Chapter14
Damien
“Hey sleepy girl,” Damien whispered to Hazel. He quite liked waking up next to her. For a while he had just watched her sleep. She looked so young then, and so peaceful. She kept smiling and he wondered what she was dreaming about. Whatever it was, it seemed to be good.
“Hey, you. Oh no, we’re still in our clothes,” she said when her eyes finally opened. Damien looked down and saw that she was right. The only thing they had taken off was their shoes and he hadn’t even remembered doing that. They must’ve been exhausted. He looked over at the clock and saw that it was just past eight in the morning.
“We slept for eleven hours solid.”
“Whoa. I never do that. I’ve been lucky with Ben. He’s a good sleeper. But he’s still a kid which means eight hours is a thing of the past. Eleven is unheard of. Did we go clubbing or something and I just can’t remember?”
Damien reached over and touched her face. “You’ve got wrinkles all over.”
“Are you saying I look old in the morning?” she said and frowned at him.
He laughed. “No, but I think you may have slept on your jacket.”
Her jacket had somehow made its way onto the pillow. It was filled with lines and buttons, which were now imprinted all over her face. It was incredibly endearing.
“Hey, you should sleep over more often,” she murmured. She still sounded half asleep.
“I think I should. I think that is a mighty fine idea. Now, I just do not think it’s right that we slept in our clothes. This will just not do.” He reached over and started to unbutton her blouse.
He could sense her body responding eagerly to his touch and he felt himself immediately become aroused. I love this girl. He took off her shirt and then her bra and then he unbuttoned the top of her jeans and tried to pull them off. They were skinny jeans, which hugged her body tightly, and she giggled as he tried to get them off. Finally he stood up at the edge of the bed and yanked until they fell to her feet. Then he reached over and pulled off her panties. She was lying fully naked in front of him while he was still completely clothed.
“Hey, no fair. Take your clothes off, too,” she said. Damien liked the fact that she was not trying to hide her body. Her arms were out to the side and her legs were parted slightly. He grinned at her.
“I will. All in due time, Miss Rose. All in due time. This is just a wonderful sight to see in the morning. I will, of course, be taking my clothes off too. But first –” He moved up and placed his tongue between her legs, licking her until he could hear her groan.
“Stop. It. Take. Your. Clothes. Off.” She could only get the words out one at a time and in between each word she moaned and wriggled.
“Fine. Fine. Thou protests too much.” He stood up and took off his clothes and he liked the way that she looked at him. With so much desire.
“Ooh, yes, that’s better, I like you like that. Now come here,” she said.
He moved on top of her, so that his body was flat against hers. He could feel his erect penis digging into the side of her leg. He pulled himself up so that his head was above hers and he grinned down at her.
“My oh my, but you are beautiful. I cannot believe I slept fully clothed with a beautiful girl like you all night. There must be something wrong with me.”
“No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you, Mr. Carson.”
“Mr. Carson. I do like that name.” He moved so that he slid inside of her and he watched as she closed her eyes and groaned. She reached over and pulled him down so that his lips were against his. He kissed her and rocked over her. Then he stopped, pulled out and put on a condom and she burst out laughing.
“Well done, Mr. Carson. You’ve obviously matured a lot more than me over the years. Now come back to me. I’m going quite crazy without you.”
He moved back into her. And he knew that he never wanted to be anywhere else. His movements got faster as she dug deeper into his back with her fingers.
“I love you,” he said as soon as they were finished and he fell back on top of her, kissing her forehead, her head, her nose, her cheeks, her mouth. She couldn’t stop giggling.
“I love you, too.”
They showered and got changed. Damien didn’t bring any clothes with him so he put on the same outfit from the day before. Just as they were sitting down to make some coffee he saw Hazel’s phone ringing and he rushed to hand it to her. He saw the word DAD come up on the screen.
“Hello? Dad? What’s wrong?” she asked.
Damien tried to figure out what was going on but he couldn’t quite make out what her father was telling her. It was obvious that it was not good news though, not good news at all. The moment she put the phone down she looked at him.
“Hazel? What’s wrong?”
“Tom. He robbed Curious Corner.”
“What? Are we sure it was Tom?” Stupid question – who else would it be.
“What did your father say? Is Charles okay? Oh no, please don’t tell me they hurt Charles.” Damien didn’t think he would be able to handle that. Charles had been so good to him and all of this was Damien’s fault.
“He’s fine. He’s fine. Well, Charles phoned the police. And my father recognized the name of the shop from when you told him about your job there. He’s meeting Charles in about half an hour and he wants us to come with him. He told Charles that he knew you and that he knew about what had happened to you so Charles knows that it is all related. Charles said he wanted to call you but of course your phone got stolen. Anyway, we need to meet my father there. Oh Damien… this is awful. These men are horrible.”
“I know. They’re idiots. There is only one reason that Tom is doing this. He hates to see that I’m doing so well. It’s a sharp reminder that he isn’t. He wants me to fail. But I’m not going to fail.”
“I know you’re not. Oh poor Charles!”
