For the first time, she sounded a little bit anxious.

  “No,” I answered in a strangled tone. “I got it.”

  No matter how much I wanted her to jerk down my boxer briefs and greet my painfully erect cock, I knew I was in no position to perform, and the last thing I wanted to give her was a lackluster shag.

  She deserved my complete and undivided attention when I drove her into her first screaming orgasm, and every time I touched her after that as well.

  Nicole was a woman a guy took his time with, so he could savor every strangled cry that he could drag from those plump, succulent lips of hers.

  Okay, not some guy. Me. Just…me. I never wanted to imagine her with anybody else but me.

  Ever.

  “I’ll just wait right outside,” she said hesitantly. “Just call if you need me.”

  I reached for her hand as she started to go. “Nicole,” I said huskily as I wrapped my hand around hers. “Thanks.”

  I didn’t want her to feel awkward because she’d been trying to help my sorry ass.

  I lifted her hand and kissed it gratefully before I let go.

  “Take your time,” she insisted. “Try to relax those muscles.”

  I nodded, and she turned and left.

  I shucked my boxer briefs and stepped into the steamy shower. I’d just been completely humbled by a woman who’d been driven by the desire to do nothing more than help me ease the pain of a horrible headache.

  CHAPTER 19

  Nicole

  ONCE DAMIAN WAS asleep, I made use of the ridiculously-large-for-being-on-an-airplane shower, and changed into a pair of sleep shorts and a lightweight cotton T-shirt.

  I was going to stay with him in case he needed anything, and truthfully, I was pretty tired myself.

  I hadn’t slept much the night before. After I’d gotten everything packed, I’d still been restless when I’d finally hit my bed.

  I left a dim nightlight on in the bathroom in case he needed to get up, and then opened the bathroom door, careful not to make enough noise to rouse Damian.

  The bedroom was completely dark, but my heart skittered as I remembered exactly what Damian had looked like right before he’d hit that king-sized mattress.

  Had I really stripped him down to a pair of boxer briefs without thinking about the wisdom of getting a man like Damian naked?

  Yes, I had, and I’d do it all over again if necessary.

  My heart had ached at the vulnerability I’d glimpsed in his eyes before he’d closed them in the cabin.

  For once, he hadn’t been issuing orders, or hiding behind a haughty billionaire façade.

  He’d simply been a guy in pain, one who obviously suffered horribly from debilitating stress headaches, and tried to carry on like nothing was wrong.

  I’d recognized the signs immediately because my mother had been plagued by the same symptoms when all of her responsibilities of being a single mother and the only breadwinner had overwhelmed her.

  Damian’s normally warm, naturally tanned skin had been so ashen that it was a little bit scary, and lines of tension and pain had marred his strong facial features.

  I’d followed the gut-wrenching instinct to help him, no matter what it took to achieve that.

  So, yeah, after I’d gotten him something to take that would help him a lot more than aspirin, I had dragged him into the bathroom for a hot shower.

  When he’d finally emerged from the master bath, his color had come back, but his exhaustion had still been completely evident, so I’d insisted he sleep.

  Honestly, it kind of pissed me off that Damian had been willing to suffer in silence.

  A bit of a headache, my ass!

  The stubborn man looked like he hadn’t slept in days. Damian Lancaster had reached his breaking point, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

  He was apparently there for everyone in his family, and for all of his employees, but I had to wonder: who in the world was there for Damian Lancaster?

  I straightened my spine. Me. I’ll be there to make sure he takes care of himself.

  If no one else was going to look after the obstinate man, I would. If no one else could see that he wasn’t a robot, and that he occasionally needed to sleep, eat, and take care of himself like any other human, I’d remind him that he wasn’t completely invincible.

  I let out a soft sigh as I replayed what I’d uncovered as I’d stripped the clothes from his massive, drool-worthy body.

  I’d tried not to think about that. I really had. But vulnerable or not, Damian Lancaster nearly naked had been a sight to behold.

