Tattooed Emotions

by Alicia Rae

  I ran off the porch and barreled forward at full speed toward the boy.

  “Did you hit him?” I screamed at Damien, outraged, as I inadvertently aimed the umbrella at him.

  His head whipped back on his shoulders as he came to an abrupt halt. “No, of course not!” Damien yelled.

  His gaze darted between my weapon and me, and I lowered my arm to my side.

  “What happened?” I cried, turning to face the boy.

  He must have been sixteen or seventeen years of age. He was a good half foot shorter than Damien but far too skinny.

  The boy cringed with fright, and he stared down at the ground.

  I instantly felt guilty. “I’m sorry,” I softly told him. “Are you okay?”

  He was quiet for a moment before making eye contact with me. “I-it wasn’t Damien.”

  My lips parted as I sucked in a gulp of air, and I looked to Damien for an answer. He pinched his brows together in a pure sign of distress and shook his head, as if saying not now.

  I gently rested my arm on the back of the boy’s shoulder and said, “Let me walk you in, and you can wash up, whatever you need.” My voice cracked, overcome with emotions.

  The three of us walked inside the house, and I dropped the umbrella to the ground before turning to see Damien staring at me.

  “Just what in the hell did you think you were going to do with that?”

  “Hit someone.” I shrugged, feeling slightly embarrassed. It had been better than going out empty-handed.

  “Right…” he drawled with a hint of amusement. “We’ll talk about that later.” He shifted his attention to the boy. “The bathroom is down that hall, first door on the right. You go shower, and I’ll find you some clean clothes and a first-aid kit.”

  “A-are you sure?” William stuttered at a loss, causing my chest to constrict.

  “Yes,” Damien answered without hesitation.

  “Why? Y-you don’t even know me.” William added, “Well, not really.”

  The tightness around my heart increased even more.

  Damien parted his lips to speak as a deep sense of pain quickly and powerfully flitted across his features. I felt winded from just witnessing it.

  No words came out.

  He snapped his mouth shut. An unreadable mask slipped over his face.

  Seconds felt like hours before Damien tried to talk again. “You’re always welcome in my home, William,” he declared with a warm gentleness I’d not heard him use toward anyone other than me before. “And now, you’re not going anywhere until I say so. I need to know you’re safe. I’ll make up a room for you.”

  William tucked his chin to his chest and slowly nodded. “Thank you.” He sniffled. “I appreciate your hospitality.”

  “There is no need to thank me, William.” Damien lightly squeezed the boy’s shoulder. “I’m glad you came to me.”

  “Me, too,” the boy said before walking off.

  I directed my confusion to Damien, wondering how and why he was welcoming a teenage boy he knew—but, somehow, didn’t really know—into his home. “Who is he?” I asked, breaking the silence first.

  Damien stared after William until he went down the hall and shut the door behind him. Turning his tortured grays on me, he said, “He’s my nephew.”

  Agony sliced through my heart, penetrating the depths of my soul. “Did…” I trailed off, unsure if I could ask the question burning holes in my mind, but I had to. “Did your brother do this to him?”

  He turned to look at me with void eyes. “He’s not my fucking brother.”

  “Okay…” I swallowed thickly. Understanding that he hadn’t meant to lash out at me, I let it go and corrected my error. “Is this your stepbrother’s doing?”

  “I’m not sure.” He stared at the hallway where William had disappeared. There were too many emotions on Damien’s face to place as he added, “But I’m going to find out.”

  As Damien cleared out one of the spare bedrooms, I searched every bathroom in the house to gather supplies for William. I took them with me and went to knock on the bathroom door. He’d been in there for an hour, and I was worried.

  “William, may I come in?” I asked quietly.

  I heard shuffling, and then the door opened. William stood before me and nervously shifted on his feet.

  I gazed up at him with gentle eyes and showed him what was in my hands. “I brought you some Neosporin, Band-Aids, and some other first-aid items.”

  “Thank you.”

