“Yes, I know. And thank you. I think.”

She smiled as her voice came out all quivery. He smiled back and squeezed her hand reassuringly. “Give me a chance to make you happy, Serena.”

She cocked her head sideways to look at him. “You know, somehow I can’t imagine not being happy with you.”

He raised her hand and brushed his lips across her knuckles. “It is my goal for you to enjoy our every moment together.”

She leaned back in her seat, hazy with contentment. Damon did that to her. Relaxed her and made her feel at ease. Like she could trust him. Which was absurd when she thought about it. She’d known him such a short period of time, but he got her. Without question, without reservation. He didn’t judge her. He accepted her.

He kept her hand in his lap for the duration of the drive. When he wasn’t stroking her fingers, he ran his fingertips up and down her wrist and up the inside of her arm.

It was addicting. He was addicting, and the scary thing was that their relationship had yet to go beyond a simple touch, a light caress or a sizzling look. He could spell trouble for her in a big, big way if she wasn’t careful.

He drove to the same restaurant they’d had their first meeting at, and they were ushered back to the private dining room. At night, it took on a whole different atmosphere. The lighting was dim and more intimate. The drapes were drawn back from the large picture window, and the city skyline twinkled brightly on the horizon.

“I feel decidedly underdressed,” she murmured ruefully as she looked down at her jeans and T-shirt.

“I’m not wearing anything dressier,” he reminded her. “Besides, we are alone, and there is no one to see us.”

Her expression eased as she smiled. He made it so easy for her to relax and not worry about anything beyond the immediate moment.

He settled her into her chair and then took the seat across from her. A waiter hovered close by, and Damon ordered a bottle of wine.

“Would you like to see a menu?” Damon asked her.

She sat back in her chair, holding her wineglass to her lips. “You choose,” she said softly. She knew it would please him to do so, and she didn’t question her burning wish to accommodate his desires.

Damon related his choices to the waiter in a low voice, and in another moment, they were left alone.

“Tell me more about yourself,” she said as she set her glass back down on the table. “I don’t even know what you do for a living. Do you have family? Are you alone?”

He gave a self-conscious grimace, and it was the first chink she’d seen in the self-assured manner he always wore. “I was fortunate at an early age to have gotten in on the ground floor with what turned out to be very lucrative stocks. I love a challenge, and so I buy struggling businesses and turn them around.”

“And have you ever failed?” Serena asked, though she already knew the answer.

He stared levelly at her. “No,” he said simply.

“What is your latest acquisition?”

He tapped his fingers on the table, and an excited gleam entered his eyes. “I picked up two chip mills farther east that were on the verge of bankruptcy. I fully expect to have them showing a profit in under a year’s time. It’s all in hiring the right people and making sound financial decisions.”

“You sound much more cutthroat than I am when it comes to business,” she said. “I fully admit that I don’t always make the best business decisions and let my heart get ahead of my brain. Carrie tells me that I’m way too soft and that I’ll never wear brass balls.”

Damon smiled as he leaned back in his chair to study her. “And yet your business is profitable, you have no debt and you have happy clients.”

“You’ve been checking up on me again,” she muttered.

“Not again. Just the once. I just made sure it was a very thorough investigation. I’m very curious as to how you ever got into this sort of business. I’ve never known of another like it.”

She shrugged but couldn’t contain the bite of excitement that gripped her when she talked about her business and what inspired the idea behind it.

“It started off quite fanciful, actually. I’ve always been somewhat of a dreamer. Okay, a big dreamer. My mother used to swear that I spent ninety percent of my time with my head in the clouds.”

“Dreamers never die,” Damon said.

Serena smiled. “That’s so true and such a lovely sentiment. At any rate, even at an early age, I loved to fulfill other people’s wishes. If I overheard a friend or a family member express a desire for something, if it was in my power to give it to them, I did.

“After I graduated with my MBA, I spent a couple of years working in office management. Long enough to figure out I was bored stiff, and I hated working for other people.”

