Starting over

Once dinner was over, Damon suggested that the team stay in some of the unoccupied homes on his property. London and Amber took the responsibility of guiding everyone to their respective homes, both quite drunk themselves, and I wondered if everyone would actually reach their homes for the night before passing out. I was about to follow the group of people out of the door when, Damon gripped my hand and pulled me up against his chest.
"And where do you think you're going?"
I stared up at him curiously, and then towards the retreating backs of people exiting the property. "Well... you just said that we should stay in the empty homes on the property."
He chuckled, and it was clear that, although he was not as far gone as the others, he was slightly tipsy. "I said everyone else should stay in the empty homes on the property. But you aren't everyone, now are you? You, Jasmine Spectra are my mate, and you will be staying here, with me."
I stared at him for five minutes before blushing, turning away and saying, "I'm sorry, I think you're too drunk to be making good decisions here Damon."
He then gently tilted my face up, so I was staring up at him, "No, Jasmine, I'm serious. I don't want to be in this big house all by myself..." And it was then that I saw it, clear as day, written all over his face. It was the fear of being both sad and lonely. And so, I waited a moment, before gulping, and gently nodding my head, and he sighed, relieved.
"Thank the Moon Goddess. I thought I was going to have to start begging on my knees or reciting poetry."
I laughed, and then allowed him to lead me inside, before he dismissed his butler who left bright and beaming. I honestly truly liked Chester already.
"First things first!" He said. "You and I are going to the kitchen, and I am going to attempt to get you fed, because you have not eaten a single thing yet."
"Do we have to though?" I whined, following him past the many passages of his home to what I assumed was the kitchen. When we entered, I nearly fainted at the size of it. It was a large room lined with marble counters and with a granite-topped table in the centre. The walls were covered in white and blackish tiles which glinted in the light of the room. To the left of the room was an expensive gas stove with a built-in oven. A distance away from it was a microwave with many confusing buttons, a coffee machine, a glass kettle, a wooden knife stand filled with numerous knives and then a dishwasher. To the right of the room stood two fridges and then next to them, a deep freezer. The cupboards had glass doors and within them, I saw the finest pieces of pottery, mugs, saucers, plates, teacups and glasses.
"Wow..." I uttered.
"This old place? It's nothing special." He chuckled, getting some bread out of the bread bin.
"That's easy for you to say. Some of us grew up dirt-poor." I then grabbed a swinging chair from underneath the granite counter and sat on it, watching Damon. He got a toaster from out of one of the cupboards and placed some bread in it. Then, he turned towards me and sat opposite of me at the table.
"I'm sorry," he began, "I can be insensitive sometimes. I mean no harm though. It's just when you've lived a life of privilege, you can sometimes get carried away."
I smiled and nodded as I awkwardly ran my hands up my shoulders. Now, being alone with him seemed so... awkward and I began to miss the comfort of other people being around.
Damon seemed to pick up on this and began talking again. "So, where are you planning on going from here? Just so I can stay in the loop."
"Well," I looked up at him, and then away as a blush crept onto my face, "I was thinking of staying here, back home, for the time being. But before I go scouting around for some old friends of mine for some information on... him, I figured I'd take a few days or so off to myself. I think I've been through quite the ordeal from Timmy to Andrew and now Loren, so I'd just like to process everything. Besides, I think that Andrew's death will at least buy me a few days of peace."
This seemed to make Damon happy, and he said, with a smile on his face, "That's great, you can stay here then..." he then picked up on what he had said, awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck and continued with a , "well, if you want. I mean I think it will do you well. I won't really be in your way since I have loads of work to catch up on. Chester will be here if you need anything at all. I have a maid and cook, named Andrea who comes in everyday so she could make whatever you desire. I could also let Harry up at the gate know that you'll be coming and going so that you can leave the pack grounds and come back whenever you feel like it."
It was such an odd proposal, and completely different from the one he offered the last time. Clearly Damon had seriously undergone some major changes since then.
"And you won't ask any unnecessary questions?" I raised an eyebrow.
