“If you want a semblance of a normal life, to see your family and friend’s you’ll need to prove your loyalty first. I need to trust you, and trust isn’t something that comes easy to me. I trust no one.” Well, that was a given. A killer with trust issues, who would have thought. Damien sips his coffee, his intense gaze on me. “One wrong move on your part, and I’ll erase everyone you love, one by one. I won’t touch you. I’ll make you watch while I kill all those you care about. The pain of losing everyone around you will be your punishment. Understand?”
As I lean in closer, I shake my head and fix him with a surly glare. “You listen to me spawn of satan. Stay the fuck away from the people I love.”
Damien’s eyes narrow slightly, and something flashes in his eyes for a fleeting moment and disappears all too quickly before he calmly licks his lips, his eyes unwavering while I was seething.
“Here we go, your order of pancakes.” Our waitress chirps, coming over to us; she slid the plate on the table in front of us while Damien and I continued to glare at each other. “Would you like anything else?” Damien averts his gaze from mine and looks up at the waitress, who twirls a strand of her honey-blonde hair around her finger, batting her eyes at him flirtatiously.
Oh, honey, you are yapping up the wrong tree. Run as fast and far as you can. I almost say but stop when Damien smirks and gives her a once-over. The son of a bitch is openly checking out another girl right in front of me! I don’t know what came over me, but I deliver a swift kick to his shin under the table, and he grunts and turns his furious gaze to me sharply. “That’ll be all, thank you.” I grit out, and the waitress looks between us and nods before she scampers off.
“Do you have a fucking death wish, woman?”
I narrow my eyes at him, “Oh, I’m sorry. How rude of me. Did I interrupt your eye-fucking session with the waitress?” I reply hotly and lean closer. “Listen to me, you asshole, you’re not the only one that has a reputation to protect. I will not be publicly humiliated or be made a fool out of because my so-called deviant husband can’t stop leering at women right in front of me. You need to remember who you married.” Damien looks over my face, jaw clenched tight and throbbing. “This marriage may not be real, but if I have to act accordingly, then I expect the same damn thing from you. The very least you could do is show me some goddamn respect.”
Damien’s steel-like eyes narrow to slits as he leans in closer to me over the table. Our eyes lock. “You don’t just get my respect by simply demanding it, I’m afraid, Princess. You want my respect—you damn well earn it.”
I scoff. “Something tells me I’d have better odds getting blood out of a stone.”
Damien smirks. “You’d be right, pretty girl.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes, and we sit there glaring rancorously at one another.
I pick up my fork and fiddle with the pancakes on my plate. “Let me ask you something,” Damien’s dark eyebrows rise with interest. “Why are you risking your own life to protect me?” I ask, keeping my eyes on his, waiting for a reaction but got nothing but his usual cold stare.
“Would you rather I killed you instead?”
“Answer the question, Damien. What are you getting out of this?”
“At the moment? A migraine.” He sighs, jaded, while he glances at his phone.
“You don’t strike me as the type of man that does a good deed without expecting something in return. What gives?” Damien smirks and sets his phone down on the table before he fixes me with a frosty glare.
“You do know what curiosity did to the cat, don’t you, Ezra?” He drawls, looking me dead in the eyes.
“Do I look like a damn cat to you, Damien?”
“You’re sure feisty like one, kitten.” He tells me evenly, placing a toothpick between his teeth and leaning closer. “And when you’re caressed in just the right way, you purr like one too.” I shift under his intent stare, unable to look away from those steel-like eyes.
I should be disgusted by him, but my body reacts differently to this gorgeous but infuriating man. What is he doing to me? I can’t figure him out for the life of me. Those deep gray eyes of his are looking into mine like he wants to see through to my soul.
Snap out of it, Ezra!
“What do you want with me?” I ask again, and his jaw clenches ever so slightly before he places his hands on top of the table and laces them together. “You’re not protecting me out of the goodness of your heart since you’re evidently devoid of one.”
Damien wets his lips and eyes me thoughtfully for a drawn-out moment. “You serve no real purpose to me, Ezra, and if you’re alive and breathing right now, it’s simply because I took pity on you, which is something I don’t often do, so if you keep pushing my buttons, I will put a hole between those pretty blue eyes of yours. Understood?”
“What is it that happened to you to turn you into such cold-blooded barbarian?”
Damien stares back at me blankly, no expression whatsoever. “Not all of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouth, Princess. Besides, you haven’t earned the right to ask questions about me.”
I narrow my eyes in scrutiny, “You’re my husband, aren’t you? I think that gives me a right to know something about you. All I know about you is your name and what you do for a living.”
Damien drops cash on the table and slides out of the booth; he tugs me up and pulls me close; his eyes look over my face and settles on mine again. “Even that is a privilege.” He whispers and pulls back before he guides me out of the diner.
* * *
We arriveat the hotel a short drive later. I couldn’t wait to get out of this damn bridal dress. “Start packing up. We leave in an hour.” Damien tells me, pulling his blazer off and setting it down on the bed.
I look over at him and frown, trying to reach the zipper on the back of the dress. “Already?” Damien nods and walks over to me. I watch as he strides over, swiftly turns me, and presses my back against his chest. I gasp when his lips brush against my ear as he speaks, and his fingers unfasten the zipper slowly.