CHAPTER SEVEN
Damian surveyed the guests at the dinner table as they ate, chatted, and discussed the upcoming events.
Like his wedding.
Thankfully, Lily took the discussions in stride and joined in when needed. He figured she was a lot like him in the way she didn’t like being the center of attention, not to mention she wasn’t entirely fond of everyone sitting at the table.
So yeah, he was grateful for her cooperation.
It wasn’t like Damian wanted to be there, either. Terrance hadn’t given him much of a choice when he called earlier about the dinner. It wasn’t uncommon for the boss to gather his closest men and their families for a meal that didn’t involve business, simply because Terrance liked to be in the loop on everything, but Damian had rarely been invited before.
As the guests ate, topics flowed from the studies Evelina, Alessa, and Abriella were focusing on in school to what Lily planned on doing regarding the same thing after the wedding. Tommas and Laurent vaguely discussed business the best they could with the Outfit’s front boss, Riley, and with Ben while attempting to keep their words veiled for the women’s benefit.
Damian stayed quiet in his seat beside Lily, carefully gaging his companion’s mood throughout the meal. After all, breaking bread with these three families could be a hell of a taxing event. Someone always had to bring in drama. Damian avoided that shit like the plague. Others found it like flies and shit.
“We’re going with peach and a powder blue, right?” Abriella asked.
Lily nodded and swiped her fork through Damian’s fluffy pastry when she thought he wasn’t looking. “Yes,” she said before sticking the bite in her mouth.
Damian leaned over and whispered in Lily’s ear, “I can order you one of those, you know.”
“Yours is fine. I just wanted a bite.”
Sure.
That was why she’d eaten half of it already.
Damian let her have the pastry.
“Is Damian going to be wearing the peach?” Serena asked.
Her words slurred together at the end of the sentence, reminding Damian his aunt had already tossed back a half of a bottle of wine since he and Lily arrived an hour before. He didn’t know how much alcohol Serena had consumed before they got there.
Knowing her, probably a lot.
“No, the blue,” Lily replied, keeping her attention on her pastry.
“Good, good,” Serena muttered. “God knows we don’t want him looking like a fool on his wedding day.”
“Serena,” Laurent snapped harshly.
Serena, like the drunk she was, didn’t act like she heard a thing her husband said. Everyone else at the table had stilled and quieted, watching the scene unfold between the two women at the middle of the table.
“He’s already done enough of that for himself with this whole thing as it is,” Serena added. “He’ll be lucky if even half of the Rossi family is able to show up without wearing something to hide their faces. The shame, my God.”
“Serena!” Laurent said again, much louder the second time.
“That’s quite enough,” Damian said, refusing to feed into his drunken aunt’s nonsense. “You’ve said what you wanted long before this, so I don’t want to go through it again.”
“Oh,” Serena drawled, wagging a finger in the air. “But she hasn’t, Damian. She should know we don’t—”
“Laurent, control your wife and her liquor or neither of you will be invited back to dine with my family,” Terrance said from the head of the table.
Serena scoffed loudly.
Damian’s brow rose at that. Clearly his aunt had guzzled a lot more alcohol than he previously thought if she was even showing her nastiness to Terrance. Serena knew better than to pull that kind of crap with the boss.
Serena had her issues, to be sure. Especially where the marriage was concerned. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t get to make any calls when it came to Damian and Lily. He also didn’t give a flying fuck what his aunt thought. She hadn’t cared much about him when she was supposed to, so what was the damned difference now?
Guessing by his aunt’s behavior, Serena was about to have one of her meltdowns that usually came along when she drank too much. Damian wasn’t interested in sitting through it, so he figured it was time to leave. Pulling out his cellphone, he texted a quick message off to let Dino know he would be bringing Lily home soon as the man asked him to do when he picked her up earlier.
“Serena—”
Laurent didn’t even get the chance to say another thing.
“Oh, shut up, Laurent,” Serena hissed, swiping her hand in her husband’s direction without a care. “We all know, don’t we? I mean, come on. Even she has to know.”
