A Devilish Christmas (The Marchesi Family)

“Sure thing.”

“You’re really not coming back to the house with your husband on your wedding day?” Devil asked.

I rolled my eyes. “This is what happens when you get married spontaneously and hide it from your family.”

“I’m taking you on a honeymoon.”

“Not right now, you’re not,” Angelo said. “Not until we deal with Vincenzo.”

“Let’s track him down as soon as we drop Joe off. I’ll make him see things our way, then Joe and I can be on a plane tomorrow.

“Jesus,” Angelo huffed.

“Devil, it’s going to be a few weeks before I can take time off.”

“You never want to take time off.” His pouty face would have been funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.

“I’m trying to build my business, and I told you I’m not living solely off your money.”

“We’ll talk about this later.”

When Angelo pulled to the curb by my destination, Devil got out of the car with me and pinned me against the door as he pushed it closed. “I want you now. I don’t want to wait.”

I smiled at him. “You put a ring on it. Settle down.”

He growled. “When you get home tonight, I’m going to tear your ass up. I’ll use you until you can’t move.”

“Not if I get to your ass first.”

3

Devil

Angelo and I did some investigating before heading downtown to meet Lucien at our family headquarters. I hoped Angelo’s mind was more focused than mine because I might easily have missed anything. I completely lost my train of thought while we were talking to a contact, and Angelo had to take over for me. I should have insisted Joe and I go on a honeymoon immediately. Maybe I should just kidnap him, but I doubted I could get Joe to the airport before Lucien cut off my use of the family plane.

“You better get yourself together before we go in,” Angelo said as he parked the car. “Lucien’s going to know something’s up.”

“He’ll just figure I got wasted last night.”

Angelo raised his brows. “Before Joe, you’d have been right, but now? I don’t think you’ll get by that easily.”

Devil shrugged. “Then he’ll probably think I didn’t let Joe get any sleep.”

“That’s more realistic, but he knows you better than that. He’s going to know you’re keeping a secret. He always does.”

I snorted. “He always thinks he does.”

“He’s going to find out. You know he will. I think you should just tell him.”

I shook my head. “No way. Let me enjoy this for a little while. I’m married, Angel. Fucking married. Can you believe it?”

He smiled. “I wouldn’t if I hadn’t seen it myself.”

“Imagine, even just a few years ago, someone saying I would be the first of the three of us to get married. You’d have laughed so hard. Hell, I never figured any of us would get hitched, but now I bet we all will be by this time next year.”

“What if Cam and I don’t want to get married?”

I raised my brows and stared at him. “Is that how it is?”

Angelo snarled. “None of your fucking business.”

I shifted from one foot to the other as we rode up in the elevator. I really didn’t want to face Lucien. Angelo was right. He’d know something was up if he spent more than a minute with me. He was too damn good at reading me.

The elevator doors slid open, and we headed for Lucien’s office. I smiled at the garland that draped his assistant’s desk and the Christmas trees he’d reluctantly allowed me to set up on either side of his office doors, but as soon as we stepped inside, I knew there’d been no point worrying about when to tell him, how to tell him, or how I was going to keep him from knowing something was going on. He already knew. How the hell had he found out?

He glared at me, his eyes icy cold. “Why am I hearing my cousin got married from my office assistant?”

Play it cool. I shrugged. “I don’t know. What cousin are you talking about?”

Lucien slammed his hand on his desk. “Don’t play games with me. Carlotta Russo saw you in the city clerk’s office.”

Carlotta was one of the biggest gossips we knew. “Shit. She works at city hall, doesn’t she?” He didn’t bother to answer.

“She called Maria Grace, who called Mrs. Zanetti, who called—”

“Aunt Sabrina.”

“Right. Your aunt found out you went down to the courthouse and got married without even mentioning you were even engaged.”

“We didn’t get engaged until today.”

“Are you fucking serious, Devil?”

“Yeah. I had a friend get us a license a few weeks ago, but I only asked Joe if he wanted to get married this morning and then we did.”

Lucien massaged his temples. “That is not how this works.”

“It was for us. I knew Joe wouldn’t want some fucking elaborate ceremony and engagement parties and shit, so I gave him what he needed.”