“Ah, a rebel,” he said in amusement.

She wrinkled her nose. “’Fraid so. It’s not that I can’t get along with people or that I buck authority. I’m just happier when I’m making my own decisions and I’m working in a job that motivates me. In short, I didn’t love what I was doing. I do now, and that makes all the difference.”

“I bet you get a lot of interesting requests.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s an understatement. Some of them are obviously crackpots out for a laugh, but the worst are the insanely off-the-wall serious requests. These come from people who genuinely want and expect that I can fulfill their bizarre fantasies, and as weird as I may find them, they’re still just people who are longing for something just out of their reach. It’s hard to have to tell them that I can’t help them.”

“You have a soft heart,” he said in a gentle voice.

She grimaced. “Coming from you, I doubt that’s a compliment. My business decisions would probably horrify you.”

He looked at her in surprise. “Do I come across so ruthlessly? I sincerely meant it as a compliment. And as your business is a success, and you’ve made so many people happy, I hardly think your decisions would horrify me.”

Warm pleasure suffused her cheeks at the approval she saw in his expression. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you were ruthless. It’s just that, as you discovered in your research, I’ve subsidized more than a few of my client’s fantasies when it was clear they couldn’t afford the expense involved.”

“And you think this is a weakness,” he stated.

She shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe not a weakness, but I lecture myself on setting limits and then find myself unable to say no to a client because their fantasy doesn’t fit their budget. Don’t get me wrong; I’m choosy. I don’t particularly feel sorry for a guy whose fantasy is to orchestrate the photo shoot for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, but when a mother comes to me because her daughter is ill and wants to be a princess on a cruise ship, I won’t tell her that I can’t help her because she’s several thousand dollars short.”

“I think what you perceive as a weakness is your greatest strength and attribute,” Damon said as he reached across to take her hand. “You have a generous soul, but you’re also practical.”

She let him turn her hand over so that her knuckles rested on the table. He touched a finger to her palm and traced a path across her skin. In turn, he stroked each of her fingers as if he savored the sensation of her flesh.

How she loved his touch. She could sit for hours and simply let his fingertips glide over her hands, her arms. She shivered as she remembered how his hands felt tangled in her hair, massaging her scalp and caressing her neck.

“You said—” She stopped and cleared her throat. “You said you had arranged the auction?”

He slowly withdrew his hand and sat forward in his chair so that there was little space between them. “I have. Is next weekend too soon?”

Adrenaline spiked in her veins, surging like a flash flood. Excitement. Dread. Terror. All were accurate descriptors of the emotions battering her.

Her mouth went dry and she swallowed quickly.

“No. Next weekend is fine. I’ll arrange my work schedule so that I’m off the following week. The auction. What do I need to do?”

Damon smiled. “Not a thing. I’ll have my driver pick you up and take you to The House where your keeper will await you. He’ll assist you in readying yourself for the auction. You’ll remain under his care until I claim you.”

Desire thrummed heavy in her veins. Liquid heat pooled in her loins and simmered there, waiting to be stirred to greater heights.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked. It was something she’d already asked, but she couldn’t help the need to know more about this intriguing man.

“It’s very simple,” he said calmly. “I want you, Serena. I’ve wanted you since the moment we met. When I discovered that you were the one wanting a fantasy fulfilled, there was never a chance of me turning you over to another man.”

“And so I will be yours,” she murmured, liking the words—and their meaning.

“Yes. You will belong to me.”

Satisfaction glimmered in his brown eyes. They were dark, and warm with promise.

“Tell me, Serena. Have you opened yourself to the possibility of new and daring experiences? Have you given thought to precisely what it will mean to belong to a man? And not just any man, but what it will mean to belong to me?”

She paused as she stared back at him. “I think I’ve prepared myself for new experiences. I’m a little nervous because I don’t know how far a man—you—will take things. But I trust you. Maybe I shouldn’t, but you make me feel very at ease.”

“I’m glad,” he said in a soft voice. “I wouldn’t want you frightened of me.”