Loving Damon

| 18 | The Leather Jacket

A/N: Okay I know you guys want to kill me! 😫 *hides behind Damon* But I promise I didn't expect this update to be a month overdue! Im so sorry about the long wait but for your huge amount of patience and loving support for not only this book but my others, I will be posting two chapters tonight and maybe a third before the weekend is over?🤷‍♀️😁 Hopefully... fingers crossed! LOL🤞

Anyways, enough talking & more reading! Ha! Enjoy guys!❤

| Damon |

I sit dazed and confused, going through every possible scenario in my mind as to why I told Ariel my deepest secret. Why when I finally open up to someone about my painful past did it have to be Ariel? None of my family knows anything about Danielle, not my mom, my Uncle, my sister...nobody but the first person I open up to and show the slightest amount of vulnerability to is my sisters best friend.

Except Ariel is so much more than just my sisters best friend and she has been for so long now that it has become second nature to see her as my best friend. I can't help myself from stepping up and always protecting her, seeing that she is happy and taken care of, that's what friends do right?

Last week when I opened up to her, the words fell out of my mouth so easily as if my body was expelling a demon from my soul. It became a case of word vomit and the confession just kept coming, like poison that needed to be released from my system.

Despite all that, the thing I feared the most was the feeling I felt after opening up to her. I felt free and content, almost as if telling her all those things made me happy, it made me want to tell her everything I had buried deep inside me. I felt nothing but a lightness on my shoulders that made me what to hold her in my arms and talk to her all night.

That, that feeling right there scared me more than any rejection any woman could have given me. Never have I ever wanted to hold a woman and talk to her about the things that kept me up at night or the dreams I had for my life. Ariel did something no other woman had done before, she brought out a side in my I thought was dead and gone.

When I got home that night I willed myself to push down all those feelings and force away any thoughts of opening up to her again. I couldn't give in, I couldn't put myself out there like that ever again. I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't worth it. I would never give any woman the satisfaction of breaking me again.

I couldn't bare the pain and humiliation.

That night before bed, I rubbed my chest subconsciously and swallowed down any feelings of Ariel my soul may have been reaching for, with a long burning gulp of whiskey and went straight to bed making sure the red headed beauty that turned my life upside down was clear from my thoughts.

"...Damon?"

My Uncles rough voice cut me from all my thoughts of the events from the previous week. I sat up in the black leather chair, shaking all thoughts from my head. When I looked up at Uncle Eric, his eyes held curiosity but his lips were formed in a thin line. I knew right away I missed something important. I wasn't paying attention, I was physically in the room but mentally I was far away.

I cleared my throat and placed my hands on the table in front of me "Yes, sorry."

He raised a brow which just added to his look of curiosity before letting out a sigh "I was just asking your opinion on the plans for Mr. Hollands daughters dance studio? We added the extra floor for the adult dance, along with the tinted glass windows surrouding the building."

Mr. Holland and his daughter, Sarah have been in more than a few times to try and perfect her Christmas gift, and as grateful that I was for the clientele and the money to allow my fathers business to continue to strive, I couldn't stand being in a room with them for longer than five minutes. Mr. Holland was a controlling asshole and the daughter was a spoiled little brat playing the part of the innocent angel. Their personalities were so obvious, Stevie wonder could have them figured out within seconds.