Captivated Hearts Read online

  With her clutch in hand, Jada headed out of her condo to the car waiting for her outside. She had opted not to drive so she could enjoy some bourbon and wine with her meal. The drive to the hotel was uneventful and gave her time to prepare herself for the evening. She knew being cordial to Damian would require a lot of effort, but she was determined to find a happy medium when dealing with the man. She had to stop going from angry one minute to feeling her blood heat up because he’d stepped several inches too close to her.

  When the car pulled up to the curb, Jada made arrangements for her pickup and exited the vehicle. The foyer in front of the grand ballroom was already filled with various men and women from the networks. Jada was happy to find that Damian hadn’t arrived and that a small group from the news station had formed around the open bar. “Can anyone join in on this?” Jada asked, placing a hand on the station manager’s shoulder.

  “Of course, c’mon in,” Andrew said. He was closest to the bar. “What can I get you?”

  “A bourbon, please.”

  Jada turned to Kyler, who was standing inches away. “Thanks for talking me into coming. This is much more fun than staying home on a Friday night with a bowl of microwave popcorn.”

  Kyler returned a toothy smile. She looked magnificent in a blue sheath gown; it showed off her blue eyes while her blond hair had been styled in elegant waves down her slender back. She looked “very Marilyn Monroe.” “Yes, it is. And I hope it stays that way because McKnight is coming toward us.”

  Jada’s heart lurched, but she didn’t dare turn around. Instead, she acted as if she were knee deep in conversation, until the group parted, making room for his arrival. When talk ceased, Jada was forced to turn around and acknowledge him.

  “Good evening.” Damian nodded in their direction.

  A chorus of “Good evenings” were sung before the silence reensued. Jada used the opportunity to catch a glance. Damian wore a tailored black suit with a gray vest that hugged his lean abdomen, white silk shirt, and matching gray tie. He looked handsome, virile, and male despite his hooded gaze.

  Why is everyone quiet? Jada pondered. For Christ’s sake, these people are acting as if he’s a god instead of a man. He was human like the rest of them, and if someone wasn’t going to speak up, she was. “It will be interesting to see who wins best talk show,” Jada said conversationally.

  “Yeah,” another member concurred. “Too bad we weren’t nominated.”

  “I think we do a pretty bang-up job on the evening news program. You would have thought it would have merited us a nomination at the very least,” Kyler said.

  “Sometimes, I wonder if these things are rigged,” another coworker said. “Year after year, we see the same folks nominated.”

  “Did you ever think to consider it’s because they deliver exceptional news?” Damian offered.

  A hush echoed throughout the group.

  “It takes time, diligence, and focus to be the best, which WLB-TV lacks; but I think in time we’ll get there,” Damian added.

  Does he not realize that he just insulted the entire group and all their hard work with one quick lash of his tongue? Jada tossed back her entire glass of bourbon. It was going to be a long night.

  Damian stepped away to take a phone call. When he was done, instead of rejoining the group he stood back to view the office dynamics. There was Jay Blair, an anchor and the jokester of the bunch, then there was Kyler Barnes, who was beautiful to look at but vanilla. Then there was Jada. Her cheeks had blazed a fiery red after his remark. She’d been dying to give it back to him, but she’d held her tongue.

  Maybe she’s finally learning that you get more bees with honey? he mused. Damian rather liked his vantage point. It allowed him to observe Jada without fear of being seen. She had an understated elegance tonight that he most definitely appreciated. Her dress clung to her hips and behind, and the gown showed just a hint of cleavage. Her long sable hair was straight. She looked cool. Sophisticated. Untouchable.

  He didn’t like this version of Jada. She was all poise and confidence, and he wanted to ruffle her up. He strode from his corner. She was at the bar, and he sidled up beside her.

  “Another bourbon?” he asked.

  “Yes, do you have a problem with that?”

  There it was. The fire. Damian saw it ignite in her eyes. There was the Jada he knew who liked to challenge him. “Of course not, so long as you’re not driving.” Then he told the bartender, “I’ll have a bourbon as well.” The bartender nodded and began pouring two glasses.

  “I’m not.”

  She didn’t offer any more information. When the bartender slid both drinks their way, Damian quickly grabbed them and he handed a glass to Jada. He noticed that she carefully avoided touching his fingers and looking at him directly as she accepted the bourbon. He smiled inwardly.

  She felt it too.

  Earlier, when they’d been at the studio and he’d been so close to her, he’d smelled the sweet scent of her perfume, felt her heat. She’d felt the connection and like him she was ignoring it, but something in him wouldn’t allow it. “Did you come alone tonight?” he asked, sipping his drink.

  “Yes. I doubt it would be much fun for a date during a work function.”

  “And would there have been a date?” He knew he’d overstepped, but he had to know if there was someone in her life.

  She stared at him pointedly. “Are you asking me if I’m seeing someone?”

  He shrugged and lied. “It makes no difference to me one way or the other.” The file he’d received on Jada had only revealed her schooling and work history and a short profile of her parents, because they were the well-known Harts of Hart Enterprises, not if there was a man in her life.

