My Love Forgive by Anna Antonia Read Free Book Online

dangling from my every word. Curtly, I guided our conversation back on track. “What’s wrong with your e-mail?”
    “I can’t send any out.”
    “You’re still receiving.”
    “Uh, yes.”
    Her blushing wore down my convictions. I wondered if she blushed all over. Something told me she did. I imagined Risa to have very sensitive nerve endings. I’d love to find out for myself if it was true…
    “Have you restarted your computer?” I asked her much more nicely as I imagined her naked on my lap, a delightful pink flush kissing the sweet curves of her lush body.
    “No. I like to follow the rules, Damian, and we’ve had it on longstanding policy not to do perform our own troubleshooting on our computers once we put in a call. I thought it best for me to wait for…someone…you…to come down here first before I did anything.”
    She liked to follow the rules, did she? Risa had no idea how alluring that sounded to a man like me. I felt the smile appear unbidden, genuine for the first time in a long time.
    Suddenly, I remembered Gretchen and felt guilty for lusting after this woman when I’d broken Gretchen’s heart so recently. I didn’t do relationships often, preferring sex over emotional connection, but the ones I did do mattered. Gretchen mattered even though I couldn’t give her what she wanted.
    I could at least allow enough time to pass before I sought out another partner.
    “Please restart.”
    “Now?”
    I nodded and crossed my arms. My curiosity for Risa had to be satisfied with just this. I wasn’t going to be drawn in to her delightful smile or her sweet, girlish voice. Nor was I going to drown in darkness of her eyes or seek out the secrets making them dance with secret glee.
    Risa Kelly was a beautiful distraction, but one I could put out of my mind. And I would.
    “Okay, just give me a minute to save everything before I shut down.”
    “Restart.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “You’re not shutting down. You’re restarting.” I couldn’t help but correct her. It would be just the thing to push a spirited creature like Risa far away from me.
    And if I needed further encouragement, I just needed to look in the mirror to see the only obvious physical legacy my birth mother had left me—her one amber eye.
    I’d always taken it as a reminder to never let passion overwhelm lest I or someone else suffer for it permanently. I needed that reminder more than ever before.
    “Oh, I know. It was just the wrong choice of words.” Risa didn’t let on that my words had irked her. But I knew they did. Her expressive face couldn’t hide it from me. She waved towards one of the chairs in front of her large desk. “Would you like to sit down while you’re waiting?”
    “No. I won’t be here long.”
    “Okay. Suit yourself.”
    Now I knew she definitely was affected by my impersonal treatment. I’d lost a bit of her smile and felt regret steal across my soul. I could’ve stood there in silence but didn’t. I searched for something to say and found myself bullying her a bit.
    “CTRL S.”
    “What?”
    “CTRL S is the shortcut to save a document. Shortcuts keep you from relying solely on your mouse.”
    Risa’s smile died. She blushed furiously. Her lack of control over her emotions made the devil in me want to prod her more. I controlled myself but regretted it.
    “I’m aware of shortcuts,” she answered stiffly. “I just like my mouse.”
    “Of course.”
    “No, really. I know about shortcuts. I use them sometimes.”
    Risa didn’t need to justify herself to me. I was being a bastard to her simply because she’d unexpectedly gotten close to the core of me. It wasn’t safe for either of us. Not when I played at being Damian Black and not Damian Black-Price or Damian Konstantinov.
    Ruthless. Remorseless. A man completely without mercy when it came to getting what he wanted. And the more I denied it, the more apparent it became that I wanted Risa Kelly.
    Badly.
    I closed off my emotions. Seeing