by Lynda Chance
“Damian—” Angie began.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Angie,” Caiden interjected from where he still sat on the sofa. “Tell him the truth.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed, the veins in his neck bulged, and he looked ready to flip a switch. Angie glanced down at Caiden. “Don’t make it worse—”
“I’m trying to make it better. We don’t need any animosity here. Jesus Christ, my father’s probably going to marry his mother—”
“What?” Damian shouted, turning an even colder shade of pissed.
“Damian!” Angie screamed, “Calm down!”
Damian clenched his fists. “I want to know why you’re in here with him, alone, and somebody best start with some satisfactory answers or there’s going to be hell to pay,” he threatened, pulling her within the circle of his arms as he spoke. He spun her around, until her back was pressing against his chest and his arms around her waist were like bands of steel. Angie couldn’t see him in this position, but she knew his next words were directed to Caiden. “You see her, asshole?”
Angie almost cringed when she saw Caiden’s face pale. “I see her.”
“She’s mine,” Damian hissed with barely controlled violence.
Caiden wore an expression that clearly said he couldn’t believe what was going down. “Dude, I don’t want her.”
After that, everything happened at once.
The library door opened, and both Damian’s mother and Rick walked inside. Damian didn’t even seem to notice as his attention stayed focused on Caiden. “No? Why the fuck were you holding onto her hand like you had a goddamn right to it?” At the same time Damian growled the question, Angie felt a strong surge of testosterone rise up within his muscles and she knew he was about to set her aside and make a lunge for Caiden.
Caiden must have felt the imminent threat as well, because he opened his mouth to begin defending himself. Angie knew what words were about to come from his lips; he was about to tell Damian the truth about his sexuality, but he never had the chance.
Rick took in the scene with a single glance and strode over until he stood just beside the couch, next to his son. Angie knew what he was seeing, what he was hearing, what Damian’s mother was seeing as well. It must have been clear to everyone in the room that Damian and Angie’s relationship was anything but casual. Busted. Damian had his arms wrapped around her as if he owned her and everything about her.
Angie knew without looking that the jealousy she could hear in Damian’s voice had to be reflected on his face and in his physical bearing. So, it was no surprise when Rick snarled at Damian, “Back off.” With that, he placed his hand on Caiden’s shoulder in a defensive posture and continued to stare Damian down. “My son isn’t interested in your woman. He’s gay. Leave him the fuck alone.”
Angie felt the tension slowly drain from Damian’s body, but then another more subtle kind of nerves took over his system. The immediate threat to his woman neutralized, Angie knew that Damian was now taking in the dynamics of the other people in the room and what that meant to him.
Caiden glanced up at his father and his father down at him, and suddenly, Angie realized they were being made privy to a meeting that should be private.
Caiden rose to his feet, and after an abbreviated, awkward moment, he and Rick embraced.
When they’d released each other, Damian cleared his throat and questioned, “You’re gay?” Angie froze in his arms and with a reaction she couldn’t control, shoved her arm backward until her elbow made a satisfying thump into Damian’s abdomen.
Caiden saw the motion, smiled, and nodded his head. “Angie and I are only friends.” He held Damian’s eyes as if feeling him out, and then, cautiously, he held out his hand. “Caiden Harris.”
Damian retained one arm around Angie, reciprocating with his right hand. “Damian Rule.”
The two men shook hands. From Angie’s new viewpoint by Damian’s side, she saw when he then held his hand out to Rick, but it wasn’t automatically taken.
Rick crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at Damian. Then he transferred his gaze to Angie, and with a very paternal expression on his face, he asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said with a small smile. “This is Damian,” she said to Rick, trying again to get him to shake Damian’s hand, “he’s Justine’s oldest son.”
“I figured as much,” Rick said as he finally shook Damian’s hand, but with little warmth. “You go off a bit half-cocked with no real justification, don’t you?” Rick challenged as Justine Rule slid up next to him.
She’d been standing close to the library door taking everything in, but now she stood next to Rick and studied her son as if he’d grown an extra head. She looked between Damian and Angie, back and forth and then again as if truly stumped. “I’m trying to figure this out.”
When Damian shrugged his shoulders in silence, his mother turned to Rick and changed the direction of the conversation, if only for a moment. “Why didn’t you tell me your son is gay? Don’t you think it might have saved him an uncomfortable experience? I didn’t have to try to match him up with every single woman here tonight.” Without waiting for an answer, she turned to Caiden, “I’m sorry, darling.”
“It’s no problem. I understand. And as Angie has known me for a while,” he shot a dark look at Damian, “it’s not that big of a deal.”
Being reminded of Angie made Damian’s mother turn in their direction again with a quizzical frown. “Angie darling, have you been lying to me by omission?”
Angie took a deep breath and confessed, “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry.”
“Well, you’re forgiven of course, but why would you do that?” Before Angie could form an answer, Mrs. Rule glanced at Damian. “Never mind, darling. I know why you did it.” The older woman looked a little hurt, and Damian had the good grace to flush.
“Mother,” Damian began, and then cleared his throat.
“Yes?” his mother asked, as if her feelings weren’t hurt at all.
