Trust Me (25 page)

Against my lips, he says, “We better go, or we’ll never make it to dinner.”

I give him a pout, and he nips my lip before assisting me into the car.

Half an hour later, we pull into an upscale restaurant in downtown Atlanta. Walking through the doors on Damien’s arm feels magnificent. The maître d’ escorts us to a private room.

Right before we enter the room, Damien looks down at me. Anyone within earshot can hear him as he declares, “I love you, Alli.”

The mega-grin on my face cannot be tamed even if I tried. “I love you, too.”

When he walks me through the door, I am greeted by loud voices yelling, “Surprise! Happy birthday!”

Sam and her parents, Dean and Chandra, are waiting for me.
No wonder Sam had to leave the spa an hour early for a supposed sorority crisis.
The moment is perfect as I have everyone I love, everyone I hold near and dear, with me.

The room is decorated with mostly white roses, my favorite color for flowers. For a dramatic statement, each flower arrangement has one red rose in it.

Leaning down, Damien whispers in my ear. “Happy birthday, baby.”

I’m in awe as I take it all in. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

“Each red rose, standing out above anything else, symbolizes my love for you.”

Looking up into his crystal blue eyes, I feel the love I never thought I’d have again. A tear slips out as he leans down to give me a sweet kiss.

Smiling, I look down at the bracelet that I rarely take off. I flip through a few pages and stop at a picture of Damien and me in New York City. We’re riding on a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. It was a lovely trip that had resulted from one of our biggest fights to date.

After attending a fundraiser for Sam’s sorority, Damien and I head back to my apartment for the night.

We decide to watch a movie, and we get settled on the couch, cuddling together underneath a blanket. As I drape my legs over his lap, I remember Sam’s reminder about her friend coming into town this weekend.

“Oh, hey.” I give Damien a little nudge to get his attention away from his tablet.

He’s handling some kind of problem with a real estate deal he’s been trying to close for the last few days.

“I keep meaning to tell you that Sam’s friend is staying here for a few days. She had asked a few weeks before we met, and I’d forgotten about it until she said something to me tonight.”

That got his attention.

He lays down the tablet and looks at me. “Who is this person?”

“Sam’s friend. I don’t know him.” I give a little shrug.

“Him? What’s his name?”

His voice changes, and in that instant, I know he’s not going to let this slide.

I playfully nudge him with my foot. “His name is Daniel. I figured I would stay at your place. I’ll just need to drop by a couple of times to make sure he’s settled.”

Damien fishes out his phone and makes a call. “Hey, Sam. I’m taking Alli out of town this weekend. I know your friend Daniel was supposed to stay here. I’ll put him up in a hotel instead. It’s my treat. Thanks. You, too.”

My blood is boiling by the time he hangs up. I pull my legs off of him as I unleash my icy glare on him. “You had no right to do that.”

He meets my gaze head-on with a determined look on his face. “Alli, I had every right.”

“Um, no, you didn’t. I’m not going anywhere with you this weekend, and Daniel is staying here. Don’t be ridiculous.” I’m so mad at him that my insides are shaking.

I stand up to get some space. I walk into the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water.
What the hell?
Putting both hands on the counter, I lean my head down and close my eyes, trying to calm my heart rate.

I hear footsteps behind me, and then two arms come around me.

“Alli, don’t be like this. Would you want a girl coming to stay at my place?”

I turn around and push him back lightly to get some space. “Probably not, but I would talk to you about it. I wouldn’t become a bitch and just start doing things without us discussing them first.” He is about to say something, but I hold up my hand since I’m on a roll. “I get why you wouldn’t want me to stay in my apartment with a guy you don’t know, but don’t order me around. I told you that I would be staying at your place. We are in a relationship, and that takes two of us working together. It is not about you telling me what to do.”

He starts pacing the floor, rubbing his forehead as if he’s deep in thought. I hate fighting with him. He stops, turns, and then comes up to me. He presses his lips to mine. At first, I refuse him passage, but the harder he tries, the more my will crumbles. When my mouth gives in to his, he kisses me within an inch of my life.

After he pulls back, he says, “I get it. Just the thought of you coming over here by yourself to, I’m sure, one of Sam’s fuck buddies had me scrambling to keep you away.”

“You can trust me, Damien. I would never cheat on you.”

He lays his forehead to mine. “Baby, I trust you completely. It’s all those other fucking assholes out there I don’t trust.”

I put my hands on his hips. “Then, talk to me. Don’t just react. We can work it out together until we come to a compromise. I wouldn’t want you to feel uncomfortable with something I was doing. Since I figured I would be with you the whole time, it didn’t seem like a big deal.”

“Even though I fucked up, come with me to New York City this weekend. I want some alone time with you before I have to go out of town next week. We’ll have a good time.”

Leaning up, I kiss him, giving him his answer, before he hauls me back to the bedroom.

New York was wonderful. Everything was amazing—the shows, the food, and the way he made love to me in the back of a limo.

I turn a few more pages and stop at a picture that appeared in the society pages. Damien and I are at a children’s charity event. Sitting together at the dinner table, our heads are close, and we are smiling intimately at each other. It is a picture of pure love.

The unfortunate thing about this event was the reappearance of Martin. It’s hard for me to imagine Damien and Martin ever being close friends. People don’t change that drastically without having a lobotomy. My mom always said,
A tiger cannot change his stripes, Allison.