They were just about to head out when they received a message from Hazel’s father to say he was on his way and would fetch them first before going to the shop. Damien was sure it was because he was worried about them walking on the streets now and he liked that her father was so protective over her. They waited until they heard his car pull up outside and then they quickly ran out. Robert had gotten out of the car and hugged Hazel the moment he saw her, then he reached over and shook Damien’s hand.
“Come on, let’s go see what we can do about this Tom guy. I’ve already been on his case since yesterday so I think we can find him without Charles but any extra information is always good. Also, I think Charles needs to see a friendly face. He sounded a bit shaken up on the phone. He speaks very highly of you Damien.”
“And yet it’s because of me that this happened to him. I hate that thought. He’s such a good man. He doesn’t deserve this.”
Damien was angry at himself. First Hazel and then Charles. Maybe he really was bad news.
“It’s not because of you, Damien. You’re doing the best that you can. This Tom guy sounds like a real piece of work.”
And Damien felt sad at that moment. Sad and angry all at once. Sad because of the man that Tom used to be. Angry because of the man he had turned out to be. And had Damien carried on in that business, he might have turned out just the same. He’d be badgering old men and threatening women in their homes. He thought of Hazel and he felt sick to his stomach at the thought of it.
When they arrived, Charles quickly ushered them in and then sat them inside.
“Can I make you some coffee?” he asked once all the introductions were made. It was incredibly endearing that even after what had happened to him, he was still polite enough to offer them a drink.
“No, no. Don’t worry at all,” Robert said to him.
“Oh it will give me something to do. Also, this machine makes amazing coffee.”
“It really does. Come on Charles, I’ll help you.” Damien walked with Charles to the back room and helped him make the coffees. The two of them never said a word to each other. Damien felt too choked up to talk. But then, just as they were about to go out he looked and Charles and said, “I’m so sorry.”
Charles swung around to look at him, making sure to look him in the eye. “Damien. Listen to me, boy. This has nothing to do with you. You’re a good man. You got out of this a long time ago. They’re just jealous of you. So really, you should actually be quite proud of yourself. And don’t worry about me – I’ve seen my share of bullies before. Come on, let’s enjoy our coffee together and I’ll tell you all about that idiot.”
Damien chuckled at that and the two of them walked out.
“Thank you, Charles. Oh wow, this really is good coffee. I wish they had some of this down at the station,” Robert said and leaned back in his chair.
The statement made Charles happy and he patted his mug happily.
“Yes, this stuff is magical. If that boy that came in had any sense at all he would’ve stolen that.”
“So tell me, Charles, tell me exactly what happened. And don’t leave anything out. Remember that the more we know, the better our chances are at finding him. To be honest, thanks to Damien and Hazel, we already have a good lead on him. But the sooner we get him the better.”
“Sure. And can I please just first say that it is a pleasure to meet you, Hazel. I can see why Damien is so smitten over you. He’s told me a lot about you and now that I have met you, too, I definitely approve. You’ll have to come visit me sometime when I’m working in the shop.”
Damien saw Hazel blush with pride at the compliment. “Oh, I will definitely come and visit you. You can tell me all the things about Damien that I don’t know about. And I’ll tell you all the things that I know. We can have a good old gossip session.”
“Uh… you do know that I’m sitting right here,” Damien said and they all laughed.
“Right,” Charles said, clapping his hand, “let’s get down to business. So, this man came into the shop, like I said. He had these shady dark eyes that kept jumping all over the place like he was nervous. I knew he was trouble the moment I laid my eyes on him. I have a panic button but it hasn’t been working for a while and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it. That’s obviously on my agenda for tomorrow.
"Anyway, he came in here laughing and telling me what a stupid place it was to work at. Then he threw some of the books down. I tried not to act too alarmed, especially since he was throwing around some of my most precious books – but I knew that he would only enjoy it more if he could see that I was panicked. Also, at the end of the day, they are just books and I needed to stay safe. Then he came to the till and stole some of the money. It wasn’t much as I try not to leave too much in there at a time, thank goodness.
"He was muttering all kinds of things and then he told me that he’s been waiting to come and see me for some time now, ever since he knew that Damien worked here. And then he said he couldn’t wait to tell everyone over in East Street about how he just robbed some crazy old man. And I didn’t say anything then. I just let him carry on and watched as he walked out before I called you. But all I could think about was how he had just told me some vital information about where his ‘gang’ hung out. That guy did not seem like he had any brain cells left really.”
Damien saw that Robert was grinning. “Well, Charles, you should join our team. I’m telling you now that most people wouldn’t have remembered that. Either they wouldn’t know any details because of the whole trauma of the event or they would just assume that the information wasn’t as important as what the person stole. You have just made my job a lot easier. I’m actually going to go now because I have a feeling we can sort this out a lot quicker than I hoped. Now, Charles you go home and take it easy. Damien, Hazel – you go home and do the same. Make sure Ben stays away for another day at least. I’ll call you all with some news as soon as I have any.”
“Bye, Dad. Thanks for everything,” Hazel said, hugging her father.
“Yeah, thank you so much, Robert. I cannot tell you how much this means to us.”
They said their goodbyes and then Damien and Hazel waited for Charles to lock up and walked him home. Damien kept waiting for him to insist that he could walk home fine by himself but he didn’t. At the door, he gave them both a hug and told that everything was going to be fine.