Damian glanced at the other two men in the room, and Angie knew that neither one of them was ready to take pity on him and leave—not after the way he’d acted. Looking back to his mother, he said, “I’m sorry that I misled you.”
“Misled, darling?” she prompted in the most genteel voice that Angie had ever heard.
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” Damian qualified.
Mrs. Rule inclined her head graciously and Damian continued, “I’d like to introduce you once again, to Angie Ross, my … my—”
Mrs. Rule schooled her features into a perfectly neutral expression and Angie cracked up on the inside as she and the older woman shared a quick peek at each other before his mother asked, “Your what, Damian?”
Damian knew he’d been made, that much was evident by the look on his face. “My woman. My girlfriend. My better half.” He stopped speaking and pulled Angie all the way back into his arms again before continuing, “The woman who drives me crazy. The woman who makes me want to kill innocent men.” Angie was experiencing a hot rush of butterflies in her stomach while Damian threw a look at Caiden. “Sorry about that.” Caiden shrugged and Damian looked back to his mother. “How much more do you want me to say? She’s the reason I’m not interested in any of the women you throw in my direction, she’s the reason I cut my trip short by three days.” He took a deep breath. “Is that enough or do you want me to go on? She’s the one who calms me down, makes me happy, sleeps in my—”
Justine Rule held up her hand. “That’s enough, darling. Your mother gets the picture,” she said humorously. With that, she went to Damian and Angie stepped aside as Mrs. Rule hugged her son and then hugged Angie in turn. “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” She asked them both.
Angie responded with a smile and shook her head, but Damian only grimaced.
Justine turned to the group as a whole. “We’ve gotten a lot cleared up tonight. I won’t be trying to fix Caiden up anymore. Well, at least not with any women,” she sa
id with a smile in his direction, “and I’ll try not to mess up in the future with any of my other children as I did with Damian. It’s best that I just stay out of their personal lives, I think. I was going to try to get Courtney and Nick together, but I’ve learned from my mistakes. Instead, I’ll leave my son alone and find some other nice young men for her to choose from.”
“Mother—” Damian began to interject.
“What, darling?”
“Never mind. I’m sure you know what’s best.”
“I’m sure I do.”
Chapter Ten
After the party, as they both had their vehicles, Damian followed Angie to her apartment. He thought about the scene in the library during the entire drive. For what it was worth, he supposed his mother had been right. It hadn’t been that bad.
His mother knew about them now, and as she liked Angie, it finally dawned on him that now she’d really leave him alone; she wouldn’t try her damn matchmaking skills anymore.
And that had to be a good thing.
So why did he still feel as if he had acid burning in his stomach that wouldn’t go away?
He continued to contemplate the matter. Maybe it had worked out. Maybe he’d had nothing to be upset about to begin with. The dude had been gay. But Damian had had thirty minutes to stew after his brother’s phone call and warning. He’d had half an hour to imagine the worst-case scenario, which was Angie, with another man.
The burn in his stomach intensified. He tried to breathe it out. As he parked the car and followed Angie upstairs, he tried to reason with himself. It had been a simple misunderstanding. A miscommunication. That was all. She hadn’t done anything wrong, she hadn’t been unfaithful in any way.
So why the hell was he so keyed up?
Deep down, he knew the answer. It was because he didn’t have the right. He didn’t have a one-hundred percent, no questions asked, no holes barred, absolute, unequivocal right to Angie’s thoughts. To her body. To her person.
And that’s what he wanted.
That’s what the fuck he wanted with her.
And there was only one way he was going to get it.
So, he’d start work on that problem tomorrow. But for now, it had been four days since he’d had her alone. Four days since he’d held her naked. Four days since he’d pushed inside and demanded her complete surrender.
Yeah. Fuck yeah. Everything else could wait. He wanted what he wanted and he wanted it now.
****
He was acting like he was still pissed but Angie didn’t think he was. But he was definitely behaving differently.
She’d expected him to follow her up to her apartment and lay down his ultimatum that she move in with him. She knew that was what he wanted, but that wasn’t what he seemed interested in at the moment.
Granted, it had been four days since they’d seen each other.
She had a clear view from where she stood at the dinette as he shut and bolted the front door. He reached down and pulled the polo over his head and tossed it aside. Her eyes dropped to the ridges of his abdomen and she sucked in a breath. He kept getting hotter every freakin’ day.
He pushed off his shoes and socks, and pulled the belt from around his waist, letting it drop to the floor. Without taking his eyes from her, he crossed the few steps until he was in standing directly in front of her. Encircling her wrist with his fingers, he pulled her into the bedroom and over to the bed.
Angie licked her lips as fire swept through her body. “You’ve got a one-track mind tonight, don’t you?”
“I don’t know, do I?” he asked softly, almost dangerously.
She swallowed deeply and nodded her head.
Reaching for her hips, he lifted her dress to her waist and pulled her panties down and off. Tossing them aside, he tipped her chin up with one finger. “Let’s talk about what you did tonight. We’ll start with the good shit.” His eyes held hers as he ran his fingers into her hair, in a clasp that held her captive. “I’ve thought this through and I realize you were alone with him because of what my mother did. She’d been throwing women at him the entire night, right?”