Tonight, Damien’s business is sponsoring a charity event for a children’s shelter. The room is overflowing with colorful balloons and flowers, matching the shelter’s rainbow logo.

As we are seated for dinner, Martin makes his entrance and finagles a seat at a nearby table, sitting directly in our line of sight. He has a beautiful woman with him. She is rail thin with brown eyes and dark brown hair. She obsessively keeps looking our way.

Leaning into my side, Damien whispers, “Her name is Trina. I dated her. I wanted you to be aware in case someone mentions it. She meant nothing to me.”

I nod and look back toward Martin and Trina. Disgustingly gross and dirty doesn’t even come close to describing how nasty it must be for Martin to keep dating Damien’s exes. It would be like eating someone else’s leftovers.
Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

In a soft voice, I murmur, “It looks like she’d rather be in my seat than the one she’s in now.”

The loathing look I am receiving from Trina evidently shows where her thoughts are.

Underneath the table, Damien’s hand grabs my mine, and he starts rubbing soothing circles. “I have only loved you. Just keep that in mind, regardless of what they try.”

My reassuring smile placates him, but it is obvious he is still tense.

Dinner progresses, and then his phone vibrates.

After looking at the screen, he says, “I need to take this. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay. I’ll be right here.”

He gives me a kiss on the cheek before he leaves the table.

As soon as Damien exits through the doors, a waiter drops a note on my plate. Curious, I open it.

Immediately, I put the note in my clutch. I roll my eyes as I mutter, “Juvenile,” under my breath.
Martin and Cassandra need a new trick.

Just as I close my clutch, the devil himself, Martin, sits in Damien’s chair. “You look beautifully stunning tonight. Did you know Damien and Trina had quite a wild thing together?” He looks over at the girl he brought. “Apparently, he couldn’t keep his hands off her.”

My stomach roils at the thought. Politely, I respond, “Trina, I’m sure, would prefer the company of her date.”

He chuckles and then his finger touches my shoulder, causing me to stand instantly.

Damien is beside me, and he moves to secure me behind him. Low and deadly, he says to Martin, “You ever lay one fucking finger on her again, and I swear, motherfucker, you will regret it for the rest of your life. You keep whatever shit we have between us.”

Martin smiles, obviously satisfied with the response he received from his actions.

Without saying another word, we leave for the limo.

Damien pulls out his phone the moment the car door closes. “Ben, for events I sponsor, it is your responsibility to ensure the people on the fucking no-entry list don’t get a fucking ticket. I don’t give a shit. Do your fucking job.”

He hangs up the phone, seething.

I wrap my arms around his waist and hug him. “It’s okay. We’re okay. He’s just a prick.”

“Alli, the fact that my past keeps trying to taint our future is not acceptable. That fucker crossed the line tonight.”

Although the night ended in drama, the look of love in the picture is undeniable. Regardless of what Cassandra and Martin do, the problems they try to create only cause our love for each other to grow stronger.

Looking across the page, I bite my lip at the next memory. We were in Damien’s bed at his house. My camera was on the table next to us, and we ended up taking a few candid shots together. While we smiled at each other with tousled hair from making love, I took a picture to freeze the moment of us gazing into each other’s eyes.

I trace his tattoo as Damien is drawing lines up my back.

“Alli, do you have any questions about my past relationships?”

He’s obviously thinking about the incident with Trina and Martin at the charity event the other night.

I appreciate his willingness to communicate more and more with me. “Are they all beautiful, like Cassandra and Trina?”

He shifts in order to make sure we have solid eye contact. “They pale in comparison to you.”

“Smart answer, Romeo.”

He chuckles at my laid-back response.

But I have my answer. They were. I have him though, and that’s what matters.

“I don’t think I want to know unless I need to know…if that makes sense.”

Just hearing Martin talk about Trina and Damien pretty much made the decision for me. Unless I need to know, I don’t want to. As my mom would say,
Alli, you have to find the fine line between knowing when knowledge is power and when ignorance is bliss.

“Whatever you want, baby. Just know that you can ask me anything.”

As I sit here and look at the pictures, I’m amazed at how much Damien and I have actually been through together. My heart is completely open to Damien. My mom always said,
Love means giving someone the chance to hurt you but trusting them not to.
Trust is the key to any relationship.

After going through a few more pages in the album, I stop and smile at a picture Damien took of me. He dared me to dance in the rain in front of his house. A week prior to that moment had been a very different scene out there.

After having lunch in the city, we pull into the driveway at Damien’s house. He stops the car abruptly. I’m staring down at my phone. I’ve been texting back and forth with Sam, bantering about Ps and Vs.

Bringing me out of my little rivalry with Sam, Damien says, “Alli, listen, I want you to stay in the car while I deal with this.”

“Deal with what?” I look up, trying to figure out what he’s talking about.

Then, I spot a car with two people in it. They look oddly familiar. My eyes grow big as I quickly realize it’s his dad, Jon, and Cassandra.
I wonder what they are doing here. It must be important since they made the trip from North Carolina.

The one time I went with Damien to his hometown, his parents were unavailable to meet me. When Damien said he wasn’t close with his parents, he had put it mildly. His parents have crazy ideas of Cassandra and Damien being meant for each other. Considering they think I’m the object standing in the way of their son achieving true happiness, I’m not sure I really want to meet his dad right now.

Before Damien has a chance to respond to my question, I say, “Oh.”