Her gaze drops to my dick, which is hard, a state it is getting used to being around her.
“I’m not your sweetheart,” she says, trying to avert her gaze.
“You can look. I don’t mind.”
“Well, I do.”
“Come on. We’ll take a shower, then go down to breakfast. I’m sure you’re starving, and you’ll want something for your headache.”
“I don’t have a headache, and I’m not showering with you or eating with you.”
“You eat with me, or you don’t eat.”
“I hate you.”
I turn to walk away. “Not what you were moaning—”
She throws the pillow at the back of my head.
I grin, picking it up as I turn back to her.
“I wish I had a rock to throw at you,” she says.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” I toss the pillow back to her. She catches it, and I turn to go.
“Did you know that part?” she calls out before I get to the bathroom. “That they’d parade the sheets around?”
When I look back at her, I’m not grinning anymore. “It’s not a big deal. It’s done, and it’ll keep you safe.”
“So, you did.”
“My family’s traditions need to be honored.”
“Just say you knew, Damian.”
“I knew, Cristina.”
“You could have warned me.”
“And what would that have done?”
“What if I wasn’t a virgin? What would you have done then?”
“Punished your uncle.”
She looks confused. “What?”
“A part of the rules.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He was responsible for you until I came to claim you. So those eight years your father bought, the burden of raising you and keeping you…intact…rested on your uncle’s shoulders.”
“Then why did you want to have that doctor check me?”
“Because I’m sure you had boyfriends he didn’t know about.”
She doesn’t say anything.
“He got paid, of course.”
“The apartment renovations and our lifestyle. That was all you?”
I nod.
“He did it for money?” Her face falls. “My own uncle betrayed me for money?”
“There was more. He wanted custody of his kids. I assured that.”
“How?”
“I have some influence.”
“They’re with my aunt now, though. Simona is, at least, and Liam on weekends.”
“Our agreement lasted until your eighteenth birthday.”
She looks away, shaking her head. “This is crazy.”
“Yeah, it is.” I walk away then, into the bathroom, and switch on the shower. I take a piss while the water warms up, then step under the stream of hot water.
When I’m finished, I wrap a towel low around my hips and walk out into the bedroom. She’s still sitting on the bed, but she’s got a robe on and is hugging her knees to herself.
“Go get showered and ready. I’ll wait for you.”
“Are they all going to be down there?”
“Probably not. But you’ll need to get used to being around them. I told you, you’re safe now.”
“How am I safe? I don’t understand.”
I sit on the edge of the bed and look at her. Even after the night she’s had and hungover like she is, she’s pretty. But she needs to eat. She’s already lost a couple of pounds since being here.
“Did you hear what my father said to my brother?”
“That because of some rules he can’t touch me.”
“That’s right. No one can. You belong to me. You’re my wife. My property. Only I can touch you.”
“What year is this? Did we go back in time, and I’m not aware?”
I adjust the robe at her breast, tugging it closed, tugging her closer. “It’s what will keep you safe. Just like with those men at the party. They won’t touch what’s mine. If they do, they know there will be war.”
“Your brother kissed me on the mouth.”
My jaw tightens. “And he won’t do it again.”
“And all because you married me? Because I’m your property.” Her eyebrows rise so high on her forehead they disappear behind her bangs.
“It’s an issue of territory. We don’t fuck with each other’s territories and when it comes to my family, it’s…tradition.”
“So you married me for my own good.” She says it mockingly, but she remembers my words from a few nights back.
“That’s right.”
“Should I thank you?”
I smile. “That’d be a good start. Should I show you how you can thank me?”
She smiles too, a wide, sarcastic thing. “If you mean by sucking your dick, you can be assured I will bite it off.”
“Ouch. I thought you liked my dick.”
“I wouldn’t put my mouth near your dick.”
“I wonder how hard you’ll come when I put it in your ass.”
Her mouth falls open, and I can’t help but laugh outright at her expression.
“Fuck you, Damian!” She swings her legs over the bed and stalks toward the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. I’m still laughing when I hear her drag the chair that was in there, and I realize what she’d done with it. She must have it lodged under the doorknob since there’s no lock on the door.
Good girl.
I get up, walk to the bathroom door. “So, does this mean you don’t want me to wait on you for breakfast?”
“Go choke on your breakfast, prick!”
12
Damian
Although I need her to eat, I’m too stubborn to send food up after telling her she won’t eat unless she eats with me. Maybe I’ll take her something later as a peace offering.
I’m sitting at the breakfast table with my second cup of coffee when Lucas comes strolling in. He pauses for a second when he sees me, making a point of looking around as if he thinks I’ve hidden Cristina somewhere, I guess.
Dickhead.
His hair’s wet, but he hasn’t shaved. There’s a five o’clock shadow across his jaw on the undamaged side of his face.
“Where’s your wife?” he asks, taking a seat and lifting the napkin onto his lap. From the table settings, I know Michela and Bennie have already eaten, but my father’s place remains untouched. Elise always sets the table like this even though my father hasn’t eaten breakfast down here in years. I’m pretty sure Michela only does because of Bennie. She will have driven him to school two towns over where she’ll pass the time shopping or sitting at a café for the few hours he attends kindergarten. She has never let any of the soldiers take him. Ever.
“She’s not feeling up to seeing the family.”
“I don’t blame her after last night.”
Studying him, I look more closely at what the plastic surgeons have been able to do. After the accident, almost the whole of one side of his face was burned away. Now, the damage is less, but he’ll never look like he used to before the accident. Like me.