He shook his head. "Your business will be your business. I won't interfere with anything that is not Macy related. You have my word."
I nodded, "Okay then. I will stay here."
Damon didn't seem to believe his ears though. "I'm sorry, I think I just heard you agree. Could you please repeat your 'no' so that my brain can process it properly?”
I laughed at him and shook my head. Clearly, I was a person not easily convinced.
"Damon, I said yes. I'll stay here with you. Your ears and mind are both not deceiving you."
"And here I thought I was seriously drunk, like you suggested at the door." He chuckled. It was a sound that I was now becoming fond of, and the happy look on his gorgeous face was enough to warm my heart. In fact, I eventually found myself staring at him absentmindedly, taking in every feature on his face, from the faded scar, still barely evident, to the shape of his beautiful lips. Eventually he began noticing, and he fell silent, moving his hazel eyes to meet mine. Neither of us made any move to look away, instead we just stared, both curious at this newness regarding our relationship. After a few minutes more of staring, he eventually began speaking. "Can I ask you something, Jasmine?"
I hummed in response, and he gulped nervously before looking away from me for a moment. "Would it be possible for us to start from the beginning?"
"Start from the beginning?" I inquired.
He nodded, and began to explain, "Our relationship, I want us to start from the beginning. But this time, I won't hide my feelings from you. I'll be completely honest with the way I feel about you... and the way I feel about us. And, if you give me the chance, I would like to eventually explain to you why I was such an asshole to you, and why I hurt you. Because in all honesty, hurting you was never something I ever wanted to do to you, and I hated myself every time I pretended to be my father and every time I tried to make you hate me."
I stared up into his eyes, totally at a loss for words at the moment. Never before had I budgeted for the type of relationship Damon was suggesting. I'd given up all hopes of intimacy and romance the second my parents and sister died. In fact, my hope of having anything close to proper, love-filled intimacy was shattered when Lucien appeared in my life. He always made it a point to remind me that I'd never have anyone in my life, and that eventually, everyone would leave me... everyone except him. It was a way of making me reliant on him, of keeping me with him forever, and eventually, whenever I attained something or someone for my own, he'd snatch it away, and destroy it. But now that I stared into those soft, desperate hazel eyes of Damon, I came to the conclusion that I was done living such a sorrowful, and lonely life. I'd take Damon for myself and keep him. I would not let Lucien snatch him away from me, no matter what. Damon, I swore to myself, would be mine, and mine alone. That, I'd make sure of, even if it cost me my life.
"Yes, Damon, I'd like to start over with you. And this time, I'd like to be honest with you too... and eventually, I'd like to be able to tell you everything about myself. About who I really am, about who I became, and I about who I want to be."
He smiled, and then said, after holding his hand out, "Well then, I'd like to introduce myself to you one final time. Hello, my name is Damon Caesar Michaels. I am a multi-billionaire, the owner of Morningstar Advertising, and the Alpha of the Blood Moon pack, the largest pack in the world. I can sometimes be cranky, I have quite a bad temper, but if you stick around long enough, you might find that there is more to me than just an angry, stern and strict man."
I took his hand in mine, and then said, "Hi there, my name is Jasmine Spectra. I don't have a lot of money; I grew up quite poor. I was previously an accountant at Morningstar Advertising. In my part-time, however, I worked as a dominatrix for an organisation known as 'The Vixens'. I was then turned into a werewolf by my psychotic mate, who, it turns out was actually pretending to be a complete psycho. I then worked as a vigilante known as the Vixen and in my part-time studied to hopefully become a chartered accountant (fingers crossed that I passed my exam).
I lived my whole life under the guise of being mild and meek, but in reality, I am quite stubborn and strong headed. I do not take nonsense; I don't like people telling me what I can and can't do. But despite this, I am still quite a soft-hearted creature and tend to be too over-emotional."
When I was done, we finally both let go of each other's hands, and it seemed Damon was about to say something, when he sniffed in the air and realised that the toast was burning.
