Page 52 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 1-4
“Damian is.”
“So take him home. This isn’t Residency trouble.”
The edge of Richard’s lips twitched upward. “Damian wants you to be Residency.”
“You’re his boss.”
“I’m his dom.”
“Same difference.”
“All the difference.”
“Different how?”
“His dom cares about his heart. His future.”
“Then get him away from me.”
“Why would I take him away from his future?” Even Richard’s eyes were smiling now. Every last bit of distance and the illusion of unreality was being ripped away by each word from Reevesworth’s mouth. Everything was too close. Too bright. Too terrible. Like a nightmare.
Jun balled his hand up in a fist. He was losing the plot of whatever the hell this was. “What do you get out of this, anyway?”
“Everything.”
Jun’s breath caught in his chest. If his heart had been pounding hard before, it was thudding like a racehorse now. “And the price?”
“The price of what?”
“The price of you being here.”
Richard leaned back even farther in the couch. “That’s the same question Damian asked me years ago. The price of loyalty is loyalty. The price of support is support.”
“I can’t repay you. I don’t have anything to repay you with.” Jun was shaking so hard.
Reevesworth’s hand pressed against the center of his back. “We don’t pay back what we are given in the same metal we receive because we are each gifted with a different talent, a different set of tools.”
“There are talents I’m not willing to barter.”
Richard regarded him with softening eyes. Jun blinked and looked away. It was such a stupid thing to say after he sat on the man’s lap of his own accord. If he could believe Richard, he’d want to curl up and hide against his designer suit, but he couldn’t. It was just too good to be true.
“I’m glad.”
Jun flinched. “I asked Damian to buy me. So, is it him, or is it you?” Please, please tell me something that makes sense.
“No one is buying you, Jun. You’re going to free yourself. Or we’ll burn the ship down trying.”
“No. No burning down the ship. No one else is getting hurt. That’s not why I’m doing this.”
“Nothing gets this tangled without collusion, and colluders always claim they didn’t know when the lies fall apart. People are going to get hurt, and truths are going to get revealed. You can’t make their choices for them.”
Tears blurred Jun’s vision. “If I went along with it, nothing would change, everyone else would be fine. You wouldn’t even need to be here.”
Richard squeezed his knee. “If you went along with it, you’d be a criminal against yourself, the betrayal of the closest kind.”
Jun lifted his chin. His eyes were brimming over, and wasn’t that the fucking worst? Not only was he sitting on this powerful man’s lap in public, but he was going to visibly cry while doing it. And probably ruin his makeup.
“What if I’m not the person closest to myself? What if everyone else is closer?”