Lily stared at Serena through her dark lashes. Damian swore he saw her eyes narrow. “Know what?”
Serena laughed a high, sharp sound. “Really? You’re asking me?”
“You said it, didn’t you?” Lily asked softly. “I’m only asking for you to spit it out instead of chew on it. Whatever it is.”
Damian had to give his fiancée credit where it was due; Lily didn’t blink a lash at Serena’s behavior.
Serena attempted some odd cooing noise that came out entirely wrong. Instead of sickeningly sweet like he supposed she meant for it to sound, it rang like a garbled mess mixed heavily with her alcoholism. Most likely because she was three sheets to the wind and ready to topple over, Serena didn’t even understand the consequences of her actions. She usually had a little more control than she was showing now. Damian had enough and he wasn’t about to let Lily go through a round of his aunt’s abuse just because the bitch couldn’t hold her liquor.
Hell, she never had.
Damian still had a fucking scar on his pec to prove it.
Tommas had a few, too.
Standing from his chair, Damian offered Lily his hand. She took it without question, leaving her unfinished pastry on the plate and standing from her chair. “Sorry, Boss, but I think we’ll have to call it a night.”
Terrance frowned. “Yes, I—”
“You’re running, now?” Serena grinned wickedly, the wine in her glass sloshing as she waved at Lily. “Since when do you run, Damian? Didn’t we teach you better than that growing up? Don’t you want me to explain to the poor girl how terrible she’s making you look?”
“Serena, that’s damn well enough!” Laurent exclaimed, his face turning red.
Lily stiffened at Damian’s side and her hand tightened around his. “Me?”
The question had been posed with a dangerous edge, like Lily couldn’t believe what she had heard.
“Lily, let’s go,” Damian said firmly. “She’s not important and she’s drunk.”
“Which isn’t anything new,” Tommas muttered under his breath about his mother.
“Damian, I’m your aunt! And I expect you to treat me with respect!”
Damian snapped. Any and all control that he had managed to keep for the day was lost with three simple words. Turning on his heel to face the bitch across the table, Damian glared. Rarely did he show emotion in the presence of others and certainly not Mafioso. It was a dangerous game to play and while Damian was mighty good at his, he didn’t ever like to give someone an opening to one of his weak spots.
Serena Rossi just hit the right one on the goddamn head with a sledgehammer.
“That’s right,” Damian said, sneering. “You’re my aunt. My drunken, useless, bitch of an aunt. So fucking useless in fact, that you aren’t even capable of keeping your husband home. But you were mighty fucking good at spreading your legs and making children you didn’t want and couldn’t care for. A woman who couldn’t even be bothered to raise me and instead, handed me off to any and every person who would take me in. But not even me, no, your own kids, too. And when we were with you, shit … Tommas and I spent the majority of our time dodging your abuse and taking the hits in-between so Cara and Lea wouldn’t have to.
“Yeah, my aunt,” Damian repeated, spitting the words through his clenched teeth. He waved at Mia Conti, Serena’s sister. “You want to talk about how I’m embarrassing the family, huh? Why don’t we go straight for the fucking jugular and talk about how even your own goddamn sister doesn’t like to share a dinner table with you because you’re too busy trying to fuck her husband half the time?”
A sharp gasp sliced through the quiet dining area. Damian didn’t even know where or who it came from. He also didn’t care.
“If you think I give a single fuck about what you think regarding me or the deal with the DeLuca family, you are sorely fucking mistaken, Serena. Toss back another glass of wine, your blood isn’t sour enough, yet.”
Damian wished he could be surprised that not one person had stepped in to stop him from verbally knocking his aunt down a peg or two, but he wasn’t. Nothing he said to Serena was a lie. Shit, there was a hell of a lot more he left unsaid and probably for the better.
Even Lily’s uncle at the end of the table beside Terrance sat silent and stoic with his gaze down on the wine swirling in his glass. That wasn’t such a shock, either. Damian figured his tirade had been to Ben’s benefit, anyway. It didn’t exactly make Damian look good to be going off half-cocked in front of family and important men in the Outfit, not to mention the boss. Ben DeLuca played his part well, but chances were, he was scheming on Damian one way or another.
