Entice Me (Stark Trilogy #3.11)(25)

I’ll know soon enough, I realize, because Damien has his key out and he’s swiping the lock. I hear the click, see him push down the handle.

Then the door is opening and we step into the darkened room. I hear Damien’s surprised, “hmm,” because we never leave the blinds down or the light off, but before he can think too much about it, I reach for the switch.

The room lights up, and at the same time, smiling faces appear from all over the massive living area, a chorus of “Surprise!” ringing out, the word still echoing when Ronnie bolts pellmell toward Damien.

“Were you surprised, Uncle Damie? Were you? Were you?”

“I sure was, Monkey,” he says, his expression something I don’t usually see on Damien’s face as he looks out over the crowd—he looks not only surprised, but humbled.

With a quick grin in my direction, he swings Ronnie up onto his hip, then steps further into the room to greet the dozens of guests who’ve helped manage to pull this off. Syl and Jackson, Evelyn and Charles, Carmela and Wyatt, Jamie and Ryan. And more. Folks from work like Preston and Lisa and Rachel, new friends like Cass and Siobhan, and Dallas and Jane, and on and on and on.

Soon enough, the guests disperse—some in the living room, some in the kitchen, most going up to the rooftop. I’m heading over to the bar to make Damien and I drinks, when I see Evelyn pull him into a warm, maternal hug. “Your wife pulled off a doozy.”

Damien laughs and swings his arm affectionately around her shoulder as he turns to took at me. “She did. But I know she had help. So thank you.”

“Anything for you, kiddo. You know that.”

He presses a kiss to her cheek. “Yes,” he says, “I do.”

I’ve just handed Damien his drink when Dallas and Jane approach with Noah Carter and Lyle Tarpin. Dallas is one of the investors in The Resort at Cortez, and his scandalous romance with Jane filled the tabloids not that long ago. “Happy birthday, buddy,” Dallas says. “We appreciate the invite. Of course, you need to be nice to me if you want to make up for stealing away one of my best men,” he adds, glancing at Noah, the tech genius that Damien’s been recruiting.

Noah holds up his hands. “What can I say?” he says. “I need more excitement in my life.”

The men laugh, and Jane bites back a smile, though I don’t get the joke at all. Then again, I’ve always known there’s more to Dallas Sykes than meets the eye.

“How’s the movie going?” Damien asks, turning to Jane in what may be a ploy to change the subject.

“Really well,” she says, waving at Lyle Tarpin, who sees her and comes over to join us. “Lyle is amazing in it. You and Nikki are coming to the premiere, right?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Damien promises as Jamie comes up beside me and elbows me in the waist.

I turn to her and she cocks her head toward Lyle. I bite back the urge to roll my eyes, then introduce them. “I won’t talk business here,” Jamie says after they’ve exchanged pleasantries. She flashes her brightest on-camera smile. “But maybe tomorrow we could schedule an interview?”

Fortunately, Lyle only looks amused as Jamie leads him off toward the bar.

“Ambition in motion,” I say to Jane, who laughs.

We chat a bit more, then continue to move through the crowd. Even Edward is here, and Damien pats him on the back jovially when the driver offers his birthday wishes.

Finally, Sylvia and Jackson come over with Ronnie bouncing beside them. “We let her stay up a bit longer than planned. But now she insists on giving you a birthday kiss before Stella takes her up to bed,” Sylvia says.

“I think that can be arranged,” Damien says, crouching down so that Ronnie can throw her arms around him and plant a big, wet kiss on his cheek.

“I love you, Uncle Damie.”

“Love you, too, squirt.”

She waves enthusiastically as her dad carries her over to their nanny. And once they’re out of sight, Damien pulls me close, his arm around my waist as he looks out over the crowd that fills this enormous room.

“Thank you.”

“You already said that,” I point out.

“It deserves saying again. Thank you,” he repeats, then bends his head to kiss me. “This really is amazing.”

And as I look around at this room of colleagues and friends—of people who rearranged plans and came to Santa Barbara on such short notice to help us celebrate—I have to give myself a mental pat on the back, because I agree.

It really is amazing.

“That’s everybody,” I say as we shut the door behind Jamie, Ryan, and Wyatt. It’s almost two in the morning, which considering we’d started at six, is a sign of remarkable success. Then again, I think the laughter-filled room, the clusters of folks chatting in corners, and the liberal flowing of alcohol were also good indicators.

But there’s really only one person whose opinion counts to me. “Did you have a good time tonight?” I ask Damien.

“Did I have a good time?” he repeats. “Come here.” He takes my hands and pulls me to him, then closes his mouth hard over mine. He takes a step forward, forcing me against the wall, and I have no time to think as he deepens the kiss. His lips teasing mine, his tongue making me melt.

As his mouth claims me, his hands rise up over the thin knit of my simple sheath dress, moving from my hips to my breasts with the kind of slow, intimate purpose that is making me lose my mind. He cups my breasts roughly, that wildness juxtaposed against a string of sweet kisses that he trails down my neck with such slow and intimate precision that by the time he reaches my collarbone, I am like a wild thing, writhing against him, wanting more and more. Hell, wanting everything.