It Hurts When It's True (Affaire de Coeur, #1)

Chapter 18: Take it off

"Terry?" Maggie asked.

"My manager." Damian replied curtly.

"Oh..."

Damian jumped off the couch and combed his reddish hair back with his fingers. At the moment, he could feel an assortment of emotions and among them were frustration and annoyance. He could almost scream out of exasperation from being interrupted.

Running his fingers through his ginger head once again, he suddenly had the desire to resort to expletives. But cursing in front of a lady, especially someone he sort of liked, was a big no-no for him.

Terry, why do you have to be such a cockblock, Damian said to himself.

Looking down at the dark-haired nurse, he once again felt a surge of displeasure from the cessation of what could have been a redeeming moment for the two of them. He had the urge to wring Terry's neck with his hands for barging into his home at a not-so-perfect time.

Damian gazed at the wide-eyed lady seated uncomfortably on his couch. Studying her closely, he noticed how flushed her skin was from his recent advances. Once more, he was taken aback by that look she was wearing on her face, and he realized that it was the exact expression that had been drawing him closer to her.

He agreed that he liked being friends with her, but it did not mean that he was satisfied with "just being friends.' Not so many women had said no to him in the thirty-something years of his existence, and she was not going to be the first. Then again, he was already at the point of admitting that he liked her more than he liked any other woman. Yet a part of him was still egging him on to pursue her because she was quite a conquest.

Finally, he halted his thoughts before they even crossed the boundary of irrationality. And he realized that he should be doing something about Terry before she even explored his residence and find his clandestine treasure in the media room.

Damian lifted the end of his shirt and pulled it off ever slowly. If Maggie's eyes had already been wide then they were not wide enough until he had taken his shirt off. Her mouth opened and closed which was most apparently due to unadulterated astonishment from his salacious display of torso. 

He had the desire to laugh so hard at her expression, but he resigned himself into not doing so so. He was certain that he would get physically harmed by the meek-looking woman if he ever made fun of her innocent reaction. 

"What are you doing?" Maggie spoke, her voice titillatingly breathy.

"Stripping." Damian responded, loosening the top button of his jeans.

"Why?" He noticed the bobbing of her throat.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Maggie's voice had become raspier, which marked her apparent discomfort at his current semi-nude state.