"She wants to move in together, which is the next step in the relationship, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that just yet." Damon picked up his glass and lifted it, trying to get the server's attention.
"You proposed. I'm pretty sure you don't get to not be ready for anything. Next steps are blown out of the fucking water thanks to the ring you gave her."
"What's with the tone, Ben? You don't even know her." Damon leaned forward a little as aggression pumped through his center.
"Hey. I'm just worried about you." Ben leaned back and lifted his hands in a show of surrender. "You know I'd support you in any crazy, fucked up adventure you wanted to go on, but this... it's nuts. Period."
"I agree, but it is what it is." Damon shrugged and opened the laptop. He'd proposed too soon, but like any great opportunist, he wasn't willing to let go of the one that would eventually become the right partner for his lifestyle. She was everything he wanted and then some. She'd grow into the rest, and most likely mold him into the man she wanted him to be. It would just take time and a whole lot of fucking frictions from what he could tell.
"It's not what it is. This is marriage. It's a really big deal." Ben lifted his hands again. "I know, I'm just saying."
"Well, don't. I'm fine. We're not moving in together for a while. We both need to grow into our relationship a little more. I'm happy with the moves I've made. I love her."
"Do you, or are you infatuated with her."
"Is there a difference?" Damon chuckled. "You're drunk and emotional. Stop projecting that sappy love shit on me. Bethany and I are good together, and everything is going to work out perfectly."
"How do you know?"
"Because I'll force it to."
"Even if that upsets her? Women don't like that alpha male shit too long. It's good in the beginning, but then you better start softening."
"Not happening." Damon clicked a few buttons. "Go get some sleep and leave me in peace. My relationship with Bethany is great."
"Where is she?"
"In the room." He glanced up. "Why?"
"I'm pretty sure that's her getting into that cab." Ben pointed out the window as Damon's heart almost stopped in his chest.
"What the fuck." He slipped out of the booth and took his phone with him. The cab was gone by the time he walked out of the hotel.
A valet turned toward him and smiled. "Need me to get your car for you, Sir?"
"No. Where was that girl headed?"
"Um... I don't know." He turned back toward Damon with an odd expression.
"Right. Of course you don't." He turned and walked down the long sidewalk that led toward the parking lot as he called her.
"Hey." Her voice was thick as if she'd been crying.
"Where are you going? It's fucking eleven o'clock in a big city."
"I'm getting some Tums. My stomach is killing me and they don't-"
"Why didn't you text me to get them."
"Because you were busy." Her bark was worse than her bite.
He pulled the phone from his ear and let out a long sigh. She didn't see him as anything more than an asshole. Otherwise, she would have come down and asked him to go with her, or for her.
"Be careful. I'll see you when you get back. Stop by the bar and let me know you're safe."
"Right. Will do, boss." The phone went dead.
A growl left him that had an elderly couple moving to the other side of the sidewalk. Why did women have to be so damn sensitive?
Ben walked out of the hotel. "Everything okay?"
Damon slipped his facade into place. "It's great. She's just running to the store."
"Ah. All right, boss. See you in the morning. Good talk."
Ben turned and walked back inside as Damon lifted his face toward the sky and tried not to condemn her to an ass-chewing when she got back. Why in the world she would leave the hotel without telling him was a mystery.
"She's an independent, strong woman. It's one of the many things you love about her," he huffed as if combating his own thoughts. "You do. You love her. Period."
Chapter 14
Bethany
He wasn't in the room the night before when she got back, and she didn't have the desire to go after him. A sadness settled on her that still held her tightly as she woke Saturday morning. The text from Ben she'd failed to see the night before showed that the team decided to meet up at six that morning. It was almost eight by the time she woke up.
Damon wasn't anywhere to be found, but his suitcase was open, and the smell of his skin was on the bed next to her. She got dressed quickly and called Ben as she walked from the room. Her issues with Damon would have to be solved later that evening when she could get him alone for a heart-to-heart. Hopefully kissing and making up would be a part of it, but nothing was happening in the bedroom until she got him to come to the table on why he was being such an unbearable ass.
"Good luck," she muttered as Ben picked up the phone.
"Hey, Bethany. Sorry about the late text. No worries about not making the six o'clock pow-wow, it was a different team anyway."
"I feel like crap for not making it. I fell asleep early. My stomach was killing me."
"Yeah, Damon told me."
"Is he down there with you guys?"
"No, and most of the team has already headed over to Zarpeth's main office. I was cleaning up a few things. You want to meet me downstairs and we can take a cab together?"
"That sounds great. I need to get a coffee."
"There's a shop at the bottom of the client's building. It's a nice underground food court thing."
"I'll be downstairs in ten minutes." She jogged down the stairs, not paying a bit of attention to her heels. She'd learned to run in just about anything during college seeing that being late was something she was good at. She'd gotten better over the last few years, but the issue still seemed to linger.
She checked her phone to see if Damon left her a message and found nothing. A text from Jake said that he'd been to the doctor and he was healing nicely. She texted back quickly congratulating him as her chest constricted painfully. Why hadn't Damon asked about her stomach, or commented on leaving early?
He was pulling back, and didn't seem to care that she had no choice but to notice.
She swallowed her emotions and walked out of the stairwell to find Ben standing near the door. The dark purple blouse she had on accented her grey skirt and jacket well, leaving her to feel professional and well put together. Too bad her insides didn't reflect all that confidence.
"You look pretty today. You sleep well?" Ben asked as he moved up beside her.
"Thanks. I actually slept well once I fell asleep." She forced a calm expression on her face and tried to hold back the tears that kept threatening to blur her gaze. She needed an hour to let herself go before facing a room full of strangers that were supposed to be her colleagues over the next few months.
It was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine.
"You're going to like this team. Some of the guys have been slacking off a little, so expect some tension when you walk into the room. Damon's going to come in and talk to the team at nine. He's pissed about some of the things that have slipped through the cracks, and rightly so. It's going to get ugly before it gets better," Ben chuckled and got into the back of the cab.
"Awesome," Bethany muttered and got in beside him, not at all in the mood to make small talk with the portly senior. He was a good guy, but a close friend of Damon's. There was nothing she could say that wouldn't make its way back to her wayward fiancé.
"Did you get to meet the new Senior Manager on the job? Damon hired her this last week. Old friend of his that Kent really likes a lot."
An old friend of his from when?
"No, but it's been a long week. You know I started my master's program on top of everything else." She stifled the need to pepper Ben with questions. She'd find out what she could from observation and then hit Damon up for the rest of the info later that night.
"I did know that. I'm not sure how you're doing it, but you know I'm here if you need anything, right?"
"Yeah. Thanks for that." She leaned back and closed her eyes, hoping to shut down the conversation. Ben started to hum something softly under his breath and didn't say another word until he held the door for her at the large high rise in downtown.
*
"Let's just start by saying that I'm disappointed." Damon glanced around the oval table they sat at.
Bethany had yet to get over the shock of having Philip on the team and seated next to her. They hadn't had more than a minute to say hi to each other before Damon walked into the quaint conference room and caused the mood to shift dramatically.
The pretty blond across the table was new to her, and had to be Damon's childhood friend, who scary enough looked like a softer version of his ex, Christa. Sickness rolled through Bethany's stomach as she tried to keep her concentration on Damon. There was no reason to let his words smack her around seeing that she wasn't part of the team that had failed to do their job well.