Chapter Twenty #2
Despite working at one of the top ad agencies in New York, Dom is allergic to people. To crowds. Yet, somehow, he always gets clients who are opening bars and clubs, restaurants and theaters. He’s the right person with his charming personality and witty humor, but it always makes me chuckle.
He scrubs the final mug and starts to glance around for another thing to throw himself into, but I capture him. I pull every inch of his front against mine and peer into his face.
“No more hiding in the kitchen. It’s Christmas.”
“It’s two days before Christmas, actually,” he counters smartly.
I roll my eyes. “It’s family Christmas. You’re not a maid. Come sit with me and Isla.”
The corner of his mouth quirks downward. “But if we don’t keep on top of the dishes, they’ll pile up and—”
“Let them pile. We’ll band together and get them done... later,” I stress.
His dark eyes pivot over the crowd of far too many people and he visibly winces.
“They pinch my bottom,” he grumbles. “The aunts. They tell me I’m so cute and squeeze things.”
My eyebrow lifts. “Which aunts?”
He waves at the room at large. “All of them. They’re very handsy and I’ve told them nicely to stop.”
It’s not funny.
No one should be touching another person without consent, especially not my boyfriend.
“No one will touch you. I promise.”
He’s not convinced but lets me guide him out of the kitchen to where Isla is still bent over watching something on Cousin Martin’s phone.
She jolts when I brush my hand along the upper curve of her spine. Her head jerks up in my direction, no doubt thinking it’s someone else. She relaxes when she spots me. Her expression softens into a smile that barbs around my heart.
My arm instinctively hooks around her middle and I draw her up to me while keeping my other hand securely laced through Dom’s.
“Are you sore?” I ask softly into her ear.
Her eyebrow arches. “Are you offering?”
I skim my grin into the side of her face. “Maybe, but also no. I want to know if you want to remove the plug. You’ve had it in nearly all evening.”
She surprises me by considering it before shaking her head. “I’m all right. Unless you’ve given up on your bet.”
Dom actively grimaces when I turn my head to him. “Heard about that, did you?”
“Was it supposed to be a secret?” she challenges with an impish little grin.
“Not a secret, but it’s more fun when the victim doesn’t know why they’re being used like a dumpster.”
Isla’s nose wrinkles. “I didn’t think I needed a reason.”
I have to take a breath and even then, it comes out in a low growl deep in my chest. “Little brat.”
No remorse.
Isla smirks and turns back to the phone showcasing a montage of funny cat videos. Her ass bumps the hard bulge at my crotch…
Deliberately.
I know because she adds a little wiggle I definitely don’t miss.
“You take her or I will,” I tell the man watching the entire interaction with amusement.
We don’t get to rock, paper, scissors for Isla’s cunt when Aunt Joanne catches sight of the hand I’m rubbing a bit too close over the arch of Isla’s ass.
Frankly, I don’t feel like we’ve been stealthy about our feelings. Maybe everyone kept turning away all the times we’ve kissed and touched. But Aunt Joanne, an aunt by mere technicality, glances over and decides to open her fat mouth.
“Get your hands off your sister, Nicolas. What will people think?”
My ears burn hot with the implication.
But it’s not embarrassment that has me rounding my full attention to her pasty complexion and hideous Christmas sweater.
I’m pissed.
I’m annoyed.
No one asked her and the fact that she thinks she has a leg to stand on when she’s been married four times and each time her husband has come to his senses and run off.
Well brushing fifty and still incapable of finding lipstick that won’t smear across her teeth.
She — in my opinion — is the precise reason extended families shouldn’t be invited to things because what right do they have in family matters when their only connection to said family is dead?
“People will think to mind their own business,” I counter, thinking faintly at the back of my brain that this is exactly the thing I’d feared would happen.
Dom must sense it, too, because his fingers tighten around mine. Or maybe he’s keeping me from really telling her off.
“It is a bit... odd, Nicky.” Like some disease rising from the core of the earth, Macie slinks to the forefront of the room and fixes big, innocent eyes absolutely void of a soul on my face. “You watched her grow up.”
Bitch.
My molars grind as I weigh my choices.
I could lash out.
I could tell her to go fuck herself.
But pressure is where I strive. I didn’t become a lawyer because I enjoyed the grueling hours of studying.
I climbed my way up to becoming a junior associate at one of New York’s most prestigious law firms because I am calm and levelheaded, and I have yet to meet an opponent who can ruffle my feathers.
“That’s a bold statement to make in a room full of people who are fully aware that you’re lying,” I counter slowly, very aware of the hush that has fallen over the cabin “But let’s unpack it, shall we?”
“Nick,” Dad starts, but I ignore, full focus fixed on the herpes he’s married.
“I was living in New York when you sank your claws into my dad—” I ignore the gasps and sly snickers from the crowd.
“—I met Isla once over dinner then again at the wedding. I didn’t see her again for over two years when we came for two days over Christmas and Isla spent the entire weekend in her room because — according to you — she had tried to run away from home.
She was sixteen, seventeen at the time. We went another two years before we saw her again.
She was nineteen and no longer living under your thumb.
Now, if we are to discuss anything, maybe it’s—”
Isla’s trembling fingers close around my wrist. Cold and pleading. It distracts me from tearing into the other woman, and I drop my gaze to her face.
“Please,” she whispers.
She’s right.
It’s not for a room full of people to know her business. To know her past unless she shares it. It’s not for me to use her pain as collateral damage to vindicate my actions.
“It’s very clever that you would remember such insignificant details if you weren’t trying to hide something nefarious,” Macie remarks, cocking her head to the side.
“Macie,” Dad hisses. “What are you saying?”
Fingers threaded together at her midsection like some demonic choir boy, Macie never spares him a glance. Her entire focus is on me.
“I’m trying to decide if — as a mother — I should be concerned for my daughter who was clearly so young when—”
“Careful,” I warn slowly, dangerously. “What you are about to do is defamation and I will sue you for slander. I have evidence to back up everything I’m saying.
When I take you to court, and I will, I will ruin your life.
So, before you say another word, ask yourself if you’re ready to get destroyed. ”
I wish I felt joy at the loss of color in her cheeks.
I wish I could look at my dad, but shame at putting him through this when he is innocent has me fixed on the woman at his side.
“This... this is outrageous,” she stammers. “Threatening to sue family for being simply concerned—”
“Enough,” I cut her off firmly. “Out of respect for my dad, I will let you walk away right now, but if you ever make even a hint that there was ever anything inappropriate between me, Dom and Isla, there won’t be a hole you can crawl into that I won’t drag you out of.
I love Isla and Dom. That is all anyone needs to know about that. ”