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The Perfect Temptation, Part 6

Damien sat inside his office that Monday morning. He was blissfully alone since he had left her a list of errands to run on her desk outside. So for a few hours he could be free and clear of her. He was pleased with the work she did. She was competent and obviously very bright. Her interest in him, however, was another story. He had never been pursued for just himself. At least those times he could forget about them in an instant and not think twice. She was becoming rooted within his mind and body. He couldn't get her out. He sighed and leaned back in his leather chair, tapping his pen on the documents on his desk. They had to be signed. "Another day at the office," he muttered under his breath. There was a knock on the doors, making his eyes leave the paper in front of him. "There's no way that could be Angelina," he said under his breath as his eyes returned to the paper. "Come in."

"I was wondering if you were going to say that."

He froze and slowly lifted his eyes towards the door. She looked exactly like he remembered. Soft chocolate brown hair curled about her shoulders, her eyes, the rich blue of the Mediterranean, creamy ivory skin, and a svelte body clothed in a slim fitting black skirt with a primrose pink sweater with narrow straps, the cardigan tied loosely about her neck. His mouth felt like sandpaper. "Claudia," he managed to say with his heart thundering in his ears.

"Hello, Damien," Claudia replied in her soft smooth voice.

The way she said his name washed over him like rich honey. Damien wetted his dry lips before speaking again. "Why are you here?" he asked. His heart felt like bursting.

"I wanted to stop by," she said as she walked over to his desk. She sat down in the chair in front of him. She crossed her slender ankles and smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt. Her eyes rose to his. "You look surprised to see me."

He was. It felt like he had been struck with a two by four to the gut. She had been his idea of the perfect woman as an adolescent, but she had been the prettiest girl in his graduating class. She seemed to be suited more for guys like his cousin, Miles, or even Jonathon, and Dominic. But she had chosen him. Even now, why she chose him, was still a mystery. "Yes, I'm surprised."

An angelic smile creased her rosy lips as she regarded him with some amusement. "Still talk in short clipped phrases around girls, Damien?"

A heated flush surged under his tan as he self-consciously ran his fingers under the collar of his shirt, and inadvertently loosening his tie. "I'm just shocked, that's all. I haven't seen you since…" he trailed off, unable to continue. He shifted his eyes away from hers and glanced outside the windows.

"Since I broke up with you," Claudia finished for him as she clasped her hands about her crossed knee. "There was no way I could avoid it," she stated with a sigh as she watched his features contort with various emotions. His eyes had always been too expressive when it came to girls.

His heart wrenched with a painful jerk. Even now, she could still manage to tug on his heart. She had hurt him so bad, it had been hard for him to imagine it. For the weeks and months afterwards, it was agony. She had been the first and only girl that he had really given his heart to. There wasn't a look of greed in her eyes like he had seen in so many other girls'. There was that look of genuine warmth and caring in her deep blue eyes. It had drawn him in, sucked him into a vortex of happiness that he didn't know could exist. He fought to keep some of his inner turmoil from showing. He didn't like to show anyone just how much she hurt him inside. "That still doesn't explain why you're here," he said in a more modulated, more controlled voice.

"I wanted to talk to you about my actions, about why I broke it off."

Aquamarine eyes widened a little before sliding away from her gaze. "Really?" he wheezed. He felt a slight buzzing in his brain, a sign that a migraine was impending.

"Really," she replied as she stood and walked around his desk and leaned against the edge of it, next to his arm. "I would think that you would want one."

Damien's eyes slid back up to hers as she looked down on him. The familiar scent of her gloxinia perfume tickled his nose and flooded his brain with memories that he didn't want to think about right now. But they came in stark clarity, racing through his mind anyway. Coming home from a date with her and still being able to smell her on his clothes, smelling it against the side of her neck when he would kiss her there, and smelling it all over her body the first time he made love to her and times after. She was the only one that he went that far with, otherwise, he had never thought of touching another woman like that, except for recently. Except for Angelina. But he had never thought of Claudia with the all-consuming lust, the hot passion, like he did the irksome and fiery red head he called an assistant. "I always kind of wondered," he said as he pushed himself out of his chair. He had to put space between them. Her presence was too much for him to handle with the buzzing in his brain becoming a dull pounding.

