Four days later …
Four whole days.
That was how long it took for Damien to break. It took four fucking days for me to seduce the man. What I thought would be an easy task turned out to be anything but. From the moment we got home from our first date, I had been dropping hints left, right, and centre that I was ready for us to be physically intimate. Damien picked up on zero of these hints, and I was too embarrassed to simply come out and ask him to have sex with me, so I upped my game. I subtly teased him whenever I got the chance, and I talked about sex, a lot. At night, I draped myself over him in bed and purposely rubbed against him, but nothing would happen.
Either he had the patience of a saint, or he just had no clue what I wanted.
I was truly beginning to believe the latter until I apparently took it one step too far in Ryder and Branna’s kitchen. We were already at the house, every one of us, kids and all. Damien waited until we all had finished our meal together to get to his feet, drawing everyone’s attention. He retrieved a black box with a silver ribbon tied around it from behind the kitchen door. His attention was solely on me.
“I wanted to give this to you on our first date, but it wasn’t delivered until today.”
I widened my eyes as Damien handed me the box.
“But it’s not me birthday,” I said dumbly as I accepted the gift.
“I know.” He chuckled. “It just something I got for you to show you how much you mean to me.”
The girls all audibly sighed, and it took everything in me not to join in with them.
“Th-thank you,” I said, looking down at the gift, perplexed. “Do I open it now?”
“Yes,” Bronagh and Keela said in unison.
Damien snorted. “You can open now or later. It’s up to you.”
“Now,” I said. “I want to open it now.”
I untied the pretty silver ribbon that was perfectly wrapped into a bow, and I held my breath as I lifted the lid off the box and set it down on the table. I stared into the box, not really knowing what I was looking at. There was fancy wrapping tissue covering a folder of some kind, but sitting on top of the tissue was a framed document. I carefully lifted the frame into my hand, and I read the document. When I realised what it was for, my breath caught. I scanned it twice more before I lifted my head, and locked eyes on the grey ones staring at me intently.
“You bought me a star?”
A beautiful smile graced Damien’s face, and my heart thumped wildly against my chest.
“And,” I said, looking back at the document, smiling, “you named it Freckles.”
“Yeah,” Damien said, pride radiating from him in waves. “That way, when I look up at the stars at night, I’ll always see you.”
“Omigod,” Bronagh whispered, her holding on Nico tightening. “That is so romantic.”
I didn’t look up at Damien, but I was smiling so hard my cheeks began to hurt.
“Thank you,” I said, pressing the star ownership document against my chest. “I’ll treasure this always.”
When I looked up at Damien, his eyes were still on me, and I stood up, not being able to help myself. I needed to be close to him. I took another step forward, completely in a trance, until Alec spoke.
“Little bastard,” he said, breaking the silence and pulling me back into the moment.
Everyone looked at him.
“What?” Damien asked, frowning.
“You’re a little bastard,” Alec repeated.
Damien looked at Nico, then back at Alec and said, “Not understanding why I’m a bastard.”
“Little bastard.”
Damien’s lips twitched at Alec’s correction.
“Sorry, I don’t understand why you’re calling me a little bastard.”
Alec scowled. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“No,” everyone said in unison.
“Unbelievable,” Alec said with a shake of his head. “You’re a little bastard because you bought the woman a star. A fucking star. How the hell can we compete with that?”
The question was put to Kane.
“Buy your girl two stars?” he suggested.
Alec scoffed. “It wouldn’t be impressive since buying a star has already been done by the little bastard.”
“You could buy me a black hole,” Keela suggested. “I get sucked into one whenever you start talkin’, so it’d be perfect.”
I cracked up with laughter, and it caused Alec to glare at me. His focus on me only lasted for a moment before he looked at Damien and asked, “Can you buy a black hole?”
I laughed harder, and I snorted which drew a laugh from Kane. That was something I hardly ever heard unless Aideen was humouring him.
“Look at what else is in the box,” Damien urged me.
