“Don’t forget to add a cup of black coffee to it.” She heard Damien say from inside. His voice sounded dangerously close, so, she took a safe step back. It would be too awkward for him to open the door and find her leaning on it.
Shortly, the door flew open.
Her heart skipped another beat as her sea-blue eyes landed on Damien. The magazines and newspaper, really did him no justice. The gritty stubble around his jaw had grown a bit but it still made Céline weak in the limbs.
Good lord, he was handsome.
The air around them became too hot, maybe because he was standing too close to her, or maybe it was the way he was looking at her. But Céline became red, she knew she was blushing. She bent her head low, trying to hide it.
This was supposed to be an interview for a job. But it was fast becoming a staring contest between lovers -yet they weren’t lovers.
“Good morning,” Céline greeted. An attempt to turn back the tides to the matter at hand -which was her interview as a personal assistant- but her voice was shaky, no matter how firm she tried to make it sound. She hoped Damien didn’t notice.
“Why didn’t you come back to the house?” Damien’s hoarse voice filled the room and she felt her head spin.
Wait- did he just say the house? Or his house?
Good.
This meant, the ball was still in her court. Damien wanted her still and she was going to continue seducing him till she could get her hands on his money, so she could pay John.
“I came here for an interview. Am I in the wrong office?” She raised her head, facing Damien squarely.
His brown eyes pooled over as his gaze on her intensified. Seeing that she wouldn’t back down, he sighed.
“You are in the right office. Come in.” He left the door and walked back to his seat, but not before pulling a chair out for Céline. “Do you want coffee or tea?” He asked, once they were both settled.
“Tea is fine.” Not wanting to meet his brown eyes, she turned her focus on the pile of files on his desk.
Maybe he really needed a personal assistant and this was just a sick coincidence, she thought as she scanned the pile.
Damien picked up his office phone and made a call for someone to add a cup of tea to his order.
Ah, so he was the one who would be taken the black coffee, Céline once again noted in her mind. If she was going to marry this man, she would need to know all about his likes and dislikes, so the marriage could last long enough for her to get the money she needed.
Damien dropped the phone and returned his eyes to her. He looked like he had a thousand questions but didn’t know from which to start with.
“So, you need a personal assistant. What happened to the last one you had?” Céline asked, once again taking charge.
She couldn’t let Damien decide the outcome of the conversation or she might lose herself in his captivating eyes again.
“You are the first,” he said, his voice hoarse and low. He meant the personal assistant but it felt like he meant something entirely different and off scene.
As simple as those words were, they made the tip of her ears turn red and she regretted packing her hair up, there was nothing to hide her embarrassment.
Damien’s eyes were on her. His hands were clasped together and they were turning white with each passing second.
Her throat went dry.
The way Damien was looking at her was no longer innocent. She suddenly felt naked under his gaze. It was as if he was testing her limit. As if he wanted to know how long she would last without begging for him to touch her.
“Why di-d you pic-k me fo-r th-e job,” she stammered as his intense gaze sent butterflies spluttering their wings in the pit of her stomach.
“Your file said you studied statistics and business administration…”
“My file, what file?” Her left brow raised in surprise.
What file was he talking about? She never submitted any file in any body’s office.
Ever since her last job as a market researcher, she found office jobs too boring to continue with. Since then she had been teaching in a daycare and was quite contented with the way her life was going until the killings started and she found a way to find and punish her parent’s killers.
So, she couldn’t understand what file, Damien Culhane spoke of.
“The one my mother brought…” He calmly said.
“Your mother -oh!” Céline exclaimed.
She wasn’t expecting him to hit her with this. She thought he never saw the application.
This meant, he did see it. But how come he didn’t recognize her in the club the other night.
“I found it a few days ago,” Damien whispered, answering her unspoken question. “So you want to marry me?” His voice was hoarse again as he narrowed his eyes, waiting for her response.
Céline became red in the face as the wheels in her brain worked overtime to get her a suitable answer. She had to be very careful, because if her answer was not satisfactory, she would lose everything she had worked so hard for.
“A lot of prominent women applied. I can understand they did that because they wanted more fame or a business expansion. But you…”
This time, it was Celine’s turn to narrow her eyes at him. Not to tease him, but to express her anger. He thought because she wasn’t prominent she had nothing to offer or what? What did he think of himself?
“I didn’t apply for this and I don’t exactly want to marry you-” She bit her tongue to stop her words but it was too late. It had already left her lips.
What would she do if Damien decided to send her away? What if he admitted that he didn’t want to marry her either.
“Who applied then?” Once again, Damien’s voice was low. But this time there was a hint of disappointment in it. It was like he wanted her to have applied.
“My aunt…” The lies came out on its own. Sometimes she was grateful for the way her brain helped her out in situations like this.
“My aunt…”
Her voice was like soft moans to his ears but the words were not the ones he wanted to hear.
Damien was disappointed.
He wished Céline had applied by herself. It would have confirmed she was into him as much as he was into her. But unfortunately, she didn’t even apply to be his bride herself.
“Why did she want you to marry me?”
“She- why are we talking about this?” Céline retorted, raising her soft voice.
“What should we talk about then?” Damien said, relaxing further into his seat.
Just watching Céline talk, was a big turn on for him. If he could, he wouldn’t even be talking about anything. Just watching her beautiful features and hearing her angelic voice was enough for him. If she wanted to add to the party she could as well let him kiss her soft lips, that would make his entire life.
He could walk up to her and claim her lips, but he, didn’t want to scare her off again. So he continued suppressing his urges by clenching his hands together. Besides she was trying really hard to cover her own wants, he could definitely do the same.
“We should be talking about the job I came here for.” She was looking at him as if he had grown two heads.
“What about the job, should we talk about it? Isn’t it obvious its already yours?”
As the last words settled in her head, her sea-blue eyes sparkled with excitement and Damien thought the sack between his legs would burst just by watching the woman.