Fucking Christ, Damian didn’t even care at that moment. He just wanted to leave.
Lily had practically turned to ice at his side as she stared up at him with sad, wary eyes.
“Can we go now?” Damian asked her.
Lily nodded but she didn’t say a word.
Damian urged Lily ahead of him as he turned back to the table one more time. He owed one person at the table an apology and that was only for the sake of respect and little else. “Boss—”
Terrance held up a single hand. “Perfectly fine, Damian. I will see you tomorrow at tribute, yes?”
“Of course,” Damian said.
Damian hadn’t even turned away from the table completely before Serena let out a shriek. Her rage boiled over, pitching her voice high. Damian should have known better than to turn his back on his aunt when she was angry and drunk. Actually, he did know better but his concern about getting Lily out of his crazy aunt’s presence had been more important than the life lessons he learned growing up with an abusive alcoholic for an aunt.
“You … you little bastard!” Serena screamed.
Damian barely caught sight of the wine glass flying in his and Lily’s direction in enough time to react. He stepped in front of Lily as the crystal caught the side of his jaw, shattering across his face and splashing red wine and sharp shatters of glass along his cheek. Pain bloomed as something wet and sticky dripped onto his shirt and suit jacket.
“Oh, my God,” Lily whispered.
Damian blinked, stunned as Lily’s soft hands ghosted over his face. He could hear the sounds of his uncle and the others at the table finally starting to react to Serena’s very public display. While Laurent berated his wife’s bad behavior, someone else was demanding an apology.
Lily kept patting at Damian’s cheek with her fingertips. “Shit, you’re bleeding.”
Damian shrugged. “Just … let’s get out of here before—”
“Tell her, Damian!” his aunt goaded.
“Serena Rossi, you will shut your mouth or I will shut it for you,” Laurent ordered.
That threat didn’t stop Serena.
“Go to my car, Lily,” Damian said. “Please.”
Lily didn’t move. She was too focused on dabbing at the stinging cut on Damian’s cheek with the sleeve of her black dress.
“She’s always going to be that fool’s daughter, Damian,” his aunt warned. “She might be a DeLuca, but she’s still his daughter. A rat’s child—a turncoat’s seed. She’s got traitor marked all over her. It might as well be tattooed on her forehead. It’s in her blood and there’s no bleeding that out. How long will it take before she spills on you, too, huh? Her own daddy couldn’t keep true to the Outfit, what will she think of you when she finally gets a good look at who you are, Damian?”
Lily’s breath caught as her stare met Damian’s. Pain flooded her eyes as tears welled.
Don’t cry, he wanted to tell her. Don’t ever let a woman like Serena Rossi see you cry.
Lily DeLuca was far better than Serena Rossi could even dream of being, regardless of her father’s past actions. Lily, Theo, and Dino weren’t their father. Sure, their parents had made them, but their futures weren’t dictated by past actions. Serena could spout her nonsense off all she wanted, but it wouldn’t make a difference to what Damian thought.
The Outfit was supposed to be about family. Lily’s father might have broken that rule a long time ago, but there were a lot of men—some closer than any of them knew—that worked goddamn hard to bring the Outfit back to what it was supposed to be.
La famiglia.
The family.
Serena didn’t know the first thing about family. Not hers, the Outfit, or anyone else’s. She certainly didn’t know anything about Lily’s or how goddamn much that girl’s brothers cared and loved her.
Damian didn’t have to tell Lily a thing. She squared her shoulders, gave a single look behind Damian at a pissed off, red-faced Serena, and dismissed the older woman with a tick of her chin and the bat of her lashes.
That was it.
Lily didn’t say a word. Her indifferent, unfazed attitude was more than enough. Lily simply rejected Serena in a way that allowed her to keep her own dignity while stripping Damian’s aunt of hers in front of an entire table of people. Unlike Serena’s very vocal disdain, embarrassing and undignified, Lily’s was silent and a great deal louder. A good woman, a smart and strong one, didn’t need to make a scene to shame someone.
