Page 7 of Securing His Obsession

Once Margot was in her car, he walked the short distance to his SUV. He let her pull out of the parking garage before he started the engine.

His mind was all over the show. It had been a fucked-up day, starting with the need to go to Margot when he spied her small SUV upon his arrival. To his aunt turning up and hitting him with a bombshell of an unlikely family inheritance, and him confessing to Margot that he wasn’t okay. To now, when he’d issued a surprise drink invitation.

And at the center of it all was Margot Reid.

It was as though, after seeing her suffer through a panic attack on the weekend, the barriers he’d put up to protect them both the first day she started working with them had finally fallen. No, that wasn’t quite right. The walls had started to lose their strength when she’d been shot and kidnapped with Narelle. The thought of not seeing her every day had cut him deep. But he’d still held himself aloof.

Whatever had changed didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was that the walls were lowered and it was time to move forward. Although, knowing him, he suspected there would be a few false starts and he’d retreat to the place he was comfortable, but if he was aware of doing that, then surely he could stop them before it happened.

Maybe.

Damon shut those thoughts down. There was no point trying to sort everything out now, he was about to have a drink with her. And if he knew himself, he’d be ordering food, so drinks would turn into dinner.

Would that be a bad thing?

No, it wouldn’t. Not for him at least. Whether Margot would want drinks to expand to dinner was another matter altogether.

Conveniently, there was a free spot next to where Margot had parked, so he pulled up beside her. She was standing by her car, checking her phone, unaware of what was going on around her.

He jumped out of his SUV, ready to fire off some sharp words about how dangerous that was, but he swallowed them down. It wouldn’t be a good way to start off their night together.

“Ready?” he asked, when he got to her side.

She popped her phone back in her bag and hitched it a little higher on her shoulder. “Yep.”

Unable to help himself, he rested his hand against her lower back, just the lightest of touches, but a connection, nonetheless.

As predicted, there weren’t many people, so they were able to get a table that was inside, but with all the doors open to the courtyard, it gave the impression they were outside as well.

“What can I get you to drink?” he asked.

“Can I have a glass of sparkling rose, as well as some soda water, please?”

“Coming up.” Damon had expected her to object to his offer and say she could pay for her own drink. He wouldn’t have been offended if she had, but he had to admit, he liked that she was allowing him this.

He placed their orders, and while he waited for the bartender to get them, he picked up a couple of menus. Might as well go on as he meant to. Now that he was with her, he didn’t want their time to be over so quickly.

Damon tucked the laminated cards beneath his arm, as he collected their drinks.

He paused, a few steps away from the table, noting how beautiful she looked. The overhead lights shone down on her head, highlighting the golden tones in her hair. Her foot tapped in time with the song being sung by a woman with a guitar.

Did she know how ethereal she looked? How breathtaking?

He doubted it. There was an innocence about her that he’d taken as a warning to keep away from her. To not draw her into the black depths of the world he worked in. Although, she had first-hand experience of that darkness, which should make her want to run from him.

“Here we go.” He placed her drinks in front of her, and took his seat, setting the menus on the table.

“We ordering food as well?” Her eyebrow arched in surprise.

“I figured we could take a look. Maybe get some starters to snack on if you wanted.”

Damon sat still, his fingers loosely grasping his bottle of beer as she studied him. Did she think he was joking? That he would turn around and tell her he wasn’t serious when she decided on what she wanted?

He didn’t want her thinking that at all.

What was it about this woman that had him second guessing everything he did?

Beneath the table, he jiggled his leg, and a weird sensation pooled in his belly.