Chapter 22
EvanAnn
“Our parents are out.” Damon opens the car door for me. He rode over to Cam’s, and he and Hawk followed me home like Damon said he would. Hawk split off from us to go home. Apparently his parents are in town. I look at the house and grab my bag. It’s late.
My head is still spinning from talking with Hawk and Cam. Could what we have be more?
Damon leads me into our house. We take the back stairs to our rooms. When we walk into my room, I set my backpack next to my desk as he locks the door.
I can’t look at him to say what I need to say. Not after he claimed me in front of Olivia. It feels like I’m trying to let him down, but that isn’t the case.
I’ve been worried about this ending, but I never thought it would keep going. That they would want to make us something more official. How would that even work? I’m going to have three boyfriends?
I was thrilled to just have one a few weeks ago. The problem isn’t being with them.
The problem is school. If I thought living with Damon would be bad at school, having the Devil’s trio as boyfriends will be ten times worse.
But will it? There’s a part of me that wants to believe this could be something more and that it could be as easy as it was to fall into bed with them.
Right now, we need time to discuss this. We need time for Damon to get his revenge on Chase. And that means I can’t be theirs yet. Not in school. Not anywhere but here.
“You can’t claim me at school, Damon. I’ve thought this over and it’s not going to go well. Not with Chase and Olivia still in power. It just won’t work.”
“Why not?” He closes in behind me and runs his hands up my sides, drawing me back into him. This man. His touch. Everything.
I melt, because how can I not? “Olivia won’t say anything. She wouldn’t want to admit that I have you. You can tell her you were just messing around.”
“I wasn’t.” He pushes my hair off my nape and presses his lips against the sensitive skin. My breath catches. Already I want to turn into him and let him take me to bed. That’s where we make sense. That’s where we belong together.
“Don’t you want your revenge?” I turn to him and he grabs the back of my neck, but I’m not trying to get away. I search his eyes. “Don’t you want Chase to pay for everything he’s done? I thought that was the whole point of this.”
I gesture to my room. He runs his thumb along my jawline.
“Chase has lost you. He just doesn’t know it yet.” His blue eyes search mine. “You’re ours, and it’s time he knows he can’t have what’s mine.”
“But—”
He cuts me off with a kiss. I sink into it but try to hold back a little. When I don’t part my lips, he presses small kisses along my jawline. I tip my chin up to give him more access.
I groan because he’s making it hard to think. “Damon.”
“Evan.” He lifts his head. “I know what I’m doing.”
I put my hand over his heart. It beats so hard against my palm. Searching his blue eyes, I want to give in to him so badly. To be his. To go out at lunch and sit with him, Hawk, and Cam. To not have to pretend to be happy with my life the way it was.
“What are you doing, Damon?” I ask softly. “Why now? Is this because of Jacks—”
“I’m protecting you.” He traces his thumb over my lower lip as he tracks the movement.
“Why?”
“Because no one else does.” His eyes turn hard and focus on mine.
My breath catches and my heart thumps hard.
“Not even the people who should protect you.” He undoes my tie and drops it on the ground. “I watch you, Evan. I know your life.”
He’s wrong.
“You don’t—”
“I’ve watched you be alone a whole week. If we hadn’t shown up, it would have been only you. No mom. No boyfriend. No friends. Fuck, Evan. You belong to us, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you. You don’t have anyone else. Let me take care of you.”
I can’t speak. What can I say to that? But he doesn’t understand my life at all.
“You caught a glimpse of my life. That’s not my whole life. My mom works.”
“She was here every night. How do you think I got in to place the cameras? Why do you defend her?”
“Because we lost my dad, and it tore her apart.” I pull away from him, but he follows me, backing me against the wall and unbuttoning my shirt.
“Stop, Damon.” I don’t grab for his hands though.
But I do search his eyes. “You should know what it’s like.
To watch your parent get sicker until you know it’s going to end.
That there’s nothing left for you to do but prepare yourself.
She didn’t just lose my dad. She lost her life partner.
The man she planned to spend the rest of her life with.
How was I supposed to demand she pay attention to me when she needed to take care of my dying father? ” Tears stream down my face.
Those last months were so hard. I went to school, but I didn’t live. Every piece of me was grieving and waiting for the end. I lost weight. I barely slept. I’d go into their room at night to make sure he was still breathing.
Holding my breath as I waited for my dad’s chest to rise.
I brush the tears away, but they don’t stop. Damon’s brow furrows, but he doesn’t stop unbuttoning my shirt.
“I took care of me so she didn’t need to. After he died, we had to deal with the bills and her having to work after she hadn’t been able to. So yes, she got used to me being on my own, and so did I. I’m okay taking care of myself so she doesn’t have to.”
He pushes my shirt off my arms as I brush the tears away again.
His voice is low when he asks, “What about Chase? Where was he that first week of school? Where was he when we pushed into your house?”
“He was busy. He had football—”
“And fucking around on you.” He undoes my bra.
“He’s a bad example, but you know that.” I take a breath as he bares my breasts.
“He should have been there with you.” Damon reaches beneath my skirt and pulls my panties down. “If you were mine, I would have been there with you. Even though you weren’t mine yet, I was there.”
I suck in a breath as his gaze meets mine, holding me pinned in place.
“I spent every night watching your every move.” He grabs the back of his t-shirt and strips it off, dropping it in the pile of clothes.
