Page 39 of Deathless & Divided

Lily mimicked his pose, hugging her frame in the bodycon dress. “Oh?”

“You’re my responsibility,” Damian said, repeating his words from before. “I should have been around this week, maybe asked you out to eat or something just so we could talk. Tried, at least. Clearly you’ve got shit on your mind you need to get off. You’re angry, I get that. You can be angry; you need to take it out on the right people, but you can’t do that if you don’t even really understand what you’re angry about.

“Nonetheless, I didn’t try this week,” Damian continued, the corner of his mouth tugging down into a half-frown. “I was busy and something else came up I had to take care of. I figured you wouldn’t want me anywhere near you for a while as it was. Maybe you still don’t.”

Lily shrugged. “I figured you didn’t want to be around. This is just … a duty for you, right? You have to do it and you don’t get a choice, either.”

Partly.

It might have been a little bit more, too.

“Unless you try to get to know me a little bit, you don’t have the first clue about this, us, or why I am doing it, Lily.”

“True,” Lily said. “But you’re not like me, Damian. Everybody will turn their cheek to what you do after this is followed through. Nobody will care a bit who you’re fucking or what you’re doing even if you have a wife. Me? I’m stuck with you even if you don’t have to be stuck with me.”

“Back up a second,” Damian said, cocking a brow. “Is that what you think my plans are? To marry you and keep you looking pretty on a shelf like a proper trophy wife while I have a dozen whores on the side?”

“Seems like that’s the norm, doesn’t it?”

Damian shook his head. “Not for me.”

“So, what, I’ll just be your warm body in the bed whenever you feel like using me?”

That was disgusting in more ways than Damian cared to explain.

“I’m not going to force you into my bed. I’m not into that nasty shit, but I kind of hope I don’t have to force you, Lily. I want you to come all on your own because you want to.”

She swallowed audibly, a pink tint coloring her cheeks. “I beg your pardon?”

“Just like I said. I’m not going to make it some kind of mission to seduce you, but I don’t think I have to. You’re young, beautiful—incredibly vibrant and sexy. I would be stupid and blind not to notice. So no, I won’t force you into my bed now or ten years from now, but chances are, you’ll make your way there all on your own. I want you to come to me willingly.”

“Wow,” Lily murmured. “I did not expect to hear that. You’re either terribly arrogant or mighty cocky.”

“Both, actually. I’m also honest,” Damian added, chuckling. “Despite what my profession may say about me, I am upfront with my motives. So why don’t I show you some of them right now, huh?”

“Like what?” she asked.

“We don’t have to be strangers. You don’t have to hate me and I really don’t want you to. You’re goddamn gorgeous—I wasn’t looking for a wife but I think I’d like to have you as mine. We’ll work out the details and while we do …”

“What?” she asked, her brown gaze meeting his, unashamed.

“You make all the calls. Just know the marriage will happen. It has to.”

Lily’s jaw clenched. “Yeah, I got that. Dino made that perfectly clear.”

Damian figured Lily needed to be let in on a part of her brother’s plan so she could finally—maybe—understand what Dino was trying to do for her. “Do you know what he asked me to do for you? What he wanted from me as the other half of this equation with the marriage?”

“What is that?”

“He asked me to take care of you and keep you safe when he couldn’t. Think about it, Lily.”

Lily shifted in her heels. “He’s going to prison soon.”

“Well, it sure seems like it.”

“He won’t be able to keep me safe from there.”

“He let you run for as long as he could.”