“Damien!” She ran towards me, and we embraced, which forced me to let go of Leigh’s hand.
“It’s over.” I squeezed her so tight I actually lifted her off the ground. “It’s finally over.”
“Are you okay?” She broke our embrace and looked up at me. “I had no idea he was capable of something like that…”
“I’m going to be alright.” I nodded and reached for Leigh’s hand again. “We have something to talk with you about.”
“Are you…” Jenny blinked a couple of times.
“Yes.” Leigh nodded. “I met Damien before we knew about our parents.”
“You were helping him from the beginning!” Jenny’s jaw dropped. “That’s why you were always snooping around!”
“Yes.” Leigh looked down and laughed. “I was also supposed to be keeping an eye on you—that didn’t work out so well.”
“Alright everyone.” Addison walked up. “The reporters have snapped enough pictures—let’s go.”
“Wait.” I looked towards Leigh. “Do you want to stay until they’re done talking to your mother?”
“Um…” I could see conflict in Leigh’s eyes. “No, I don’t think I’m ready to talk to her yet.”
It was time to go home. Jenny suggested that we have a party to celebrate the fact that we were both free—I thought that was a terrible idea after the last one she threw. I really wasn’t in the mood to entertain anyone, but I agreed to let her invite a few friends over. I also needed to talk to Jon. I didn’t know if I still had a job at Alcott Inc. after my abrupt disappearance, but I owed him an explanation. I felt a sense of peace after we arrived at my house—I never thought I would be that happy to simply walk through my front door and pour a stiff drink. There were a lot of pieces to unravel after everything that happened. Most of it could wait. The main thing I was looking forward to was my night with Leigh. It had been far too long since my lips had explored every square inch of her body.
“I’m going to do so many things to you when I finally get you alone.” I pulled Leigh close and pressed my lips to her ear.
“I don’t think we’re going have any alone time here…” She exhaled sharply.
“That’s why we’re spending the night at the villa after I have an opportunity to thank everyone that helped you put an end to this.” I moved my hand to her lower back. “I’m sure they will understand.”
“I think they will.” She leaned against me and nodded. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too.” I sighed.
More than you’ll ever know…
Chapter Twenty-Three
Leigh
Damien and I were eager to retire to the villa for the evening, but we had to spend some time at his house first. Anna, Bolt, and Taylor accepted Jenny’s invitation. Taylor brought her husband, Bryant, and I was surprised to find out that Damien knew him. Bryant was the owner of Alcott Inc., but he wasn’t directly involved in the day-to-day operations. They spent some time talking while I mingled with Jenny and her friends. I ended up talking with Taylor more than anyone else—we seemed to have a few common interests, and Jenny’s friends were talking about high school stuff, which wasn’t much interest to me. Eventually, the conversations did begin to meld together, but I was barely paying attention—I just wanted to be alone with Damien.
“I think it’s time for us to go.” Bryant walked up and put his hand on Taylor’s shoulder.
“Yeah, I didn’t get much sleep last night.” Taylor nodded and put her hand on his. “Thank you for inviting us.”
“I’m the one that owes you a debt of gratitude I can never repay.” Jenny stood up and hugged Taylor as soon as she made it to her feet.
“We all do.” Damien walked over to where we were sitting.
Taylor and Bryant left. It seemed that Anna and Bolt planned to stay for a little while longer. Damien pulled Jenny to the side, and I assumed that he must have told her we were going to be leaving because he motioned to me as soon as the conversation was over. I said goodbye to the group and followed him outside. As soon as the door was closed and we were out of everyone’s line of sight, Damien kissed me. Our lips seared together, and I melted into his embrace. In his arms was the only place I wanted to be. When our lips finally parted, my head was spinning—to the point that I nearly stumbled when he took my hand and started walking towards the car.
“Do you really think it’s a good idea to leave your sister alone for the night considering what she did last time?” I laughed under my breath.
“Honestly?” He shook his head. “No, probably not—but it’s a risk I’m willing to take if it means I get to spend my evening with you.”
Our drive to the villa was rather peaceful, but we teased each other constantly. A light touch—a graze that came so close that it made one of us squirm—there was so much steam in the car that the windows started to fog up, and Damien had to turn on the defroster before we got there. It was a miracle that we even made it to the villa without having to pull the car over. Damien didn’t even let me walk to the front door. As soon as I stepped out of the car, he scooped me up and carried me the rest of the way. Our lips were seared together when the door opened, and the instant they parted, he started kissing my neck.
“We aren’t going to have a glass of wine first? Maybe check out the beach…” I gasped and dug my nails into his back.
“We’ll do that later.” Damien carried me straight to the bedroom, and we fell against the mattress.
“So, what did you miss most while you were locked up?” I pressed my lips to his chest while I unbuttoned his shirt.
“Everything…” He sighed when I put my hand on his belt.
“I’ve never been with an ex-con before.” I lifted up and grinned. “This is a first for me.”
“I’m an innocent man!” He narrowed his eyes and chuckled under his breath.
“That’s what they all say…” I unbuckled Damien’s belt and started sliding his pants down.
