Chapter 284: Always mine

Damian stubbornly pulled me against his solid chest, almost roughly, and caught my trembling chin between his fingers. His grip was firm enough to leave me no choice but to meet his gaze.

Something inside me seemed to crack.

In his strong arms, I desperately wanted to be a little girl again. Small, fragile, and protected from everything the world could throw at me.

But at the same time, a painful, burning feeling was spreading through my chest, warning me not to show him just how vulnerable I felt.

I was terrified that if he saw me looking so miserable and broken, he’d somehow become disappointed in me.

The rational part of my mind kept insisting that it shouldn’t matter what I looked like. That he wouldn’t care. But my emotions had already taken over.

I didn’t recognize myself anymore. With him, I felt as though I’d finally found the missing piece of myself, only to lose it all over again. I was rebuilding something I’d once had, and the process was excruciating.

"I embarrassed myself in front of your mother. How am I ever supposed to look her in the eye again?" The words burned on their way out, and I bit my lower lip to keep from crying harder.

"Why on earth would you think something like that?"

With a heavy sigh, he turned my face toward his and gently brushed his thumb over my cheek. His presence seemed to wrap around me, bringing with it a sense of safety I desperately needed.

"Amelie, my mother would sooner cut off my head than let me embarrass you. You don’t know her very well yet, but you’ll understand soon enough. She’s an incredible woman. She has a third eye, just like Father, and they notice far more than ordinary people ever could."

"Why do you talk about her like that?"

The panic slowly began to subside. I finally relaxed enough to slip my arms around his waist, allowing myself to settle against him.

"Because she never enters a room without knocking. In fact, she won’t even come inside without permission, even if the door is wide open. In our family, everyone respects personal boundaries. Everyone except Rose, of course."

"Rose is...?" My stomach tightened again, uncertainty making my words falter.

"One of my sisters. I have a big family, sweetheart. You’ll meet all of them tonight when they’re home."

"And Rose isn’t your girlfriend?"

"No. We’re together, Amelie. And I want to officially introduce you to my family."

His words landed between us like a match thrown into dry tinder.

A delicious shiver rippled through my entire body. Every nerve seemed to come alive beneath his touch. My heart, which had finally begun to settle into a normal rhythm, started pounding wildly against my chest, sending a rush of warmth through my entire body.

"I don’t remember you ever actually asking me to be your girlfriend."

My cheeks turned an even deeper shade of pink. Deliberately lowering my gaze, I stared at the buttons of his shirt, suddenly finding them fascinating.

"I did ask, and you even said yes." Pulling me closer, he brushed his warm lips against my flushed cheek, slowly trailing a teasing kiss toward my ear. "Remember? You were stuck in that car, and you agreed to be my girl."

Those vivid memories immediately resurfaced, stirring something much more wicked inside me.

Because I remembered exactly what had happened in the cramped interior of his car. I remembered his large, rough hands on my thighs and the shameless way he’d pulled me onto his lap, practically forcing me to straddle him.

"You blackmailed me into it with that filthy little stunt!" I protested indignantly, giving his shoulder a playful punch.

He responded with a low, velvety laugh, catching my hand before I could hit him again.

"I don’t regret a single second of it. I regret plenty of things in my life, sweetheart, but you certainly aren’t one of them. You were absolutely breathtaking. Like some beautiful, forbidden fantasy straight out of an adult movie. I was this close to taking you right there in the back seat while you were rubbing that gorgeous ass against me. I swear, I nearly died of frustration. And if I’d given in, your parents would’ve probably buried me with honors and sent me straight to hell."

"You’re exaggerating!"

"I’m actually understating it, little bird."

Clutching the hem of his T-shirt with my now-sweaty fingers, I shifted slightly away from him, studying his face through the last traces of my tears.

It wasn’t that having an official title as his girlfriend meant everything to me. It wasn’t a label that would suddenly make our bond more real or give it some magical strength against everything standing in our way.

But hearing him say it still meant an incredible amount.

It was an open declaration, a promise that he intended to build a future with me. And after everything we’d been through, that was perhaps the strongest reassurance I could have asked for.

"So... we’ve actually been together for more than a month?" I asked softly, resting my hands against his tense shoulders.

I held my breath, waiting for his answer.

"I’d say we’ve been together our entire lives. You were always mine, Amelie. And I was always yours."

***

Damian’s POV

"Look! This is Day-Day after Mom banned him from eating candy. He promised he wouldn’t sneak any, but then he went and ate the whole stash anyway!"

I watched as Amelie tentatively took the photograph from Rose and studied it.

My chest tightened.

She was adorable. So damn adorable that I wanted to scoop her up, carry her straight to my apartment, and growl at anyone who dared come within ten feet of her.

She was uncomfortable. I could feel it in the way her instincts made her hesitate, worried that she wouldn’t be accepted. But one look at my mother’s face told me she’d already fallen for her.

I caught the occasional furtive glance my mother stole in Amelie’s direction. Father, meanwhile, was getting increasingly irritated. He always reacted that way whenever he saw her crying, especially when the situation was beyond his control.

"Why is his mouth green?" Amelie asked quietly, lifting her eyes to me.

I wouldn’t say I was embarrassed, but something unpleasantly tight twisted in my chest. The wolf in me clearly wasn’t thrilled about being portrayed in such an unflattering light.

"Mom poured green food coloring into all the candy," Rose explained, bursting into laughter as she handed Amelie another photograph. "And this one was taken right after he earned his black belt."

Watching Amelie trace the photograph with her fingertip was almost unbearable. It was like being presented with a vision of everything I wanted and being told I couldn’t touch it.