The Sweetest Temptation
Chapter 208: Changed everything

Chapter 208: Changed everything

Beatrix paced across her apartment, her father and brothers had been calling her nonstop since she moved out of the apartment to live with Rhys. She didn’t know how to tell them that she was back with him. She knew they would definitely not agree with this.

It’s been three months now and she hasn’t heard from Damien. Everything she knew about him was through the media but his face was never shown. Him acquiring companies and starting new projects. From the last conversation with Rhys, he had told her he was fighting with the Russians. Alina’s father was creating a lot of problems for him.

It seems he had won the fight against his enemies. Good for him. She raked her fingers through her hair.

She was happy with Rhys but it felt like something was missing. She missed Damien. She was angry with him but she just couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Was he thinking about her? Did he miss her? Has he moved on? Did he really love her? So many questions with no answers.

She hasn’t even spoken to her father or her brothers about the situation. Beatrix groans and drops into one of her plush reading chairs. Rubbing over her forehead, she tried to calm the hurricane of emotions laying waste to her train of thought.

Her phone buzzed, but before Beatrix could do more than grab it, a heavy knocking on her door distracted her. She stood and slowly crossed the space to her front foyer. Growing up as a child in a mafia family meant never trusting someone who knocked. Surprise visits were rarely a welcome guest, after all.

Also Rhys had left the morning and hadn’t informed her of anyone visiting them.

"Hello?" She asked the heavy front door, not sure if her voice would carry.

"Please let me in, Beatrix," a familiar, rough voice answered.

"D—Damien?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"Yes ."

Beatrix’s heart leapt into her throat. She’d already had a long talk with Rhys about everything and after that grueling conversation, she’d found the space to forgive him. Damien was a different beast, twice as dangerous, commanding, just as a mafia leader should have been.

Taking a slow breath, she gripped the lock and turned it slowly. Before she could actually open the door, Damien pushed. Beatrix’s lips parted as she took in his new face. She knew he’d been in an accident, but this was an entirely new man in front of her.

Damien had the same build, the same voice but the face was new. This wasn’t the man she’d known. Stumbling back, she reached for something, but the man shut the door, locked it, and stood there with his hands clasped in front of him.

"We need to talk, Beatrix," he stated.

"You ..." She struggled with the warm, sure voice she’d come to love as it came out of the stranger in front of her. "You sure you’re Damien?"

He inclined his head once, a very him gesture that silenced her.

His face was disfigured the last time she saw him. It seems he had surgery. But when? Is that why she hadn’t heard from him?

"We have much to talk about and I don’t want to be misunderstood. I know Rhys and you have reconciled. I’m glad, but I was held by ... business."

Beatrix nodded. "Rhys explained that."

"Internal issues must be dealt with immediately to avoid further issues resulting in more serious accidents," he said evenly.

"Of course," Beatrix whispered, not sure what else to say. She took a few steps back, walking to the sitting room before Damien caught up. She turned around and shook her head. "I’ve already heard everything. Rhys I understand. After what he went through, how can I possibly understand your side of this? How can I believe that you didn’t know better?"

He sighed, but his eyes shone with hurt. Beatrix wanted to shove him, to make him hurt the same way she hurt. Instead, she hugged herself and shook her head, she didn’t want to cry again.

"Can I explain?"

"Of course, explain, defend yourself, tell me how revenge turned your head in my direction. Tell me how my feelings, my heart doesn’t matter because you wanted to hurt my father by using me," she demanded, her voice breaking on the last word.

Damien took one sure step forward, reaching out for Beatrix. She didn’t move towards him at all, just stood there. Damien’s hand dropped to his side. He was confident in everything he did. One little doubt could bring everything crashing around him, could have deadly consequences for himself and those he cared about. A life built upon knowing the right answer constantly didn’t matter here or now.

"I will always support my brother. Knowing what happened to him, believing your father was the cause, it was enough to make me approach you," Damien explained slowly, making sure that every word mattered.

Beatrix stepped back, but her expression didn’t change. Her flushed cheek, red nose, the tremble in her lips, all of it broke Damien’s heart, kept him from focusing on all the logic he’d perfected on the way over.

"Revenge wasn’t the reason I stayed, Beatrix. It was in my mind yes, I wanted your father to hurt because I believed he’d kidnapped and abused my brother. Killing him was obviously not an option, but making him feel the same agony, making him panic and worry constantly, that ... that was what started our relationship, not what continued it," Damien insisted.

"What does that mean?" She retorted. "That the first kiss was to get me under your spell to hurt me later and hurt him? When did it flip, huh? And how can I trust you when our entire history is based on a lie!"

Damien sighed heavily. "I want your forgiveness, but I know I must earn it. I won’t do that by explaining how backwards my thinking was when we started. I can tell you that that first kiss changed everything. You changed everything."

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