Rule's Obsession (18 page)

"Nick, wait," Damian interjected.

"What?"

"What exactly were you going to do if I was still in New York?"

"That's an easy one, big brother. Whatever the fuck you instructed me to do. I've got your back."

Damian let out a breath. "Yeah."

His brother ended the call and Damian did the same.

****

Damian walked through his mother's home without giving anyone time to engage him in conversation. He saw Nick hovering over Courtney with a pissed-off expression on his face. He continued trekking across the room with a solitary purpose. He met his brother's stare only briefly, but it was long enough for Nick to motion with a tilt of his head toward the library, telling Damian that Angie was still in there.

He cracked his knuckles and continued crossing the carpet without breaking stride. He came to the library door and without knocking, twisted the handle and stepped inside.

He walked all the way into the room on silent feet and came up behind the sofa. Angie and the unknown man were sitting side-by-side, holding hands, heads together, engrossed in low-pitched conversation.

Rage, unlike any he'd ever experienced shot down his spine and then clawed back up his throat. He paced around to the front of the sofa and stood, his muscles braced for attack.

Angie glanced up, and more slowly, so did the young man she sat with. He was a good-looking kid, ridiculously so, and Damian about came unglued. "You have two fucking seconds, Angie. Start talking, now."

****

Angie paled when she saw the look in Damian's eyes. She'd seen him angry before, of course, but nothing to compare to this. There was no other word for it; he was incensed. Alarm trickled through her veins. "I thought you were out of town."

He took a step forward, aggression in every line of his body.
"Wrong answer, babe."

At Damian's mounting fury, Angie felt Caiden jerk beside her and begin to stand up in a bid to extricate himself from her. But she continued to hold his hand, pulling on it, trying to keep him seated. Absolutely nothing good could come of him standing up in front of an enraged Damian, even if only to try to sidestep him. She attempted to speak, "This . . . this is Caiden. He's Rick's son."

"I don't give a fuck whose son he is." Damian transferred his glare to the young man sitting next to her. "Let go of her hand.
Now
. Or I'll do it for you."

Caiden started shaking her hand off of his, no doubt understanding that Damian's rage was a direct result of Angie sitting with him. Angie let him have his hand back and then she jumped to her feet and stood between the two men. "I'm glad you're home," she said to Damian, attempting to cool him down. "Caiden was just leaving," she added quickly, trying to protect the younger man.

Damian stood still, his muscles tensing. "No, he wasn't."

She tried to control the butterflies pushing through her stomach. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means he can stay exactly where he's at until I decide if I'm going to let him live or not."

"Damian--" Angie began.

"Oh, for God's sake, Angie," Caiden interjected from where he still sat on the sofa. "Tell him the truth."

Damian's eyes narrowed, the veins in his neck bulged, and he looked ready to flip a switch. Angie glanced down at Caiden. "Don't make it worse--"

"I'm trying to make it better. We don't need any animosity here. Jesus Christ, my father's probably going to marry his mother--"

"
What?"
Damian shouted, turning an even colder shade of pissed.

"Damian!" Angie screamed, "Calm down!"

Damian clenched his fists. "I want to know why you're in here with him, alone, and somebody best start with some satisfactory answers or there's going to be hell to pay," he threatened, pulling her within the circle of his arms as he spoke. He spun her around, until her back was pressing against his chest and his arms around her waist were like bands of steel. Angie couldn't see him in this position, but she knew his next words were directed to Caiden. "You see her, asshole?"

Angie almost cringed when she saw Caiden's face pale. "I see her."

"She's mine,"
Damian hissed with barely controlled violence.

Caiden wore an expression that clearly said he couldn't believe what was going down. "Dude, I don't want her."

After that, everything happened at once.

The library door opened, and both Damian's mother and Rick walked inside. Damian didn't even seem to notice as his attention stayed focused on Caiden. "No? Why the fuck were you holding onto her hand like you had a goddamn right to it?" At the same time Damian growled the question, Angie felt a strong surge of testosterone rise up within his muscles and she knew he was about to set her aside and make a lunge for Caiden.

Caiden must have felt the imminent threat as well, because he opened his mouth to begin defending himself. Angie knew what words were about to come from his lips; he was about to tell Damian the truth about his sexuality, but he never had the chance.

Rick took in the scene with a single glance and strode over until he stood just beside the couch, next to his son. Angie knew what he was seeing, what he was hearing, what Damian's mother was seeing as well. It must have been clear to everyone in the room that Damian and Angie's relationship was
anything
but casual.
Busted
. Damian had his arms wrapped around her as if he owned her and everything about her.

Angie knew without looking that the jealousy she could hear in Damian's voice had to be reflected on his face and in his physical bearing. So, it was no surprise when Rick snarled at Damian,
"Back off."
With that, he placed his hand on Caiden's shoulder in a defensive posture and continued to stare Damian down. "My son isn't interested in your woman. He's gay. Leave him the fuck alone."

Angie felt the tension slowly drain from Damian's body, but then another more subtle kind of nerves took over his system. The immediate threat to
his woman
neutralized, Angie knew that Damian was now taking in the dynamics of the other people in the room and what that meant to him.

Caiden glanced up at his father and his father down at him, and suddenly, Angie realized they were being made privy to a meeting that should be private.

Caiden rose to his feet, and after an abbreviated, awkward moment, he and Rick embraced.

When they'd released each other, Damian cleared his throat and questioned, "You're gay?" Angie froze in his arms and with a reaction she couldn't control, shoved her arm backward until her elbow made a satisfying thump into Damian's abdomen.

