CHAPTER TEN – THE EVENING AFTER THE DINNER
1595 Words
Her heels echoed softly down the hallway as she walked away, the doors sliding closed between them.
Damien exhaled through his nose, watching the glowing panel above count up to his floor.
When the elevator stopped again, he stepped out into the quiet solitude of the penthouse.
Chloe slipped off her heels the moment she entered her suite, padding barefoot across the plush carpet. She set her purse down, poured herself a glass of water, and sank onto the sofa with a long exhale.
Tonight had gone exactly as she planned — maybe even better. Clara was rattled. Damien was unsettled. And the Sterlings… oh, they were watching her now.
She sipped her water, lips curving faintly. Round one: Chloe.
After having her bath Chloe threw herself on the bed, and groaned softly. The night had been chaos, and she hadn’t even had time to check her phone. When she finally did, her stomach sank — eleven missed calls, all from Vittoria.
“Damn it,” Chloe muttered.
She dialed back quickly. The line barely rang before Tori’s voice burst through, sharp and indignant.
“Chloe Valentina De Luca! Are you out of your mind? I’ve been calling you all night! Where were you?”
Chloe winced, holding the phone a little away from her ear. “Relax, Tori, I’m fine—”
“Fine?!” Vittoria’s accent thickened with every word. “You vanish for hours in a city like London, no messages, no nothing? I thought you were dead in an alley!”
Chloe sighed, rubbing her forehead. She could lie. Or she could tell the truth — well, part of it. “I was… on a date.”
Silence. Then Tori exploded.
“…A what?!”
“A date,” Chloe repeated carefully.
“With who?”
Chloe let out a soft laugh “So I was at the Sterling Court for dinner with the family.” She paused for a while making Tori impatient “Yes of course you had dinner… wait did you say Sterling Court? Like the Sterling Court I know and everyone in this city knows about?” She asked in delight.
Chloe hummed in reply. “The Sterling’s business is good, they don’t have any financial problem. So why would they invite you for dinner?”
“Uhm I actually went there as Damien’s girlfriend.” Chloe replied
“What? Like the famous Damien Sterling?”
Chloe hesitated, then exhaled. “Yes the one and only Damien Sterling.”
Vittoria shrieked so loudly Chloe had to pull the phone away again. “Dio mio! You mean the Damien Sterling? The man whose face is on every business magazine? You’ve been in London for one week and already—!”
“It wasn’t like that,” Chloe cut in quickly. “It wasn’t planned. I didn’t even want to go.”
“Then why did you?”
Chloe bit her lip, thinking back to Damien’s brooding face at the table, his family’s sharp stares, Clara’s smug smile. Her answer came out softer than she intended. “Because he needed me.”
Vittoria went quiet for a moment, then said slowly, “Needed you… how?”
Chloe leaned back against the sofa, staring at the ceiling. “He asked me to pretend once before. I said no. But tonight, when it mattered most… I changed my mind.”
“Oh my, tell me every detail from how you meet up to the date.”
Chloe started to narrate her meeting Damien up until the date and her plans of attending the gala with him.
“What! this kind of thing happened since you came to London but you didn’t care to inform me?” Tori whined
“I didn’t expect it to get to this, he was just a passer-by.”
Another pause, then a groan from Tori. “Cara mia, you’re playing with fire. Damien Sterling isn’t a man you play pretend with.”
Chloe forced a laugh. “It’s temporary. After the gala, I’m gone. Back to Italy, back to normal.”
Vittoria snorted. “Normal? You’ve just declared yourself girlfriend to London’s most untouchable bachelor. Normal packed its bags the moment you opened your mouth at that dinner table.”
Chloe smiled faintly despite herself. “You worry too much.”
“And you don’t worry enough,” Tori shot back. Then, softening, “Just… promise me you know what you’re doing.”
Chloe’s smile dimmed. “Of course.”
But when she hung up and set the phone aside, the echo of her own voice rang hollow in her ears.
Damien had just stepped into his penthouse when the doorbell chimed. With a curse, he yanked it open.
Nathan leaned casually against the frame, smirk firmly in place. “Evening, boss.”
