Puck Me Harder: A Stepbrother Romance [BL]

Damon’s POV

It had been three agonizing hours since I personally escorted my fragile, beautiful Micah up to the guest suite, but the frantic, breathless sound of his voice on the phone was still echoing endlessly in my head.

Please... come and kidnap me.

Those four tear-stained, desperate words had completely derailed my sanity. The moment he uttered them, every single self-preservation instinct I possessed evaporated into thin air.

What had finally pushed him over the edge? Was it his toxic, wretched father, or was it Noah? My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached. More than anything, I never wanted Micah to discover the terrifying kind of sociopathic monster his older brother truly was. That truth would completely break him.

"Damon! Damon! Hey, giant idiot, are you even listening to us?"

A sudden tug on the dangling yellow suspenders of my ridiculous fireman costume snapped me violently back into reality. I blinked, letting out a rough exhale as I looked down into the bright, expectant face of Lucas.

The twins looked thoroughly exhausted. After nearly three full hours of running back and forth through the grand hallway, rehearsing their clumsy little routine for their academy’s upcoming costume showcase, their cheeks were flushed red, and damp curls were plastered to their foreheads.

"Is the practice finally over?" Lucas pouted, wiping a sleeve across his brow with a dramatic puff of air. "My feet feel like they’re about to fall straight off!"

"Yeah, small fry, it’s officially over," I muttered, the lingering tension in my shoulders melting away just a fraction as a genuine, tired smile tugged at my lips. I reached down, roughly ruffling Lucas’s damp hair until he let out an indignant squeak. "You two did alright. Now get your little tails upstairs to wash up and rest before father gets back tonight."

Lucas immediately tossed his hands in the air, doing a pathetic little victory dance. "Yes! Freedom!"

Right beside him stood Levi. My youngest brother was clutching a bright blue plastic bucket to his chest, his big, innocent eyes blinking slowly as he tried to process Lucas’s sudden outburst. Levi had always been a quiet, gentle soul, a bit slower to catch onto things than his hyperactive twin, relying almost entirely on Lucas to make sense of the noisy world around them.

"Come on, Levi," Lucas said bossily, grabbing Levi’s free hand with zero gentle hesitation. "Nanny said we get dessert after we wash the fake soot off our faces."

"Oh. Okay!" Levi chimed in happily. He carelessly dropped the plastic bucket onto the shiny marble floor with a loud clatter and trotted right behind his brother like a faithful shadow.

"Bye-bye, Damon!" Lucas yelled over his shoulder.

"Bye-bye, Damon!" Levi dutifully echoed a second later.

I waved a hand dismissively at them, watching as the nanny stepped out from the adjacent hallway to usher the two chaos demons up the main staircase.

"Make sure he actually uses soap this time, Nanny!" I called out after them.

"Mind your own business, Young Master Damon, and clean up that disgraceful half-naked torso of yours before your father walks through those doors!" the old woman shot back without even turning around.

I let out a breathy laugh, shaking my head. God, I loved that terrifying old woman.

Left alone in the grand foyer, I stretched my arms high above my head, feeling my spine crack loudly in relief.

"Now what?" I muttered to myself.

My eyes instinctively wandered upstairs toward the guest wing. I was dying to slip into Micah’s room and wrap my arms around him, but he needed rest. I couldn’t be a selfish bastard right now.

"Ugh, I have literally never been this bored in my entire life," I groaned, turning toward the stairs.

Before my foot even hit the first step, my phone vibrated heavily in my pocket. I yanked it out, sliding the screen open... and my breath hitched.

A new message from Captain Dickhead.

Captain Dickhead: GIVE. HIM. BACK.

A single, chilling line. A wicked, exhilarating smirk immediately spread across my face, my blood pumping fast. Finally... something delicious to burn time with before my father returned.

I started heading up the stairs, my fingers flying across the screen.

Damon: Give who?

The response came back almost instantly, practically vibrating with cold, lethal fury.

Captain Dickhead: Don’t make me come there and get him. Return Micah back to me in one piece and do not put your filthy lips on him if you don’t want to lose your head.

I let out a mock shiver, pausing on the landing to lift my eyes directly toward the nearest security camera mounted in the corner of the hallway. I shot the glass lens a razor-sharp, arrogant grin as I kept walking. I knew with absolute certainty that Noah was watching my every single move through that feed. How the hell that bastard managed to hack into the Silver estate’s private, encrypted network was beyond me. It sent a genuine chill down my spine, making me wonder for the thousandth time... Who the hell is Noah, really?

Reaching the second floor, I walked past my bedroom and stopped directly before the heavy wooden door that connected my room to Micah’s. I leaned against the frame, my eyes glittering as I typed out my next taunt.

Damon: I’m not sure I can stop myself from touching Micah, captain... especially after what he did to me yesterday. Oh! I can still feel the heat of his soft hands all over me. What am I supposed to do?

I hit send and let out a dark laugh. It was childish, but poking the beast was too damn satisfying.

The notification bubble at the top of my screen flickered.

Captain Dickhead is typing...

Captain Dickhead is typing...

He stayed like that for a long, heavy minute, clearly trying to calculate how to execute me without blowing his holy golden-boy facade. Finally, a single line popped up.

Captain Dickhead: Meet me at the arena. Immediately.

My grin widened, pure adrenaline rushing through my veins. Finally. A real fucking fight. I just prayed I wouldn’t end up dead on the ice, turned into the second corpse buried alongside the prime minister’s daughter tomorrow morning.

Damon: With pleasure, captain!

I tossed the phone onto my king-sized bed and violently peeled the yellow fireman costume off my body, letting the heavy fabric drop to the floor in a heap.

"Let’s go have some fun," I muttered under my breath, striding into my walk-in closet to grab my leather jacket.