“Wait.” Jon was not going to make it easy for us. He lifted his chin and glared at Damon. “We’ve heard Tyler’s take. What’s yours? You make a habit of crashing weddings, or—”
“Jon,” Cooper said sharply, but there was no stopping him.
“—or do you just prefer to go incognito so no one in the scene can follow up on you? Using fake names, pretending to be other people, hiding who you are—” He looked around the group for support. “We all know what kind of Doms do that, don’t we?”
“Yes, we do,” Tristan agreed heartily. Next to him, Seth rubbed a hand over his face, and glanced guiltily over his shoulder at Xander. But Xander was frowning at the floor, eyes darting sideways to Ben.
“Damon hasn’t done anything bad,” I insisted. “He hasn’t hurt me. Not like—”
It was probably a good thing that Damon cut me off, because what I’d been about to say regarding the mistakes of some of the Doms standing around right then would only have made things worse. “I agree with Jon,” he said simply. “It was a shitty thing to do, especially on his wedding day.” That was true. Damon went on, “I don’t normally hide who I am, and I’m happy to give some scene references if anyone here wants them.”
But I was still mad about everyone ganging up on him. “You don’t have to do that,” I broke in. “No one here has any right to—”
“Ty,” he said softly, and his arm went back around my shoulders. “They’re looking out for you. You’re their friend, after all.”
There was something about the way he said it that finally made my anger dissipate. I looked around at all the familiar faces, and the not-so-familiar faces, too, the friends of friends. They made a web of connections—but not a web. I could see it now. It was a net. A safety net that they—that we—formed for each other, keeping each other safe.
Damon was right. And without meaning to, he and I had damaged that safety net.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and I meant it. “It was a dumb thing to do and we should have just been honest.”
“Yes,” Cooper said, but he said it to Jon, with meaning. “Just like we should have been honest with my Mom. And we weren’t. But she’s forgiven us.” There was a question in his voice.
Jon still looked uncertain. “I get it,” he said slowly to me. “I can see why you did it. What I don’t understand, though is why Sha—Damon, I mean—why Damon went along with it.”
I was about to point out that Jon, of all people, should understand, given that he went along with Cooper’s scheme, but Damon spoke first.
“Good question,” Damon said. “The answer is, I was trying to get away from an asshole. Well, one specific asshole. My ex. He was coming over here to New York for a photo shoot, and he was going to be here for New Year’s Eve. Every time he’s in town, he turns up on my doorstep. I’ve told him no, but the guy doesn’t understand the word. Anyway, when Miles told me he was going to be in New York, I—”
“Miles?” Tristan’s interjection took everyone by surprise. “Did you say Miles?”
“Yeah. So when he said—”
“He’s in New York for a photo shoot?”
I saw Ezra’s face change as well as he glanced at Tristan. “Shit,” he muttered. “Not—”
“What’s his last name?” Jon demanded, drawing everyone’s attention.
Damon’s eyebrows rose a little at the vehemence of all three of them. “Vanderhoven. Miles Vanderhoven.”
“Miles?” Jon growled. “You’re telling me your ex is Miles Vanderhoven?”
Chapter 13
Damon
Part of being a skilled Dom is learning to read the room—to pick up on undercurrents. But even a total moron would have been able to pick up what Tyler’s friends were laying down.
Miles Vanderhoven was verboten.
“Very ex,” I said. “Very, very ex. He cheated on me—”
“Of course he did,” Jon scoffed. And then he said the name again, like he was cursing. “Miles. Ugh.”
I nodded. “Ugh. Miles.”
Jon looked across at Ezra and Tristan, who glanced at each other, then nodded back at Jon. Brandon and Ollie were also pulling faces, and when Jon asked them a silent question, they, too, shrugged.
