Delicate

Chapter 61

So I wrote the majority of this chapter to you were good to me by Jeremy zucker and Chelsea cutler. You do not have to listen to it for the chapter, but I do think certain scenes go well with the song. So I'm putting it here for those who like songs while reading and again down below for those with different devices.

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Damon's P.O.V

Nuzzling into Will's neck, I close my eyes and press delicate kisses to the open plain of his collar, lathering the skin with love while he breathed against me, taking in deep slow breathes in a pattern that faltered and sped up the moment I stopped.

We'd been glued together like this for hours, our bodies huddled close while we watched the landscape resting beyond the window, the rich green grass now perfectly illuminated by the risen sun.

Will usually preferred to hold me when we were together like this, he'd always liked it best when we slept like that and it'd be a lie if I said that I felt any different on the subject. But when we made it into the bed after what happened this morning, Will had begged me to hold him, and I had. I'd wrapped my arms around him, and I'd held him close to my chest, the hand he'd rested over my own hadn't moved an inch since.

"How much did you hear last night," Will whispers into the stagnant room, his eyes never shifting from the window opposite us.

"Towards the end, when she threatened you," I admit, hating the way the words made him tense in my hold.

I hadn't heard much of what had gone on between Will and that woman. I'd woken suddenly by the weight of Will's fear that dragged me from my dreams and barely given me a moment to open my eyes before I was on my feet and looking for him. It'd been instinctual, so much so that I'd found my way to him without much thought of my path. When I'd found him, the words I'd heard were explanation enough of what was causing him such distress.

"I will drag you there myself if I have to William,"

Just remembering those cruel words that come from a voice so twisted it might as well have been laced with poison, made my spirit ripple with a fury that demanded to be released, and it would. After what I'd heard, there was nothing in all the realms that could stop me from ensuring that that woman felt real pain, the type that never went away.

Will said I couldn't kill her, fine, I wouldn't. I'd make her wish that I could instead.

"She wants us all to have breakfast with her and father today." Will states, his tone neutral in a way that didn't match how stiff he was against me. I press another kiss just below Will's ear, desperate to comfort him even just a little.

Breakfast with Will's parents sounded like a trial run of hell that came with hors d'oeuvres. I'd already interacted enough with his birth giver to know that she was a vermin, which made it hard to imagine that his father was any better than his wife.

A meal with the pair of them wasn't something I wanted and I knew it wasn't what Will wanted either, but reminding him of that wouldn't do him any good. I could tell Will as many times as I liked that he didn't have to do a thing they said, but at the end of the day, Will already knew that and the final decision was his to make.

So, I reply with what seemed best, "what are we going to do?"

Will releases a strained breath, the hand he had over mine tightening before he managed another reply, "we're going to go to the breakfast and then we're getting out of here, we'll spend the afternoon out in the city."