“Then elucidate me!”
“Iseducedhim.I kept throwing myself at him until he had no choice but to stick his dick in me, and you know what? I told him to come in me.” Matthew took Gwynn’s venom and returned it twice over. “Ibeggedhim to do it.”
A guttural snarl escaped Gwynn’s lips. It was ugly and broken, caught between seething anger and sorrow broaching the onset of tears.
“I’m not your little boy anymore.” Matthew spoke quietly, but there was no doubt in Damien’s mind that Gwynn heard. Pain flickered in Gwynn’s eyes and trembled almost imperceptibly in his lower lip. “I love him, and he loves me, and we’re going to make this work whether we have your support or not.”
“Matthew,” Harley warned. “Enough.”
“No.” The anger was gone from Matthew’s voice, but callous determination remained. “I’m fed up with the double standards. I’m an adult and I deserve to be treated like one. If he wants to blame Damien for this—to make him into some kind of villain for having a relationship with another legal adult—then he needs to take a good, hard look in the mirror and see who he really is.”
“Baby, please,” Damien murmured. “Tempers are high right now. I know that it’s not healthy for you to hold on to such intense feelings, but speaking out of anger is only going to make things worse.”
“Then what?” Matthew spun on his heel to glare at Damien. “Then he ends your friendship and ostracizes you from the group? No.Fuck that!After I got pregnant with Emily, all of my friends fell off the face of the earth. I’d never felt so alone. I’m not letting that happen to you. I’m not going to let him take away the people who make you happy.”
Love undid the knots in Damien’s stomach and washed through his heart, easing the way it ached. It wasn’t often that anyone stood up on his behalf. His sweet boy was a warrior, and when it came to Damien’s well-being, he’d fight to the death. The urge to sweep Matthew into his arms hit Damien hard, but he didn’t want to exacerbate what was already a tense situation. He settled for looking Matthew in the eyes instead, hoping that he might see what good those words had done him. “He’s not taking anyone away. We’re going to talk things out and everything’s going to be okay. I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Gwynn growled.
Harley pushed a sound through his nose that sounded like it should have been a sigh. “Gwynn, it’s okay to be angry, but don’t make empty threats. There’s no need for senseless hate. Hone your anger and use it to your advantage—don’t waste it on cheap shots.”
The longer the back and forth went on, the worse the situation was going to get. Matthew had stepped in on Damien’s behalf and fought in the best way he knew how, but it was up to Damien to end this. He could only hope that Gwynn wasn’t too far gone to see that what he said was the truth. “It wasn’t my intention to hurt you, Gwynn. I didn’t do this maliciously—it happened by chance. But now that it has happened, I need you to know that I’m being sincere when I say that I love him, and that I’m going to do everything I can to take care of him, Emily, and the baby.”
Sincerity didn’t work. Gwynn clenched his teeth, and in a low voice turned gritty by anger uttered words that tore Damien’s heart in two. “We should have never let you stay in the Single Dad chat after the truth came out. We should have all known that you’d do something this low.”
Wounded, Damien lowered his head. He would rather Gwynn had broken his nose than said something like that. “Gwynn, look, I—”
A crispsmack!echoed through the garden. Damien’s head shot back up in time to see Harley drag Gwynn several steps back. Matthew, shoulders heaving, stood in front of them, his hand still raised.
He’d slapped Gwynn across the face.
“Fuck you,” Matthew uttered. His voice trembled with rage. “Fuck you for treating me like this. Fuck you for thinking you can come down on your friend for doing something that you did yourself. Do you think Sam and Clarissa were happy when they found out their son had been knocked up by a grown-ass man?Do you?!But they still accepted you, were happy for you, and gave you a chance, because youmade their son happy.And in case it isn’t clear—because you didn’t even think to fucking ask me before you rushed in swinging your fists—Damien makes me happy. He makes me so happy I can’t stand it.”
Matthew lowered his hand and took a few steps back, shrinking the distance between himself and Damien. The tremble in his voice had made it into his shoulders. It looked like his body was seconds away from collapsing. Before that could happen, Damien stepped forward and put a comforting hand on Matthew’s shoulder. Matthew jumped, but when he realized who it was, his walls fell. He tucked himself against Damien’s side and visibly relaxed.
“I love him, Gwynn.” Damien wrapped his arm around Matthew, keeping him safe. “I understand this isn’t what you wanted for him, but even if you can’t find it in your heart to accept me as his lover, I hope that you can come to accept that I’m not doing this to hurt him. All I want to do is make him happy.”
“Harley, let me go.” Gwynn’s voice was stripped of anger and sounded worn. When Harley obeyed, Gwynn pushed his glasses up his nose and collected his suit jacket from the ground. While he didn’t make a move to come any closer, he did stand in silence and observe Damien and Matthew for a long moment.
It seemed, for now, the fight was over.
“I need some time to cool down.” Gwynn’s voice was already frosty, but the situation was no doubt still burning him from the inside out. “Should I expect to see you at the reception?”
Damien shook his head. “No. There’s bullshit at work I have to deal with. I’ll probably be on the next flight home.”
“Then expect a call in the next few days. I’ll need to discuss what’s happened with you after I’ve finished discussing it with my son.”
Damien nodded stiffly. A truce, however uneasy, was better than the alternative. “I’ll be waiting.”
“I’m going to take Gwynn to the reception,” Harley said. His voice was guarded, but it gave Damien hope that he hadn’t completely written off their friendship. “We’ll catch up for that bar crawl some other time.”
Damien nodded, not sure if Harley meant it, or if he was saving face. “Sure. See ya later.”
“Later.”
There was no goodbye for Damien or Matthew from Gwynn, but Damien tried not to read too much into it. It would take time for Gwynn to calm down.
“I’m sorry,” Matthew murmured when Gwynn, Harley, and their entourage were gone. “When Nadja told me what was going on, I panicked and came here right away. I thought I’d be able to stay hidden off to the side, but as I was coming in through the gates, my dad was on his way out, and he saw me. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
