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I didn’t know what I’d said to offend him. “You are home, Damien. But my apartment is where I live…”
“Why don’t you live here?”
The puzzle pieces started to come together. “Are you asking me?”
“No,” he said coldly. “I’m telling you. I just assumed you’d move in. Doesn’t make sense for you to go back to your apartment and live alone. I don’t want you on your own, and I don’t want to be in this bed alone. I’ve lived without you for so long.” He shook his head and pressed his lips tightly together. “I don’t want to do it anymore.”
My heart was touched. “I want to stay with you too. But…do you think that’s too soon? We’ve never really had the chance to date. We’ve never really…been together. Now we have a chance, the chance that was taken from us.”
He continued to rub his hands together as he carefully phrased his response. “We can take things slow, but what’s the point? We aren’t strangers. We’ve been through something together, and we can’t erase that. I don’t want to start over. I don’t want to see each other for a year before we take the next step. I don’t want to follow some fictional guideline. I want you to live here with me. And I don’t want you to leave.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’d ask you to marry me if I thought you would say yes.” He looked me straight in the eye, showing no hesitation or embarrassment, putting all his cards on the table without fear of losing the game.
I inhaled a deep breath.
“But I know that’s too soon, not because it’s too soon for us, but after everything you’ve been through…it’s best to wait. So, if you wanna live with me…the offer’s on the table.”
My answer was quick. “Of course, I want to live with you, Damien. I want to sleep with you beside me every night. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to be with you as much as I can. But there’s something we’ve never talked about…”
“What?”
“A long time ago, you said you didn’t want to be with me because of your dangerous career. You didn’t want me to get hurt, to get caught up in that. Have your feelings about that changed?” I’d never asked because I didn’t want to give him a reason to leave, to doubt that this relationship could work.
He couldn’t look me in the eye anymore, and he turned away. It was a question that would require a deep and complicated answer. After a long time, he responded. “I left you to protect you, and it didn’t make a difference anyway. I don’t want to leave my businesses because I enjoy them, but I suspect my retirement will be inevitable…someday. When we have children, that’s when I’ll hang up my coat.”
“Damien, I’ve never asked you to give anything up. I’m just asking how you feel about it.”
He was quiet again, considering his response. “I’m not ready to walk away right now. I have unfinished business. But I’ve learned from Hades, and at some point, it’ll have to be over. When we start a family in a few years, that’s when I’ll leave. Gives me time to get things in order.” He rested his forearms on his thighs and looked straight ahead. “I’ll do everything I can to protect you, but I can’t promise to always keep you safe. I can’t promise that enemies won’t try to use you against me. There’s one person in particular that I have to eliminate because he’s never going to disappear. I can’t sugarcoat that.”
“Who?”
He turned back to me. “The Skull King.”
“Why?”
“He was Liam’s accomplice. He’s been trying to ruin my life since I refused to pay him. A year ago, he would’ve killed my father if I hadn’t stopped it. I have to kill him…at some point.”
Staying with Damien would be dangerous, but I still didn’t want to live any other way. “I’m okay with that.”
“Another reason why you should live with me. I can take you to work in the morning and pick you up later. And when you’re in my home, no one will get to you. It’s the safest option, but I’m using it as an excuse, more than anything else.” He watched me for a long time, his green eyes appreciating me with his deep gaze. He was a man who wasn’t afraid to show how much he loved me, how much I meant to him.
“Then let’s go to my apartment and get the rest of my things.”
He seemed a little stunned by my response, surprised that I would give up everything and risk it all to be with him. He’d just told me he still had a battle to fight and I could even be a casualty, but I still wanted to be with him…forever. “Let’s go.”
