Page 14 of Hard Rock Heat

"Hey, you'll get no judgment from me. I've gotten up to all kinds of weird shit. Once Ieven—"

"Stop talking." I clamped my hands over my ears so I couldn't hear what he was saying. His mouth continued moving. "I don't want toknow."

Damon pulled up to the entrance of my apartmentbuilding.

"—with my tongue," he finished saying just as I lowered my hands from myears.

I faked a shudder. "I think I just got scarred for life, and I didn't even hear the wholething."

"Want to me repeatit?"

"No." I opened the car door and swung my legs out first. "Good night Damon." Just before I closed the door behind me, I turned back. "Thanks for the ridehome."

He leaned over the seats to wave me off. "Anytime, sweetness." His eyes were dark in the shadowed interior of the car, but the teasing glint still made my heart thump madly in mychest.

I closed the door and watched him pullaway.

Just what exactly had he done with histongue?

Cheeks flushing, I hurried inside my building and took a long, coldshower.

Chapter Four

I'd plannedmy work schedule around the event, making sure I had two days off afterward to recuperate. I spent it mostly in my pajamas watching trashy reality television, the best way tounwind.

When I finally made it back into the office, my boss ambushedme.

"I need you to clear your schedule this afternoon," Martha said. "We have a last minutemeeting."

"You know how much I hate those," I said. "I need time to prepare." Not to mention, I had about a million things to take care of after my two daysoff.

"We have a potential new client and they requested you specifically," my boss said. "This is a big one, Faith. Moneyandprestige."

"Me? Why?" I'd always been good at my job, but I didn't have a high profile position. I always worked in the background. My boss was the face of our company, notme.

Martha just pointed her pen at my face. "Be in boardroom C at three. Our client is anxious to talk to you about a new venture." Her eyes shined with triumph. "This could be the in we've been lookingfor."

"In?" Before I could ask further questions, Martha handed me a stack ofpapers.

I swung by my senior intern's desk and dropped off the heavy stack, with instructions to go through the anonymous attendee feedback we'd collected from the last event. What was the point of interns if you couldn't make them do menial dataentry?

Once at my desk, I tackled two days worth of emails. I'd already responded to most of them — even on my days off I was never really "off" — but there were a dozen or so that needed a more thoroughresponse.

I spent the morning and most of the afternoon plowing through my inbox, working through lunch. Before I knew it, three o'clock had arrived. Gathering my laptop, I made my way to the boardroom. Despite my hatred of surprise meetings, I plastered a welcoming smile on my face and walked through thedoor.

I stoppedcold.

"What are you doing here?" My tone came out far colder than it should have when speaking with someone who could bring new work to my company. I couldn't help it. My mouth unconsciously twisted into afrown.

Damon stood in the middle of the room. With tailored black slacks and a crisp white collared shirt, I would have taken him for a regular client dressed in businesscasual.

He turned to greet me, his lips tilted into asmirk.

"Nice to see you too,Faith."

At least he hadn't called me sweetheart or any other of his demeaningnicknames.

He held out his hand for a handshake. I stared at it. He waited patiently. I considered refusing altogether. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my boss wore a look of alarm. Giving up, I went in for ashake.