Damien did not jump or startle when he heard Adrian whisper into his ear. Instead, he slowly pulled back from the cracked door that led into George’s nursery and turned to his friend with a warning glare. He put a finger to his lips, signaling Adrian to stay silent, then stalked down the hall.
“When did you get here?” Damien asked once they reached the grand staircase.
“What is the matter, man? Disappointed to see me?” Adrian teased.
Damien rolled his eyes as they reached the bottom of the staircase and headed toward his study, knowing Adrian would follow.
“How you convinced my servants to ignore my commands so you can try to sneak up on me is beyond my comprehension,” Damien muttered. He glanced over his shoulder at Adrian as they reached the study door, and as he opened it, he asked, “What has happened to you, man? You used to be more serious.”
Adrian’s answering grin was that of a fool.
“Ah, well, finding the love of your life and having a child with her will do that to you,” Adrian replied with a dramatic sigh.
Again, Damien rolled his eyes. Nearly three years ago now, Cupid had struck the one eternally angry man with one of his arrows, and it was quite clear that he had no intention of removing it.
“You should know what I am talking about,” Adrian goaded as they took seats opposite one another. “You seem quite smitten yourself.”
Damien fixed him with a threatening glare from across his large oak desk.
“I assure you,I am not,” he replied, enunciating his last three words.
Adrian raised a challenging brow as his lips twitched toward a smirk.
“So you just loom outside any door and watch whoever is inside?” Adrian asked. “That must be causing stress for your servants.”
Damien bristled. Adrian had caught him watching Caroline and George—something he had meant to do just once after he had dismissed the nurse, but now, he seemed to be drawn to watching them every spare moment. He made a mental note to chastise his staff for not letting him know Adrian had come by.
“Our marriage might be in name only, but that does not mean I am not responsible for her. Just as I am responsible for the boy, even though he is not mine. If they are under my roof, they are mine to look after. Just as you no doubt would if you had guestsstaying in your home,” Damien explained with forced calm.
Adrian gave a casual shrug.
“To make sure they are not wanting of anything, for certain. But to go so far as to watch them from a distance?” Adrian challenged. He shook his head as his smirk deepened. “Why can you not just admit that you care deeply for Caroline? You did so once. Or at least confessed to finding her fascinating.”
He had, very shortly after Bridget became Adrian’s wife, and it was a confession that he wished he had never given. He knew Adrian would never let it go.
“Caroline is here to look after George until I can sort out his parentage,” Damien answered, ignoring Adrian’s questions and remarks. “That is all.”
He paused for a moment, a sense of fondness snaking quietly through his heart.
“To her credit, she has done wonderfully. She has only been here a little over a week, and already there has been much change in the boy,” he admitted.
Adrian raised an amused brow as he steepled his fingertips.
“And perhaps a little change in you and her, as well?” he nudged.
With his mouth set in a grim line, Damien shook his head. While watching over Caroline and George had become the best part of his day, the only part, if he was being honest with himself, he was certain that Caroline felt nothing similar.
“She is afraid of me,” he grimly added, his eyes lowering to his massive hands. “And after all I have done, I cannot blame her.”
Silence settled over the room as Damien continued to look at his hands. Hands that had at one time, not very long ago, been responsible for so much pain and violence. Even now, a year after having Evander back, he still had dreams of the bloodied and bruised men he had unleashed his fury upon in desperation to get his missing friend back.
“You are not that person anymore, old friend. None of us is.”
Adrian’s voice rose calmly through the tense silence.
Damien slowly drew his eyes up to him. The amusement on Adrian’s face was gone, and in its place was an intense gaze that he was sure saw beyond his person and into his soul.
“Even when you were, you had a purpose,” Adrian continued, his voice falling into a husky reverence. “My brother is a good man. He was abducted by evil people. You were violent, yes. But you did so in the name of good.”
