Unfortunately, my patience was gone, and all I could think about was getting her naked and shagging her until my body and brain got back to normal.

  Since I really needed more privacy to do that, I knew I had to get her to London.

  Soon.

  Now.

  Today.

  In the next hour or so.

  “I’ll have to head out after your gala, Mum,” Leo informed my mother as we all sat around the breakfast table.

  “So soon?” Nicole asked. She looked seriously disappointed as she gazed at my youngest brother.

  Leo smiled at her, and I suddenly felt the intense desire to make him go away right now.

  I was under no illusion that Leo was up to anything with Nicole when he piled on the charm. No, the bastard was simply trying to get a rise out of me.

  And damn him, it was working.

  “I want to see if I can work with Colombian officials to get a breeding pair of Rio Apaporis caiman that were recently discovered in the Amazon. They were thought to be extinct, but an American team recently found a population there. I’d like to put them in my conservation breeding program,” Leo explained, still aiming that one-thousand-watt grin at Nicole from across the table.

  “So I guess we’ll be saying goodbye,” Nicole answered, sounding highly disappointed.

  Leo shook his head. “Never goodbye. I’m negotiating on some land near Palm Desert in California. I want to start another sanctuary and breeding program in the United States. We can meet up there. I’ll get your number before I go.”

  I hated the way Nicole’s eyes lit up as she said, “I’d love that. I know the one here is very successful.”

  Over my dead body are the two of them going to meet up…alone.

  Brother or not, I’d have to kill the little shit.

  I shot Leo my that’s-never-happening-not-even-in-your-fucking-wildest-dreams frown.

  He completely ignored it. “It has been really successful so far.”

  I ground my teeth as Leo proceeded to inform Nicole all about his breeding facility up north, close to the Welsh border, that had turned into one of the foremost sanctuaries in the world for saving very endangered species. Because Leo wanted his legacy to go on, well after he was gone, he’d turned it into a teaching zoo of sorts, so it could sustain itself in the future with visitors’ fees and donations.

  Even though it was a long trip for some people, those exclusive tickets to see such an array of endangered species were highly coveted.

  “Wow,” Nicole said with awe dripping from her voice. “You must be incredibly proud of everything you’ve accomplished, Leo. Will I be able to get tickets once you launch your facility in the US?”

  He shot her a mischievous grin that I was dying to punch off his pretty face. “You won’t need tickets,” he said adamantly. “You’ll come when I’m there, and I’ll personally show you around.”

  “I’d love to bring my friend, Macy,” Nicole mused. “She’s an exotic and large animal vet. Conservation is in her blood. She’d love to tour a place like that.”

  “Bring all of your friends,” Leo said magnanimously. “Any friend of yours will be a friend of mine.”

  I rolled my eyes. Leo wasn’t exactly social. Yeah, he could talk to donors when he needed to do it, but he liked socializing about as much as I did. Most of the time, he got along much better with animals than humans.

  “So how long will you be gone?” Nicole questioned as she spread marmalade on her toast.

  Leo shrugged. “As long as it takes. We thought we’d lost that species, so it will be worth every bit of red tape we need to cut through to try to recover that population.”

  “Be careful,” Nicole warned. “Isn’t that kind of a dangerous area?”

  Jesus Christ! If I had to live through one more second of Nicole turning her gentle concern toward my little brother, I was going to lose it.

  Leo looked at me with a covert glance, and grinned like a damn idiot.

  The tosser was enjoying my discomfort way too much.

  How he knew that flirting with Nicole would make me into a raving maniac I didn’t know, but he knew.

  “It’s not the safest place to be,” he confessed. “But I’ve been through worse. Of course, if you’re going to worry, I’ll make sure to check in with you.”

  “Not. Necessary.” I pushed out those two words through clenched teeth. “Nicole and I will be in touch. I’ll keep her posted.”

  Wanker!