Humor was the only way I knew how to process the traumatic madness we had endured at the hands of Edgar Sinn. If Damien laughed—smiled—or was otherwise distracted, it was another moment removed from the rage I saw in his eyes at the police station. I knew what kind of pain flooded his soul after he lost Caroline, and that was when he thought it was an accident. That pain was no match for the rage that came when he found out his father was responsible. I thought I was going to lose Damien when he got out—and the thought of that was worse than anything else. I loved him, and I would spend the rest of my life holding him back from the edge if that was what it took to have him in my arms.
“That feels good…” Damien moaned when I started to move my hand along his shaft.
“How about this?” I leaned down and swirled my tongue around the head of his cock.
“That feels even better!” His abdomen tensed up, and he gasped.
I moved my lips and tongue along the bottom of Damien’s cock and worked my way back up to the top. My lips parted when they were against the head, and I began to pull him into my mouth. Watching the way he reacted to my touch made my pussy start to get wet. We hadn’t been apart very long, but every minute felt like an eternity knowing that he was in jail for something he didn’t do. We were going to make up for lost time, and then there would be nothing to stand in the way of the future I wanted with him.
“Hold on…” Damien put his hand on my head, and I felt his cock began to throb. “This is amazing, but I want you…”
“Do you think this is all you’re going to get tonight?” I lifted up and smiled.
“I don’t want to wait.” Damien sat up and kissed my neck.
Damien pulled at my clothes until I was naked in his arms, and then he rolled me over on the bed. His hands forced my thighs apart, and he slid into position with his cock against my wetness. I was ready for him—my body craved the feeling of skin-on-skin—the closeness and the passion. Damien pushed himself inside me and slowly started to thrust. I felt plea
sure shooting through my veins immediately. Our lips seared together, and our tongues intertwined while his thrusts got faster. The pressure inside me began to build immediately. The need was too strong for me to even think about holding back or trying to prolong the bliss my body demanded from the man I loved.
“Oh god…” I gasped as soon as our lips parted. “You’re gonna make me come!”
“You think that’s all you’re going to get tonight?” Damien mocked my words and started to move his hips faster.
“I’m not going to ask you to stop!” I threw my head back, and a loud moan echoed in my throat.
My pussy began to spasm on Damien’s length, and endorphins surged through my veins. The orgasm came quick, but it was powerful. It made my muscles tense up for a moment, and then an enormous release sent pleasure coursing through my entire body. Damien kept thrusting—driving his cock into my g-spot as the orgasm peaked—and then I felt him start to throb. I knew he was about to taste the same paradise that had consumed me. I dug my nails into his back and moved my body in unison with his thrusts.
“This is what I want,” Damien leaned forward and growled into my ear. “You—this—for the rest of my life.”
“Oh god!” I began to shake and realized another orgasm was coming.
Damien’s thrusts got erratic—then I felt him throbbing deep inside my pussy. The head of his cock pulsated several times, and then he began to come. My second orgasm welcomed his seed, and our bodies slammed together as we climaxed. The orgasm peaked so high that it made my head spin, and it was one of the most amazing ones he had ever given me. It was pure and beautiful. The essence of our love and devotion expressed in the throes of our passion. Damien thrusts started to slow down once my orgasm faded, and he was drained. He fell forward and kissed me several times before slowly rolling to the side. I didn’t even try to take a moment to recover before I snuggled into his arms—I just had to feel their warmth.
“I hope you know how much you truly mean to me.” Damien kissed my forehead and sighed.
“If it’s as much as you mean to me…” I looked up at him. “Then I do.”
I’ll never forget what we went through to have this moment…
Damien and I made love so many times that we couldn’t move a muscle by the time we finally collapsed in exhaustion. We didn’t set an alarm or worry about anything until the sun was in the middle of the sky the following day. Damien was the first one up. He made breakfast and brought it to the bedroom. The coffee gave me enough strength to sit up and actually start to eat. I still felt like I could have slept for several more hours. When I finally checked my phone, I had several text messages, and multiple missed calls from my mother. I knew those would come eventually. I read through the messages and then put my phone down.
“Is everything okay?” Damien looked over at my phone.
“It’s my mom.” I sighed. “She wants to talk to me.”
“I’m sure she does.” Damien nodded.
“I just don’t know if I’m ready.” I shook my head back and forth. “I believed there was some semblance of decency in her—but when she sided with Edgar and went along with his plan to force Jenny to get married. I think I lost every bit of respect for her that I had left.”
“She’s still your mom…” Damien took my hand. “Right now, she’s probably lost, scared, and really confused—just like my mom was after my father left her.”
“That doesn’t undo what she did.” I looked over at my phone. “He got rid of your mother because he knew she wouldn’t go along with his plan—mine was just so desperate to have the kind of life she always wanted that she didn’t care if someone got hurt in the process.”
“Nothing will undo that.” He squeezed my hand. “You’ve just got to decide if you can move past it.”
“Not right now.” I reached over and silenced my phone. “I just want to be here with you…”
I’m not ready yet.