"Fuck!" He yelled out, before removing the blackened pieces of bread from the toaster. "This always happens." He uttered hopelessly. I laughed loudly at him, and then asked, "You don't know how to make toast?"
He shook his head, no. "Give me the task of making lamb on a shank, and it will be done, but ask me to make toast... and this happens. So, how about a pizza?"
I nodded, and sighed, "Sure. Pizza sounds good."

The pizza arrived after half an hour, and as soon as it did, my stomach raged and screamed in hunger, as if being upset with me for not feeding it. Damon put the pizza on the kitchen granite table and opened the box. Immediately we both began eating, and I moaned in satisfaction as the heavenly taste invaded my mouth.
"Miss Spectra, you better control the noises you make." Damon said warningly. I stared at him wide eyed and then, after swallowing, said, "I did nothing wrong, you have such a dirty mind!"
"Oh," he said acting surprised, "I have a dirty mind. That's rich coming from you. If I were to get undressed now, how many seconds do you think it would take for you to pounce on me like a wild animal?"
I looked down and said nothing. He was being so unfair, using my extremely interesting approach to my sexual instincts against me. So, I just mumbled and continued eating. Once I was done, Damon went to the fridge, took out a glass jug of cool water and then poured it into two glasses and handed me one. I thanked him and took a sip.
After Damon had put away the glasses and thrown out the pizza box, he took my hand, and began leading me upstairs. "I want to show you to your room. You look quite tired, and I think a good night's rest will do you well."
I agreed with him and we walked to the end of the dimly lit passage, passed the familiar office I once attempted to sneak into, then we finally stopped outside of a beautiful light blue painted door. He opened up, and immediately my nostrils filled with the decadent scent of him, and I gulped, trying to contain myself.
"This is my room. I'd like you to stay in it, seeing as it is the most comfortable."
Immediately I gazed up at him panicked. He said he wanted to start over, and I really did not want to ruin anything with my sexual instincts which would no doubt kick in the second he slid into that bed with me. He seemed to catch onto my expression and chuckled nervously. "Don't worry, I won't be sleeping here with you. I will stay in one of the guest bedrooms further down the hallway. That way we don't need to be in each other's space."
I gulped, half relieved, half disappointed, but could not find it in myself to understand why he would let me stay here in his room.
"Because, as I said, it's the comfiest. So, I'm hoping it will allow you to get some rest. You're quite the restless sleeper sometimes..."
"How do you know this?" I asked, skeptically.
"Well you have slept in my bed before..."
I gulped and smacked myself on the head. This encounter was seriously not becoming any less awkward, and quite frankly, I just wanted the ground to swallow me whole.
"Anyway, um, I'll leave you here and then see you tomorrow evening."
My eyebrows furrowed at this. "Tomorrow evening?"
"Yeah, I'm going to have to work late to pick up from where London left off. But I'll make it up to you, if you'd like, I can take you out to dinner. Something really expensive and classy."
I cleared my throat and said, "No, I want to go somewhere cheap and delicious. You know what, I'll take you out to dinner. Show you the finer things in life than eating a single pea on some fine china and drinking expensive, but awfully bitter wine from some shiny glass."
He looked taken a back. "Oh, so... you're taking me out on a date?"
I froze and blushed. "I... no... but... fuck. It's not a date. It's just fast-food from a drive through which we will end up eating in your car. It's not a date... okay! Wipe that smile off your face Damon!" I yelled as I saw the corners of his mouth perk up. He lifted his hands up in surrender and then shrugged, "Okay Jasmine, whatever you say. It's not a date!" And then he suddenly fell serious. "Oh, before I forget, you can borrow one of my shirts or something to sleep in if it will make you more comfortable. I think London still has your clothes."
I thanked him, and then he bid me goodbye and began walking down the hall while saying, "I can't wait for our date tomorrow!"
Damon might have become less of an asshole, but he was still the same amount of annoying as he had always been.
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I can smell the beginning of Jamon/Dasmine/Jasmon/Damine (really don't know which ship name to pick)!
Also, updates may be slower this week.
Stay safe, stay healthy. Sending everyone my love!