Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“I wonder how you’re going to handle a reality where not everyone caters to you. Daddy won’t be solving your problems forever,” I say through my teeth, eyes passing over Dalton’s photo on the green table. I shouldn’t care. He’s just a hot stud. A dime a dozen on any building site, and yet something needy whispers inside me about the things he did to me last night.
Damen smirks at me, for once on my side when he speaks to Aspen. “You’re going to let him find you a wife too, so you can actually take part next year?”
Aspen rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t get to answer because my mom butts in with her bright smile and steps closer. “Are we talking marriage? Are you finally getting an appetite for hunting, Corvus? I know a few very eligible women.”
The hair on my body bristles as the corners of Damen’s mouth lift.
He knows.
We never spoke about my sexuality, but it takes one to know one, and now that he’s a married man with a husband on his arm, he thinks he’s better than me.
“I’m in no hurry. It’s you who were always obsessed with the Christmas Hunt,” I tell him. And it’s true. I don’t need to put a skull on the wall behind me to call myself a Van der Horn. I’d probably take part if given the opportunity, but I’m in no rush.
Even in high heels Mom has to stand on tiptoes to push some of my hair behind my ear. “It’s not just about that. You could use someone in your life, I always tell you that. And you’d make such a handsome groom. I’d organize everything. We can even make it all black and mysterious, if that’s what you want.”
She’s so excited about it I swallow my scowl.
Killian grins. “Yeah, Corvus. You could have a murder of crows set free at the end instead of doves.”
Mom turns to him as if this is a serious conversation, clicking her fashionable needle-like nails together. “Oh, you can get black pigeons."
“I doubt father would approve if he was here with us,” I say, because recalling the dead has the fortunate side effect of dampening joy.
Mom’s shoulders sag, but it’s been so many years since my father’s death, I don’t feel sorry for bringing it up. “It’s true, he did prefer things somber.” She strokes the lapel of my jacket with a thoughtful expression. “You’re just like him. So you need a bright spark in your life. I’d know.”
Me and my father weren’t exactly alike, but I have to admit that after his death I took on many of his characteristics. And while him and mother were like ice and fire, he did love her. He was the night, and she is a firework. Too bad fireworks are a danger to themselves and those around them in the wrong conditions.
Dalton’s cocky grin appears in my mind unasked for and unwanted.
He’s a dick who provided dick, and that’s that.
I don’t have a reason to care whether he lives or dies. He’s not the only guy who’s good at fucking. The fact that the way he spoke to me, watched me, held me, did something to me shouldn’t matter. And yet… am I ready to let his life go to waste, just because it’s the convenient thing to do?
“You seemed to like that girl you brought with you two years back. What happened with that?” Damen asks with the ghost of a smile.
Smug fucking bastard.
The girl was an escort I hired for the role of my girlfriend, and I haven’t seen her since we parted at La Guardia following our return to NYC.
“I won’t settle for anything that isn’t perfect,” I say, meeting his gaze.
Mother doesn’t notice the quiet standoff and wraps her arms around mine. “I bet my Corvus will be one of those boys who really likes someone soft and gentle at home.”
I look at her and try to smile, but I don’t think I’m doing a very good job of it.
My mother’s from another big crime family, and she’s always been a carefree princess. I was raised by a nanny, and she would come to my bedroom each evening to read me a single story. I don’t think she was a bad mother necessarily, but now that I’ve grown up, I’ve had to face the fact she’s adrift without someone to guide her.
Without Father, that became my role, because I am not entrusting any of her boyfriends with anything.
Killian grins and I await the next dig. He wouldn’t be so confident around me without Damen inches away. “Remo’s taking care of Whiskers for us over the holidays, I bet he knows a lot of single cat ladies.”
Ah yes, the cousin who does his job but avoids most family gatherings. How I understand him right now.