  The cuts on his lip and eyebrow looked rather deep, and they were bleeding again from his recent shower, so I asked, “Would you like me to help?”

  “Sure.” He backed up into the space and allowed me to enter.

  Anxiety rolled off of him in dense waves as I set my supplies on the counter next to him.

  Since he was much taller than me, I went to the toilet and closed the lid. “Can you sit here, please?”

  When he did, I scooted the stuff over along with me. I glanced at the cut on his eyebrow again and restrained myself from wincing. My heart ached at the idea of someone hurting this young man.

  I opened the container of rubbing alcohol, tipped it over onto a cotton roll to saturate it, and then opened the package of sterile gauze and a butterfly Band-Aid.

  Carefully, I tended to his wound by patting the area. When he flinched away from me, I did, too, at the idea of causing him more pain. I kept my movements slow until it was clean, and then I dried it with gauze, noting his face was lightly dusted with freckles.

  “Is it going to leave a scar?” William asked, barely above a whisper.

  I gazed at the wound and then back at him again. I reached for the butterfly Band-Aid and applied it to the area. “I can’t be sure, but I hope not.”

  I started to clean the one-inch gash on his lip.

  William instantly recoiled at my touch. “Ouch.”

  I pulled back. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” He shook his head. “It’s not you. It just stings.”

  I waited a moment, unsure if I wanted to touch him again, knowing I would undoubtedly cause him more agony. After a moment of silence, he looked up at me with such pain that my chest constricted.

  “Did I make the right choice by coming here?” he queried. “Is my uncle a good man? Or is he like my father?” He stared past me, appearing lost in his own thoughts. “Because I’ve overheard stories…about him—about Damien, I mean.” His expression went grave. “I thought if I came to Damien, he’d understand what I was going through, that he might believe me and help me…even if no one else in my family did.”

  It took everything that I had inside not to reach forward and wrap this boy in my arms. The only reason that I didn’t was because I was terrified to frighten him off.

  I’d only known Damien for a short time, but I was certain he’d been terribly abused as a child. Now, to have William in front of me, suffering from the same maltreatment…it was shattering my soul into a million pieces.

  I might not know Damien as well as I hoped, but I was sure of one thing. “I’ll be completely honest with you, William,” I began, causing the boy to meet my gaze. “Damien has only been in my life for a short time, but I know, in my heart, that you are safe with him, and he’ll help you in any way that he can. He’s a good man.”

  William intently stared at me before asking, “Would you trust him with your own life?”

  “Yes,” I stated without missing a beat. It was true. I would.

  I lifted a Band-Aid and slowly moved toward him.

  He leaned far away from me and glanced at me with pleading eyes. “Then, promise me that you won’t let him take me back there.”

  My lips parted, and I inhaled a deep breath, so desperately longing to make that pledge to him. But the awful, sad truth was that it wasn’t my place to make it.

  “I promise,” rang loud and clear from the hallway with an unwavering determination. “You’re not leaving my sight until I’m positive you�
�ll be safe.”

  My breath hitched in my lungs as I turned to see Damien leaning against the hallway wall, watching us. The light from the bathroom illuminated the hard set of his jaw. Even full to the brim with rage, he was beautiful and strong.

  “Leave us.” Damien’s haunted eyes met mine. “Please. William and I need to talk.”

  I nodded with the Band-Aid still in my hand. “Of course. Just let me—”

  “It’s okay,” William said. “You can leave that one off. I wouldn’t be able to move my mouth with it on.”

  I walked over to the door where I met Damien at the threshold.

  He gently caught my wrist. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I replied quietly before reaching up on my toes to place a reassuring soft kiss on his lips. “I’ll wait upstairs.”

  Going up the staircase and into Damien’s bedroom, I crawled into bed and slipped beneath the covers where I tossed and turned as I waited and waited and waited for him to return.

  It must have been a solid two hours before I felt him enter the room. Tension and anger and sadness rippled outward into the space as he neared. The bed dipped, and he eased toward me.