  “Good. Then I choose not to answer.” She gave him a sweet smile and then walked off to join the others in the group.

  Damn minx!

  His attempt to act disinterested had backfired, and now she was gone. Well, she wouldn’t get very far.

  He’d see to that.

  Why does Damian want to know if I’m seeing someone? What right does he have to ask me such a personal question?

  The hair on Jada’s neck prickled. She glanced around to find Damian’s enigmatic gaze on her even though he was now speaking with several local leaders in the media industry across the room. He looked every bit the formidable man that he was. So, why did that bother her? He wasn’t the first attractive man she’d come across, and he certainly wouldn’t be the last, but an aura emanated from him tonight that radiated power. It spoke to her every female instinct.

  There was something more between them, just beneath the surface, that if she allowed it out, could overwhelm her.

  “Ready to go in?” Kyler interrupted her thoughts.

  She’d been scatterbrained this last week since Damian’s arrival, and she needed to get it together. “Yes, of course.” She finished her remaining bourbon and placed her glass on a nearby table.

  The double doors of the grand ballroom opened, allowing local news-media industry professionals into the room. It would be a night of celebration for some and loss for others. One day, Jada hoped to be one of the winners, but until then she would bide her time.

  Kyler found their table, and Jada was just about to sit down when she felt her chair being slid underneath her and a distinct woodsy scent.

  Damian.

  Jada glanced behind her and found he’d supplanted Kyler and was now sitting beside her. Kyler shrugged and made her way to the other side of the table. Jada tried to keep from frowning even though she was seething inwardly. Why couldn’t she get away from him? Must she make nice with him on her own time?

  Apparently, the answer was yes.

  “Wine?” Damian asked.

  Jada turned and realized a server was holding two bottles. “Red or white, mademoiselle?”

  “W
hite, please.” He leaned over and poured her a glass. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure,” the waiter said and continued serving the table.

  “The menu looks intriguing,” Damian said from her side.

  Jada rolled her eyes. Is he really going to just utter pleasantries? She glanced around the table, desperate to join a conversation, but she was too far away from Kyler. She was going to have to talk to Damian. “Yes, it does.”

  Damian leaned toward her and whispered, “If you would just learn to relax around me, we could find some common ground.”

  Stunned, Jada stared at him. He couldn’t know he made her uneasy, could he? She didn’t have nerves around men. Usually, they were eating out of her hands, but Damian was not one of them. Was that what made him different?

  “I am relaxed,” she hissed.

  He laughed and leaned back in his chair to regard her. “Sure you are. Sure you are.”

  The emcee for the evening chose that moment to walk on stage and thank them all for coming. He highlighted some high moments in news reporting that year and received many cheers.

  “I think WLB-TV has what it takes to become an exceptional station,” Damian whispered in Jada’s ear, once again causing her stomach to flip. “We can’t be afraid of tackling hard-hitting stories.”

  Jada turned to him. “We’re not afraid. Prior management wanted us to keep our stories with a focus on the community.”

  “We can still do that and deliver hard-hitting news.”

  “How would we go about it?”

  “I have a few ideas. Would you care to hear them, or would you like to continue bickering?”

  Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t rise to the bait with one of her pithy comebacks that had become a hallmark of their relationship. Instead, she leaned in and let Damian expound.

  By dessert, Jada was certain she’d lost her mind. Surely, Damian couldn’t be the same arrogant man she’d been griping about the last two weeks. Some of the ideas he had for stories and how to take WLB-TV to the next level would assuredly get them nominations next year. Jada felt very shortsighted that she’d only focused on the negative.

  “World War III hasn’t broken out over here,” Kyler said during intermission when Damian departed to mingle and the seat beside Jada became vacant. “I take it your evening isn’t a complete bust?”

  Jada shook her head. “Quite the contrary. I think McKnight and I have finally called a ceasefire.”

  Kyler raised an eyebrow. “Really? Though I shouldn’t be surprised. You both have been engrossed in conversation for much of the night.”

  A crease formed on Jada’s forehead. “We have not.”

  “Have too. I don’t think either of one of you came up for air, that’s until that producer came and spirited Damian away.”

  Was that true? Had Jada monopolized him the entire evening? It certainly hadn’t been her intent. All she’d known was that he was right. They couldn’t go on bickering, and now that she’d had a chance to listen to his ideas, he wasn’t all bad.

  “Well, then I should go mingle.” Jada rose to her feet and was pushing back her chair when Damian returned to the table.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Jada smiled and reached for her clutch. “To mingle. If you’ll excuse me.”

  Damian was perturbed. He hated being interrupted from his and Jada’s conversation. They’d finally waved the red flag for peace. She’d actually listened to him and vice versa. He had a lot of ideas about how to make the station successful and hadn’t shared them with anyone until now.

  Until Jada.

  Damian usually kept his battle plan to himself, but he’d let his guard down tonight—maybe because Jada had finally lowered the walls around her enough for him to penetrate them.

  Now, there was a word he shouldn’t be thinking of.

