Their gazes caught and held.
‘But you don’t seem to have that problem,’ she said at last. ‘I mean I get the feeling you’d be quite happy to “start something”.’ Her glance was very blue and tinged with irony.
He crossed his arms and studied her thoughtfully. ‘Yes, but, to be perfectly honest, if there is such a thing as...’ he paused as if searching for the right phrase ‘...love ever after, I don’t think it’s going to exist for me.’
Harriet’s eyes widened. ‘Your marriage...’ She trailed off awkwardly.
He raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Isabel?’
‘No. Charlie.’
He looked heavenward. ‘I might have known.’ Then, ‘Well, you probably don’t need me to elaborate.’
‘All he told me was her name—and that he’d got firmly put in his place for merely mentioning it a little while back.’
Damien grimaced. ‘Sounds like Charlie.’
‘Sounds like you, actually.’ A faint smile twisted her lips. ‘So, it left you disillusioned?’
‘It did a lot more damage.’ He looked across the room and his dark eyes were cold. ‘But, yep, it certainly left me unwilling to repeat the experience—I know!’ He raised his hand as Harriet opened her mouth. ‘You’re going to say with another woman it could be different. Perhaps. But not for me. I don’t part easily from my grudges, be they personal or embracing an institution like marriage.’
Something like a shiver ran down Harriet’s spine because she had a feeling his estimation of his character was correct...
‘In a way, we’re a bit alike,’ he said then, drumming his fingers on the table. ‘Too much responsibility at an early age, only it took us differently.’ He paused, looking briefly humorous. ‘You wanted someone to take over; I got too used to being in command to be able to bend at all.’
‘How come?’
He shrugged. ‘I was twenty-two when my father died. And we were about to be taken over so I had to stave that off and get us up and running again. That’s when I made the dicey decision to expand into mining machinery when we’d always concentrated on agriculture and its machinery.
‘Plus,’ he said rather wryly, ‘I think I was born with an “ornery” streak. Arthur agrees with me.’
‘Talking of Arthur,’ Harriet said with a smile, ‘Penny is pregnant.’
Damien grimaced.
‘You don’t approve of her, do you?’
‘I think she manipulates him shamelessly,’ he said dryly, then grinned. ‘He’ll need plenty of support to get through this! He’ll be a nervous wreck.’
Harriet laughed.
Damien put his coffee mug down and simply watched her. Her hair was tied back but becoming wayward as it escaped. Her skin was unbelievably smooth, her hands and wrists slender and elegant, and her eyes were like deep blue velvet and still sparkling with amusement.
He said slowly, with his dark gaze still resting on her, ‘I don’t know how the hell I didn’t see it the first time we met but you’re breathtaking when you laugh.’