  Flipping on his side, he rested his leg and arm over me, caging me in. He pressed his nose into my hair, and I heard his unsteady breaths as I lay on my back.

  I wanted to ask him if he was okay or if he wanted to talk about it, but I could tell by his demeanor that he didn’t. So, I tightly held him with one arm while lifting my spare one to tenderly stroke his hair, letting him find comfort in holding me.

  There was no chemistry brewing between us in this moment. It was just him and me as I tried to soothe him and offer him some sort of solace with my presence.

  “Thank you,” I finally murmured at last, unable to stay quiet.

  “For what?”

  There were so many reasons that I was thankful for the way he’d handled William tonight—for not sending him back to an abusive home, for opening his own home to a scared teenager, regardless of the consequences of his actions, but most of all, for vowing to help William and keep him out of harm’s way.

  Damien might not have told me much of who he was, but tonight, he’d shown me the kind of man he was. And it was the kind of person I admired deeply.

  I said none of those things though because there would be another time to talk about them. Right now, all I could say without bursting into tears was, “For being you.”

  I hadn’t seen Damien since Saturday morning when I kissed him good-bye, so he could continue to work things out with William without me being in the way. Damien had tried to reason with me to stay, but something inside of me had told me that they needed some alone time together. It had been a hard decision to make, but it felt right. William needed his uncle.

  Damien had kept me up-to-date with phone calls and texts throughout the workweek. He’d conversed with his attorney and with William’s mom, Suzanne, once William had agreed to fill her in. She had come to Damien’s house, alone, so they could all talk on neutral ground. She’d agreed to let William stay with Damien for a week while she contacted her own attorney about how to proceed with her husband’s abuse toward their son.

  The whole ordeal saddened me dearly. It had to have been such an unbearably traumatic experience for William. I hadn’t pried for any details on the subject since I was trying to respect everyone’s privacy. I’d let Damien tell me only what he wanted, and I’d let him know that I was there for him in any way that he needed me.

  In truth, I missed him more than I’d ever thought possible, but I completely understood that William and his mother needed Damien more than me.

  Friday morning had come and gone in the blink of an eye as Tim and I tried our best to keep up on all the clients of Adam & Jennings, including Cale’s accounts, too. I had yet to hear a word from him, but at this point, I was counting it as a blessing because I was beyond stressed.

  Tim and I were knee-deep in searching through accounting records for a new client when a knock sounded at my door.

  “Come in,” I said, glancing up at the clock to see that it was nearly one in the afternoon.

  The biggest grin spread across my face when Damien entered the room, carrying a clear bag in his hand.

  “I have a private Subway delivery for a certain sexy sandy-blonde haired girl who happens to be mine,” Damien hummed from the back of his throat with a grin. Then, he instantly paused several feet away from me when he took in the piles and piles of documents surrounding Tim and me on the floor. “Wow. That is a lot of paper.”

  “Careful. Don’t knock any of them over.” I laughed and quirked a brow at him.

  He hadn’t mentioned anything to me about stopping by today.

  “You brought me lunch?” I asked in awe, realizing I was on the verge of starving.

  “It’s not a five-course meal or anything, but it’s food,” he countered, stepping in between the stacks of documents to get to me. “Where in the hell are we going to sit?”

  I was in desperate need of some alone time with Damien even if we just ate our sandwiches together, so I kindly told Tim, “Why don’t you go take a lunch break, and we can dive back in when you return?”

  Tim frowned and argued, “But, Raelyn, we still have to finish this new account.”

  “Yes, but we need to refuel, or we won’t get much accomplished.”

  “But the clock’s ticking, and Mr. Kline wanted to hear back from you tonight.”

  “And he will,” I stated.

  Damien gave Tim what I presumed to be a don’t-fuck-with-me glare and said, “Take a hike, buddy.”

  Tim leaped to his feet and peered down at me. I could tell he was stifling his irritation at the intrusion.

