Damien tensed and looked down at me with his lips parted. I stepped away from him and nodded for him to talk.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I do,” Nico said, gaining his twin’s attention. “Say that you aren’t to blame, and that you’re my brother.”
“I am to blame, though,” Damien replied. “This happened, all of it, because of me. Every job you all had to do, every ounce of pain and worry your women went through, was because of me. I ruined everything.”
I was shocked when Nico crossed the room, grabbed Damien by the scruff of the neck, and got in his face.
“Whatever you have done, or whatever you do, you’re still my fucking brother! Realise that, and then fucking accept it. I love you to death, man. I wouldn’t change a thing about my life; it’s made me who I am and brought me to my family.”
“But your life—”
“Wouldn’t have turned out like this if our past didn’t happen. I’d have never met Bronagh, the woman I’m going to marry, and she would never have given me a beautiful baby girl or be pregnant with my second baby.”
Damien stared at his twin.
“But Dominic—”
“No!” Nico snapped and shook Damien. “You. Did. Not. Ruin. Our. Lives.”
“Dominic—”
“Damien!” Nico shouted, his chest rising and falling rapidly. “You did nothing to us. So many people are responsible for the bad shit that’s happened to us, but it was all because of one person and that person was Marco, not you.”
Damien remained silent.
“Acknowledge it,” Nico pressed. “Out loud.”
Damien squeezed his eyes shut. “I can’t.”
An expression of pure agony stretched over Nico’s features.
“Damien,” he said slowly. “Acknowledge. It. Out. Loud.”
I didn’t realise I was crying until a hiccup escaped my throat and an arm hooked around my waist. I knew it was Bronagh without having to look at her.
“Damien.” Alec spoke from behind us. “Say it because it’s the truth, bro. Everything that happened to us was not your fault. None of it.”
Hearing him say that after knowing what he had been through made me love the man even more.
“Say it, kid,” Kane urged. “You’re not to blame, for fucking any of it.”
Damien’s eyes blinked open, and he looked from Nico, to his brothers, who were standing around the room.
“Come on, Dame,” Ryder spoke last, his voice firm. “Say it. You didn’t ruin out lives, Marco did.”
Damien opened and closed his mouth twice before he licked his lips and said, “I ... I didn’t ruin our lives ... Marco did.”
I covered my mouth to conceal my whimper as Nico enveloped Damien into a bone-crushing hug that the other brothers quickly joined.
“Everyone has demons, Dame,” Kane said, clapping his hand against his brother’s back. “We just need to be meaner than them because you know what, bro? We deserve to be happy.”
When the brothers finished embracing, Damien turned his misty eyes on me.
“I love you,” I said for the first time, my body trembling. “I love you so much, Damien.”
He stood across the way, staring at me for a good ten seconds before he snapped out of his trance and crossed the room to me in two seconds flat. His body crashed into mine, and to avoid falling backwards, my arms instantly latched around his waist, while Damien’s hands gripped either side of my face. He stared down at me with such intensity it made my knees weak and knock together. I squeezed him and stared up into his big, grey eyes. A plethora of emotions burned within them, but one emotion stood out.
Love.
“I love you, Damien,” I repeated, my heart slamming against my chest. “I have never come close to lovin’ another person; it’s why I’ve always been so scared when it came to you. I have never loved another person the way that I love you. You are me heart, and if you’ll still have me, I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”
I choked back a sob when tears spilled over the brims of his eyes and streamed down his cheeks, like a collapsed dam.
“Love, no,” I pleaded. “Please, don’t cry. Please.”
I leaned up and kissed his away his tears, pressing my lips all over his face, landing lastly on his plump lips.
“I love you,” I said, pressing chaste kisses to his mouth. “I love you; I love you; I love you.”
Damien’s forehead fell against mine, his hands dropped to my waist, and he hugged my body to him so tightly, it almost stole my breath. When he dropped to his knees before me, my heart stopped.
“What are you doin’?”
“Showing you I'm at your mercy. Always.”
“Damien.”
“I’m on my knees for you, freckles. Do you think just anyone can bring me to them?”
I dropped to mine a second later.
“You bring me to mine, too."
“Alannah,” Damien rasped, his eyes staring into mine. “I’ve loved you since we were kids.”
A sob tore free of my throat.
“Me too, and I've always known it deep down, but I've been so scared to accept it.” I sniffled. “I love you so much it terrifies me, Damien.”
“Don’t be scared,” he said. “I’ve got you. For as long as you’ll have me, I’ve got you.”
“How does forever sound?”
He squeezed me. “It sounds fucking heavenly, freckles.”
“Everythin’ about you, Jack Frost,” I told him, “is mine.”
“Jack Frost?”
“You’ve just been upgraded from snowflake. Congratulations.”
Damien’s smile was a true thing of beauty.
“I’m yours, Lana. Only yours.”
Only. Mine.
“I’ve never looked forward to the future as much in me life,” I declared. “You’re movin’ in with me, and we’re havin’ sex every single day at least three times. I want to have babies, five of them, ten of them. I don’t care how many. I just want babies with you. I want to get married, but you hav’ta ask me da first, otherwise he’ll kill you. When I want you, I’m havin’ you, and I don’t want to hear a feckin’ peep outta you on the matter. Are you clear on all of that?”
Damien leaned down and pressed his forehead against mine.
“Yes. Fucking. Ma’am.”
“Well,” Alec whooped. “It’s about fucking time!”
When we kissed, it was to the cheers, hooting, clapping, and laughter of our friends ... our family. It may as well have been kissing to fireworks at midnight on New Year’s Eve because it was just as sweet, just as tender, and just as perfectly perfect as a moment could be. It was the start of a beautiful forever.
Damien licked my lower lip. “Endgame, freckles?”
Joy filled me.
“Yeah, Jack Frost.” I answered, rubbing the tip of my nose against his. “We’re definitely endgame.”
I have a huge smile on my face as I type the acknowledgments to DAMIEN. It feels crazy to have told the last Slater brother’s story. When I first wrote DOMINIC, I never imagined that I would have a series full of characters who I loved so dearly. Even more, I never imagined I would have a series full of characters who readers would love so dearly. I can’t thank everyone enough for supporting me and the Slater Brothers series. You have made my whole world spin by doing so.
Getting this book ready from start to finish was a task and a half, and it would not have been possible without any of the following people.
Editing4Indies – Jenny, there are no words. You go beyond the call of duty when it comes to editing, especially MY form of editing. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking on a project this big at a moment’s notice.
Nicola Rhead – Thank you for proofing DAMIEN, and getting the job done so fast!