Chapter 28 Damon #2
“He’s a what?” he asks, his voice even, but I know him well enough to hear the anger behind it.
“A Rebel,” I repeat. “And a Hawthorne.”
I have no idea if my father knows anything about Xave’s family, and I’m pretty sure he’s never done any sort of business with them, but Silvercrest is a small school with an even smaller feeder base, so there’s a good chance my father knows exactly who Xave and his family are.
There’s another long silence. “Are you willing to give up everything for him?”
“Yes,” I say without hesitation.
“Really? You’d give up your place in the company, and your position in the Keepers?”
“Yes?”
“And you’re sure about that?” he presses. “You’re really willing to throw away your inheritance, your family, my name, and everything I’ve provided for you?”
“Yes.”
He lets out a derisive snort. “You’re an idiot.”
“Maybe, but I love him.”
“You really think a college fling is worth losing everything over?” he asks snidely.
“No, but I know he’s worth it. And this isn’t just a fling. Do you really think I’d be willing to put everything on the line like this if it wasn’t real?”
“And what happens when he breaks up with you and you’re left with nothing?” he asks. “Have you thought about that?”
“I have. And if that happens, then I’ll deal with it.” I pause for a few beats. “Is this your way of telling me you’re disowning me?”
“I should,” he says, and I can hear the disgust in his voice. “But you know as well as I do that I can’t.”
A relieved smile tilts my lips, but I keep quiet.
“Not after everything I’ve put into you, and not now,” he continues. “But you’re young and stupid, and you’ll learn your lesson when he gets tired of you. Then you can focus on what’s important and forget all about whatever phase this is.”
I bite my lip ring so I don’t tell him that my sexuality isn’t a phase, and neither is Xave. This is a way better reaction than I was expecting, and if he’s accepting it because he thinks we’re just going to break up in a few months and I’ll go back to fucking around with women, then I’ll take it.
“But make no mistake, Damon,” he says, the threat in his voice clear.
“If I find out that you’ve done anything to compromise me or my life’s work, or if he does anything to sabotage what I’ve built, then I won’t just disown you.
I will erase your entire existence and make sure no one ever finds your body. ”
“Understood.”
This isn’t the first time my father has threatened to have me killed, and even though I have no doubt he’d do it, I’m not worried.
I know what Xave and I have is real, and he has no interest in my father’s empire or my inheritance.
And he’s all for my plan of destroying everything my father and his father and his father before him have spent their lives building, so my father’s threats are just another way for him to exert power over me and pretend like he still has any real control over me, like he did when I was a minor.
“We’ll talk about this more later,” he says curtly, then ends the call before I can answer.
Blowing out a long breath, I slip my phone in my pocket and sink down onto my bed.
“Holy fuck,” I mutter to my empty room as everything sort of hits at once.
I did it. I told my father about us, and it went better than I could have ever hoped. And it’s only a matter of time before the leadership knows, and all the stress of hiding and sneaking around will be over.
I have no idea how long I sit there with my mind spinning and trying to process everything that’s gone down in the last hour, but I’m brought back to reality when my phone pings with a text.
Anthony: all good
Damon: all good?
Anthony: G will talk to the others, but you shouldn’t have any problems as long as you both behave
Damon: are you sure?
Anthony: yup
Anthony: just remember what I said about what will happen if this blows up in my face
Damon: I will
Damon: and thanks
I wait to see if he has anything else to say, then quickly flip to my texts with Xave when nothing comes through.
Damon: can you meet me in the main quad?
Xave: is everything okay?
Damon: yeah
Xave: I’ll be there in 10
Shoving my phone in my pocket, I grab my hoodie from where I tossed it on the bed earlier and pull it on as I head out of my room.
It takes me almost fifteen minutes to get to the main quad, and all the apprehension and tension I’ve been holding onto melts out of me the moment I see Xave sitting on one of the stone tables, looking casually cool and so damn handsome I feel the familiar stirrings of both love and arousal that always happen when I’m near him.
Xave’s gaze immediately finds mine, like he senses me approaching, and before I can second-guess what I’m doing or lose my nerve, I head toward him.
He slides off the table, his attention laser-focused on me as he watches me approach.
“Is everything—”
I cut him off by walking right into his arms and pressing my lips against his in a soft kiss.
He makes a surprised sound, but he catches my arm as I pull back and drags me forward for another kiss.
“I take it things went well?” he asks with a sexy smirk, his lips so close they brush against mine with every word.
