Damien (Slater Brothers #5)(14)

“It bloody well does!” Bronagh cut me off.

I looked at my friend. “I was goin’ to tell you, I promise, but I knew you’d tell Aideen, and I didn’t want a big deal made of it.”

“Why would she tell me?” Aideen quizzed with furrowed brows. “And why would a big deal be made of it?”

I groaned and put my face in my hands.

“Oh, my God!” Bronagh suddenly gasped. “It’s one of ’er brothers, isn’t it?”

“What?” Aideen asked, her eyes wide. “You’re goin’ out with one of me brothers?”

I looked up, and instead of looking at Aideen, I looked at Damien as I said, “Yes.”

Damien balled his hands into fists. “Which Collins?”

I swallowed. “Dante.”

My chest constricted with pain when I saw the hurt in Damien’s grey eyes.

“I have to go,” he said and turned to walk out of the room.

On instinct, I grabbed his arm. “Wait. Look, we need to talk.”

“No,” Damien said and removed my hand from his arm. “We don’t.”

“Please, I don’t know why I’ve brought this up, but we have to try—”

“I have tried with you.” He angrily cut me off. “I’ve tried to be patient. I’ve tried to show you how sorry I am for what I did to you. I’ve tried to befriend you. I’ve tried to give you space ... I’ve tried to show you how much I care about you, but you don’t want me. I see that now.”

“Damien—”

“No, Alannah,” he cut me off. “You’re with Dante Collins, and I’m done.”

“It’s not a relationship,” I blurted. “We aren’t datin’. He is just ... there.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Aideen angrily snapped.

I didn’t look away from Damien’s back.

“He helped me get over you—”

“By getting under him?” he snapped.

I winced. “That’s not fair, Damien. You were gone for so long, and we weren’t on good terms.”

“I left for you!” Damien shouted as he spun around to face me. “When I realised how much I hurt you, when Bronagh told me the things no one else would, I made the decision to leave to better myself but also to give you time. I didn’t know how to make things right back then, but I was always going to come back for you, Alannah. I would fix everything, but you’ve made it so hard.”

A lump formed in my throat. “I ... I didn’t know.”

Damien shook his head. “I have to go.”

He turned around and walked out of the kitchen, but I quickly followed him while everyone else stayed rooted to their spot.

“Damien, please,” I pleaded, grabbing his arm again.

I could hear the kids begin to cry, most likely from all the shouting.

“Let go, Lana,” Damien replied, his tone low.

“No,” I stated. “We need to talk.”

“What we need to do is be away from each other,” Damien replied. “Go to Dante; I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to comfort you.”

“Damien, stop. You don’t mean that.”

“Alannah. Let. Go.”

“No, I won’t.”

He turned his head in my direction and stared down at me. I could still see the hurt in his eyes, but there was anger there, too.

“Why do you want to talk all of a sudden?” Damien demanded after a few moments of tense staring. “Why not the first million times I’ve asked?”

“Because I’m ready to deal with all of this.”

“It took you long enough!”

“Don’t be nasty,” I hit back. “None of this is me fault. I’m the one who was hurt and embarrassed and have been carryin’ it around for years, not you.”

“Not me?” Damien bellowed. “I’ve carried it around since the second I did you wrong, and I fucking know it. I know what I did, and I’ve tried to make it right, but I can’t. You’ve made it impossible.”

“How?”

“By being with him!” Damien roared. “I haven’t touched anyone since I touched you. I haven’t kissed anyone since I kissed you. I haven’t looked at another woman since I was fucking eighteen, but that ends tonight. If you have moved on, then so will I.”

I felt my mouth drop open with shock at Damien’s admission, and my heart pounded against my chest, but his latter words stuck with me and held my attention.

“Fine,” I hollered, but my voice cracked ever so slightly, indicating that I was going to cry. “Go be with some bitch ’cause I won’t be ’ere when you get back. You say you’re done? Well, so am I!”

Damien humourlessly laughed. “You’ve been done with me for years, and you know it!”

I scrubbed my face with my hands, reliving our fight from a few days ago that still felt too fresh to process.

Damien’s reaction to my relationship with Dante was unexpected, and quite frankly, it frightened me how much I cared that I had hurt him. After Damien asked me out for lunch, I told him I couldn’t go out with him because I was seeing someone, and when I revealed it was Dante, I didn’t care that Aideen had reacted badly to the news, I just cared how Damien reacted to it. He reacted worse than I could have ever imagined, and I reacted out of fear when he walked away from me.