  Leo shrugged. “I thought all this cuddling up to each other was all show. Certainly, Nicole is going to want to get back to her own life in the States, find herself a nice guy.”

  We were always given our privacy during our meal, so Leo had dropped all pretense of pretending that Nicole and I were really an item.

  “Like hell she will,” I growled.

  Fuck! I was done pretending that my life would ever be normal again if Nicole wasn’t in it.

  I was done pretending that I didn’t want to shag the woman until we were both panting and spent.

  I was done pretending that if Nicole and I spent a week together in sexual bliss, that it would change the obsessive way I cared about her and restore my ass to normal again.

  And I was completely done pretending she wasn’t mine.

  Nicole Ashworth was irrevocably mine. She’d sealed the deal on that soon after we’d met. She just didn’t know it yet.

  Maybe I’d always subconsciously known that, too, but I hadn’t really admitted it to my conscious mind until she’d so tenderly and selflessly taken care of my sorry ass on my jet last week.

  Nicole had decided her fate when she’d decided to care about the man—not the billionaire or duke—when I’d had a very rare moment of vulnerability.

  “What was that?” Leo inquired politely. Too politely.

  “Boys,” my mum said in a warning tone, shooting us both a speaking glance as she said it. “We’re enjoying a meal here.”

  I looked back at her with a frown.

  Leo had been deliberately antagonizing me, but she obviously didn’t want to acknowledge that. In fact, I was highly suspicious of the small smile she had on her lips.

  I was only able to relax again once Mum had drawn Nicole into a conversation about what she wanted to see while she was in London.

  “Everything,” Nicole said with a sigh.

  My mother smiled fondly at Nicole. “Do you like the theater, dear?”

  Nicole’s eyes sparkled like precious gems. “I love it. Especially musicals. I get to Los Angeles as often as possible to see the latest shows. I saw that The Phantom of the Opera is playing at Her Majesty’s Theatre, but I’m here to work, and I doubt I can get a ticket at the last minute.”

  Dammit! Why hadn’t I ever asked if she’d like to see something in London? “I’ll get tickets for Friday night,” I said, before my mother could offer to procure them. “You’re done working, Nicole. We’ve accomplished our mission, and it certainly won’t hurt to be spotted around town with me.”

  She turned her head and made me the sole recipient of her gorgeous, joy-filled smile.

  I went from rage-filled savage beast to feeling like the luckiest bastard on earth in less than two seconds.

  Being responsible for making this woman smile just felt like complete euphoria. I couldn’t explain that if I wanted to, and I really didn’t want to.

  I felt like her damn hero for offering her something as simple as bloody theater tickets.

  At some point, Nicole Ashworth had decided to move me from wanker to the good guy category. Maybe I didn’t deserve it, but I was going to try my best to be worthy of it.

  “Thank you, Damian,” Nicole responded breathlessly. “I’ve always wanted to see that show.”

  Of course she did. It was a romantic tragedy. There hadn’t been a dry-eyed female in the theater when I’d seen it years ago. I’d never quite understood why since Christine was rescued from the Phantom, and all was well in the end when she sailed away with Raoul.

  Good guy wins.

  Bad guy loses.

  The end.

  What in the hell was there to cry about?

  Thank God there had been a lot of decent music in between the beginning and the end.

  “It’s really short notice,” Nicole said anxiously. “Do you think we can still get tickets?”

  “I have some connections.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Of course you do. If everyone will excuse me, I’d better go make sure everything is packed.” She looked at Leo. “I won’t give you a goodbye hug right now since I’ll be seeing you at Bella’s gala.”

  “I’ll take one anyway,” Leo teased.

  “Ignore him. Go on,” I encouraged Nicole as I stood.

  Nicole flitted out of the dining room, apparently eager to start her London adventure.

  I sat back down. “What in the hell was that all about?” I asked my little brother in a furious tone once I knew Nicole was out of hearing range.

