Page 10 of Securing His Obsession

The spoon slipped out of her fingers when she saw Damon standing on her doorstep, two pizza boxes in his hand.

He hadn’t come to drop off the food they’d ordered had he? He could’ve taken it to work the next day.

As she watched, he lifted his fist and knocked again, this time a little more forceful than before. He also leaned down and stared at the camera. “Let me in, Margot. Please.”

It was the please that did it, not to mention he looked so earnest and remorseful.

The man was a confusing enigma.

Grabbing the spoon from her lap, she tossed it on the table while taking a couple of tissues to wipe the drops of ice cream on her pants. She didn’t care if she looked a mess. She was in the comfort of her home, and she could look anyway she wanted.

Margot opened the door a little and poked her head around it. Her bravado about not caring how she looked died the second she reached the door. “Yes?” she asked, as if Damon was a stranger and not someone she’d worked with for the past couple of years.

“May I come in?”

“Why?”

He looked up toward the sky, before his lips quirked into a wry smile. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”

“Should I?”

“No, I suppose you don’t have to, but I’d really like a chance to apologize, and…” He shook his head. “Please, Margot.”

There was that word again, please, and the way he’d said her name, as if it was a covenant. Something to be worshipped. No one had ever said her name that way.

“Fine.” She stepped back, opening the door wider so he could enter.

The second he crossed the threshold, her compact living room became even smaller. It wasn’t his height that made it feel that way. It was him. His presence that filled the gaps. She closed the door and locked it, before heading over to her coffee table and picking up the tub of ice cream. “Take a seat. Do you want anything to drink? I don’t have any beer, but I have juice, water, and soda.”

“A glass of water will be great thanks.”

As she retreated, she glanced over her shoulder and found him looking at the picture on her entertainment unit. It was one she’d taken with her parents after she finished university. They lived in the Northern Territory now, and she didn’t see them that often.

She hadn’t told them about getting kidnapped and shot. It was something she should’ve done, but they had a busy life, and distance had changed their relationship.

“Here you go.” She held out the glass, noting Damon had put the pizza boxes on her coffee table. His fingers brushed hers as he took it from her, and like before, energy sizzled down her arm, and she was glad she had her sweater on so he couldn’t see the way her skin pebbled at his touch.

Needing to put distance between them, she curled up on the corner of her couch, wishing she had a pet that would come sit next to her so she had something to comfort her. Maybe she’d go to the cat shelter on the weekend and find one that loved her unconditionally.

Why was she thinking about getting a cat? She’d never considered a pet before. This was the type of random thought she had so she didn’t have to focus on the fact that Damon had taken a seat on the opposite end of her couch.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the way he lifted the glass in one smooth motion and drained almost half its contents. If she didn’t know any better she would think Damon was nervous. Another ridiculous thought.

This man.

This former SAS soldier had faced down some of the worst of mankind. There was no way he was nervous around her.

Her stomach chose that moment to growl. The ice cream she’d consumed hadn’t been enough to fill her, and now Damon was aware of that fact.

Mortification filled her as he leaned forward and plucked one of the pizza boxes and passed it to her. “Here, our dinner was kind of cut short.”

She didn’t want to take the box, but what little she’d had of the pizza had been good, and she was hungry. “Thanks,” she mumbled as she took it from him and opened the lid to find that it contained half of the margherita pizza and half of the meat lovers one.

Who did that?

Who divided up both pizzas so that everyone got an even share? Not her. She would’ve put one in one box and the other in the second one.

“Why did you do this?” she asked.