She clearly understood respect in a way Serena didn’t.
Damian appreciated that.
Wiping at the slice on his cheek with his thumb, Damian glanced over his shoulder at his aunt. Serena stood at the table, glowering and huffing like a pissed off bull. She looked like a damn mess. Drunk, foolish, and looking for another fight. Damian wouldn’t be the one to give her the battle she clearly wanted.
Everyone else at the table seemed to be having their own moment of shock, unable to speak or react. He didn’t blame them. Sure, they’d all witnessed one of Serena’s moments over the years, but never like this, in such a public place. It was only then he noticed the servers had rushed to the doorway of the private dining area as well.
“Let’s go,” Damian said to Lily.
Lily nodded. “Sure, okay. Let’s find a bathroom first. I’ll clean that mess off your face.”
Damian’s stance softened. She was genuinely worried about him and he wished she wouldn’t be. It wasn’t the first time something like this happened. Without another word to the people at the table, Damian guided Lily past the servers rushing into the room. Clearly their little scene hadn’t gone unnoticed by the regular patrons if the way they were stared at was any indication.
The first bathroom they came to happened to be for women. Lily didn’t seem to care as she pushed open the door and tugged Damian inside with her. A woman stood at the row of sinks washing her hands.
The woman squeaked and her cheeks reddened at the sight of a man inside the bathroom. It might have had something to do with the fact Damian was bleeding, had shards of glass on his shoulder, and his suit was wet with red wine.
Fuck. He smelled like a goddamn winery.
“Get out,” Lily ordered.
“This is a—”
Lily’s heel stomped to the tiled floor. “I said get out. Now.”
The woman rushed out of the bathroom, making sure to keep a wide berth between her, Damian, and Lily as she went. He didn’t fucking mind.
Lily crossed the bathroom to where clean, white facecloths were rolled into tiny folds and placed just so by the sinks. She waved a stoic Damian over and dabbed at his cheek with the dried, soft cloth to wipe off some of the blood dripping down his chin and neck. Once she wetted the cloth, Lily took her time dabbing at his wound, picking out pieces of glass from the slice, and brushing off the other bits on his shoulder.
“This suit is ruined,” Lily muttered.
Damian shrugged, trying to ignore the way her warm hands felt roaming over his skin. “Oh, well.”
“There’s blood all over the collar and on your shoulder. It’s not coming out.”
“It’s just a suit, little one.”
Lily’s eyes flicked away from his. “I’m not so little anymore, you know.”
Damian grinned, unable to stop it. “I’m very aware.”
“Did you call me that, too?”
“Once or twice. It fit, way back when. That age gap between you and your brothers sure made you quite a bit smaller than them in the grand scheme of things.”
Lily smiled. It came off honest and true. Damian could count on one hand the amount of times this woman smiled in his presence and really meant it. He liked it; he wanted to see more of it.
“I was the oopsie baby.”
Damian’s brow furrowed. “The what?”
“The oopsie baby,” Lily repeated, stilling dabbing at his cheek with tender swipes. “I remember Mom telling me once that after Theo, she didn’t want another baby because she was scared she’d end up with three boys raising hell.”
“And then you came along.”
“Just like a little oopsie.”
“Not a mistake, though,” Damian said with a cocked brow.
Lily laughed. “No, she never said that. She got her girl, right?”
“Well, she got you.”
“And I make up for everything,” Lily said with a roll of her pretty brown eyes. “What a shame, I liked this suit.”
Damian couldn’t help but notice the slight tremor in Lily’s hand as she tossed the bloody cloth to the sink. “Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Lily—”
“God, that woman is vile. How did you grow up in her house?” Lily asked.
“I spent as little time with her as possible but mostly, we were raised by other people. Listen, don’t pay her any mind.”
“Easier said than done,” Lily muttered.
