Roommates With Benefits [BL]

That caught me off guard more than it probably should have.

Damien turned his gaze toward the window, as if the dark glass offered a safer space for his eyes.

"I was angry with him, then disappointed. Eventually, I just stopped feeling anything." He paused. "But he didn’t."

I nodded slowly, piecing together the years of quiet persistence that must have followed. "And you knew he was still fixated on you."

"I suspected, although I never thought he was in love with me. In that creepy way."

I waited, giving him the space to determine just how much more he wanted to share.

Damien’s expression darkened.

"He’d occasionally find ways to reach out, asking about my life, trying to gather information from mutual friends. Sometimes he’d comment about who I was seeing."

My stomach dropped. "People you were dating?"

"Yes."

I stared at him, all the implications stacking up too quickly for me to fully absorb.

"Damien." He met my gaze and I continued, "You warned me about him."

"Yes."

"And I thought you were just being your usual mysterious, emotionally closed-off self."

His eyebrow arched. "Emotionally closed-off?"

"It’s a medical term."

"It isn’t."

"It should be."

For the first time since our conversation started, Damien cracked a smile.

It was small but enough to release some of the tension that had been coiling inside me.

Then his smile faded. "I should have told you."

I quickly shook my head. "No."

His eyes locked onto mine. "I should have."

"You were dealing with enough."

"That doesn’t excuse it."

"Maybe not, but it explains it."

I leaned in, wanting him to grasp the difference.

"I understand now." Damien didn’t reply, but the steadiness of his fingers around mine felt like its own answer.

I glanced down at our hands. "You were trying to protect me. And I guess you thought that if you told me everything, I’d be in more danger."

"Yes."

I sighed, the sound laced with equal parts understanding and lingering frustration. "You really need to stop deciding what I can handle without asking me."

His expression softened. "I know."

"I mean it, Damien." I said, "Because I’m starting to get offended."

A faint smile crept onto his face."You’ve been offended for most of our relationship."

"True. I’m experienced."

That earned me another quiet laugh.

It was brief yet helped ease the weight back into something more manageable, less like a wall and more like a shared burden.

I leaned back. "So what do we do next?"

Damien’s face turned thoughtful. "We report him."

I frowned. "Do you think it’ll work? We do have evidence, but not really enough to point that it was Jeremy if you think about it."

"It’ll work eventually."

"That sounded suspiciously optimistic."

"It wasn’t optimism."

"Ah." I nodded."So we’re fucked."

His lips twitched, and I savored that small victory. "We have evidence."

I nodded, trying to cling to the practical aspects even as my mind circled back to the emotional ones.

"Will that be enough?"

Damien paused for a moment, and that silence stretched longer than I liked. "Honestly?"

"Please."

"Not necessarily."

My stomach sank in response, guess Jeremy was right after all. He might just get away with it.

"The Abernathys have power," he added. "They can afford lawyers who know how to drag things out, challenge evidence, question witnesses, and complicate everything if this matter got to court."

"So Jeremy could walk free without repercussions?"

"For a while."

God I hated rich people...there was no reason why they got to have whatever they wanted, do whatever they wanted and get away with everything!

I rubbed my forehead with my uninjured hand, careful not to disturb the bandaged one. "Fan-fucking-tastic."

Damien’s gaze softened. "We’re not helpless."

"Yeah..." But my voice lacked certainty, and we both noticed.

He reached across the table and touched my wrist, mirroring the careful attention he’d given my knuckles earlier.

"We’re going to get through this."

I met his eyes. "You always say that."

"Because it’s true."

"Sometimes I think your confidence is concerning."

"You’re one to talk."

Damien shook his head, but the corner of his mouth lifted just enough to show me the joke landed.

I smiled slightly, then he reached for his phone..I watched curiously as he unlocked it, a little anxious to see what he was pulling up.

Instead, he opened something and turned the screen toward himself.

I frowned.."Damien?"

He hit play.

A voice filled the stillness of the room.

Jeremy.

My whole body went still.

I recognized him immediately; his familiar tone hit me harder than I expected.

The recording wasn’t perfect, but it was clear enough.

Jeremy’s voice flowed through the speakers, smug and careless, as he rambled about the photographs, about spying on us, about the blackmail, about Damien.

Every word landed with the clarity of someone who never thought his own voice would be turned against him.

I stared at Damien.

He kept the recording going, his expression steady while mine probably showed far less composure.

Jeremy’s own words echoed back to me, every confession laid bare, leaving no room for denial that he would’ve had relying only on our memories.

When it ended, the silence that followed felt almost surreal, as if the whole room needed a moment to recalibrate.

I blinked...then blinked again. "D–did you..."

Damien locked his phone.

"You recorded the whole thing?"

"Most of it."

I stared at him, then at his phone, then back at him, A grin slowly broke out on my face as the realization hit me.

"You motherfucking, brilliant genius."

Damien arched an eyebrow. "I wouldn’t go that far."

"Oh, yes, we’re going that far."

I pushed my chair back and stood up, momentarily forgetting about my injured hand as I leaned across the table and wrapped my good arm around his shoulders.

Damien chuckled softly, catching me around the waist like he was used to doing.

"You could’ve told me you were recording."

"I didn’t want Jeremy to catch on."

"Clearly."

I pulled back just enough to meet his gaze, still grinning like someone who had just scored an unexpected victory after weeks of setbacks. "Do you get what this means?!"

"Yes."

"We have him!"

He was smiling now, and seeing that lightened the whole night just a bit.

I settled back down beside him, still grinning like a fool, the fatigue and pain in my hand temporarily overshadowed by having something substantial at last.

For the first time in weeks, everything didn’t seem completely hopeless.

We had spent so long reacting to every move Jeremy and the Lockwoods made that I had nearly forgotten what it felt like to have something they couldn’t control.

And, more crucially, we had Jeremy’s own voice admitting it. The recording sat between us like a quiet, undeniable fact.

I glanced down at my bandaged hand, then back to Damien. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I take back everything I said about you being emotionally closed-off."

His eyebrow shot up.

"...For just tonight." I finished.

"How generous."

"I know." I leaned my head against his shoulder, letting his solid warmth ease some of the adrenaline still coursing through me. "I am amazing, aren’t I?"

Damien’s arm came around me immediately, pulling me closer without any of the hesitation that used to linger between us.

"The most amazing person I could ever think of." He said.

For a while, we sat in silence.

The apartment remained quiet. The lights stayed warm. My hand still hurt, my body was worn out, and we had way too many problems waiting for us outside those four walls.

But for the first time since this nightmare began, I didn’t feel like we were on the edge of a cliff with nothing to hold on to.

And we finally knew exactly who was behind all of it.

It wasn’t enough to fix everything instantly.

It didn’t erase what had happened before.

But it was enough to fight back, and that felt bigger than it probably appeared from the outside.

Damien reached for my injured hand again, carefully resting it against his palm.

His thumb brushed over the edge of the bandage, just as gently as before.

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