Page 41 of Hard Rock Heat

"His job keeps him so busy, though. It may take some time to coordinate our schedules," I said, making up an excuse on thefly.

She nodded. "Just let me know when and where, and we'll be there." She sat up straighter on her chair, smile returning. "Maybe we can invite Damon along and make it a double date?" she said, only half-teasing.

"That would be a world of no," I said firmly. "I don't even want to be in the same room ashim."

"That's going to make planning your event kind ofhard."

"He's the one who keeps playing games. I'm all for keeping itprofessional."

"Have you told him that directly?" sheasked.

"Well," I hedged, thinking about my offer, or ultimatum, or whatever you wanted to call it. I'd as good as told him I was interested in him. I just had certain caveats. "Sortof."

"If you really want him to back off, just tellhim."

Hope's advice sounded perfectly reasonable. It was true that the moment I'd said stop that day in my office, Damon had immediately halted. But then I'd told him to ask meout.

"I suppose I might be giving him mixed signals," I said grudgingly. "It'sjust…"

"You like him," she saidsimply.

"He's an ass," I saidautomatically.

"You're not exactly a ray of sunshine yourself," she pointed out. Hope reached out across the table and took my hand. "There's two things I think could happen," she continued. "One, you get together and bring out the worst in each other. Two, you get together and bring out the best in eachother."

"Damon's idea ofgetting togetheris a quick hump anddump."

Hope let out a small sound of understanding. "He's not really the commitmenttype."

I snorted. "Gee, really? I hadn'tnoticed."

"I don't think he would still be pursuing you if he wasn't interested in you for real," Hope said. "He's got a million girls to choose from. If he just wanted a quick lay, he could snap his fingers and have a girl at his door withinminutes."

I grimaced. That was exactly what Damon had said. And that was exactly what had pissed meoff.

Then again, he'd also admitted that dating wouldn't be a horrible idea. It wasn't the enthusiastic response I would have liked, but he hadn't dismissed it out ofhand.

Maybe I had been a bit too hasty in gettingupset.

"Cassie's throwing a welcome home party for August," Hope told me again. "Damon's going to be there. Why don't you make anappearance?"

I hesitated. I'd resolved to ignore Damon except when absolutely necessary for myjob.

"At least do it for me," she cajoled. "I told you. He's been acting different lately. He's a pain to be around. Talk it out and settle things once and for all. You do have to work together, afterall."

"If he says one more thing to piss meoff—"

"If he's a jerk, I'll kick him out myself," Hope assuredme.

I gave in with a wearynod.

I couldn't keep agonizing over this. It was distracting. I hateddistractions.

One way or another, I was going to resolve things with Damon, even if it meant throwing him out on hisass.

Chapter Thirteen

Iwas neverone to be shy at parties. My job was to mingle with strangers, after all. But this was different. This crowd wasn't full of professional clients or business people or other corporate drones. This was a wild mishmash of leather, eyeliner and crazy hair. Most of the guests had dressed down into casual clothing, but even casual for rock stars was wilder than standard jeans and t-shirts. I had to admit, it was a littleintimidating.