Page 10 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 5-8 (The Residency Boys #7)
Jun laughed. The ego on this person. He took a second look, noting the carefulness around Ellisandre’s eyes, the way they sat so they could see the entire room. They reminded him of someone. Someone without a name.
He took a bite of his food and chewed slowly. By the time he’d swallowed, he’d figured out something to say. “Is your accent British?”
Ellisandre raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Their elocution shifted into an entirely new accent.
Jun rolled his eyes. “You did that on purpose.”
Ellisandre chuckled.
Yohei sauntered back over. He took the seat beside Jun. “Football: Brazil or Argentina, favorite team.”
Ellisandre narrowed their eyes. “Oh, you’re on.”
Jun sat back and let Yohei debate the merits of the two different leagues and their respective national teams as he tucked into his food.
Linda called everyone to order ten minutes before midnight.
Richard and Damian poured drinks, both of them with their shirt sleeves rolled back, displaying their forearms. Jun had to work at not staring at the two of them together, especially when Damian worked the cork out of the top of a bottle of champagne.
As soon as Damian was finished pouring, Jun grabbed him and dragged him over to the window. Jun wrapped Damian’s tie around his hand, drawing Damian close.
“The first night we were here, you asked me what I wanted.”
“Yes.” Damian cradled Jun’s waist with his hands.
“I know what I want.”
“What?”
“You. I want you to be my Wolf. I want to be in your bed and your den. I want to watch you being Damian Sathers Esquire and know that they don’t know who you are under the suit.
I want you to chase me down like you promised.
I want you to make me forget there was ever a time you hadn’t chased me down and caught me. ”
“And?” Damian’s lips parted in a smile. He was pulling Jun against him as hard as Jun was holding him hostage by his tie.
“I want to be on stage, knowing you’re watching me, planning your next hunt.
I want you to know that they don’t know what I look like after you’ve wrecked me and kept me.
I want to sing my music, dance my choreo, and I want to do it with my brothers.
I want to be bigger on my own than I ever was with Bak.
I want to burn him down until he’s nothing. ”
Damian took Jun’s hand and brought it to his lips, keeping eye contact. “So be it.”
Linda started counting down the last ten seconds of the year. Everyone joined in.
“Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”
Outside, over the lake that was most definitely a sea, fireworks lit up the sky. Inside, cheers went up.
Damian grabbed Jun under his rear and hoisted him up in his arms so that they were face-to-face. Jun wrapped his free arm around Damian's neck, kissing him.
Damian set him down. “I think I need a new nickname for you.”
“Why?”
“Something to reflect your blood lust.”
Jun leaned against Damian’s chest. They weren’t that far apart in height. He only had to lean up a little to kiss Damian. But he was tall enough that it was easy to rest his head on Damian’s shoulder.
“You’re already the Wolf.”
“I can’t decide if you’re a wild cat or a dragon.”
“I think I’m a demon.” Jun laughed. “Isn’t that what the myths say fallen angels become?”
“But I don’t think you’re evil.”
“I’m not sure demons are. We’re inconvenient aspects of the story they had to find a role for.”
“Then we’re all someone’s demon.”
Damian
The New Year’s Eve party turned into a New Year’s morning sleepover.
Damian woke without Jun beside him. The rest of the 5N boys were also missing.
He stretched and walked down the hallway to the living room.
They were all there drinking tea with Ellisandre and Alice.
No one noticed Damian. They were all watching the mist drifting by the window and cradling their drinks, huddled together.
Alice was playing with the puzzle pieces that had gotten left on the coffee table. Everyone looked sleepy.
“We should get going,” Yohei said. “Get back to the Estate.”
Jun stuck his hands in his pockets. “I feel like I should go with you.”
Geun gave him an incredulous look, and Su-jin shot him a dirty one.
Jaewoong threw an arm over Jun’s shoulder. “Listen, JunJun, you’re a smart guy.”
“But sometimes you’re stupid,” Su-jin finished for him.
Geun and Yohei smirked.
It was Yohei who took pity on Jun. He clapped him on the shoulder Jaewoong wasn’t covering up. “You have something here. We all see it. Damian’s your person. And you have a lot more going on legally than we do. If you’re with us, you won’t rest; you’ll fuss.”
They really did get Jun.
Jun put his hands up, protesting. “I’ll rest!”
Yohei raised an eyebrow. Damian smothered his chuckle. He really didn’t want them to know he was watching. This was something he’d never gotten to see before.
