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CHAPTER 7
Arguments? He had a few, but none that were effective. Excuses? A whole hay wagon full, but none he dared utter in the face of the threat to his mother’s well-being. Other women? Damien could think of many a delectable armful over the last ten years, but none interested in anything as dull as marriage. He’d stayed far away from the home-and-hearth type.
“No,” Damien conceded, then stepped aside to let her pass. “I don’t think I could pay my assistant enough to move to the middle of nowhere and put up with me 24/7.”
“It’s hardly the middle of nowhere,” Regina said with a light tone as she scooted past, brushing the far wall in an attempt not to touch him again.
Which was just as well.
“We might not have the culture of New York City,” she continued, “but there’s stil
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TO HAVE AND TO HOLD CHAPTER 10
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By now, she was sampling the textures with both palms. She could imagine Damien working on it, chipping away, studying the angles until he found just the one that worked for him. Which was the same way he approached life. He wasn’t the type to listen and work with an outside element. She smirked, her hands stilling. Of course, this was an element he had ultimate control over. Suddenly, Regina was aware of that masculine heat at her back, blocking her in. Damien’s hands slid down her arms to cover her fingers where they curved around the rock. His breath accelerated, stirring the hair lying heavy against the back of her neck.“Damien…” she whispered, not sure if she was begging him to stop or to continue. He said nothing, his fingers caressing hers. Tingles of fear and e
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