Page 33 of April's Fool
“Of course I am. Mori is happy for Gregoris too, aren’t you, baby?”
There was such a plea in Damon’s eyes for me to agree. “I really am,” I said honestly. “All I want is for him to be happy.” My voice cracked as I asked, “Why did he abandon me?”
Damon wrapped me in his arms. I leaned my head on his as I held back a sob. Gregoris has been in my life for so long, I couldn’t remember a time without him near me.
“I’m happy he has you, Parker. Look after him, won’t you?” I managed to get out as I swallowed back myemotions. Making Gregoris feel more guilty over his actions wouldn’t make him come back any faster.
“Of course I will.” Even through the phone, the honesty was clear. “Once we all take a few days, we’ll get back on this hit thing and maybe come back to Toth’s.” Those sounded like empty words to me. I was sure that I wouldn’t see my friend and guard for some time. “Northarbor isn’t safe for any of us.”
“I know,” Damon said, looking sad. “Stay safe, okay?”
“You too. Stay with Mori. Stay at the castle, where you’re safe. For me, please, Damon. I need to know you’re okay. You’ve got Mori, Toth, and Cody to watch over you. Gregoris just—“
“Needs you more. I get it. Call soon, okay?”
“I will.”
Parker ended the call, making the room fall into silence. I stood with Damon still in my arms as I thought about what we should do next.
“I’m going to call my parents. They’ll want to know that Gregoris is gone.”
“Okay,” Damon said numbly.
“I’m warning you though, they are really protective and just want to come meet Cody. We might not be able to get rid of them for a bit.”
Damon gave a wobbly smile. “They sound fun. You can’t just wait around here and babysit me. There’s all your businesses to run, so if you need to headhome…”
I froze. What made him think I would abandon him now? That I was going to give up on whatever we were building? I paced as I set him right.
“Damon, I’m not going anywhere. I’m telling my parents so they can arrange a new guard for me and bring the pertinent documents here for work. The Sweetwater pack wants to speak to me about the heat club, but I can do that from here, or go to them once I have another guard.” I stopped in front of him to cup his face. “I’m staying with you.”
Relief shone in his eyes. “Okay.”
The next few days were a whirlwind of preparations. Rather than make my parents stay at a hotel, Cody convinced Toth to allow them to stay in the castle, so it had to be made ready for them. Cody was worried about his home not meeting their standards, so went a little overboard with the cleaning and redecorating. It was rather cute how much he wanted to make a good impression on them.
Despite there being available rooms, Damon never moved back into his own one, sleeping each night with me. Unfortunately, we were still tied into our promise to Cody, and aside from a few kisses andanother stolen moment in the orchard, we couldn’t take our growing relationship to the next level. Still, I appreciated the time with him. We curled up together every evening, and I followed him around all day, likely looking like a lost puppy, as he helped my sons get the castle to visitor standard.
I laughed so hard when Cody said that. It seemed to me that he didn’t count me as a visitor, some stranger. He accepted my place in his life and was making way for me. I loved him and Toth. I was growing to care for Damon in a way I knew could soon be love.
While we spent time together, not getting up to anything sexual—oh the blue balls I had—we talked. A lot. About everything. I was so curious about Damon’s life. It saddened me even further to realize that until his mentor had shown up in his life, he had gone far too many years without someone to rely on. This meant that he was taking Parker’s abandonment even harder than I first thought.
It took him a day or two, but he was finally relying on me. We were building trust between us, and I was getting to know the man underneath the snarky exterior.
He had never really had a family after his mom had died when he was about four. My heart hurt for a little boy with no one else in the world and very few memories of the woman who had raised him alone.There was very little said about the families that he lived with over the years, though there was a running theme. None of them had treated him with love. None had kept him. Most had some sort of prejudice and he’d quickly gotten sent somewhere else.
I felt myself growing closer to the young man with each story we told each other. Damon let me see his early pain, so I showed him mine. Cody’s life growing up was one of my biggest regrets. I hated that I had allowed myself to be trapped into keeping my true identity hidden from him. Who he was. Damon and Cody were alike in a few ways. Damon was more ruthless, harder than Cody.
Damon was working on his prejudice towards the witches, though that wasn’t helped by them going completely silent on us. We appreciated they had a traitor in their midst to deal with. Except for the fact we were caught up in this mess, there was no good reason for Basil to continue coming after Damon.
“Oak still won’t answer my texts.” Damon was clearly frustrated as he returned his phone to his pocket. Working in a suit wasn’t a good idea, so I was pleased to see him in the comfortable sweats he had borrowed from Cody.
I kept finding myself staring at the curve of his ass as the material hugged it. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, the weather far too warm for that. I added incubus tothe list of creatures in Damon’s ancestry. He was too beautiful. Unlike incubi, he had a fine layer of chest hair and a line that went down to his groin that always drew my attention down.
“Hmm, it’s only been a couple of days. Give them some more time to sort the mess out at the coven house.”
“Are you sure they’ll like me?” Damon asked as he fussed with a sofa cushion for the hundredth time. The sudden change in subject threw me for a loop.
“Shouldn’t I be asking that?” Cody laughed. I’d almost forgotten that he was in the room with us. Apparently, he didn’t trust us to do things alone. Honestly, he only caught us kissing a couple of times. It wasn’t like we broke any of his rules. “I can’t believe I’m going to meet my grandparents!”
