Chapter 4 Chapter 4
Hailey’s POV
Silence hung between us like smoke after a fire.
His hand was still around my wrist, holding me there as if afraid I would vanish again.
“I… I’m sorry,” the words tumbled out before my brain caught up. “I wasn’t in my right mind. Last night… I didn’t even know what I was doing, I swear.”
Damien’s expression didn’t shift. His dark eyes rested on me with an unsettling calm.
“Relax, Hailey,” he said. “You don’t have to explain.” He was calm and that only made me more anxious.
He released me, straightened, and smoothed a hand over his shirt like nothing about this moment was strange.
“Come with me,” he said simply.
“W… what? Why?”
“Because we need to talk,” he replied. His tone left no room for negotiation.
Something about him commanded obedience without force. Maybe it was the authority in his voice, or the quiet power in his eyes, or maybe it was just the image of that night that still lingered somewhere in my veins.
Whatever it was, I followed.
Outside, his car, a sleek black Bentley waited at the curb. The driver opened the door for me but I hesitated, glancing between the man who had somehow upended my life twice now and the car that looked far too expensive for me to sit in.
“Hailey,” Damien said again, gently this time. “It’s alright.”
That gentleness broke whatever resistance I had left so I got in.
The drive to wherever he was taking me was quiet. The city rolled past in a blur of gray buildings and flashing lights.
My mind wouldn’t stop spinning. What was I doing? Why had I followed him? Why hadn’t I just walked away? What if he was going to punish me for humiliating his daughter?
Every time I stole a glance at him, he looked unbothered. His eyes were focused on the passing streets while his hand rested lightly on his knee.
When we finally pulled into a long, winding driveway flanked by stone lions and towering oaks, my jaw almost dropped.
His house, no, mansion looked like something out of a movie.
White marble walls gleamed beneath golden lights. A massive staircase spiraled upward behind tall glass windows.
Two men in dark suits stood by the door, watching as the car rolled to a stop.
I blinked, realizing my mouth was open.
“Close your mouth,” he murmured as he got out, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “You’ll catch flies.”
Heat flooded my cheeks, and I scrambled out after him, clutching my bag like a shield.
Inside, the air smelled faintly of cedar and something more expensive, leather, maybe.
The floors gleamed so perfectly that I could see my reflection in them. I felt small, so small, as if I had accidentally wandered into a world I didn’t belong in.
“Sit,” Damien said, gesturing toward a plush gray couch in what looked like a living room straight out of an interior design magazine.
He walked to a minibar, poured two glasses of something amber, and returned with one.
“Drink?” He offered and I shook my head.
“I think I’ve had enough of that to last a while.”
His lips quirked again with a hint of amusement. “Fair enough.”
He sank into the armchair opposite me, one leg crossed over the other. He was watching me like he was studying something fragile but fascinating.
“You look nervous.”
“Should I not be?” I shot back before I could stop myself.
He tilted his head slightly, like I had just said something that intrigued him. “No,” he said simply. “You shouldn’t.”
Before I could respond, a sharp voice cut through the room.
“What is she doing here?”
I turned toward the staircase only to see Sophia glaring murderously at me. Her expression was a perfect storm of rage and disbelief.
Oh God.
“Dad, tell me you’re joking!” she yelled, storming down the steps. “You brought her here? After everything she has done?”
I flinched, clasping my hands together.
Damien didn’t even look at her when he said, “Go upstairs.”
“Excuse me?” she scoffed, her voice rising an octave higher. “You can’t just…”
“Now,” he said quietly.
That one word froze her mid step. I saw the brief flash of fear and the recognition that he wasn’t someone to push in her eyes.
With a frustrated sound, she turned sharply, shooting me one last venomous glare before stomping back upstairs.
The silence that followed felt heavy.
“Sorry about that,” he said, rubbing his nape gently. “Sophia can be… difficult.”
“She doesn’t like me.” I mumbled.
“She doesn’t like anyone who reminds her that the world doesn’t revolve around her,” he replied absentmindedly.
“I’ve tried to control her since her mother passed, but…” His gaze grew distant for a moment. “She’s been angry ever since.”
The rawness in his tone startled me. I hadn’t expected vulnerability from the man who carried himself like he controlled everything in his orbit.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured softly.
He looked back at me and something shifted in his eyes. The sadness was gone, it was now replaced by something deeper.
“I didn’t bring you here to talk about my daughter,” he said, leaning forward slightly.
“I wanted to make sure you were alright. What happened yesterday should never have happened.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “But it’s my daughter’s doing.” He paused, studying me. “You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”
A bitter laugh slipped out before I could stop it. “You could say that. Public humiliation, viral scandal, and now…” My voice trailed off. “Now this.”
“This?”
“Being in your house. After…”
I didn’t finish the sentence, and he didn’t make me. But the air between us thickened anyway.
His gaze held mine, unwavering. “You regret last night?”
The question caught me off guard. “I… I don’t know,” I stammered. “I was drunk, hurt… I wasn’t thinking straight.”
He nodded, his expression unreadable. “And yet you came to me.”
A flicker of heat rose in my chest as I buried my head. “You make it sound like I planned it.”
“Maybe you didn’t, but you chose me.”
The way he said it sent a shiver down my spine. I looked away, focusing on the glass coffee table instead.
“It was a mistake.”
“Was it?”
My pulse picked up and before I could form another word, he moved. He pushed himself up and made his way towards me.
“Damien…” His name slipped from my lips like a plea before I could snap myself out of it.
He stopped in front of me, leaving just a few meters separating us. The moment his cologne wrapped around me, the rest of the world fizzled.
“You keep apologizing,” he murmured with his eyes locked on mine. “For something that doesn’t need an apology.”
“You don’t understand…”
“I do,” he interrupted softly. “Better than you think.” He muttered, lowering himself on the couch beside me.
The air shifted again. My heartbeat was so loud that I could barely think.
“I brought you here because I wanted you to feel safe,” he continued, his tone low and deliberate.
“But you’re sitting there looking like you expect me to destroy you.”
“I don’t know what to expect from you.” I swallowed, playing with my cuticles as my heart slammed against my chest in fury.
“Then maybe I should make it clear.”
He leaned in slightly, not close enough to touch, but close enough for his presence to consume every inch of air between us.
“Damien…”
“Hailey,” he whispered, my name rolling off his tongue like music. “You have no idea what you started last night.”
Something that felt dangerously close to desire flickered in his gaze.
He lifted his hand using his finger to brush a loose strand of hair from my face. The touch was barely there, but it burned all the same.
Unsure whether to pull away or lean closer, I froze.
“You don’t have to be afraid,” he murmured, voice dropping lower. “But you should understand something…”
His hand lingered a moment longer, then he allowed it to drop to his side.
The look in his eyes made it impossible to breathe.