Page 70 of Pleasure Payback

His face tautened into an impenetrable mask. ‘Nothing I’m going to get from you. I see that now.’ He turned to Margret. ‘Tell my aunt I’ll be right there. I’m done here.’

I knew that last bit was intended to wound. And it found its mark so accurately, I could do nothing, not even breathe, as he walked out of the room.

The sound of the rotors spinning in preparation for take-off tore through me as surely as if the blades had struck my skin.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Damian

ITWASAMAZINGhow much could happen in four short weeks. A person could come out of the wilderness and be enfolded back into his family—or reinstated on the board by a slim majority, as was my case. Amazing too how that same board could fall apart after a short absence of its CEO and convene an emergency meeting to instate me as interim CEO. At least until Gideon returned from his extended sabbatical and we could co-CEO together as we’d planned many years ago.

Most amazing of all was how none of that mattered a damn to me any more.

Gideon and I had patched things up before he went after the woman he had fallen in love with. Our bond had bent out of shape and would require a hell of a lot of work, but it hadn’t broken.

Neve, on the other hand...

I tried to take a breath and tensed at the lance of pain in my gut.

Fucking hell, what hope did I have of living anything resembling a normal life if I couldn’t take a breath without her?

I whirled in my comfy CEO seat, stabbed my keyboard and waited impatiently for the laptop to flare to life.

A sharp tap of the refresh button showed an empty inbox.

Same as five minutes ago.

Same as every day that dragged by without a response. Every single email arrived at its destination—I’d co-opted a nerd from IT to monitor it—and every email was immediately trashed.

Who could blame her?

She’d seen the demons I carried, and had still given me the time of day. Hell, she’d given me more than that. She’d listened without judgment. Given me comfort where I hadn’t received any for a long time. Hell, she’d even given me that last push I’d needed to confront Gideon, set things straight once and for all.

She’d wanted to do more. I’d seen it in her eyes, felt it in her touch.

But I was the fucking bastard who’d turned away from it all.

I wanted it back. All she had to give and more.

She might be trashing my emails but she was still connected even though her manager claimed she didn’t know where Neve was.

In a last-ditch effort, I picked up the phone. Ten minutes later, I had a plan in place.

Neve

My finger hovered over the delete button, as I wondered how much more of this I could take before I succumbed and cried wolf. Or how much more I could take before the broken pieces inside me fossilised into permanent scar tissue.

Every day felt worse than the last. And every day he sent me a message.

Why was he doing this?

Damian has a good heart.

Of all the words we’d exchanged, why did the ones uttered by his aunt haunt me the most?

I pushed away from the desk, pacing to the window in a futile hope that the glorious Surrey countryside would overcome the temptation to open the email. But even the short distance from the computer flayed me alive. I withstood the agony for a pathetic minute before I succumbed.

The message was short. Succinct.

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