Caiden saw the motion, smiled, and nodded his head. "Angie and I are only friends." He held Damian's eyes as if feeling him out, and then, cautiously, he held out his hand. "Caiden Harris."

Damian retained one arm around Angie, reciprocating with his right hand. "Damian Rule."

The two men shook hands. From Angie's new viewpoint by Damian's side, she saw when he then held his hand out to Rick, but it wasn't automatically taken.

Rick crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at Damian. Then he transferred his gaze to Angie, and with a very paternal expression on his face, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said with a small smile. "This is Damian," she said to Rick, trying again to get him to shake Damian's hand, "he's Justine's oldest son."

"I figured as much," Rick said as he finally shook Damian's hand, but with little warmth. "You go off a bit half-cocked with no real justification, don't you?" Rick challenged as Justine Rule slid up next to him.

She'd been standing close to the library door taking everything in, but now she stood next to Rick and studied her son as if he'd grown an extra head. She looked between Damian and Angie, back and forth and then again as if truly stumped. "I'm trying to figure this out."

When Damian shrugged his shoulders in silence, his mother turned to Rick and changed the direction of the conversation, if only for a moment. "Why didn't you tell me your son is gay? Don't you think it might have saved him an uncomfortable experience? I didn't
have
to try to match him up with every single woman here tonight." Without waiting for an answer, she turned to Caiden, "I'm sorry, darling."

"It's no problem. I understand. And as Angie has known me for a while," he shot a dark look at Damian, "it's not that big of a deal."

Being reminded of Angie made Damian's mother turn in their direction again with a quizzical frown. "Angie darling, have you been lying to me by omission?"

Angie took a deep breath and confessed, "Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry."

"Well, you're forgiven of course, but why would you do that?" Before Angie could form an answer, Mrs. Rule glanced at Damian. "Never mind, darling. I know why you did it." The older woman looked a little hurt, and Damian had the good grace to flush.

"Mother," Damian began, and then cleared his throat.

"Yes?" his mother asked, as if her feelings weren't hurt at all.

Damian glanced at the other two men in the room, and Angie knew that neither one of them was ready to take pity on him and leave--not after the way he'd acted. Looking back to his mother, he said, "I'm sorry that I misled you."

"Misled, darling?" she prompted in the most genteel voice that Angie had ever heard.

"I'm sorry I lied to you," Damian qualified.

Mrs. Rule inclined her head graciously and Damian continued, "I'd like to introduce you once again, to Angie Ross, my . . . my--"

Mrs. Rule schooled her features into a perfectly neutral expression and Angie cracked up on the inside as she and the older woman shared a quick peek at each other before his mother asked, "Your what, Damian?"

Damian knew he'd been made, that much was evident by the look on his face. "My woman. My girlfriend. My better half." He stopped speaking and pulled Angie all the way back into his arms again before continuing, "The woman who drives me crazy. The woman who makes me want to kill innocent men." Angie was experiencing a hot rush of butterflies in her stomach while Damian threw a look at Caiden. "Sorry about that." Caiden shrugged and Damian looked back to his mother. "How much more do you want me to say? She's the reason I'm not interested in any of the women you throw in my direction, she's the reason I cut my trip short by three days." He took a deep breath. "Is that enough or do you want me to go on? She's the one who calms me down, makes me happy, sleeps in my--"

Justine Rule held up her hand. "That's enough, darling. Your mother gets the picture," she said humorously. With that, she went to Damian and Angie stepped aside as Mrs. Rule hugged her son and then hugged Angie in turn. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" She asked them both.

Angie responded with a smile and shook her head, but Damian only grimaced.

Justine turned to the group as a whole. "We've gotten a lot cleared up tonight. I won't be trying to fix Caiden up anymore. Well, at least not with any women," she said with a smile in his direction, "and I'll try not to mess up in the future with any of my other children as I did with Damian. It's best that I just stay out of their personal lives, I think. I was going to try to get Courtney and Nick together, but I've learned from my mistakes. Instead, I'll leave my son alone and find some other nice young men for her to choose from."

"Mother--" Damian began to interject.

"What, darling?"

"Never mind. I'm sure you know what's best."

"I'm sure I do."

Chapter Ten

After the party, as they both had their vehicles, Damian followed Angie to her apartment. He thought about the scene in the library during the entire drive. For what it was worth, he supposed his mother had been right.
It hadn't been that bad
.

His mother knew about them now, and as she liked Angie, it finally dawned on him that now she'd really leave him alone; she wouldn't try her damn matchmaking skills anymore.

And that had to be a good thing.

So why did he still feel as if he had acid burning in his stomach that wouldn't go away?

He continued to contemplate the matter. Maybe it had worked out. Maybe he'd had nothing to be upset about to begin with. The dude had been gay. But Damian had had thirty minutes to stew after his brother's phone call and warning. He'd had half an hour to imagine the worst-case scenario, which was Angie, with another man.

The burn in his stomach intensified. He tried to breathe it out. As he parked the car and followed Angie upstairs, he tried to reason with himself. It had been a simple misunderstanding. A miscommunication. That was all. She hadn't done anything wrong, she hadn't been unfaithful in any way.

So why the hell was he so keyed up?

Deep down, he knew the answer. It was because he didn't have the right. He didn't have a one-hundred percent, no questions asked, no holes barred, absolute, unequivocal right to Angie's thoughts. To her body. To her person.

And that's what he wanted.

That
's
what the fuck he wanted with her.