Page 37 of Deathless & Divided

Damian had parked his car at the far end of the parking lot. He walked the dark space in silence, letting Lily’s attitude and anger bounce off him. The girl could have her feelings—he didn’t begrudge her right to them as far as that went. What he did hope was that she would eventually settle herself to the idea of their marriage.

It was for life, after all.

Neither of them got much of a choice in the matter.

Damian would like for his future wife to tolerate him, in the very least. He didn’t want to live the next fifty or sixty years in a household like the ones he grew up in with the couples fighting all the fucking time and hating one another.

Frowning, Damian tried to shake those thoughts off. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he liked Lily a great deal. He’d started to remember more and more flickers of memories from when they were younger and he used to chum around with Theo. Lily DeLuca was a sweet, honest piece of Damian’s past he’d forgotten about.

Lily’s fingers drumming on the back of Damian’s neck brought him out of his inner turmoil.

“So, what difference would it make if you told my brothers I was out partying without a babysitter, anyway?”

“Well, for one, you were just having some innocent fun. I don’t fault you for being young and wanting to go out with friends. Dino might not see it the same way, is all. Except that asshole you were dancing with. That’s unacceptable, Lily. I won’t stand for that.”

Lily snorted. “We were dancing. It was nothing.”

Damian’s grip around her waist tightened like he didn’t want to let her go. “He was touching you. His hands were on you. That can’t happen again.”

Her voice went lower when she said, “I told him to back off.”

“And he didn’t.”

“And then you acted like a damned barbarian,” Lily said.

Damian could practically feel her eyes rolling.

“Listen, if you want to go out, we’ll do that. You just have to ask or tell me. Whatever. I don’t care. But you can’t be going out like that alone. It doesn’t look good on your brothers or me for you to be kicking it free without someone—”

“Babysitting me,” Lily interrupted, clearly annoyed.

“I’m trying here,” Damian said softly. “The least you could do is try, too.”

He had a feeling it wouldn’t work out that way, though.

Lily mumbled something unintelligible under her breath.

“What was that?” Damian asked.

“Nothing.”

Damian used his free hand to tickle up the side of Lily’s calf. She couldn’t have hid her breathless giggle even if she tried. “Do I have to ask you again?”

“Mr. I-don’t-like-to-repeat-myself, huh?”

“Caught that, did you?”

“Yes,” Lily said. “You didn’t have to scare him off, you know. I was doing just fine by myself, Damian.”

“Well, I didn’t fucking like it, all right? Maybe you could have handled it, but I did, so let’s move on.”

Lily hummed under her breath, the sound coming off playful and teasing. Maybe that was the alcohol in her system making her do it, but Damian liked to hear it all the same. “Oh?”

“Yeah, don’t think on it too hard.”

“You know …” Lily poked Damian in the back as he came up to the side of his Porsche. “… Abriella said something to me today.”

Damian fought the urge to scoff. Abriella Trentini said a lot of things. Nearly getting his girl in some kind of trouble put Abriella on the top of Damian’s shit-list. Sure, Lily was an adult capable of making her own good or bad decisions, but Abriella damn well knew better.