  I’d been completely right about the man harboring six-pack abs underneath all of those custom shirts. If my main goal hadn’t been relieving his pain, I’m pretty sure I would have been gobsmacked and salivating like a ravenous animal.

  Damian was simply…beautiful, and there was nothing I’d wanted more than to unwrap the considerably large, hard package that I’d felt beneath my fingers as I’d divested him of his jeans.

  The only thing that had held me back was the fact that he didn’t need me in a sexual way right now.

  He needed peace.

  He needed a defender for what I knew was an exceptionally rare glimpse of the real Damian.

  But, dear God, I had eyes, and there was no way I could see him in all his male hotness, and not have my body react to that.

  Half-naked, Damian Lancaster was the embodiment of any woman’s red-hot fantasies.

  “Nicole,” Damian mumbled, sounding like he was only half awake.

  His voice startled me out of my lurid thoughts. Put your tongue back in your mouth, Nicole.

  Concerned, I quietly approached the bed. “Sleep, Damian,” I said in a hushed voice.

  “So this is what you look like when you let your hair down. Literally. You look like a sexy angel,” he grumbled.

  I suddenly realized that I was standing in the ray of light coming from the bathroom as I reached up to touch my still-damp hair. The blonde curls were spilling over my shoulders.

  I lifted the covers and slipped into the far side of the bed. “You’re hallucinating if you’re comparing me to an angel,” I informed him lightly. “Get some sleep.”

  “You’re too damn far away,” he said hoarsely as he stretched out a powerful arm and pulled me to his side of the bed so easily that I almost forgot that I weighed more than the average female.

  I let out a sigh of contentment as his warmth enveloped me like a heated blanket.

  He wrapped two muscular arms around me as he spooned me, and I snuggled my back against his front.

  God, he smelled so damn amazing, even though I knew that the shower had washed away any remnants of the expensive cologne he might have been wearing.

  His scent was musky, raw, and uniquely Damian.

  My body shivered as I felt the heat of his breath against my neck.

  My core clenched viciously with the primal need to get so much closer to Damian than I was right now, but I let that bodily instinct pass.

  His hands roamed lazily over my body—my belly, my hips, the side of my thighs—and then settled beneath my breasts.

  I wanted to arch back against him like a cat savoring a warm caress, but I forced myself to stay put since I knew Damian was half asleep.

  “This is where you belong, Nicole,” he murmured huskily near my ear. “With me. I think I’ve known that since the moment I saw you. Fuck! You feel so damn good. Smell so damn good. I have you exactly where I want you, and there isn’t a single fucking thing I can do about it right now.”

  I wrapped my arms over his, like I wanted to prevent him from letting me go. “Go to sleep, you silly man,” I scolded. “The only thing I want right now is for you to finally get rested.”

  It wasn’t that Damian wasn’t dangerous, but the threat was temporarily leashed. Rich or not, powerful or not, titled or not…Damian was simply a man. Granted, he was one hell of a male specimen, but he was fallible, which, for me, was unfortunate, because it made him all the more desirable.

  Damian let out a low groan. “Do you really think I can go to sleep with your shapely ass plastered against my painfully hard cock? It’s like hellish torture.”

  I made a halfhearted attempt to escape his hold. “I can move.”

  “Don’t you dare,” he answered in a low growl. “I’ll come find you.”

  “So you’re fond of torture, then?” I teased softly as I settled back against him.

  Damian made me feel like the most desirable female in the world, and it seemed to be bringing out the inner goddess inside me.

  Who knew that I actually had an inner goddess?

  “Apparently, I’ve only recognized that proclivity since I met you,” he rumbled unhappily. “Now, I seem to revel in it.”

  I smiled into the darkness of the room. “You’ll live. Go to sleep.”

  “You’re becoming rather bossy,” he observed.

