Chapter 5
Five
Damien walked into Sunrise Brews with low expectations. If Harmony was hiding from people, he knew she wouldn’t show up at the coffee shop where they first met, but it was his favorite place before he met her there, and he wasn’t going to change that after years of routine.
He made it to the front of the line and smiled at the barista he’d become friendly with since he bought Harmony’s breakfast. She’d gotten to where she knew his order and was already keying it in as he stepped forward. The smirk on her face made him pause.
“It seems your patience has paid off,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
She nodded her head to the side.
Damien followed the movement and spotted Harmony sipping a drink at her favorite table near the window. The table Damien had taken up as his own in her absence.
“Is there anything else you’d like to add to your usual order?”
Damien grinned widely and nodded. “Yes, please.”
The barista grinned as she added Harmony’s cinnamon sugar french toast muffin.
Damien tapped his phone to the card reader and thanked her for the assist.
“Happy to help,” she said with a smile of pure joy.
Damien moved to the side to wait for his order, keeping an eye on Harmony in case she left before his food was ready.
All the employees knew him and didn’t bother calling out his name, just handed everything over, confirming his name and order.
“Thanks,” Damien told them, balancing the food in one hand and grabbing his drink with the other. He made his way to Harmony and stepped to the side so she would see him before he joined her. “May I sit?”
Harmony jumped, then nodded and sat up taller. She scanned the coffee shop as if she had forgotten where she was. She eased away from Damien just enough for it to sting.
“I got you a muffin. Is there anything else you want?”
She shook her head and tugged her sweater higher on her shoulders.
“Are you okay?”
She looked at him but didn’t say anything for a minute.
Damien’s entire body tingled. Something was wrong. Very wrong. “What happened?”
She tilted her head. “A man I don’t know very well showed up at my work yesterday. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since people have been doing it for five days now, but it’s…”
“Terrifying,” Damien provided.
“Yeah,” she said with no mirth in her laugh. “Almost as terrifying as…” She stopped and shook her head.
“Did something happen?” Damien asked.
She stared out the window, ignoring him.
Damien waited. She showed up. After almost a week of not being there, she was there. She let him sit. She talked. He could wait for her to say what she came to say.
“How did you find out where I work?”
“Your name is not very common, so a simple search brought up a lot more information about you than you probably realize is online.”
“Seriously?” She sucked in a shaky breath, drawing her lower lip between her teeth. Her hands shook as she wrapped them around her mug.
Damien reached for his pocket, and she jumped, nearly spilling her coffee everywhere.
“Shit,” she whispered. She stilled the mug before it toppled, then righted her muffin. She closed her eyes for a minute.
“I’m going to reach into my pocket, Harmony. I want to give you my card.” Damien waited until she looked at him to make a move. Her gaze tracked his movements, anxiety pouring off her. He pulled out his wallet and opened it on the table so she could see his license.
She leaned closer, and he did nothing to hide his identification. “Damien Joseph.”
“Yes. I work for a company called Rose Protection Agency. If I’d wanted to, I could have found your information, but I didn’t have to access any of the systems we have. Everything was public.”
“Which means anyone could find me. Any time.”
Damien nodded. “It does. And when I saw that, I started removing your data from the internet, but…”
“Anyone who looked before could have seen it and already have it.”
Damien nodded again. He extended his card to her. “This is me. We do a lot of work with the police, and I know Captain Patrick.”
“You do?”
“I do. He told me you were shaken up after the press conference. I was looking for you because I thought you looked scared.”
“You were there?”
Damien shook his head. “I watched it online.”
“Oh.”
“I didn’t know about it until it was broadcast, or I would have been.”
Harmony nodded, her hands gripping and releasing her mug as if it were the only tether she had to reality. She stared through the window, and Damien finally realized what she was looking at.
“Did he do something?”
Harmony shifted, then shook her head.
“You can tell me. And I can protect you.”
“I don’t even know you.”
“No, you don’t. But you can call Captain Patrick. You can look into my company. You can speak to my boss. You can do whatever you want that will make you trust me.”
“Why do you care?”
Damien exhaled a laugh. “I really wish I could explain, but I don’t know. I just do.”