His jeans come off next as I press my hands against the wall to keep from reaching for him.
“I noticed you. I watched you. We worked together. Ate together. Got off together. Slept together.”
My breath catches as he stands naked before me. I only have on my skirt, but I don’t move to take it off. I can’t breathe. He was there with me. He’s been here with me every night. I haven’t been alone and neither has he. We’ve had each other.
My heart pounds as I search his eyes.
He stands before me, breathing for both of us.
“I don’t know when it happened, Evan, but you became part of my life. The part I look forward to.” He brushes his thumb down the track of my tear. “I’m not about to let you go. Someone else isn’t going to take you from me. I can’t protect you unless you let me, little devil.”
I step forward into his arms, surrendering. I’m so fucking tired. So done having to carry everything. When he lifts me, I wrap my legs around his waist. He brings me into his room. Our room.
He lays me down on the bed, following me down and capturing my lips. My insides are always on fire when I’m near him. When he reaches between us and notches his cock at my entrance, he lifts his head. Our eyes lock as he eases inside me. Connecting us on a primal level.
“You’re mine. Every fucking inch of you. Stop denying me.” He fills me so fucking full of him. My lips part on a gasp.
I thread my fingers through his hair and drag his mouth down to mine. It’s insane. In here, we work, but out there in the real world no one will accept this. Yes, if we were just fucking around, people would nod, because that might make sense.
The Devil’s trio fucks girls, but they don’t have girlfriends.
Every piece of me already belongs to him, Hawk, and Cam. I want to claim them. And let them claim me. I want them to be able to push other girls away. Because they’re mine.
“I’m yours,” I whisper against his lips before I kiss him. We surge together, our hips moving together and apart as we fuck, but we never release each other. Our tongues parry as our hearts beat to the same tempo.
“Come for me, little devil.” He reaches between us to circle my clit.
I’m so fucking close it’s enough to push me over the edge. I cry out as I come, tightening my fingers in his hair.
My release drags his out of him. He groans as he hovers over me, filling me with his warmth. For a second, we continue to breathe each other in. Our hearts pounding. My hands in his hair.
When he pulls out, he kisses down my neck, down my chest as I breathe raggedly. When he reaches my stomach, he kisses it and stops, resting his head on me, the rest of him sprawled between my legs. His hair tickles my skin.
Combing my fingers through the strands, I don’t know what to think. We didn’t really come to any sort of agreement about anything. All I know is I don’t want to fight what’s happening between us. And it sounds like they don’t either.
It’s fucking terrifying and elating at the same time. I tried to keep them at a distance, but my walls were never that strong.
My fingers toy with his hair as my heartbeat slows. We still need to wait to come out at school. At least until we’re finished with his revenge. And honestly, mine since Chase led me to believe we had something special and used me.
I release my pent-up breath. Tomorrow is soon enough to tell Damon.
My fingers trace his temple. For a moment, I wonder if he’s fallen asleep, but then he speaks.
“My mom didn’t find out until it was too late.”
I don’t stop touching him. His fingers skim over my hip bone in small circles. I hold my breath, waiting for his next words.
“It wasn’t quick. They offered her radiation and chemo, but she refused treatment. She didn’t want to spend the last year of her life in the hospital.” He turns and kisses my stomach. Unzipping my skirt, he slips it down my legs, dropping it off the edge of the bed.
He returns to his position, head on my stomach, sliding his fingers in patterns on my bare skin. Gentle, calming touches. Something I wouldn’t have believed Damon Storm to be capable of last school year.
I comb through his soft hair, feeling it tickle my bare skin. Holding my breath, waiting for him to continue.
“Dad let her make that decision. He let her choose to die. I hated him. I didn’t understand it was her decision to make, and he probably struggled with it.
All I knew was they gave up before even trying.
I sat next to her bed every day for a few hours, telling her about my day.
Washing her hair. Feeding her when it got too hard for her to feed herself. ”
The tears start again. I couldn’t hold them back if I tried. This time for Damon and what he went through. But I continue to stroke his hair, to comfort him. Quietly crying while I listen to his pain.
“I couldn’t understand why they didn’t try.
Anything had to be better than this. She grew weaker, thinner until she couldn’t even get out of bed.
” A tear slides across my stomach and my heart breaks for him.
For us. For the unfairness of it all. “He let her die. I know that’s not the truth.
It was what she wanted, and he was respecting her wishes. But I hated him for it.”
When he lifts over me, he cups my head in his hands and presses his forehead to mine.
“I will do anything to protect you, but don’t ask me to sit back and let you walk around in danger.” He kisses me. “I can’t do that. I can protect you by claiming you, by letting everyone know you’re mine. Chase won’t protect you. But I will. I’m not going to lose you, Evan.”
I breathe Damon in. This pain I understand. The helplessness. The waiting. The anguish when it’s over so quickly but goes on for so long.
“Okay,” I whisper.
I can’t fight him on this. Not this. I could tell him the texts don’t scare me, but he knows it isn’t true. He wants to protect me, and I just want to be theirs. I don’t need a fancy title or a public display. I just need him, Cam, and Hawk.
The public part of whatever we choose makes me scared, but I’m not scared to let them in. Not anymore. We have things to sort through. But tonight in his bed, I’ll give him what he wants because it’s not in me to hurt him.
“Yeah?” he asks. His nose brushes mine. He smiles and it lights up his eyes.
My heart beats a little harder. “Yeah, I’m yours.”