Damon nodded and moved away and Ruby watched him go. She’d been trying not to watch him for the best part of the afternoon. The way he mingled easily and endured his father’s pride in him with wry good humour.
The way he drew daughters, wives and grandmothers to him like locusts to a plague.
Charmer, no question.
Be whatever someone wanted him to be.
‘Impressive,’ murmured Juliet.
‘Very. But strictly short term.’
‘Heartbreaker,’ said Juliet warningly.
‘Only if you let him be.’
Ruby smiled and found her glass, caught his gaze and sent him a silent and appreciative toast.
‘Don’t bait the man, Ruby. Didn’t your father ever tell you not to play with fire?’
‘He did,’ said Ruby. ‘But it’s so much fun.’
She laughed with Juliet for a while and met her lovely husband, and then it was time to slip away and do the rounds of the powder rooms to make sure they were tidy and well stocked. Three bathrooms available to guests. Two off the atrium and living areas and another at the end of the hallway, past the guest bedrooms.
Ruby’s shoes clickety-clacked as she made her way back down the hallway towards the mingling throng of powerful people, and then her shoes stopped their noise-making midstride as a strong arm snaked out from a bedroom doorway and drew her inside onto carpeted floor. The bedroom door closed firmly behind her, and then Damon backed her against it and set his hands either side of her head and his lips to the curve of her neck.
‘Damon, I’m working,’ she whispered, even as her hands went to his waist and she tilted her head to allow him better access. ‘What are we? Twelve?’
‘I prefer to think of it as innovative,’ he murmured silkily and then set his hungry mouth to hers, at which point all talking ceased for quite a while. More kisses followed. Delicate open-mouthed explorations that fed desire. Deep and drugging declarations of desire gone mad. Whatever this was, Ruby could no longer control it, and as for Damon …
‘God, Ruby.’
He seemed bent on encouraging the insanity.
And then the doorknob turned and the door at her back began to open and Damon slammed it shut with the palm of his hand. Ruby stilled and stared at Damon, the fear of discovery heady when mixed with desire.
Who? she mouthed silently and Damon just shook his head and raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t open the door and for that she was truly grateful.
The doorknob turned again and this time Damon frowned. ‘Who is it?’ he said.
‘Lena.’
Damon grimaced, and his gaze cut from Ruby’s face to the en-suite doorway.
Silently, Ruby ducked beneath his arm and made her way to the en-suite and carefully shut the door behind her. Damon’s cue now, to open the door to Lena and guide her elsewhere so that Ruby could make her escape.
She heard the door open and Damon’s guarded, ‘What is it?’ and Lena’s exasperated, ‘For heaven’s sake, Damon. Let me in. What is wrong with you?’
‘I was just coming back out,’ said Damon, and in the relative safety of the bathroom Ruby nodded her agreement.
‘Wait,’ said Lena. ‘I need to talk to you. Privately.’
Not good. Definitely not good.
‘Now,’ said Lena firmly, and, cursing silently, Ruby closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall to wait.
‘Lena, not now. This really isn’t a good time.’
But Lena wasn’t listening and Damon stood back and let his sister into the room. Better to get it over with then, whatever it was, for Lena had that look on her face. The one that promised no mercy whatsoever for whoever had been stupid enough to irritate her in the first place to the point of explosion.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you had news on Jared’s whereabouts?’
‘What?’ he said warily.
‘Last night you told me you hadn’t found a thing. Today Poppy tells me that you’ve already hacked into the ASIS database and found Jared’s personnel record and pulled a coded file from the system that you now need Poppy to decode.’
‘Lena, please,’ he said urgently and pressed his fingers to her lips, something he should have done the moment she’d stepped in the room, only he’d still been dazed from Ruby’s kisses and he hadn’t even seen it coming. ‘Not now.’
But she wrenched his hand away, eyes flashing. ‘Why not? Am I too fragile to know the truth all of a sudden? Is that it?’
‘Lena—’
‘You lied to me. You sat there the other day and you lied to my face.’
‘No, I told you I didn’t have any information on Jared’s whereabouts. I still don’t.’
‘Don’t you dare pull that half-truth crap on me. Hacking might be your business, and secrecy your way of life, but I am your sister and this is Jared we’re talking about. How could you? How could you shut me out? Has it not occurred to you that I might be able to help? That I might know ASIS operational systems and codes better than you?’
‘Lena. Not. Now,’ he said through gritted teeth.
‘Why not now?’
And then the en-suite door opened and Ruby stood there pale but composed, and looking anywhere but at him.
‘Probably because he doesn’t want anyone overhearing your conversation,’ she said quietly. ‘So if you’ll excuse me, I’m just going to … leave. Thanks, Damon, for the, ah, use of your bathroom.’
Smiling brightly, Ruby executed a hasty exit and shut the door firmly behind her.
‘Oh, hell,’ said Lena and stared at him in dismay. ‘Damon, I’m so sorry—’
But Damon was already halfway out of the door.
He found her directing the wait staff with the precision of a conquering general. He stood back and watched, and let her do her thing and manoeuvre guests and charm her father. She hadn’t fled, she had a job to do, and it suited Damon to stand and watch her do it while he planned how best to deal with a situation he’d never encountered before.
He went back to his room, with a bleak-eyed glare for Lena, who passed him in the hallway, where he filled his backpack with the things he would need and then returned to the main room and simply walked up to her in the kitchen, took her hand and headed for the door and to hell with what people thought. His father would get over it. His father’s business friends and associates could think what they liked, and as for Ruby …
If she objected to his high-handedness she made no mention of it as she collected her work satchel from the cloak cupboard and strode through the apartment door he’d opened for her, with her hand still firmly ensconced in his.
Perhaps she was as glad to see the back end of the party as he was. Perhaps she had something to say. Time would tell, because she sure as hell wasn’t saying anything now.
Such a fascinating face—the one she presented to him as they stepped into the lift and turned around to face the closing doors. Not classically beautiful—no Grace Kelly here—but those eyes could drown a man and her lips were the work of a master. A lovely, lively face, and if a man preferred it to classical perfection, well, that was his preference.
If a man wanted to walk blindfold off a cliff and entrust her with his darkest secrets, well … that was his business too.
They rode the lift in silence,