I did just that.
I removed the tissue from the box and was presented with a thick folder. Inside was another certificate, more documentation, a star map, the personal dedication of my nickname being an actual star, a colour photo of my star, the exact coordinates of my star, and a silver necklace with a heart and star pendent. I scanned my eyes over it all, before I picked up my necklace, and looked up at Damien.
“Will you put it on me?”
He smiled, took my necklace, then placed it on me when I turned and pulled my hair over my shoulder. I shuddered after Damien clasped the necklace shut because he placed a chaste kiss on my neck, but it felt intimate, way too intimate for the group of people watching us. I quickly turned to face Damien, wrapping my arms around his waist and pressing my face against his chest.
“I love it so much,” I gushed. “I can’t believe you bought me a star.”
“Not just any star; a supernova.”
I pulled back. “What’s the difference?”
“A supernova is a star coming to the end of its life; it shines so brightly it can outshine an entire galaxy. It will still be in the sky for thousands of years, but I wanted a star that would outshine the others. I wanted something to represent just how much you mean to me.”
My heart beat so loud and fast that I could hear it in my ears.
“Damien,” I said, softly. “I’ll value it always.”
“I’ll value you always.”
I smiled and closed my eyes when his arms came around me, and he leaned down, resting his forehead against mine.
“I think I’m engaged to the wrong twin.”
I opened my eyes and watched as a smirk plastered itself on Damien’s face.
“This will be good,” he mouthed, making me snicker.
“What?” Nico demanded of Bronagh. “Damien gives Alannah a dying star, and all of a sudden, he is the better twin? Woman, I give you babies.”
I turned in Damien’s arms, resting my back against his chest as I watched the scene unfold before us.
“Your brothers give the girls babies too,” Bronagh said with a snort. “You aren’t anything special.”
She was teasing him; I could tell by the way her lips kept twitching.
“Nothing special?” Nico repeated. “Nothing fucking special?”
“Hey,” Kane chastised. “We have an almost one-year-old at the table.”
We really did. In just three weeks, Jax would turn one, just in time for Christmas.
“Shut up,” Nico said to Kane without taking his eyes off Bronagh. “We’re not done talking about this.”
She grinned. “I look forward to you provin’ how special you are at home.”
“You’re damn right you are.”
I snickered but did my best to cover it up with a cough, but Nico caught it.
“What’s so funny?”
I shrugged. “That she can manipulate you so easily.”
Nico looked from me to Bronagh, then back at me.
“What are you talking about?”
“When you both go home, you’re going to prove how special you are with sex, and that’s exactly what she wants … do you not remember how hot she was for you when she was carryin’ Georgie?” I quizzed. “Jesus, I do. I felt like I needed to spray sanitiser whenever I entered your bloody house.”
Everyone laughed, apart from Nico, who was now focused on a grinning Bronagh.
“You could just tell me you want sex.”
“Where’s the fun in that, big man?”
“Devil,” Nico said, his own lips curving into a smile as he leaned over and kissed Bronagh, then kissed Georgie, who was asleep on her chest.
I turned back to face Damien, and a quick glance down told me he was hard, and it made me want to chuckle. Whenever he touched me, whether it was in a sexual manner or not, he got hard. It was thrilling to know that I made him react that way. Without a word, I discreetly palmed his hardened length through his jeans and smiled sweetly up at him.
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. One second, I was in the kitchen, and the next, I was thrown over Damien’s shoulder as he all but sprinted out of the room and up the stairs with laughter and cheers following us.
I stumbled when my feet hit the ground in his bedroom on the third floor.
“What in God’s name are you doing, Alannah?”
I placed my hands on either side of my head.
“I’ve a massive head rush.”
“Sit down,” Damien grunted as he led me over to his bed, before he began to pace back and forth in front of me. “Now, tell me, what the fuck are you doing?”
I blinked up at him.
“I have no idea what you’re talkin’ about, Dame.”