“Hey.” Damian caught Lily’s cheek in his palm. He swept his thumb over the delicate line of her jaw and tilted her head up so she would look at him. The wetness gathering along her bottom lashes said Serena’s words had affected Lily a lot more than she was letting on. “That right there,” he said, still keeping a hold on her while pointing at the unshed tears with his free hand. “Don’t you do that, Lily. She isn’t worth a damn to what I or anyone else thinks when it comes to you. Serena thrives on her need to manipulate and create some kind of drama—don’t be one of her victims.”
Lily blinked the wetness away. “It’s not her or what she said, not really.”
“What is it, then?” She wouldn’t answer him, but Damian had a pretty good indication of the problem. “Your father?”
“Partly.”
“I thought it wasn’t about what she said?”
Lily waved at the closed door with a fierceness and anger that came suddenly. “Those … people. All of them.”
“You’re going to have to explain it more to me, sweetheart.”
“They just label him as a rat. They don’t even care that he was a man with children and a wife, like his life didn’t matter in the end because he didn’t follow their rules. He was more than the Outfit—he was my father. My father, okay. And it bothers me that he can’t be my dad, he has to be the man who betrayed them. He’s still my dad.”
“I know,” Damian murmured.
“He is, right?” Lily asked quietly. “Mine? Why do I have to pretend like he was worthless?”
“He’s still yours, regardless of what anyone else says or thinks. And you’ll never see him like they did because you’re not like them, Lily. For the record, I don’t believe that his actions determine your future, either. There’s a huge difference between being blindly loyal and being faithful to your family.”
“They’re the family,” Lily said. “Isn’t that what we’ve always been told?”
“Your family is what you make it. The family is the people who protect and love you no matter what it costs them in the end. Family is who you keep coming back to even when all you want to do is run away.”
“My brothers, you mean.”
Damian shrugged, still sweeping his thumb over the line of her jaw. “Sure, but I’m hoping you’ll put me in that category eventually, too.”
Lily shivered in his hold. “How can I do that when I don’t even know you?”
“You know enough,” Damian replied truthfully.
All that she needed to know.
“I don’t,” Lily argued. “You still won’t tell me why you agreed to this.”
“Yes, I have. Twice.”
“Because you have to.”
“Exactly, Lily.”
“That’s still not an answer, Damian.”
“Maybe you’re not asking the right questions, sweetheart. If you spent half as much time looking at other people as you do stuck inside your own head, you might find the answers are right in front of your pretty face.”
Lily bit her bottom lip and fidgeted on the spot. “I’m sorry.”
Damian hadn’t been expecting that. “For what?”
“Not remembering much about you. I meant to tell you before, but now seems like a good time.”
“When you were younger, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
Damian chuckled, caught her wrist with his other hand, and pulled Lily a step closer to him so that her nose grazed his when he looked down at her. Her eyes widened as her hand splayed out against his chest. She didn’t push him away, though. Damian took that as a good sign.
“When I hung around with Theo, you were young and your parents had just died. I was moved around a lot, so there was only a brief time when Theo and I had been close as kids. For you, that particular time was traumatic. Your parents being killed, moving in with your uncle, and Dino leaving the home. You were so focused on Theo and being stuck at his side because everybody else around you had left.”
Lily sniffed but the tears didn’t come that time. “You remember a lot.”
“Seems where your memories are a blank because of bad feelings, mine are coming back because of good ones. A lot of my childhood was spent listening to screaming, keeping out of everyone’s way, and trying to be invisible.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, so I don’t care to remember it all that much. But you seem to be a sweet spot.”
Lily’s lips curved into a small smile. “Huh. Imagine that.”
“Back then isn’t all that important anyway, Lily.”
“No?” she asked.
“No. Now is. Today. Tomorrow. Whatever you want to do or wherever you plan on going. Those are the important things; those are the things that matter to me. I told you we’ll work out all the details as we go along. I wasn’t lying.”
“I want to trust you,” she whispered.
“You will.”
That kind of thing came with time. Damian certainly wasn’t trying to get this girl to fall in love with him, but he wouldn’t pretend like he didn’t have some residual feelings for her; something inside that clenched around his lungs and heart with a vise-like grip to keep him steady and clear. He wanted her safe and happy, but it wasn’t all because of her brother and his debt.