Before Damien could shut the door, Logan slipped past with a bottle of whiskey and Ethan followed with two bags of takeout. On Nathan’s phone, Adrian’s face grinned from the screen, the office lights of Italy glowing behind him.
“Surprise,” Adrian drawled. “Word travels fast, fratello. A girlfriend? And you didn’t bother to tell me?”
Damien’s jaw tightened. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
Nathan dropped onto the sofa, grinning wide. “Could’ve fooled everyone at dinner. ‘I’m Chloe, Damien’s girlfriend.’ That delivery was Oscar-worthy.”
Logan chuckled, pouring himself a glass of whiskey. “And you just sat there. Didn’t deny her once.”
Damien stalked toward the counter, voice clipped. “Because it was convenient. She ambushed me.”
Ethan raised a brow. “Convenient? Or necessary? Nathan told us the full story. You asked her once to pretend, she turned you down. Then tonight she shows up, demands the address, and does exactly what she said she wouldn’t. You let her.”
Adrian laughed, swirling his wine. “Sounds like she played you, brother.”
Damien glared. “It’s temporary. After the gala, it’s over. And besides she is not the kind of lady I would want to date.”
“Uh-huh,” Logan smirked. “Keep saying that.”
“‘Not the kind of lady you want to date?’ what do you mean?” Ethan asked intrigued.
“She is wild that’s all.” Damien replied
“Hmm.” They all hummed in unison.
Nathan leaned forward, eyes glinting. “So, how was the ride home?”
Damien exhaled sharply, dragging a hand down his face. “A nightmare. Clara and Chloe nearly clawed each other to pieces in the backseat. If I had to sit through one more polite insult, I’d have thrown them both out.”
Nathan burst out laughing. “You were stuck between them? Oh, I wish I’d been there.”
Adrian’s chuckle came through the phone. “Let me guess—Clara tried to stake her claim, and Chloe tore her apart?”
Damien’s scowl deepened. “Something like that. Both of them were insufferable.”
“But Chloe won,” Logan said simply, smirk tugging at his lips.
Damien’s silence was answer enough.
Ethan leaned back, amusement flickering in his eyes. “Face it, Damien. She’s in your game now, and you’re already playing by her rules.”
Damien slammed his glass onto the counter, voice low and hard. “It’s pretend. Nothing more.”
Adrian raised his glass on screen, smirking. “Then why do you sound so rattled?”
Nathan clapped his hands together. “Gentlemen, I think we’ve just witnessed history. Damien Sterling — outmaneuvered by a woman.”
Their laughter filled the penthouse, while Damien turned toward the window, jaw tight, refusing to give them the satisfaction of a response.
Chloe sat curled on the sofa, her glass of water resting untouched on the table. The suite was quiet, but her mind wasn’t.
Vittoria’s voice still echoed from their call. You don’t play pretend with a man like Damien Sterling.
She should’ve laughed it off. Normally, she would. But tonight had unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.
She replayed the evening in her mind: Isabella’s sharp questions, Eleanor’s probing smile, Clara’s perfectly rehearsed charm. And Damien — tense, furious, caught between them all.
She hadn’t planned this. Not really. She had come back to London for work — to turn a failing company around, to prove herself yet again. The last thing she needed was to get entangled in Sterling family politics.
And yet here she was.
Chloe exhaled, pressing her forehead lightly against the back of the sofa. It was necessary, she told herself. Damien had looked cornered, and for reasons she didn’t fully understand, she’d stepped in. One word, one declaration, and suddenly the room belonged to her.
It was supposed to be pretend. Just pretend.
Her gaze drifted to the glittering skyline beyond the window. London. The city that had once been a cage and now, perhaps, a stage. She hadn’t come back for Damien Sterling. She’d come back for business, for herself.
And yet his face lingered in her mind. That look in his eyes when she claimed him. Fury, yes — but also something else. Something he hadn’t said.
Chloe rose and walked to the window, her reflection staring back at her, calm and unreadable. Exactly as she needed to be.
Tomorrow, the game would continue. The shopping trip with Eleanor, Isabella — and Clara. Another test she’d have to pass.
She smirked faintly at her reflection. “It’s just business,” she whispered.
But for the first time, she wasn’t sure she believed it.
- Writer