“You could say that,” I say over the din of gasps and surprised voices around us.
I might not have nearly as much notoriety around campus as Xave and his cousins do, but people know who I am. Seeing us kissing each other is primo gossip, and it’s only a matter of time before the entire school knows.
“Do I need to kill anyone?” He rubs his hand over my ass in a way that makes me melt a little inside and tells everyone in our immediate vicinity exactly what’s going on between us.
“Not as far as I know.” I peck another kiss against his lips and do my best to ignore the crowd around us as they get louder and more obvious with their gaping.
“Pity.” He squeezes my ass again, then slips his hand into mine and laces our fingers together. “But at least this way I can show you the auxiliary room without having to make a pit stop to clean up all the blood first.”
“You say the sweetest things,” I tell him, still grinning like a moron. “So where is this room, and is there a bed in it?”
“It’s not far, and I’m not sure.” He bumps his hard cock against mine playfully. “But not having a bed has never stopped us before.”
“No, it hasn’t.” I drop my gaze to his mouth. “Do you know a shortcut?”
“We’re taking the long way.” He presses another kiss against my lips. “I want as many people as possible to see us together so they know to fuck all the way off and leave you alone if they don’t want to deal with me and my cousins.”
I try not to grin like a dumbass as he gives my hand a squeeze, but I can’t stop my laugh when I look around and see all the shocked and scandalized expressions around us.
Xave tosses a smirk at a freshman who’s very obviously filming us with her phone, and I have to bite my lip ring so I don’t start laughing hysterically when she goes bright red and drops her phone like it suddenly turned into a snake in her hands.
With another smirky smile to the crowd around us, Xave leads me away from them and onto the main path.
“So spring break starts in a week,” he says casually. “What would you say if I told you you’re spending it with me?”
“I’d say damn straight I am. Then I’d ask what we’re doing.”
“How does a week at a private lake with no one around for miles sound?”
“That sounds pretty perfect,” I say, my chest and neck flushing warm.
I was hoping we’d get to spend the break together, and I love that he’s already made plans for us.
“After your gig, of course.” He lifts my hand and presses a soft kiss against my knuckles. “You’ll have to put up with my cousins and their guys on Friday and Saturday, but as of Sunday, it’ll just be you and me for a week.”
“Are we meeting up with them before my gig?” I ask, confused by the timeline. My show is on Friday night, so does that mean we’re meeting up with them during the day, then seeing them again on Saturday?
“Before, during, and after.”
“Huh?” I toss him a confused look.
“They’re coming to your show.”
“They are?”
He nods. “Of course.”
“But why? I’m not in danger anymore. It’s not like anyone is going to try to hurt me.”
He chuckles affectionately. “You do realize they can go to support you and enjoy the show, right? We like danger, but we also like music and hanging out.”
“They’d do that for me?”
“Of course.” He squeezes my hand.
“But I thought Jace only got five tickets? What about Myles and—”
“Do you really think something like a sold-out show is going to stop Jace?” he asks, tossing me a sexy-as-fuck grin. “The tickets have been taken care of, and so has everything else. All you have to worry about is your set, and we’ll take care of the rest.”
“I love you,” I blurt as my chest squeezes with emotion at how incredible not just Xave is, but also his family, for how they so easily and willingly accepted me.
“I love you too.” He leans in and presses a quick kiss against my lips. “What do you say we save the auxiliary room for another time and go have some fun in the woods?”
“I say fuck yeah.” I toss him a grin of my own. “And catch me if you can.”
Not giving a shit about the other students milling around us, I shake off Xave’s hand and speed walk toward an academic building with a section of the woods that has a large blind spot from the cameras behind it.
I can hear Xave’s footsteps behind me, and my heart is already pounding. My dick is as hard as a steel pipe as I think about all the things he could do to me when he “catches” me.
It’s true that things aren’t going to be easy, and there will be plenty of people who won’t be happy about us being together and will actively try to sabotage us in the future, but none of that matters because I’ve finally found my person.
Xave loves me, and he’s given me two things I never thought I’d ever get to experience again. He’s given me hope that not only do I matter, but that I deserve to be happy. And he’s given me the family I’ve craved since I was eleven but never thought I could ever be a part of again.
There might not be anything traditional, or even normal, about our relationship or how we got together, but I wouldn’t change a single thing about any of it.
Xave is it for me, and I will destroy anyone who tries to get between us.