  All night, he’d sat beside her, smelling that uniquely Jada scent that was a mix of soap, perfume, and skin. It enthralled him, and Damian found himself softening his opinion of her. While he thought she was a spoiled, entitled princess, he also realized her degree in communications wasn’t just window dressing.

  And when she laughed at a joke he made, her long sable hair had cascaded down the length of her spine. Damian had wanted to run his hands through it and bring her mouth to his and finally have a taste of the forbidden, because that’s exactly what Jada Hart was to him.

  She was like the apple in the Garden of Eden that Adam should have stayed away from. Damian felt drawn to Jada when he shouldn’t. He had to stop thinking about her. He walked over to another news group and made polite conversation even though his eyes followed her every movement.

  He knew she was talking to a group of men, all of whom were fawning over her. Ah, there’s the other side of Jada—the flirt who wraps men around her baby finger. Is that what she’d been doing to him tonight—drawing him into her web so he’d do her bidding?

  But Damian wasn’t so easily taken in. He turned his back on her.

  He was determined to block her out.

  Damian had been looking at her. She was positive of it. And now he wasn’t. Jada didn’t know what made her walk up to several of the sportscasters, one of whom had asked her out at another such function. She’d given him the brush-off before because he enjoyed talking more about himself than finding out anything about her. Jada knew it would be the same if she went out on a date with him.

  So why had she come over here?

  Maybe to convince herself that Kyler was wrong. She wasn’t monopolizing Damian. It was hard not to be taken in by the way those dark eyes looked into hers. He had a way of focusing entirely on her to the exclusion of everything else. It was heady and intoxicating, and perhaps Jada had spoken only to him during dinner. Well, she was making up for it now. During the intermission, she had made her way around the room talking to connections until she finally landed with the sportscasters.

  “So, tell us, Jada, when are you going to have another one of your night on the town segments?” one of them asked with a smirk.

  “I’d love to get in on the action and help you research,” another of the men said and laughed out loud.

  “Not tonight, fellas,” a deep masculine voice said from behind her. “Jada is otherwise engaged.”

  Jada spun around just as Damian put his hand on the small of her back and led her away. “What the hell was that?” she asked, stopping midstride. She didn’t appreciate him getting territorial.

  “There’s no need for you to fall back on your old standby.”

  Jada put her hand on her hip. “And what, pray tell, is that?”

  “Batting your eyelashes and flirting with the first available man.”

  “Of all the—”

  “I know there’s more to you than this façade you show the world, Jada. Perhaps if you’d let someone see it. Be real. Be yourself—”

  He didn’t get another word out because Jada grabbed the bottom of her dress and stalked toward the exit. She had just about enough of Damian McKnight. First, he insulted their station, then he told her his Emmy ideas after staunchly ignoring most of hers, and now he was being a Neanderthal who thought he could control her. She couldn’t figure him out and didn’t want to. She walked quickly through the corridor. How dare he say those things to me! He doesn’t know me. Just because he’d spent a couple of hours with her tonight didn’t mean he knew a thing about what made her tick.

  She was nearly to the stairs when Damian caught up to her and swung her around. “Let me go!”

  “Not yet!” He grabbed her by the arm and strode to a secluded corner down the hall.

  “I don’t know who in the hell—”

  Jada didn’t get another word out because Damian hauled her to him. His hands threaded through her straight black hair seconds before he kissed her. It was a kiss meant to silence her,
of that she was sure, but instead it provoked and intoxicated her. Angling her face, she allowed him to deepen the kiss. He devoured the softness of her lips, then his tongue darted through their moistness to duel with hers.

  Jada had no choice but to respond to the passion Damian was rousing in her, especially when his hands roamed downward to cup her buttocks and he shifted her against his hard-on. She was stunned to feel just how hard he’d become from their deep, ravaging kisses and how wet she felt as he repeated the action again and again.

  She gasped, groaning as she wound her hands around his neck and returned kiss for heated kiss. And when his lips left hers and moved to the column of her throat, placing hot kisses and gentle nibbles on her neck, quivers of pleasure surged through her. She felt the tips of her breasts harden and a low ache form deep in her belly. She didn’t know what was going on. She only knew she wanted more of it.

  And perhaps she would have gotten more, but suddenly they heard voices.

  Instantly, they pulled apart as if burned. Jada couldn’t look at him. How could she after the way she’d just made out with her boss! A man she disliked!

  “I’m sorry. That shouldn’t have happened.” Damian’s chest was heaving. Jada had gotten a glimpse of the man he could be when he wasn’t in control.

  “Well, it did,” Jada said as she fingered her hair, trying to straighten it even though she knew she must look like a wreck. She reached into her clutch for a mirror and was stunned by what she saw. Her pupils were dilated and glossy, and her mouth was swollen from his kisses. And her hair—well, it looked like he’d been combing his hands through it as he’d plundered her mouth. “I-I have to go.”

  She had to get out of there before anyone at the station saw her or realized they were both gone. She couldn’t take the gossip that would ensue.

  “Jada, wait!” Damian cried out.

  But she was already running down the stairs.

  Chapter 4