Page 3 of Unmasking You

“What?” I look up in shock from my mixing bowl to find Ruby smirking at me.

“You know, swinging back and forth”

“Haha.” I poke my tongue out at her. “While I’m curious to know how you two did it, I don’t want to have that image in my head.”

“We had sex on every surface of the house we were staying in, but we haven’t mastered swinging from a ceiling yet. I’ll send you a video when we do.” She winks at me, and I have to laugh at her antics.

Her antics and foul-mouthed language have been my salvation. If it wasn’t for her, I would probably still be licking my wounds instead of running a multi-million dollar company. She was the one who befriended me and pulled me out of the shell I’d tucked myself into so I didn’t have to suffer more than I already had. She wouldn’t take no for an answer and slowly—very slowly—brought me back. First, out of my room and then out into the open, spending time in the garden, and then from there, we become inseparable.

She didn’t care who I was, who I loved, and she never asked what had happened to me. She ignored everything, even me, and with her bold personality, faulty mouth, and beautiful soul, gave me my life back. Or at least one I could live with.

“When you two master it, I’ll be the first in line to watch it. Of course, I’ll be skipping all the hetero sex since it’s not my thing.”

“We need to find you a partner so you can try mastering acrobatic sex all on your own.”

I push away the thought that I’m never going to find anyone and instead tell her that if I can overcome the past, I’m going to overcome the scars I have left and build a life for myself. The life I’ve dreamt of. The life I deserve.

“Let’s do that,” I agree, and I laugh when her eyes widen, surprised by my willingness to do something I’ve never done before. Maybe meeting Shane Campbell wasn’t all bad.

The only thing I have to make sure of is not seeing him again. What are the chances, anyway? It took us ten years to meet again. I’m going to make sure it will be an eternity until the next time.

Chapter 2

Shane

I tap my fingers on the table, bored by the conversation going on around me.

I hate these meetings where everyone has to talk about their achievements in their departments, and they end up repeating the same thing over and over again as if their boasting would make my father change his mind.

His motto is “make it do,” which means to have it done without complaining. And there are a lot of complaints today.

I glance at him, and I’m met with a scolding face and eyes that move from my face to my hand in silent disapproval, telling me what I shouldn’t be doing but I am.

When I stop tapping, he looks away, and I relax against the chair. When my father is in thishappy mood—as if he’s ever happy when I’m involved—leave it to me to find ways of failing to reach his minimum standards.

When he’s frustrated, like he is today, he can tell me off in front of everyone with no problem.

What I learnt from a young age is that our name, Campbell, is more important than anything. More important than values, than family… and me. Especially me. The failure, the troublemaker, the outsider.

When I was forced to work for my father’s company, I learnt early enough that when other people are around or when I’m at work, I’m no longer his son. I’m less than everyone else. I’m the one who always has to prove himself. But I have to act better than them because the reality is Iamhis son.

As if I ever was his son, even when away from the spotlight. He tolerates me because I’m an extension of my mother, and strangely enough, he loves her. Probably because she’s just like him, with more manners and a love for controlling everyone and everything, so my dad can live happily ever after.

I’m at that point in life where I’m not overly bothered by what he says or does, but I’m still under his thumb because he’s the one who decides how he distributes his money, which I need for my LGBTQ+ foundation.

My dad hates the foundation, but revels in the praise he receives from others for helping people in need. That is until we’re behind closed doors, where he reminds me about how I always fail.

I’ve stopped caring about what my father thinks of me. I just stay for what I can get out of him and to help people who can’t help themselves.

And here we are, with my mind full of thoughts of the one person I should forget…Jamie Wilson. A man now, and a fine one, but ten years ago he was the boy I betrayed.

Why does everything I do these days bring me back tohim?

I don’t want to remember. Not here. Not now.

But my brain has other ideas. What a surprise he had been the night of the party. I should have recognised those eyes, that pull I felt, the way we bantered, and the need totastehim. I should have known it was him. It was the same when I met him for the first time ten years ago.

A piercing pain inside my chest reminds me of what happened before, and I don’t mean when he shoved me away, pushing until I was on the ground, leaning in and screaming his name so close to my face I felt his breath washing over me. I meant when we were sixteen and we thought the world was somehow a good place, when we had some innocence left in us and we thought nothing could come between us.

---