AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Damien rolls his eyes. “Your children could never be boring, Giulio. But they might have a modicum of restraint.”
I laugh, genuinely amused by Damien’s dry humor. He thinks he isn’t funny, but that’s because nobody else understands him.
“All right, I’ll be responsible for the humor genes.” I turn my attention back to Vanessa. “But I would also like my kids not to be stupid. Damien says you’re smart—I’m not seeing it right now.”
She’s trembling, down to her lips, and it’s almost sweet. When she lifts her head to meet my eyes, she shakes her head and starts backing up. Where she thinks she can go, I don’t know, because soon enough she’s up against the wall, giving me the most dismayed expression.
“Yes, I’m allowed in there,” a loud voice says from the other side of the door. “Get out of my way. Fuck. Giulio!”
I smile, genuinely excited that Slayer got here so fast. I get off the couch and hold up my hand to Vanessa. “Hold that thought.”
As expected, she doesn’t move at all.
Damien opens the door with only the smallest hint of a scowl. I clap him on the shoulder as I walk past him. Despite how little Damien thinks of Slayer, he still plays along for my sake.
Outside the small VIP room, Bernardo is trying to body block Slayer from coming closer. I roll my eyes, because Bernardo definitely knows Slayer’s allowed. Unfortunately, Slayer has made no attempt to get along with any of the staff.
“Yo, Slayer!” I shout, waving wildly. “Nice of you to join us. Is that my food? Bernardo, let the man through. I’m fucking starving.”
“Right down to your veggie crap,” Slayer says, flashing a smug smile at Bernardo as the man finally—reluctantly—moves aside. He breezes past him, brushing close to me when he passes through the door.
As expected, his attention instantly goes to Vanessa, and he whistles.
“She looks terrified,” he says gleefully.
Damien sighs, closing the door, and steps back. He crosses his arms against his chest, his eyes glued to them.
If Vanessa wasn’t already as pale as she could go, she might’ve gone a shade whiter from the way Slayer is undressing her with his eyes.
I guess I don’t blame her. Slayer’s built like a fucking truck, muscles bulging out of his tight shirt. The dark hair and dark eyes make him intimidating on a good day, but right now, he looks even more threatening.
I grab the bag of food Slayer’s extending out to me and take it back to the couch so I can sort through it. “Veggie, extra guac, extra cheese. Nice. Damien, your usual extra spicy chicken is here too. And… who’s the salad for?”
“You,” Slayer says with a smirk. “I figured you’d want it, with how you like your rabbit food. If you don’t want it, you can always give it to your new whore.”
Vanessa flinches, looking for all the world like she’s trying to disappear into the wall.
I open up the salad to inspect the contents. “Dude, this is a Caesar salad. That’s the most boring version of salad.” I lift the salad up in Vanessa’s direction. “You can have it. You’ve got to be starving after the day we’ve had. Fuck, I can’t believe we missed out on the catering. The wedding cake! Do you know what kind of cake it was going to be?”
“It’s all the same,” Slayer says dismissively, just to get a rise out of me. He knows I don’t like my food this plain.
“Not hungry,” Vanessa mumbles, the words barely audible.
Slayer prowls toward her, getting close to her and breathing in deeply as he towers over even her tall frame. “She even smells sweet,” he says, and she whimpers.
Damien sneers in Slayer’s direction, then comes to take his burrito from where I left it on the coffee table. He sits down next to me. “The cake was going to be something nutty. Amaretto? It sounded better than whatever was served at your father’s wedding to Clarissa.”
I quickly take a bite of my own burrito before I get pissed off for real. The wedding to Clarissa was a fucking farce. I’d hated Clarissa from the first day my old man introduced us. The only shame is that my old man had her murdered instead of divorcing her when Vanessa’s sister had caught his eye. Talk about a waste. She could have started earning at one of my clubs.
“Anyway,” I say, “Vanessa here was the bride’s sister. Oh, fuck, Slayer, you missed such an event. It’s gonna be all over the news tomorrow. And my old man kicked it.”
Vanessa glances past Slayer to me, but she says nothing. Her attention snaps back to him, though, when he puts his big hands on her small waist and leans in. She yelps, and he draws back with a grin. I can see a red mark forming already on her neck from where he bit her.
“Don’t mark her,” Damien snaps. “We have plans for her.”
Slayer shoots Damien a look over his shoulder, and I know for a fact he now wants to mark up Vanessa even more.
“Yep, lots of plans.” I kick off my sandals and stretch my legs out on the coffee table. “I’m going to be a father, apparently.”