I sent my mother a text message the following day to let her know that I was okay, but that I wasn’t ready to see her yet. She agreed to give me some time and even offered to leave Sinn Manor when I wanted to pick up my stuff. I took her up on that offer and made plans to collect my belongings a few days later. I didn’t ask Damien to help because I didn’t want him to have to return to the place where he had endured so much pain, but he wanted to come with me. It only took us a few hours to pack what I had unpacked. I still had several boxes I hadn’t even bothered to touch since I moved out of my old house.
“What do you think will happen to this place now?” I looked over at Damien after everything was packed in his car.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I’m sure my father is going to be facing some financial difficulties once Addison has Jenny’s trust fund restored—and his lawyers will want to be paid.”
“I guess that means my mother will get evicted at some point.” I looked down and sighed.
“Yeah, probably so.” He nodded.
“You could always buy it.” I opened the passenger side door and sat down.
“Nah, I don’t ever want to see this place again.” Damien sighed, and then he chuckled under his breath. “Besides, it’s a fucking wreck.”
“That’s true.” I laughed and pulled my door closed as Damien walked around to the other side of the car.
“Shit…” Damien pointed at the driveway as soon as he opened his door. “It’s your mom. I guess we stayed longer than she expected.”
“Or she planned to ambush me even after promising to stay away.” I shook my head. “Screw it; I’m just going to talk to her—maybe it’s better if I tell her what’s on my mind.”
“Are you sure?” Damien put his hand on mine. “Don’t say something to her that you may regret…”
“I won’t regret it.” I reached for the door. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I wasn’t entirely ready to talk to my mother but seeing her in the driveway made me realize that I was just delaying the inevitable. I wasn’t going to stop talking to her forever, even if there was a part of me that felt like she deserved it, so I walked towards her car. As soon as she realized we were still there, she mouthed I’m sorry and started to back out. I could have let her go, but I waved for her to stop. It wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have in the middle of the driveway, so I walked towards Sinn Manor. I knew she would get the hint.
It will be better to get this off my chest anyway.
“Thank you for talking to me.” My mother walked inside and closed the door. “Leigh, I’m so sorry. I had no idea Edgar was capable of those awful things!”
“Mom.” I turned towards her and shook my head. “Yes, you did. You took his side when he wanted to force his seventeen year old daughter to marry someone she didn’t even know!”
That had a little more bite in it than I intended, but I don’t regret saying it.
“Leigh, I thought he had her best interests in mind.” She grimaced. “She was out of control, and he said that he was worried she wouldn’t have anyone to provide for her after he was gone—it sounded like he was talking from the heart. He even teared up…”
“Usually, when teenagers are out of control, you try to parent them.” I exhaled sharply through my nose. “You don’t try to find them a husband—but that’s not how your mind works, is it? You were trying to convince me to find a rich guy to marry when I was younger than Jenny!”
“We had nothing! I wanted you to have a better life—better than the one I had.” She sighed, and I saw tears in the corner of her eyes. “Better than the one you always knew…”
“I’ve never hated my life.” I shrugged. “I didn’t have a problem with being poor or working for what I had. You call it nothing, but it was everything to me…”
“You must think I’m just a fool.” She turned away, and I heard a slight sob in her throat.
“No.” I took a step towards her. “I don’t think you’re a fool—I just think you spent so much time trying to figure out
how to be someone else that you never really figured out who you are.”
“Maybe you’re right.” She wiped the tears away from her eyes. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Edgar’s going to prison, and I’m right back where I started—the same place I was when I met him.”
“You should probably ask yourself if that’s really what you believe.” I walked to the door and looked back at her. “Because if you don’t think everything that happened changed you—then that’s almost as terrifying as the fact that you fell for him in the first place.”
My eyes teared up when I left Sinn Manor. I said what I needed to say, but I was still talking to a brick wall. My mother, like Damien’s, was an emotional casualty of Edgar Sinn’s cruelty. She couldn’t see that because she never recognized the face that stared back at her from the mirror until she was looking at one in Sinn Manor. I didn’t know if she could come to terms with what was on the other side of that. If she chose to mourn her loss instead of appreciating what she had, then it was her choice to make. I couldn’t make it for her.
“Are you okay?” Damien handed me his handkerchief when I returned to the car.
“Yeah.” I patted the bottom of my eyes and soaked up the tears. “Let’s go home.”
“I love you, Leigh.” Damien squeezed my hand and then started the car. “I know that wasn’t easy.”
“I love you too.” I stared at Sinn Manor in the window as we left the driveway—for what I assumed would be the very last time.
Once I had time to reign in my emotions, Damien and I talked about the conversation I had with my mother. I could tell he was dreading the one that he was eventually going to have with his. Addison had reached out to the medical staff there to explain the situation—so it was only a matter of time before she heard what kind of monster she had lived with for all those years. We were hoping the doctors would allow Damien and Jenny to be the ones that broke the news to her. Even if they didn’t get to explain everything to her, they would be there to offer emotional support—which we were all sure she would need a lot of.
Devious Intentions (Carson Cove Sandals Book 3) Page 24
