Melt Into You by Lisa Plumley

different.”
    “Why? Because I interrupted your ‘date’ with Scott?”
    At that, Natasha shook her head. Tears still glimmered in her eyes—tears that left Damon awash in commiserative misery.
    He’d made her cry. He’d made his mother cry, and he’d made Natasha cry, both in the span of a single awful day. The two of them were the kindest, gentlest, most generous women he knew.
    If he could hurt them ... what the hell would he do next?
    All of a sudden, Damon didn’t really want to find out.
    “It wasn’t that you were naked and called me to bail you out that upset me, you idiot,” Natasha said. “It was that you lied and said you loved me! I’m not one of your good-time girls, Damon. I’m me . I deserve better. For you, talk is cheap.” Sadly, she shook her head. “But for me, I love you means something.”
    “It means something to me, too!” he insisted. “It means—”
    It means I might get my way ... and make you stay .
    Just as he realized that ugly truth, Damon met Natasha’s gaze. She’d already known that about him, he understood as he looked into her eyes. She’d known, and she’d stayed anyway.
    Until now. How many people would have done that for him?
    “Oh.” Uncomfortably, Damon rubbed the back of his neck. He shifted his gaze away from hers. “I see what you mean.”
    All at once, he felt embarrassed for Natasha to see him as he was. He was nearly naked. He was painted with multiple kinds of chocolate. All his enthusiasm for having a good time showed.
    So did all his weakness when it came to being a good man.
    “I guess I have to let you go, then,” Damon said quietly.
    “I guess you do,” Natasha agreed. She touched his face, then gazed into his eyes one more time. “Take care of yourself.”
    He knew he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t fathom why Natasha didn’t. He quirked his mouth. “I’ll try. You do the same, okay?”
    “I will.” She inhaled, then let her hand drop to her side. At least she was no longer shaking. “Bye, Damon.”
    He’d never thought he’d hear those words from her. The sound of them made him want to howl with grief. It was probably self-centered grief, Damon acknowledged, but still ... “Bye, Tasha.”
    He’d never called her that before. Other people did, but not him. Doing so would have meant thinking of her as a woman, not his assistant, and Damon had needed the distance he’d gained from calling her Natasha. Natasha . That semi-formality between them had helped him not be tempted to seduce her into abandoning her marriage vows, the way he’d secretly wanted to do. But now ...
    Well, now Damon didn’t need to create any false distance, because they’d have genuine distance between them. Forever.
    Fifteen seconds after he realized that, Natasha was already gathering her things in the sitting area of his penthouse suite. Her high-heeled footsteps sounded. There was a final, lingering silence. Damon held his breath. Then, an instant later, came the muted thump of the suite’s door closing behind Natasha.
    It had really happened. For the first time in years, Damon realized, he was truly on his own—and he had no freaking idea what came next.

Chapter 9
     
    San Diego
     
    As the days piled up since quitting her job at Torrance Chocolates, Natasha gradually realized that her impulsive decision had caused some sort of elemental shift in her world.
    It had begun right away. When she had checked out of the hotel that had hosted the chocolate conference, the night after leaving Damon, the perky hotel employee at the front desk had informed Natasha that she was the hotel’s “mystery guest” of the week—and had won a week’s prepaid stay in the form of a special voucher, for use any time she wanted a getaway. It was the first thing Natasha had ever won. She could hardly believe it.
    At first, she hadn’t believed it. It had occurred to her almost immediately that Damon might be behind her “comped” stay. It wouldn’t have been the