  “All right. I’ll be back by one thirty,” Tim said.

  “Two,” Damien countered, domineering as ever.

  Tim looked at me for confirmation, so I said, “Two o’clock, Tim.”

  Tim gave me a curt nod and sighed. “Two, it is.”

  “Wise choice,” Damien murmured under his breath.

  Tim left the room and closed the door behind him. Damien backtracked to flip the lock. I almost asked him why he’d locked it, but I figured that he wanted me all to himself with no interruptions.

  I still couldn’t help but grin at him as he closed the space between us. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re extremely stubborn and determined?”

  “All the time.” Damien’s expression reflected my own, but his was slightly more devious as he lowered into Tim’s former spot.

  “I’m not surprised,” I teased, snatching the Subway bag from him to peek inside. “What did you bring me?”

  I pulled out two subs. Damien gently took his from me, and we both began to pull off the wrappers.

  “Well, I know that you love anything with chicken, so I ordered you a chicken, bacon, and ranch sandwich.” He smiled gently at me. “I hope you like it.”

  “You can never go wrong with that combination. Just the thought of it is making my mouth water.” I took a big bite off the end.

  Damien watched my mouth as I chewed. His eyes darkened with unmistakable heat. “Don’t say things like that to me when I haven’t buried myself in you for seven long days.”

  I rolled my eyes and kept eating. That was such a guy thing to say. “I’m sure you’ll survive.”

  “I won’t…for much longer, so I suggest you eat fast,” he demanded. Then, he engulfed a bite of his sandwich.

  “You’d better be joking.” I gaped at him as if he’d lost his mind.

  He ignored me as he continued to devour his sub. Then, he said, “Oh, I can assure you, I’m not.”

  Deciding it was better to let it go than to argue with him, which would undoubtedly lead to him taking me in my office, I went back to satisfying my rumbling stomach.

  Once we were finished, we put our empty wrappers back into the Subway bag. I was thrilled to see that I still had Damien for another forty minutes until Tim ret
urned.

  Damien moved our garbage off to the side. Then, he picked up a stack of papers in the middle of us and lifted them to place them on the side of my desk behind us.

  “So, what’s with all the accounting papers? And why does a new client expect you to be finished by tonight?” Damien asked, scooting closer to me.

  “Mr. Kline has made some hefty demands.” I groaned in exasperation and laid my head in Damien’s lap.

  “Then, tell him no.” He ran his fingers through my hair.

  It felt so good to feel his hands on me after going so long without his touch.

  “I would have if he hadn’t offered me such an outrageous sum of money for rushed services.”

  “Then, you’ve dug your own hole, gorgeous girl.” Damien chuckled.

  I couldn’t argue with him there, so I sighed and told him, “I sure did.”

  I closed my eyes and reveled in his touch, perfectly content in his arms, even though I should have been getting back to work. It was going to be a long afternoon. Hopefully, with Tim’s help, we’d maintain a steady pace and be done by six or so.

  “Do you have plans for tomorrow night?” Damien asked out of the blue.

  “No.”

  “I was hoping you’d accompany me to a charity that I have to make an appearance at.”

  “I’d love to.” I smiled, excited to spend time with him tomorrow. “Do you attend many of those?”

  “No, Heathman Enterprises makes regular donations to many, but I don’t have the time to go to them all.” His eyes seemed to drift off until he finally added, “Only a select few.”

  The fact that he wanted me with him at this particular one piqued my interest, but then I thought of his nephew being alone, so I asked, “What about William?”

  The slightest stiffness that spread throughout Damien’s body did not go unnoticed by me. “He’s leaving with his mom in the morning.”

  “Oh.” I frowned, hoping he’d elaborate just a tiny bit. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes. At least, I hope so. Suzanne and William are going to her sister’s house in Orlando.” He propped his back against the desk. “Suzanne filed for a divorce from my stepbrother this week, and she also filed a restraining order for her and William.”