“Understood.”
This isn’t the first time my father has threatened to have me killed, and even though I have no doubt he’d do it, I’m not worried. I know what Xave and I have is real, and he has no interest in my father’s empire or my inheritance. And he’s all for my plan of destroying everything my father and his father and his father before him have spent their lives building, so my father’s threats are just another way for him to exert power over me and pretend like he still has any real control over me, like he did when I was a minor.
“We’ll talk about this more later,” he says curtly, then ends the call before I can answer.
Blowing out a long breath, I slip my phone in my pocket and sink down onto my bed.
“Holy fuck,” I mutter to my empty room as everything sort of hits at once.
I did it. I told my father about us, and it went better than I could have ever hoped. And it’s only a matter of time before the leadership knows, and all the stress of hiding and sneaking around will be over.
I have no idea how long I sit there with my mind spinning and trying to process everything that’s gone down in the last hour, but I’m brought back to reality when my phone pings with a text.
Anthony: all good
Damon: all good?
Anthony: G will talk to the others, but you shouldn’t have any problems as long as you both behave
Damon: are you sure?
Anthony: yup
Anthony: just remember what I said about what will happen if this blows up in my face
Damon: I will
Damon: and thanks
I wait to see if he has anything else to say, then quickly flip to my texts with Xave when nothing comes through.
Damon: can you meet me in the main quad?
Xave: is everything okay?
Damon: yeah
Xave: I’ll be there in 10
Shoving my phone in my pocket, I grab my hoodie from where I tossed it on the bed earlier and pull it on as I head out of my room.
It takes me almost fifteen minutes to get to the main quad, and all the apprehension and tension I’ve been holding onto melts out of me the moment I see Xave sitting on one of the stone tables, looking casually cool and so damn handsome I feel the familiar stirrings of both love and arousal that always happen when I’m near him.
Xave’s gaze immediately finds mine, like he senses me approaching, and before I can second-guess what I’m doing or lose my nerve, I head toward him.
He slides off the table, his attention laser-focused on me as he watches me approach.
“Is everything?—”
I cut him off by walking right into his arms and pressing my lips against his in a soft kiss.
He makes a surprised sound, but he catches my arm as I pull back and drags me forward for another kiss.
“I take it things went well?” he asks with a sexy smirk, his lips so close they brush against mine with every word.
“You could say that,” I say over the din of gasps and surprised voices around us.
I might not have nearly as much notoriety around campus as Xave and his cousins do, but people know who I am. Seeing us kissing each other is primo gossip, and it’s only a matter of time before the entire school knows.
