Page 41 of Securing His Obsession

“Little Pearl? You started calling me that yesterday? Before that, you were calling me Meg.”

“Which one do you prefer?”

That wasn’t what she’d expected him to ask. “Huh?”

“Meg or Little Pearl. Which one?”

He was asking her what pet name she preferred? She didn’t mind either, if she was honest. Her parents and friends in school had called her Mags for short, which was why Meg had felt natural, but there was something about Little Pearl that she liked more. “Little Pearl.”

He smiled at her, that one that he only brought out on rare occasions. The smile that lit his eyes, and made them a light brown instead of the intense, almost black, shade of brown she was used to seeing. “I do too.”

“How did you come up with it?”

Right before her eyes, pink bloomed on his cheeks. “I looked up the meaning of your name, and it means Pearl.”

“Damon,” she whispered, before closing the gap between them and kissing him. She loved the pet name even more now, because he’d done something she doubted anyone had ever done for her.

How could she not fall further in love with this man when he did things like this?

Chapter

Twenty

The minute they got to the office, and after he’d given Margot a kiss on the cheek when he left her by her desk, he opened his top drawer and pulled out the card that had Marian’s details on it.

He still had no idea what he was going to do with the money, but he could at least close the chapter on this problem. As soon as it was done, he would never have to have anything to do with them again.

He typed out the email and hit send, he opened up the calendar to see if there were any meetings. Normally he would’ve done it at home before he’d gotten to the office, but he’d been otherwise occupied.

Of their own volition, the corners of his mouth lifted, and he sat back in his chair, remembering the night before and this morning how Margot had helped him just by listening and not making any judgment.

“I know that look,” Andy teased as he came up to him.

“Yeah? And what is it?” Damon asked, knowing full well that he was about to get taunted by his friend.

“The look of a man who has finally found peace and love with the person he’s supposed to spend the rest of his life with.” Andy sat in a chair. “Margot?”

There was absolutely no point in denying it, since it was now likely the worst kept secret in the office that he was hung up on Margot. He may not have told her he was in love with her, and it wasn’t great admitting his feelings to his friend before telling her first. Sometimes conversations happened, and when he told her, it would be special. “Yep.”

“Good.”

“Good?” Damon queried. There was still the matter of their age difference, but it seemed no one but him was hung up on it, so it wasn’t as big an issue as he was making it out to be. Margot had certainly not made any comment.

“Yeah, you need someone in your life. I know you’re a loner, but I’ve always felt like that was something that you manufactured to keep people away, and that it wasn’t really who you are at your core.”

Damon conceded part of what Andy was saying was the truth, given how he grew up with parents who loved him, but as an only child, he had always been content with his own company. In the Army, to get through the intense training to become an SAS soldier, and to do what he had to do to keep the world safe, locking down his emotions was key.

Steve, Andy, Wilt, and Reed, were all the same in their own ways. That was why they gelled as a team and became each other’s best friends. He would take a bullet for any one of them, and they would do the same for him. That closeness was why they still worked together.

Yet, he couldn’t deny the past few weeks with Margot, he’d been happier than he had been in a long time. “You’re right, Margot fills those empty places in me.”

“And it doesn’t make you soft, or lose your edge. It just increases it,” Andy commented, as if he thought Damon was concerned that by lowering his guard and letting Margot in, it would change who he was.

Damon was well aware that he would be a better person and employee with her by his side. “I know.” He looked back at his computer and the calendar on the screen, noting that Bayden was arriving soon. A moment of unease settled over him before he chased it away.

Normally, he looked forward to Bayden coming to the office. It meant that there was the possibility that they would be going away. The thought of leaving the country, leaving Margot behind while there was still a threat to her, didn’t sit well with him.

But maybe he was making too much of it and that wasn’t what the meeting was about.