Harmony sucked in a breath at his words. She couldn’t remember the last time someone cared about her. Probably since her father died. It was sad she hadn’t had anyone who cared about her in more than a decade. No one who worried if she was safe or thought twice about her at all.
Unexpected tears sprang to her eyes. She tore her gaze from his and squeezed her eyes shut. That was not why she went to see him. It wasn’t supposed to make her feel…
“I apologize for upsetting you, Harmony. That was never my intention. I’ll leave you alone going forward. If you need anything…” He trailed off.
Movement next to her said he was getting up, but Harmony didn’t want him to leave. “Please stay,” she whispered.
Damien stilled, and when she opened her eyes, their gazes collided. His eyes dilated, black overtaking the dark brown color.
She gave herself permission to really look at him. His brown skin was smooth over high cheekbones and a narrow nose. Dark stubble lined his jaw and upper lip with longer curls on his head. His cream tee stretched tight over a wide chest, defined shoulders, and thick biceps.
They didn’t match. Nothing about the strong and sexy man in front of her said they should be anything other than strangers. But Harmony had never been one to care what others thought. She fought for everything she had. Defended herself and her right to have whatever the hell she wanted.
What she wanted wasn’t usually a man, but Damien wasn’t like the others she’d known.
“I know you don’t know me,” Damien began, “but I want to change that.”
“What are you saying?”
“Can I take you out to dinner? A real date instead of getting an assist from our favorite barista so I know what you like?”
Harmony’s cheeks warmed. “Yes.”
“Yeah? Really? You’ll let me take you out?”
She nodded. “I mean, you seem like you have a really hard time getting dates, so I’ll do you a favor and agree.”
Damien chuckled. “I’ve had a hard time getting this one.”
Harmony grinned, thankful she went back to Sunrise Brews to see him. “Did you really start deleting my information from online?”
Damien grimaced and nodded. “I know it was an overstep, but you didn’t ask for the attention you’ve gotten and probably didn’t know to be worried. There are companies that specialize in removing your data.”
“Did you have to pay for that? I don’t know—”
“It’s something our company does for a lot of clients.
Even though you haven’t hired us, I talked to my boss.
He agreed it was a good idea, and Captain Patrick supported the whole thing.
It’s taken care of for a year, and if you decide to continue with the service after that, we can figure something out. ”
“That’s… Thank you. It’s been a really long time since someone… cared.”
Damien reached across the table, then hesitated. He turned his hand over, giving Harmony the choice to take his hand.
She smiled and slid her hand into his.
“I do care, Harmony. From the first day we met, I wanted to know more about you. And not just because you saved someone. That tells me who you are, but it’s more than that for me. Tell me I’m not crazy. Tell me you feel a connection, too.”
She nodded, unable to deny it.
“Good. When are you free for our date?”
Harmony couldn’t stop her smile. “Is tonight too soon?”
“I was thinking that’s too long, but I’ll take it.”
She chuckled. “Works for me. Do you want to meet somewhere?”
“I want to do whatever makes you comfortable. I can pick you up, we can meet, you can come to my place and I can cook you dinner.”
“You cook?”
Damien nodded. “I do.”
How in the world was he still single? “We should probably meet somewhere. Since I don’t really know you that well.”
“Can I get your number?”
“You don’t have it?” she teased.
Damien laughed softly. “I figured showing up at your work was enough of a boundary to jump without permission.”
“I think I’m happy you did it.”
“Even though you don’t work there?”
She laughed. “Yeah, even though I don’t work there.”
Damien unlocked his phone and slid it toward her to add her number.
She picked it up and entered her information. Her phone buzzed a second later. “I sent myself a text so I have your number, too.”
Damien took the phone back and read the text she sent herself.
Hot guy with a great smile who protects people, cooks, and wants to go out with me. There must be something wrong with him.
Damien pocketed his phone and said, “He also works too much and doesn’t understand boundaries very well.”
Harmony laughed again. She appreciated someone who could laugh at themselves. “I can’t throw too many stones at that glass house.”
Damien’s eyebrows spiked. “You’re a workaholic, too?”
Harmony nodded. “Yeah. Comes with the whole no life thing, but I’m also really close to finishing my Ph.D. This time is really busy. And you already know all this about me.”
“I don’t know that much about you, Harmony. But I’m really looking forward to learning as much as you want to share.”