The Devil's Game (13 page)

Karina lay awake in bed while Damien slept soundly next to her, his arm across her chest. Too many thoughts were racing through her head, making it impossible to fall asleep. And they all centered around Damien.

It was all his fault. She could be home now, asleep in her own bed, probably tired from another long day at the coffee shop. Now she wondered how she was supposed to go back to that life two weeks from now. How was she supposed to forget what Damien was doing to her, what he was causing her to feel?

Deciding she needed some distance from him, she carefully slipped out from under his arm and put on the nearest article of clothing—Damien’s dress shirt on the floor by the bed.

It smelled like him, but at least it wasn’t warm or breathing softly against her neck.

She moved out to the living room and stood in front of the window facing Central Park. People were still milling along the sidewalks, even at this hour, but there was little movement in the park—just a maze of lights from the street lamps lining the paths.

A chill swept over her and she stepped over to the couch, where she wrapped the throw blanket around her shoulders before sitting on it, tucking her feet beneath her. She laid her head on the armrest, her eyelids finally feeling heavy, and wondered if she had been right about there being no harm in staying until the end of the month.

“Karina?”

She opened her eyes to see Damien crouched down next to her, worry all over his face.

“Is everything okay?” he asked as she realized she was still on the couch and light was streaming in through the window.

“Yeah,” she said, sitting up. “I was having trouble sleeping and came out here. I didn’t mean to spend the whole night here.”

“You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course,” she lied. “Do you have to leave?”

“Soon,” he said. “Do you have any idea what you want to do today?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe visit some museums.”

Damien stood up and pulled the wallet from his back pocket.

“This should get you through the day,” he said, handing her several hundred-dollar bills.

Karina looked at them, wanting to say no. The problem was that she didn’t actually have any cash of her own at the moment.

“It’s okay,” he said with a chuckle. “They won’t bite.”

“I just feel bad accepting it,” she said.

“Don’t. I invited you up here, and I want you to enjoy yourself. I promised I would take care of everything for you when you agreed to come to Miami with me.”

“I know. It’s just that—”

There was a knock at the door.

“That must be Tom,” said Damien.

“I should go hide in the bedroom,” Karina said, standing. “He probably doesn’t need to see me in nothing but your shirt.”

“Don’t worry,” he said with a small smile. “Tom’s gay, so it won’t affect him the way it’s affecting me right now.”

She wrapped her arms around him. “It’s a shame you have to go,” she said as Tom knocked again.

“If I came back and you were still wearing only that, I wouldn’t complain one bit.”

“Go,” she said and kissed him before heading to the bedroom.

“I’m leaving the money here on the table,” he called out. “Use it.”

The door shut behind him and Karina climbed into the shower, excited to explore Manhattan.

Karina was immediately glad she had agreed to come with Damien. Even though he was going to be in meetings all day, it was so much easier to get out and about on her own without relying on Damien’s staff.

After spending the day exploring the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim, she made it back to the room only a half hour before Damien.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” he said as he loosened his tie. “You ready to head out for dinner?”

“Are you kidding?” she called from the couch where she was sprawled. “I’ve just spent all day walking around. I need to rest my feet.”

“We’ll eat here in the hotel. They have a great bistro downstairs.”

“Will it require me to wear heels?”

“Well, I wouldn’t recommend wearing sneakers,” he said as he sat on the edge of the couch.

She sighed. “I don’t think I could squeeze my poor feet into anything tight even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”

He kissed her forehead. “I’m sure any flats you have will be fine.”

“Thank you.”

Ten minutes later, Damien had lost the tie completely and swapped his suit jacket for a sports coat. Karina came out of the bedroom in black flats and the same wrap dress she had worn to the engagement party and watched as Damien shook his head, smiling.

“You do remember what I said about this dress, don’t you?” he asked, fingering the bow tied at her waist.

“How could I forget?”

He gave a gentle tug, not enough to loosen it. “I’m not sure we’ll make it down to dinner.”

“I thought you were starving. So much so that you couldn’t let my poor little feet take a rest.”

“I’ve changed my mind,” he murmured into her ear.

“Too bad,” she said, pushing him away and walking over to her purse. “I’ve gotten dressed up for you. Now you’re taking me to dinner.”

“Fair enough. But you might have to make it up to me later.”

“Gladly,” she said with a wicked smile.

There was already a small crowd at the hostess booth, and Karina watched as Damien shook hands with the maître d’, who left to go check on their table.

“I could always tell him to put our name down for twenty minutes later,” he whispered as they waited.

She fiddled with the lapel of his jacket. “You really think twenty minutes would be long enough?”

“Probably not,” he said and kissed her right there in front of everyone.

Her phone started ringing and she reluctantly pulled away, digging it out of her purse to see that it was her mom.

“Hey, Mom,” she said, shooting Damien a glance just as the maître d’ returned. “What’s up?” she asked.

“Karina, sweetie, are you in New York City by any chance?” her mom asked.

“Why would you think that?” Karina asked, her heart beating fast.

“It’s just that I’m sitting in a restaurant and I swear I saw you kissing some guy in the lobby.”

Karina stopped in the middle of the dining room and did a mad spin, looking. It couldn’t be.

“Oh my god!” her mother squealed into the phone. “It
is
you!”