When Angie nodded her head, he continued, “So you were comforting him, because you were the only one who knew he was gay, is that right?”
She cleared her throat. “Yeah, pretty much. I was also telling him that his father already knows about his sexuality. I sort of figured out that Caiden didn’t think his father knew he was gay and I was, you know, breaking the news to him.”
“Well, that was a compassionate thing to do,” he said, after a pause, but in a monotone voice.
“I think so,” she said with a hint of defensiveness. “I had to debate about it for a bit.”
Damian continued, “So I want you to know that I appreciate how sweet you are. What a good person you are—”
Angie could feel it coming. “But?”
“But, the thing is, I don’t give a rat’s ass if he’s gay. Granted, the fact that he’s gay is the only thing that saved him from going to the emergency room tonight, but as far as you’re concerned, you can’t be alone with him. Him or any other gay man. You got that?”
“Why?” she questioned.
“Why?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard her correctly.
“Yes, why?”
His fingers tightened in her scalp. “Because gay men have penises. They have balls.” His voice hardened, “Too many of them are bisexual. Trust me, if any woman in the world could turn a gay man straight, it would be you, baby.”
Angie stood within his grasp and listened in amazement. It was obvious to her that his opinion came from a heterosexual viewpoint. A very hetero viewpoint. So hetero that he was unable to see that gay men were just that, gay. She could try to explain it to him, she could argue that just as he wasn’t sexually interested in other men, gay men weren’t sexually interested in women. But the problem was, Angie knew it would go in one ear and out the other. Damian wouldn’t get it. Not because he wasn’t intelligent, but because he was so male.
She remained silent as all of that ran through her head and he continued, “Besides, let’s talk about the party for a minute.” His mouth flattened. “Suppose a straight man saw you walk off with him, undoubtedly to be alone. Suppose that straight man didn’t know the guy was gay. You know what he would think?”
“What would he think?” she asked, wondering at the depth of how Damian’s mind worked.
“He’d think that you were up for grabs. He’d think that maybe he had a chance at you, too.” His expression clouded in anger. “So, next thing you know, you’ve got straight men hitting up on you because they think you’re available.”
“Damian—”
“Be careful, Angie,” he warned softly.
“You’re taking this a little too far,” she argued.
“Am I?”
She nodded her head.
“I don’t think so.” His chin jutted out. “I’m telling you how I feel, I’m telling you what I expect.” He pushed forward, his torso aligning with hers in a sharp movement. “And I’m telling you that you can’t be alone with any man. Not one. Not a single fucking man is acceptable.
“My father—”
“Fine. Your father,” he spit out. “If I ever meet him, I’ll have to trust him not to be a perverted fuck. But nobody else. Gay is not an excuse to be alone with a man, already married is for damn fucking sure not an excuse. No-fucking-body gets to be alone with you, understand me?”
She stared at him and he kept talking. “If I catch you alone with a man again, I’m going to beat the living shit out of him, and you—”
“What about me, Damian?” She questioned him without moving a muscle. She was absolutely enthralled but she wasn’t going to admit it. “What would you do?”
“You’re about to find out, baby.”
With the threat hanging between them, Angie didn’t have long to wait for Damian’s next move. He reached down, and with one fell swoop, he peeled her sundress over her he
ad and dropped it to the floor. As the dress was lined and he’d already taken her underwear, she stood naked except for her high heels. Her pulse quivered and picked up speed as he stared down at her bare skin. A rush of blood tinged his face as a tic began beating erratically in his cheek.
His hands fell to her waist and he pulled her hips into his with a quick show of aggression. “You know what four fucking days without you does to me?”
As his hands slid down and bit into her hips, a rush of wet heat pooled between her thighs. “Turns you into a mad man?” she managed.
His hands moved back up, following the curve of her waist, and then caressed back down again. “You think it’s funny, but I’m telling you it’s unacceptable.” As he spoke, his nostrils flared and he let go of her with one hand to begin removing the rest of his clothing. He pushed his pants and boxers down with one quick motion and stepped out of them. Completely naked now, his hands fell back to her hips and his erection sprang up between them.
Reaching up with one strong hand, he wrapped it around the back of her neck and squeezed, pulling her hair and pressing her chin up so he could reach her lips. He stared down into her eyes with burning need. “You don’t have a fucking clue how I feel about you, do you?”
Her lungs seized up and her heart almost stopped beating. She became paralyzed with anticipation and need.
“There’s a reason I get so crazy.” His pupils dilated. “There’s a reason I’m so fucked-up about you.”
Angie’s breath hitched as she continued to stare into his eyes while she tried not to faint. His words stalled and her pulse beat loudly in her ears as she waited.
His hands clenched around her and with a sudden growl from deep in his chest, he picked her up, dropped her to the bed and came over her, pushing his legs between her thighs and pressing his torso against hers. Grabbing her hands in his, he spread his fingers through hers until their palms were pressed together. He raised them over her head and held her hands to the mattress. A wave of dizzy delight rushed down her spine. He transferred both hands to one of his and brought the other down between them, where he guided his penis to her wet opening.