Page 7 of Out of Office Nights
Only to be confronted by failure after failure.
She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth and blinked rapidly against the pressure behind her eyes as the lift opened and spat her out.
The steely warning in Teodor’s unique Domene grey eyes had been unequivocal. Another failure and she truly would be asuper nothing.
But…as much as she wanted to rail at the heavens for depriving her of vital support in the form of her grandmother, Sabeen knew she had loved and supported her. For the most part.
Yet you disappointed her too…
She pushed that harrowing thought away, leaving her wide open to the naked truth of her other problem.
The kiss she couldn’t forget. The kiss consuming her, possibly to the detriment of her creativity.
And yet…she hadn’t chosen to walk away given the chance. Had instead accepted Teo Domene’s challenge. Because heand the House of Domene were a combined once-in-a-lifetime opportunity she would be insane to walk away from.
Is that the only reason?
Stepping out into the sunshine and electric vibrancy of Manhattan, she plucked her sunglasses from her purse, slotted them into place and breathed out.
Over her dead body would she allow this to carry on much longer.
Jidawould be ashamed of her wallowing. Her grandmother would tsk repeatedly at even the faintest hint thata manwas behind this knock in her confidence. But she wasn’t totally blinkered enough to recognise that she’d sustained severe emotional scars after Nathan.
He’d—
No. Enough.
She’d wasted enough heartache on him. She flagged a cab, taking the tiniest of wins when it slid to an eager stop before her. She basked in it, ignoring her overly raspy voice which always sounded that way when she was agitated, and gave her Greenwich Village address.
She had six weeks to turn the last six months—or two years if she counted Nathan—of her life from a disaster into something remotely salvageable. No. Not justsalvageable.
A raging success.
One that would right every wrong turn she’d taken in her past once and for all.
Better still, it would be six weeks free of Teodor Domene’s electrifying presence. Free from having a million butterflies swarming to life in her belly at the mere sight of him.
Best of all, she wouldn’t have to be constantly on guard about falling under the spell of another devastatingly handsome, emotionally bankrupt playboy who would so carelessly toss heremotions into a wood chipper just to sit back and raise a glass of champagne as he watched her bleed.
History repeating itself through her grandmother with her grandfather, her mother’s turmoil over her father, then her through Nathan was quite enough. Karma could take a flying leap into a boiling volcano.
She would break the El-Maleh curse. Claimeverycorner of her life back.
All she had to do before that was get through the gala with Teodor Domene.
CHAPTER TWO
A one-hour dress fitting.
A thing he’d done countless times in the past but was now reserved for the very select few.
So why the hell was he on his fourth espresso before eight o’clock?
He’d already reconciled himself to the possibility of shutting down Domene X if things didn’t work out.
Si, but failure is still failure. And while Mama’s sneers wash over you these days, evidently you’re still not immune to Papa’s opinion. Are you?
He jerked his fingers through his hair, cringingly grateful when the doorbell interrupted the recollection of what he’d overheard his father say at Azar’s wedding. Teo loathed to admit it, but more than the apathy and indifference to his and Valenti’s plight of being subjected to their mother’s attention-seeking manipulation, it was hearing that his father would rather face the consequences of his ill-health than interact with his third son—thatwas a pill that both chafed and angered Teo.