  He lifted his brows. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Flirting with Nicole. It’s not…normal for you.” At the age of thirty-one, I highly doubted that Leo was a virgin, but I’d never seen him personally take much interest in any particular female. He’d been much too busy trying to save the world.

  He shrugged. “I like her. Is that a problem for you? It’s not like the two of you are in a real relationship.”

  “It’s a problem,” I answered. “If you touch her with anything less than brotherly intentions, I’ll have to kill you, Leo. You won’t be around to save a single threatened species in the future. Think about that before you do it.”

  My little brother’s fist slammed down on the table. “I knew it! You’re crazy about her. I could see it, even if you don’t really want anybody to know. Why in the hell don’t you just tell her? It’s pretty obvious she adores you, too. Tell her the truth, Damian. Tell her about Dylan. If you do it yourself, and come clean, it will go over a lot better than her finding out from somebody else.”

  My gaze shot to my brother’s smiling face. He had been needling me just to get me to admit how much I wanted this show with Nicole to be real.

  My indignation and anger flowed out of my body. No matter how misguided Leo’s actions might be, he had been trying to find out how I really felt. “Don’t do that again,” I advised him. “I’m likely to lay you out on the ground, with that pretty face of yours completely rearranged.”

  Unlike Dylan and me, Leo was a blond-haired, blue-eyed male with perfect features. His muscular build was all from physical labor, not from grueling workouts in a gym. Women stopped and stared when Leo walked by them, but to give him credit, my brother never seemed to notice. He’d always lacked the vanity that usually came with a perfect genetic makeup like his.

  “She obviously makes you happy, Damian. You don’t know how glad I am to see you a little lighter. Nicole’s an amazing woman. Why don’t you make this real?”

  My expression was grim as I asked, “How do you propose I do that? She thinks I’m a workaholic man-whore.”

  “She’s got the workaholic part of it right,” Leo agreed. “But you seem to be managing that well right now by actually utilizing all those executives you have. Just tell her about Dylan.”

  Leo had no way of knowing that I’d actually considered telling Nicole the truth. Maybe she didn’t completely trust me, but I fucking trusted her, whether I had her signature on a nondisclosure…or not. The woman didn’t have a vengeful bone in her body, and she’d never intentionally hurt anyone.

  Maybe she’d be angry that I evaded the truth about a lot of things, but I was ready to admit that I’d rather have her mad than hurt. She might even forgive me if I groveled enough, and we could get on with the business of indulging in the earth-shattering sex that was going to occur the moment I could get her naked.

  I finally spoke. “I’d have to trust that she’d keep the secret. The last thing we need, after all the work we’ve done to make people forget about that story, is to have Dylan’s involvement come out now. Everything is just dying down.”

  I still touched base with Dylan every single day. The black cloud over his head wasn’t gone, but he sounded sober. He was actually going to counseling, which I’d insisted on before I’d released a small fortune to his bank account.

  Mum joined the conversation. “Dylan will be fine. And I think, by now, you’re very much aware that Nicole would never betray your trust.”

  “Fuck Dylan,” Leo spat out before he quickly said, “Sorry, Mum, but I’m sick and tired of watching Damian pay emotionally for every single stupid thing Dylan does.”

  “I completely agree, Leo, and I’ve said as much, but Damian has to make his own decision to stop covering for Dylan.”

  “He’s my twin, and I gave him my word. That actually means something to me,” I snapped.

  “He’s also a wanker,” Leo added. “Look, I sympathize with him. I love him. Dylan is my brother, too. He’s been through a lot. Every time I talk to him, I try to get him to talk about it so we can help him work through everything, but he closes himself off like a clam. He’s not even trying, which is exactly what infuriates me. And it’s been two years. Way too long to leave his older brother in charge of his life while he runs away in a drunken fog. If I thought I could help, I would, Damian. I’d stay here in England and work beside you to take some of the load off your shoulders. But I know almost nothing about running Lancaster International.”