He scowled at me as he continued to pace.
“Bullshit,” he quipped. “You grab my dick, and smile up at me with heat in your eyes, and you tell me that you have no idea what I’m talking about?”
“Yup.”
“You’re a liar.” He shook his head. “And you’ve been trying me these last few days.”
“How so?”
“How so?” Damien repeated, bewildered. “How about you suddenly not wearing clothes around the apartment? How about all the unnecessary bending over you do in front of me? How about you practically straddling me in bed before we go to sleep?”
I tilted my head to the side.
“Have I been doin’ all of that?”
“You damn well have, and you know it,” Damien all but growled. “What I don’t know is why!”
I looked up at the ceiling and sighed.
“Men are stupid.”
Silence.
“Excuse me?”
I looked at my boyfriend. “You’re thick.”
“Again—” he blinked “—excuse me?”
I scratched my neck. “I have been doin’ all of the things you listed, and yes, on purpose.”
“I knew it!”
“You caught me, Sherlock.”
Damien paused in front of me, placed his hands on his hips, and frowned down at me.
“You’ve been putting me through hell, you know that, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve been puttin’ yourself through hell by not touchin’ me.”
“Alannah.” He drew his eyebrows tighter together. “You said we have to go slow, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing, so of course, I’m going to keep my hands to myself. I’m not doing anything to mess things up between us.”
My lips curved into a smile.
“You’re a sweetheart,” I said to him. “But I’ve been bendin’ over backwards, literally, tryin’ to make you touch me.”
Damien raised one brow. “I’m sorry, what?”
I leaned back onto my elbows and slid my tongue along my lower lip.
“I thought you would realise by now when you’re bein’ seduced by me.”
“Seduced?” Damien choked. “You’ve been seducing me?”
“Apparently, not very well.”
Damien’s lips parted with shock.
“You’ve been playing a game with me.”
My lips twitched. “Only a little one.”
“We agreed on no games.”
“We did—” I nodded “—but I wanted to show you that I wanted to have sex.”
“And you couldn’t have just come out and told me so? I’d have been on you in seconds.”
Laughter spilled free.
“I’m sorry,” I said, covering my mouth with my hand. “This isn’t funny, but you look so pissed off.”
“I am,” Damien said, his postured rigid. “So. Pissed.”
I slowly got to my feet. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?”
I carefully moved my body around his.
“So sorry.”
“No need, babe,” he said, his voice rough. “Not when I’ve just made a decision.”
My brows shot up.
“What decision would that be?”
“I’ve spent these couple of weeks giving you space, giving you time to make up your mind.” Damien said, his eyes roaming over my body. “We’ve been together, but I’ve kept you at arm’s length. I’ve tiptoed around you because I didn’t want to scare you off, but that ends now, now that I know we want the same thing. I seem to be the only one brave enough to make it happen.”
I held my ground. “And what the hell does that mean?”
“It means,” Damien said as he suddenly stalked towards me, “I’m done with the nice guy role. I’m taking what I want from now on. If you remain where you are, I’m going to kiss you and not stop. If you can’t handle that right now, run away, but know that I’m coming after you, and I will have you. You’re mine, freckles. This game you’ve started is over.”
I’d like to say that my mother didn’t raise a chicken shit, and that I stood my ground when Damien got close enough, but that didn’t happen. I freaked out when I saw the possessive look in his grey eyes because I knew he wasn’t talking bullshit; he was talking facts. He was going to kiss me ... to have me. I was ready for that, so ready, but not here, not now.
Without a second thought, I turned around and all but shot out of Damien’s bedroom like the devil himself was chasing me, hearing Damien’s laughter echo behind me as I went.
“Usain Bolt. I’m a huge fan, sir,” Alec, the fucking comedian, said and tried to shake my hand as I sprinted by him on the stairs.
“Tonight, freckles,” Damien called after me. “We will finish this tonight.”
Jesus, have mercy.