Page 153 of Deathless & Divided

“Are you coming over for dinner?” Dino asked as they followed behind the congregation to leave the church.

“Do you want to?” Lily asked Damian.

“Sure, sweetheart.”

“Good,” Dino said, smirking. “Lily can cook.”

“Ass,” Lily muttered.

Dino waved a finger in the air as they walked out the front doors into the sunlight. The Chicago wind whipped around the three. “Never denied it, Lily. I’ll see you two later.”

“Later,” Damian replied.

Lily moved to walk down the large steps, but Damian pulled her back to his side. “What—”

Damian shut her question up with a quick, searing kiss. Her surprised gasp allowed him to deepen the kiss. She gave into the dominating strikes of his tongue and the rhythm of his lips as he owned her with the kiss. Lily hummed in satisfaction, fisting his suit jacket and grinning as giggling people passed the couple by.

“That was bad,” Lily told him. “We’re technically still at church.”

“Nothing they haven’t already done or seen.”

“True.”

Damian kissed the tip of her nose. “I know you wanted to stay at the hotel a little longer.”

Lily shrugged. It didn’t really matter. “Anywhere with you is perfect.”

“How about we spend the next week looking for somewhere to call home?”

“Oh?”

“Something for you to call yours and not an apartment,” Damian said.

Lily’s heart swelled. “A house?”

“Any kind of house you want, Lily.”

“Not Melrose Park.”

Damian laughed. “Too much Outfit for you, huh?”

“No, too many memories.”

“What did I tell you, huh?” Damian asked, giving her a look that pinned Lily in place.

“To leave it behind.”

“So do that.”

“I’m trying,” she said quietly.

And she was. But sometimes it still hurt and she thought it would for a long time. Scars like those didn’t heal instantly. It took a while and the constant reminders, like pokes to the wounds, would always leave an ache behind.

“Not Melrose Park,” Lily repeated quietly.

Damian nodded, reaching up to caress the apple of her cheek with two fingers. “All right. Time to start making our own memories, Lily.”

“Yeah, I think that sounds—”