  “Do you have a problem with that?” I asked lightly. I loved the fact that I was becoming a whole lot bolder about sparring with Damian. Honestly, I was starting to enjoy that kind of freedom with him.

  “Not at all,” he replied. “I rather think I’m starting to like your sassiness.”

  “Were you really attracted to me from the very beginning?” I queried, unable to stop myself from asking.

  I could feel him nod slightly against my hair. “So much so that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that kind of instant attraction, beautiful. I’m generally not the kind of guy who strikes up conversations with a woman I don’t know. I normally work through a commercial flight. I was there to observe what kind of experience my customers were having, after all.”

  How could I really believe that a guy who possibly sought out multiple women for an indulgent orgy was hesitant to talk to a single woman? Yet, I was somehow starting to believe that Damian was normally a no-nonsense businessman who didn’t make his sexual pleasure a priority. At all.

  “So reading my text messages was out of the ordinary for you?”

  “Appalling behavior for me,” he explained. “But I couldn’t stop myself. I had to know why you looked so troubled, sweetheart.”

  “I was a total stranger,” I reminded him.

  “You were no stranger to me,” he replied. “I can’t quite put a finger on why I felt that way, but there it is. You captivated a man who isn’t used to being led around by his balls.”

  “You didn’t seem like a stranger, either,” I confessed. “There was something about you that was familiar, but not. I guess it was my instinct to trust you on the flight. I don’t normally overindulge in alcohol, or spill my life story to anyone I don’t know well. But you were right. I did want someone to talk to when I was all alone on the long plane ride. But if it hadn’t been you sitting next to me, I would have kept my mouth shut. You listened to me, gave me your total attention. I’ve never had a guy who truly listened to me, like what I had to say was important.”

  “Never settle for a man who doesn’t recognize how damn lucky he is to be with you, Nicole,” he demanded.

  “I don’t think any of them ever felt lucky,” I mused, thinking about all the halfhearted men I’d had in my life.

  “Idiots. All of them,” he said irritably.

  I smiled wider. “Because none of them ever gave me a screaming orgasm?”

  “No,” he answered roughly. “Because they had you, and never appreciated what an extraordinary woman you are.”

  My heart ached at his words. “I’m not quite sure how to handle you sometimes,” I admitted. “You see things in me that nobody else ever has, and it’s a little bit scary. I’m not exactly a femme fatale, Damian. I’m not putting myself down, but men like you just aren’t attracted to a woman like me. They date supermodels, A-list actresses, or other wealthy, gorgeous socialites. Not an ordinary woman who owns a small business, and is perfectly happy on a beach somewhere, swilling lattes with her friends.”

  “I’ve dated supermodels,” he said with a masculine sigh. “They can’t enjoy a meal without thinking about every single calorie they put into their mouth. They’re painfully boring, and perpetually unhappy most of the time. Same thing with A-list actresses and the social elite. Appearances matter to most of them, and they don’t really matter to me.”

  “Please, don’t tell me that you don’t care about how people perceive you. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

  “Maybe I just seem to care,” he suggested. “So I can spend more time with you and get you into my bed.”

  My body let go of a small shudder. “I’m already in your bed.”

  “Don’t remind me,” he said with a grunt. “And I’m in no position to give you a good shag.”

  For a moment, I let myself bask in the warmth of Damian’s unexplainable desire to fuck me senseless. “I like the way you want me.”

  “I’m glad you like it, because it’s driving me fucking insane,” he replied grumpily.

  I actually giggled at his self-deprecating tone, and I was a woman who never giggled. “I’m starting to believe you,” I told him, and it was the truth.

  If I took Damian at face value, and assessed everything I knew about him personally, I’d say he was a stuffy, workaholic suit who rarely made time for a woman, and when he did, it was brief, and in between his other obligations.

  Not a single thing I knew about him painted him as some kind of womanizer.

  Damian was finally completely still, and within moments, I could feel his breathing even out, telling me that he’d allowed the sleep he so desperately needed to take him away.

