Page 23 of Christmas Mafia Prince
The wide space between them is jarring after he says that, and my Damen picks up on it immediately. “And now you’re the picture of marital bliss.”
I can’t help it, I burst out with laughter, which earns me a glare from Titus.
Juliana exhales and rests her elbow on the table. “Karl, please. Would you stop—”
“I will not! What’s happening at this table is an outrage! The evisceration of every Van der Horn tradition, and I will not stand for it! And this little shit will be lecturing me that you have to follow your heart?”
That’s it. I stand so abruptly my chair drops behind me. “You won’t stand forwhat? That your son is loved? Becauseyouwould rather he spent his life miserable with some woman he hates? Is where he puts his dick really that important? Kinda weird if you ask me.” I finish my drink in one big swig.
Titus opens his arms, blinking, as if something inside him is signalling for help. “This is not about you being a man! Father’s lawyer is gay, and they’ve been working together for years!”
I roll my eyes and do jazz hands. “Ooooh! Wow! So progressive! But his son can’t take part in some stupid Christmas hunt because of an ancient tradition of a man needing to be married to shoot a gun or some shit? Fuck that!”
Did I just say that to Damen’s dad?
Yeah. I think I did.
Chapter 9
Damen
Ididn’tthinkIcould be more attracted to Killian, but watching him stand up to my father to defendmeis an unexpected treat. The truth is I don’t need anyone’s protection, but Kill’s gesture is appreciated.
He stands out starkly in the room decorated at the height of the Gilded Age. All leather, ripped denim, and spikes, he’s the opposite of everything I’ve been taught to embrace. No wonderFather despises him. His presence is confusing and disruptive—a breath of fresh air in the staleness of the old mansion.
He doesn’t cower, just because he’s an outsider and has no access to the kind of wealth my family has accumulated. His eyes shine with booze-fueled passion, and when he bangs his hand on the table, I grab the other and kiss it to show my appreciation.
I love the scowl it brings to Titus’s face.
Dad seems confused by Killian’s rudeness for longer than I expect, and I love every awkward second of it. “Sit down!” he says to Killian. “There’s no need to get so heated when the marriage is a done deal. You’ve got your cake, so eat it.”
I hope he’s not suggesting Killian is a gold digger, because I chose to shower him with gifts. And I practically abducted him in the first place. I’m not the one drinking, but I seem to be forgetting our marriage is a sham.
Killian eyes my father with a squint, then leans over the table, grabs a massive piece of cake with hishandand puts it on his plate. “I will,” he slurs and sits down.
The dramatics of it all. I love it.
He’s fucking perfect.
“That looks good,” I say. He immediately picks up on my words and tears a piece of the cake off before delivering it straight to my lips. I make sure to kiss his orange-scented fingertips.
“And this is what following your heart leads to,” Titus says, as if he weren’t jealous watching me now. Bree would never.
Samantha blinks at him innocently. “Eating cake?”
Mom was right. I do like her.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Mom butts in. “I think following one’s heart can be right for some people.”
Of course, because why commit to something as noncontroversial as choosing one’s own path in life, whenthere’s money and privilege involved? My mother is the mistress of uttering a lot of words withoutsayinganything.
“Maybe tell us how you two met?” Samantha asks.
Kill stops chewing, but his mouth is still full like he’s a little goth hamster. Maybe it’s for the better that I take the lead, because we haven’t come up with a cohesive version.
“He used to be a barista in my favorite cafe in New York,” I say stroking Kill’s back as he adds whisky to the cake in his mouth. “He always remembered my order, and we would flirt, but I didn’t want to be a creep and ask him out while he was at work, so it was a lot of back and forth.”
Killian speaks as soon as he swallows. “And then he brought that one artbook… What was it? But we chose a picture for one of my tattoos.” He pulls up his sleeve to show off a massive snake twisting around his arm. “And then went with me to get it done, held my hand and everything.”
