Hunger (Damnation Book 1)

Chapter 30 - Happily Right Now

My heels click on the tile as I walk through the office building, delivering some profiles to Beau, Damien's father. My pencil skirt and pretty blouse get me some stares from the clients as I walk past the waiting area as they fill out paperwork. Paperwork I'm going to have to sort through and file.

I knock on his office door and wait to be allowed in. Glancing outside, I see people milling about waiting on buses and cabs. His office is in the middle of Downtown New Orleans and his clients are full of busy business men trying to find girlfriends and wives. Somehow, even though it's only a summer job until Damien and I start Tulane in the fall, I ended up working in an area of love. It's hard to ignore people I know I've seen at Daddy's parties but they generally don't stay once they see me.

"Come in," I hear through the door. I turn the handle and walk in with a smile. Beau, or Buel as he was once known, has been so nice to me. He really does love his son. As a fallen cherub, falling into matchmaking seems any easy job for him.

"Here you go, Mr. Martin," I say with a smile. I turn and give his client a smile and see Grant Harrington, a former client of mine. The smile freezes on my lips and even his perfect mask cracks a little.

"Thank you, Rosa," Beau says, stealing my attention back.

He gives me a questioning look and I tell him, "Your son is here for lunch."

"You two go on ahead. I will meet you after this meeting," he replies and I walk out as calmly as I can.

My breathing is so erratic by the time I find Damien at the reception desk. I try to calm my frantic heart, but it's hard. This is the first former soul of mine to walk through this office. It's never been a surprise to me to see those men here. They wouldn't know how to find their own woman without paying for her in some way. Beau's services are meant for men and women trying to find their forever mate, but not everyone understands that walking through the door. Then to see him here? I was twelve when he got his hooks into me and I had yet to start looking like a woman. I don't think I had any actual curves until closer to my fourteenth birthday.

Even as a kid when I was with him, I knew it was wrong. He would lie to people and say I was his niece, but I couldn't stop loving him. Or at least, what I thought love was at that time. He doesn't need a matchmaker, he needs a jailer, and possibly a castrator.

Damien sees my distress as I walk up. "What's wrong?" he asks pulling me close.

"Old client in your dad's office," I say. "It took me back."

His hands rub my back and help me relax. My breathing slows down and I am finally able to give him a shaky smile. Damien's always so good at pulling me back when my panic gets the better of me.

"Ready for lunch?" he asks.

I nod. "Beau said he'd meet us there."

I grab my purse from my desk drawer in our little office and I take his outstretched hand. I know I will have a nightmare tonight. Grant was cruel and played with my emotions. He had been controlling and demanding. He took and took and took and I kept giving, thinking it had meant something. But now, I have Damien, who does nothing but give. He helps me keep the nightmares at bay. He helps me move forward. He doesn't push me. Everything is at my pace, which at the moment is very slow, but I need to find me. I've never known who I was and I still don't, but now I have the opportunity to find out.