“Your dress is a mess,” Damian noted, angry over the wine stains soaking the side of her black dress.
“The wine got me, too.” Lily reached up and pressed the pads of her fingertips along his cut. “It’s not so bad, really. I don’t know why it bled so much.”
“Flesh wound on the face.”
“Hmm.”
“I should get you home and then you can maybe salvage this dress,” Damian said.
Lily shrugged like it didn’t make a difference. She had yet to take her gaze off his cheek and she continued touching him with a tenderness that said she was concerned. Damian caught her hand with his own, wanting to ward off whatever nonsense she had going on in her head.
“I’m fine, Lily.”
“She really doesn’t like me.”
Damian laughed. “Do you care?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Why is that good? Shouldn’t I want your family to like me?”
“I don’t give a damn if Serena approves of my choices or not. They’re not hers to make. There’s only three people with the Rossi surname I consider family and my aunt and uncle aren’t them.”
“But—”
“And soon enough, I’ll be adding a fourth person to that list as well,” Damian said, giving her a slow smile.
Lily froze, her stare flitting down to Damian’s mouth before jumping back to his eyes. “You’re too smooth for your own good, Damian.”
“Yeah, well, I try.”
With that, he bent down and caught her surprised gasp with his mouth. The moment her lips touched his, sweetness bloomed over his mouth. He could taste her flavor edging at the tip of his tongue, and Damian was lost. Lily’s hand fisted into his suit jacket as he took another step closer to her until her body was pressed against his and her back was pushed into the counter top. He’d just wanted to distract her worries, but now that he could feel the way her lips felt moving with his, Damian wasn’t about to stop. His hands slipped under her skirt, skimmed around to the back of her toned ass and grabbed tight. He lifted her onto the counter in one fluid motion, needing her higher so he didn’t have to bend down to get that mouth of hers on his like he wanted.
Lily sucked in a ragged breath, her lips parting just enough to allow Damian to deepen the kiss. His tongue found the delicious heat of her mouth. As he kissed her harder, letting his teeth scrape over her bottom lip while she watched him under dark lashes, his hands roamed over the curve of her waist and up her sides until he was cupping her jaw again. His cock thickened under his dress pants and the way her body moved was just enough friction to get him harder than steel and ready to rip her fucking dress off. It was already ruined, right?
Damian forced Lily’s head back, baring her neck and making her eyes widen. She was fucking beautiful. Her lips, red and pouting from his kiss, trembled. Her slick tongue darted out to wet her lip before it disappeared back inside that goddamn candy mouth of hers.
Yeah, candy mouth.
Because it was too sweet and far too addicting to stop at just one.
Lily’s dress had ridden up, exposing the shape of her hips and a flash of black lace at the junction of her thighs. Her chest expanded and dropped fast with the harshness of her breaths.
“I was not expecting that,” Lily said, a heat coloring her words.
Damian grinned. “The best moments come when you’re not looking for them, Lily.”
“I didn’t say it was bad.”
“I wasn’t going for bad, sweetheart.”
Lily’s legs tightened around his waist. “Are you going to do that again?”
“Maybe.”
Lily swallowed hard. “I don’t—”
“Hush,” Damian demanded.
“Damian—”
“Lily, be quiet.”
His tone offered no room for argument. Damian wanted to enjoy the few moments he had with this defiant, interesting girl while she was giving them. He didn’t want her worries or second thoughts running away with her.
“Hush,” he repeated.
She nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“Yes.”
“What?” she asked.
“I lied. Yes, I’m going to do that again. I’m going to kiss you again because I like the taste of your mouth and I always take what I want. And I’m really looking forward to finding out if you fuck like you kiss because if so, I can’t wait.”
Lily’s eyes blazed with lust. “What game are you playing, Damian Rossi?”
“No game.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, but if I was, you should know I play for keeps.”
“And you always take what you want,” Lily said, throwing his words back at him.
“I absolutely do.”