My Love Forgive by Anna Antonia Read Free Book Online Page A

through her, I knew by her expression that I’d made myself untouchable. Hurt flashed through her eyes. She quickly saved using her keyboard. Satisfaction touched me long enough to watch her frown furiously.
    “You should stop that.” I ordered it before I could stop myself. Considering my lack of control over myself, it was probably too much to expect Risa to listen to me yet.
    Yet? There is no yet.
    “Stop what?” she asked far more politely than I deserved.
    “You’re going to develop premature wrinkles with the way you frown.”
    “And ruin my pretty face?”
    I cocked my head, the better to see her teasing smile. “It will ruin your face.”
    When she inhaled sharply, I realized my blunder. I’d insulted her for sure. Mission accomplished even if I’d already regretted my decision to push her away. Especially because my instinct demanded that Risa Kelly was mine.
    Anger burned fever-bright. I wasn’t here to dally, but even that was going to be denied me because instinct alerted me that I didn’t want to dally with Risa. I wanted more.
    Everything.
    She managed to surprise me when she asked, “You just started this week, right?”
    “Yes.” Risa was made of sterner stuff than I credited her for. I’d been rude, curt, and far from the amiable self that I usually employed as effortlessly as breathing—at least outside of the office. Or when I wasn’t using a shortened version of my name when investigating my many holdings as a near-anonymous employee.
    Even so, Risa was undeterred. Usually, that kind of stubbornness in a woman meant trouble for men with my net worth. I liked that I hadn’t sent her from the room in a fit of tears like so many other women had when I hadn’t paid them proper attention. Or dared to let the cracks from my other self show.
    I smiled in praise of Risa although I couldn’t share why. Apparently, it was enough to have her ask, “Would you like to go out to dinner with me tomorrow?”
    “No.”
    Yes.
    Nothing good would come out of showing my true side to Risa. Especially now that I was emboldened by just how much she obviously wanted me. The best thing for us both was for me to sidestep this whole business and focus solely on why I was down here.
    A disturbing thought broke through my resolution. What if I couldn’t put on my mask because I wanted to show Risa the real Damian?
     
     

The new beginning where Risa Kelly was going to learn that Damian Black wasn’t exactly the man she thought he was…
     
     
     
     
     
     

16

RISA
    “You shouldn’t be scared.”
    I laughed. It sounded as ugly as our present circumstances. Finally, Damian was comforting me. Any other time he’d have stared at me, eyes cold and clinical, until I cried “What?”
    I didn’t feel so cheeky now. Instead, I stared at my legs and whispered, “I am scared.”
    “I know.” Kneeling by the side of the wide bed, he kissed my bare ankle gently. “You shouldn’t be though.”
    It should have comforted me to finally have his tenderness but it didn’t. It only illustrated how upside-down my world had become. Especially because I wished I could climb onto his lap and have him stroke my hair.
    “Where are we?”
    Damian’s immediate answer didn’t quite penetrate my shock and confusion. “My country house.”
    “Your country house.”
    “Yes. We’re on over seven thousand acres and the nearest neighbor is a little over fourteen minutes by car.”
    The threat was implicit. “There’s no one else here?”
    “No. It’s just you and me, Risa.”
    I looked around, taking in the sumptuous bedding and accompanying décor with a flat gaze. “I didn’t know IT directors made so much money. Unless you won the lottery?”
    “The statistical probability of winning the lottery is about 1 in 175 million. I have a better chance of getting hit by lightning.”
    Once I would’ve smiled and dared to call him a nerd. Which might or might not have caused me to end up facedown over Damian’s