’s hands were on my shoulders now, fingernails digging into me even through my shirt, but I didn’t mind. The pain just sharpened the pleasure as I started to move her up and down on my cock.
“How could I have waited so long,” I mumbled, my face buried in her neck. “If I’d known you were such a tight fit, so damn hot around my dick, I never would have kept my hands off you.”
“Harder,” she said breathlessly, her eyes glazed and her kiss-bitten lips parted. “Give me more, Damien. I need it.”
She needed me.
Heat spiraled through me at that, and my movements became frantic as I chased the high. Our skin slapped together and if anyone came into the stairwell anytime soon, there would be no doubt about what we were up to.
But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but claiming her.
“Mine, mine, mine,” I chanted under my breath, not sure if I was telling her or reassuring myself. All I knew was that I liked the way it sounded.
This was raw and fast, passionate in a way that I’d never experienced before. When Kelsie’s legs tightened around me, I knew she was close. Pressing my lips to hers again, I slipped my tongue into her mouth as I squeezed her ass with both hands.
She shuddered and arched her back, her heart hammering so hard that I could feel it against my chest. When she came, her core spasmed around me in a way that made my vision white out.
I followed her into the arms of ecstasy with a growl and intensity that made me feel branded by her, marked in some kind of lasting way.
The whole damn world should have been able to see who I belonged to after that kind of physical connection.
But Kelsie’s body went rigid after we both came down from our high, and I knew that the spell was broken. This time, she did push against me, and I stepped back, reluctantly letting her get some distance. For now.
Straightening her dress, she didn’t hold my eyes. “I’m sorry, but I… I can’t do this.”
She took off again, and this time I let her go without stopping her. I was pretty sure that I made my point tonight, and now, she needed time to process it. Because like it or not, our relationship had changed. Forever.
Tucking myself away and zipping up my pants, I watched her rush up the stairs to the next floor, where our rooms were located.
Pleasure still hummed through me, the ghost of her warmth lingering on my skin.
And inside my chest, my heart seemed to beat in a different rhythm than before, surging with vitality and purpose that I would put to good use to make Kelsie see that we belonged together.
We just had to get through Ryan and Leanne’s wedding first.