Claudia's eyes followed him over to the window. His back was to her. She knew he was uncomfortable with her being here. It was apparent in his eyes, in his voice, and in his actions. "You couldn't give me enough then," she stated as she watched both his hands slide to the back of his neck and up through his hair. "It wasn't because I didn't love you. It was just that I needed more from you."

He turned to face her. "You needed more from me? I gave you everything that I was," he said incredulously.

"You tried to give me all that you were, but I didn't want it to be a strain for you to do and it was. I could see it mirrored on your face. You couldn't hide it. I knew you loved me, but you loved your work too."

Damien stared at her, drinking her in as she sat, perched on the end of his desk. The straps of her heeled sandals, crisscrossed around her trim ankles. "If you loved me as much as you said you did, you would've stayed. You wouldn't have…" he trailed off, before he turned around again and looked out at the bay in the distance.

"Hurt you," Claudia finished as she stood up and went over to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't want to, but I couldn't be second to your work. You loved me, but if you had a choice, you would have chosen work over me."

"That's not true," he said as he turned to look at her. The warmth of her hand was seeping through the material of his pale green dress shirt. The light hit her eyes, making them sparkle.

"Is it?" she asked as she looked up into his clear aquamarine eyes.

He looked down at the manicured nails resting on the fabric of his shirt before raising them back to hers. She was so close and her perfume was drowning and intoxicating his senses. "Yes."

Claudia returned his look. They were so close that she could see her reflection in them.

Outside the office, Angelina returned from her errands, licking her fingers from the donuts she snitched from the mailroom and the security offices. She sat down on the edge of Jeanette's desk and handed her the snack. "Here you go. Eat up."

Jeanette gave her a thankful smile and took a bite of the treat. "Thanks. I needed it."

"You look it. What's been going on since I was…"she trailed off as an angry looking Donavon Barton slammed into the main office, where they were, and threw open the door behind Jeanette's desk, which was Vaughn's office, and that door was slammed as well. Angelina blinked. "Did I miss something?"

"I don't know," Jeanette, replied, her eyes still wide.

Angelina got up and went over to the closed door, pressing her ear against it. She jumped back when the door rattled. Loudly. "Oh dear, that does not sound good." There was some shouting, but it was coming from Donavon, in Spanish. Vaughn was answering back in the same language. There was the sound of something breaking again, making her cringe. "You better call Quatre up here," she said over her shoulder as she flinched as glass shattered on the other side of the door.

"Right away," Jeanette said as she hurriedly made a call to Quatre's office.

It didn't take long for Quatre to come bursting through the doors and go through the doors of his younger son's office.

Angelina sighed and went back over to Jeanette's desk. "Well I didn't miss much, I guess." She glanced over at Damien's door. "I guess I should see what my boss wants," she said as she swallowed the remnants of the glazed donut and gave her fingers a final lick.

"I don't think…" Jeanette started to say, but stopped.

"What? You don't think what?"

"That you should go in there right now," Jeanette replied in a small voice.

"What do you mean?" Angelina asked, perplexed.

"He's…um…occupied," she supplied in a weak voice.

"Nonsense, last time I saw him, all he was occupied with was papers," Angelina said with a snort as she walked over to the other side of the office. She paused, however when she heard voices on the other side. Her brow wrinkled a bit, but she shook her head and pushed the door open. Her lips parted in surprise as she took in the scene in front of her.

A/N: Damn, it feels good to do a cliffhanger! Like I've said before, the throwing of tantrums is allowed, strangling is of course, optional. Stay tuned for more! XOXO!