  My damn chest ached as I listened to Leo’s outburst. It meant a lot that he was willing to put his own career on hold to help me. “I’ve never wanted that, Leo. I’m proud of everything you’ve accomplished. Lancaster International will be fine.”

  “I don’t care about Lancaster, Damian. I care about you. Which is why I’m happy to see you with somebody like Nicole. Don’t screw this up over Dylan. She’s real, Damian, and in our world, that’s a rarity. You’re going to have to decide what means more to you: Nicole, or continuing to protect Dylan from the real world, and the consequences of his actions.”

  “She’s not the type of woman to reveal your secrets, even if she’s angry,” Mum added. “I don’t trust a lot of people, but my instinct says you can trust her.”

  I already knew I could trust Nicole. She wasn’t the vindictive type.

  “I was planning on telling her after the gala. She deserves to know everything,” I confessed. “If it sends her running back to the US, I don’t want that to happen until she’s done everything she wants to do in London.”

  Honestly, I wasn’t planning on letting her go very far, even if she wanted to get away from me. No matter how long it took, I’d follow her until she could trust me.

  “Then go and show her a good time,” Leo suggested jovially. “If you run out of things to do, you could always fly her to Lundy Island. Nicole would love diving with the seals there. The currents are a little tricky on the deeper dives, but she’s an experienced diver.”

  “Is it dangerous?” I asked hoarsely. I wasn’t about to send her into dangerous waters in the middle of the Bristol Channel.

  Leo shook his head. “Not really. Not for somebody like Nicole. She does tough, deep dives on a regular basis.”

  I shook my head. I’d probably die of a heart attack while I was waiting for her to surface. “Maybe later. After I get myself certified so I can go with her.”

  “I’m at your service,” Leo said amiably.

  “We’ll set something up,” I told him. “In the meantime, I want to get on the road to London.”

  I stood up and dropped my napkin onto my plate.

  “I doubt it will take much to make her fall in love with you,” my mother called after my departing figure. “I think she’s already halfway there.”

  Mum’s words didn’t exactly comfort me, even if her presumption was correct.

  Halfway still left a lot of ground to cover, and I was finally ready to admit that I’d crossed that finish line a long time ago.

  Not only had I completed that race, but I’d kept driving myself directly into insanity long after I’d seen that checkered flag.

  CHAPTER 23

  Nicole

  DAMIAN’S “PLACE IN London” turned out to be a Mayfair mansion that was almost too crazy to be believable.

  If I wasn’t currently standing on the second subterranean level of his home, which housed his indoor pool and spa, I probably wouldn’t have been able to grasp the concept of three levels underground, and two above.

  However, some talented engineer had made it happen, and I was standing right in the middle of the three underground levels, so I knew a home like this existed.

  I just wasn’t quite sure how I’d managed to become a guest here.

  Beneath us was an entertainment space with a home theater, and above was Damian’s gigantic home gym.

  Above ground, there were two master suites on the first level, and several more upstairs.

  After we’d arrived in London yesterday, I hadn’t had much time to explore his extraordinary home. Damian had taken his duties of tour guide seriously, and he’d covered a lot of ground.

  We’d gone to the Tower of London, since I hadn’t seen much of it the first time I’d visited, and then strolled on to the Tower Bridge. Damian had taken me to see Big Ben before we’d had dinner, and then we’d finally returned to his mansion, exhausted and ready to fall into bed.

  We’d moved at a slower pace this morning. Most of our day had been spent at Buckingham Palace. Since it was a little too early to hit the ten or so weeks when the Queen wasn’t in residence in the summer, when the palace was open to the public, Damian had arranged to tour most of the residence and grounds with the assistance of his connections.

  To my relief, and for the sake of my tired feet, I was glad we’d come back to Damian’s home early.

  We’d decided on a swim, and then we planned on devouring the meal his housekeeper had prepared before she’d left for the day.

  “Are you just going to stand there, or are you planning on getting into the water sometime in the near future?” Damian teased after he broke the water, and slicked back his wet hair. “It’s heated.”