Jun flushed and dropped his eyes.
“We’re good, honest,” Su-jin said. “It’s nice to have some privacy.”
“You don’t feel sidelined out there while I’m here getting my picture taken and everything?”
“Jun, I have one word for you: tubs.” Jaewoong squeezed Jun’s shoulders.
“Deep tubs.” Su-jin smirked.
Jun shook his head. “What do you mean?”
“The estate has big, beautiful bathtubs,” Jaewoong clarified, “and I, for one, do not feel sidelined at all to be basically staying for free at a resort. The only thing we have to do is cook.”
“It’s vacation,” Su-jin singsonged. “You’re supposed to be sidelined during vacation.”
“Linda says you can come over for breakfast.” Alice raised her head. “So don’t go yet.”
Ellisandre inclined their head. “Dana has been promised waffles. With jam.”
“What kind of jam?” Jaewoong asked.
Alice screwed up her nose. “Huckleberry. I’ve never had it before.”
“Do you still have some of the lemon marmalade?” Damian asked, sliding into the conversation and coming up behind Jun to wrap his arms around him. He kissed the side of Jun’s cheek. “Good morning.”
Jun blushed but gripped Damian’s hand.
Ellisandre studied them for a moment, their hand in the air as if they had forgotten it was there. “Yes, there’s lemon marmalade. Are you coming, too?”
“I was going to work out.” Damian squeezed Jun’s hand. “Do you mind doing breakfast without me?”
“It’s fine.” Jun nodded. He looked toward Alice and Ellisandre. “You sure you’re okay with all of us dropping in on you like that?”
Ellisandre waved their hand dismissively.
Alice grinned. “Like five of you have a long drive. We should eat together before you go. And I think Dana wants to show Jaewoong her Lego houses. Collin, are you coming or staying?”
Collin blushed. “Staying.”
Damian called for his shadow—aka bodyguard of the day—to join him in the gym.
After a quick shower, he left with them for his office.
The floor was quiet. His staff had New Year’s off, and his partner, Eleanor, was in the Bahamas.
The place was empty and silent. His bodyguard did a sweep and then made himself scarce at the front desk where he could watch the security cameras.
Unlocking his corner office, Damian let his shoulders relax, taking in the space and emptiness of the morning.
He dropped into his seat, a place he hadn’t been in over two weeks, and closed his eyes, letting the stress fade and his analytic state fill him up, almost like a meditation.
There were several ongoing projects for Reevesworth Industries: nothing urgent.
Everything else was scheduled out for no sooner than the fifth of the month.
So all that was pressing on Damian’s plate was Jun’s legal matters.
There were a lot of those.
He opened his eyes and turned on his computers, arranging his triple monitors into sections of research and starting a project flow.
There were a few things on the top of his priorities: find Jun’s father, hire a forensic accountant to dig up what could be found concerning 5N’s finances and BBB3, collaborate with Yun to file a lawsuit on behalf of 5N to get their financials, and, finally, request expedited official copies of Jun’s US birth certificate and social security card.
That was just the civil matters. There were also the criminal matters, such as the still-active request for Jun to sit down with police detectives from Seoul and the request for official investigation into Jun’s kidnapping, which still wasn’t getting traction.
He opened his emails and messages and started plotting on his massive glass dry-erase boards everything that was already done, who had been spoken to, and who was handling what.
Deep in the zone, he heard his phone chime with a new message.
Alice: Ash and I want to help. Can we?
They absolutely could. There were a lot of low-level investigations of social media and public records Ash and Alice could get out of the way.
Pearsen could do the more intense stuff.
Ash probably had a few more resources to tap into that Damian would carefully not question, and Alice had proved to be no slouch the last week even when digging around on topics that weren’t primarily in her native language.
Damian: Want to come to my office? When are you free?
Alice sent back an excited emoji face and two thumbs-up. Free now! Dana is with Ellisandre. Done hanging out with Jun’s guys. Address?
He texted it to her and closed his phone. Where was Jun, then?
He opened his phone back up and texted Jun. At my office. Are you good?
Jun didn’t reply right away. Damian went back to his emails from Yun.
About ten minutes later Jun wrote back. At The Residency, getting down a song. You’re working?
Damian: A bit. I might be here a while, but let me know when you want company.
Jun’s typing dots bounced for a couple moments as he wrote back. I’m never bored. The quiet is nice. Artemis is sleeping on me. Think I need the quiet.