And then Karina saw her. The woman waving madly from her seat in the far corner as she hung up the phone

“What is it?” Damien said.

“Oh god,” said Karina as she watched her mother and father sitting patiently at the table, waiting for her to go over to them.

“What’s going on?” asked Damien, putting a hand on her arm.

“Get ready to meet my parents.”

Confusion

“Your parents are
here
?” Damien asked.

Karina pointed to where they were sitting, watching, still waiting.

“What are they doing here?”

“I have no idea,” she said as she started walking their way.

“Will you excuse us a minute?” she heard Damien say to the maître d’. “We’ve just seen someone we know.”

“Of course, sir.”

Karina’s mother stood as she and Damien neared the table.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” her mother said, giving her a quick hug before holding her at arm’s length. “Wow, Karina, you look so good! You look
tan.
What are you doing in Manhattan?”

“I’m visiting for a couple days,” she said, risking a quick glance at Damien. “What are
you
guys doing here?”

“We realized we hadn’t been able to get away in a while,” her mother said, sitting back down in her chair. “Not since…. Well, since we weren’t feeling so strapped this month, we thought we’d spend the weekend in New York. We catch the train home tomorrow.”

“Are you staying here at the hotel?” Karina asked.

“Oh lord no! We aren’t feeling
that
well off. We just came for—”

“Who’s your friend?” her father asked, speaking for the first time.

“Mom, Dad,” she said, looking nervously at both of them. “This is Damien Bishop. Damien, these are my parents, Cheri and Ron.”

Damien extended his hand first to Cheri, who accepted it, then to Ron, who wouldn’t budge.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” Damien said, sliding the rejected hand into his trouser pocket.

“I didn’t know you were dating anyone,” Cheri said, giving Karina a playful swat on the arm. “How did you two meet? Do you live here in the city?”

“Damien lives in Miami, Mom. I met him when he came into the coffee shop.” Technically every word of it was true.

“I had to come up here for business,” Damien explained, “and I invited Karina to join me.”

“How exciting!” her mother gushed.

Karina noticed her dad was awfully silent, refusing to even smile. She wanted to believe it was the thought of his little girl going away with a man he’d never met that had him so quiet, but she suspected it was more than that. And it worried her.

“We should probably let you guys get back to your meal,” said Karina. “We have a table waiting for us—”

“Nonsense,” said her mother. “There’s plenty of room at our table, and we haven’t even ordered yet. You don’t mind, Ron, do you?”

Ron gave a grunt.

“Really, we wouldn’t want to intrude,” Karina said.

“Please,” Cheri begged, her eyes wide. “Have dinner with us. We miss you.”

Karina looked to Damien for help.

“It’s okay,” he said quietly, not understanding that this was the last thing she wanted. “Really. I’ll go tell the maître d’ we won’t need our table after all and have him grab a couple chairs.”

“That’s so sweet,” said Cheri.

Karina had never felt so awkward around her parents as Damien rushed off.

“That dress is adorable, sweetie,” her mom said. “Where did you find it?”

Karina looked down at the designer dress. “Um, would you believe at Goodwill?” Again, not really a lie, since she was simply asking a question.

“Get out of here! Why can’t I ever find gems like that at the thrift stores? And it fits you so perfectly.”

“Just lucky, I guess.”

Fortunately Damien wasn’t long, and a waiter was right behind him bringing two extra chairs. Cheri slid her chair over to sit next to Ron, and Karina sat down between Damien and her father. The last two men in the world she wanted in a room together. The man who had raised her to be a strong, independent woman, and the man who had essentially bought her.

“So Damien, what exactly is it that you do?” Cheri asked.

Damien cleared his throat as Karina held her breath.

“I’m in software development and sales,” he said, and she allowed herself to exhale.

“And do you get to travel a lot for work?” Cheri asked.

“I do,” Damien answered.

A server arrived just then and took everyone’s order.

“So sweetie,” Cheri said with a smile when that was all done. “Why didn’t you tell us you were seeing someone?”

Karina could feel herself turn beet red, as well as Damien giving her knee a squeeze under the table.

“Well,” she said, blushing as she looked at Damien. “It’s still new.”

“Yet you know him well enough to come all the way to New York with him,” her father said.

“Oh, Ron. You hush,” said Cheri.

“I’m just sayin’.” Ron muttered.

“Look at Karina,” said Cheri. “She’s obviously happy. You let her be.”

Karina was starting to sweat now. This had been a bad idea. A very bad idea.

“I understand your concerns,” Damien said, and Karina prayed for a hole to swallow her up. “But I assure you I have nothing but the best of intentions for your daughter.”

Karina snapped her head in his direction. Now that was a blatant lie.

“Could we please not do this?” Karina pleaded, her face reddening even more.

“Please, Ron,” Cheri said, placing a hand on his arm.

Ron sighed but said nothing else—until they were halfway through the main course. The conversation had managed to steer toward how work was going for Karina—more lies—and some of the places Damien had visited. Then after a couple glasses of wine, Cheri started talking about their recent “miracle.”

“Interesting thing about that, though,” Ron said, and Karina closed her eyes, knowing exactly where this was going. “I did a little digging and it turns out that everything had been taken care of by a single, generous man.” Karina opened her eyes. “A man by the name of Damien Bishop.”