  I was careful as I snuggled back against him, but he seemed to sense the motion, and tightened his hold on me.

  I relaxed my body, and let myself wallow in the pleasure of having my body plastered against his rock-hard chest, stomach, and powerful thighs.

  My body might still need him with a fierceness I could barely contain, but as I drifted off to sleep, my heart was completely content exactly where I rested.

  CHAPTER 20

  Damian

  “ARE YOU READY?” I asked Nicole as we pulled up in the long, circular drive of my mum’s home.

  We’d left the gaggle of reporters at the end of the driveway. They weren’t allowed inside the gate.

  Nicole’s eyes widened. “This is where you live? It looks more like a castle than a home.”

  I lifted my gaze to the impressive stonework of the Lancaster country home, Hollingsworth House.

  To me, it was nothing more than the home I’d grown up in, but I supposed I could understand Nicole’s look of total astonishment.

  For one, the property was enormous, especially by English standards, and probably a bit imposing. Some of the stonework on the front of the home was original, but the entire estate had been added to, fastidiously remodeled and updated over time.

  “It’s been in my family since the seventeenth century,” I explained. “Every generation has put their stamp on it, changed it, or added something, so it’s a hodgepodge of tastes, I’m afraid.”

  “It’s…extraordinary,” she sputtered.

  I grinned as I noticed that Nicole was still gawking out the car window at the house.

  I jumped out of the leather seat of the Phantom, and jogged to Nicole’s side of the car. “Let’s go then,” I said as I took her hand and blocked her view of the large estate.

  If I didn’t get her body in motion, she was likely to spend the entire day staring at my childhood home.

  She nervously smoothed down the red dress she was wearing after she clambered out of the vehicle. “Are you sure that your mother completely understands this plan?”

  Nicole wasn’t the type of woman to shrink from a challenge, and I didn’t like seeing her unsure of herself. “Absolutely. She’s even agreed to host an event. Don’t be nervous. You two will get along fine.”

  She stiffened her spine. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t like I didn’t know that you were ridiculously wealthy. I guess I just wasn’t quite ready to see you in your own environment.”

  “Was I that different in the United States then?” I looked at her curiously as I took her hand. “You look absolutely gorgeous, by the way. Have I told you that?”

  She shot me a small smirk. “You’ve told me at least a dozen times since we got off your jet, but thank you…again.”

  It was a beautiful early afternoon in Surrey, and the sun was glinting off Nicole’s beautiful blonde hair.

  For once, she’d left it unconfined, and it was sexy as hell on her.

  I took a deep breath, incredulous at how much better I felt after a very long, restorative sleep.

  My headache was completely gone for the first time in two years, which I certainly didn’t regret. However, I couldn’t quite seem to forget how damn good Nicole had felt plastered against my body before I’d passed out.

  Unfortunately, I’d slept so long that Nicole had already been awake and dressed before I woke.

  “Are you okay?” she asked as we strolled toward the house. “Is your headache still gone? Your color is so much better than it was yesterday.”

  Never in a million years would I have considered myself the kind of guy who wanted a woman to fuss over him, but bloody hell, Nicole’s concern warmed my heart. “I feel fantastic,” I answered honestly.

  She shot me a genuine smile. “Good. I’m glad your swagger is back.”

  “I don’t swagger, woman.”

  “Oh, you do,” she argued. “I think it’s probably imbedded in your Lancaster DNA, but it’s pretty hot.”

  Well, all right then. If Nicole liked my so-called swagger, then maybe I did have one.

  We climbed the stone steps, and the door opened before I could even ring the bell.

  “Welcome home, Your Grace,” my mother’s elderly steward said in a jovial tone.

  I ignored the accusatory look that Nicole shot at me. I’d never said that nobody used my title. I’d given up on reminding Barnaby that I’d prefer he didn’t use a formal address with me. The older man was in love with tradition, and his family had worked with the Lancasters for generations.