Apparently, walking about six inches at a time with slow, slow steps had tickled Damien’s sense of humor. By the time we were finally able to stand in front of his family, he had a devilish gleam in his eyes I didn’t trust one little bit.
His mom sighed in relief, as if the strain of holding onto her temper was more than she could bear. “If you had gotten here thirty minutes early, like I asked you to, you wouldn’t have gotten stuck back there.”
He smiled. “Yes. I would have been stuck sitting with all of you. Saved myself there, didn’t I?”
“Damien. Don’t be rude. Poor Tori must have felt awkward sitting with us without you there.”
He glanced at Victoria. “I promise she would have felt more awkward if I had been.” Then he looked up at the rest of his family, who all stood around watching. They might as well have been kicked back with a bucket of popcorn from the way they were obviously enjoying the show. “Hey, everyone, this is my girlfriend, Krista Bennett. I know you’ve all been anxious to find out if she’s real or not.”
A handsome man who didn’t resemble Damien much except for the gleam of humor and warmth in his eyes stretched his hand out to me. “I’m Patrick Little Damien’s dad, and I, for one, am happy to meet you, Krista. My wife’s been talking so much about you, and it’s good to put a face to her ravings.”
Despite myself, I felt a traitorous urge to chuckle. “Were you expecting a long, crooked nose with a hairy wart on it?”
He laughed. “No. I know my son better than she does, apparently. He never does a single thing the way I want him to do it, but he’s a good judge of character. Not to mention he likes beautiful women.”
Damien winked at me and said, “And this is my oldest sister—”
“Wait,” his mom broke in. “Don’t you think you should introduce her to Tori?”
By this point, Tori’s arms were crossed over her chest with her fingernails digging into her arms. “Oh, that’s not necessary. Krista is my stepsister.”
No doubt Damien’s mom had been looking forward to introducing Damien’s physically superior ex to me, so Tori’s words knocked her off balance.
“Oh. How…? Damien, did you know you were dating Tori’s stepsister? Because that seems exactly like the sort of thing you’d do just out of spite.”
He held his hands up in a defensive mechanism. “I swear I didn’t know until a few minutes ago. I’m as surprised as anyone.”
“But haven’t you talked about her family or anything?”
He shrugged. “A little.” Then his irreverent smile popped out. “But honestly, we’ve had more interesting things to do.” And then he put his arm around my waist, tugged me close, and smiled down at me like his whole world began and ended with me.
His sisters chuckled, and his mom huffed, but I could do nothing but stare at him, a little dizzy and a lot caught off guard. I knew he’d become outrageous unless I kept him on a tight leash. I was in enough hot water without him making things worse for me. So I smiled a fake smile—one I knew he’d interpret as a warning even if no one else did, and reached up to run my fingers across his back in a straight line, mimicking the act of taping a sign to his back.
Damien twitched as if I really had put a sign on his back and cleared his throat. “As much fun as this all is, don’t we need to get out of here? Mom and Dad, I bet they’re going to want you for some photos soon, right?”
“Oh, goodness. You’re right. Patrick, come with me. Tori, why don’t you stay with Damien and Krista? How nice for you to know someone else here.”
I didn’t flinch at all, even though the thought of having more contact with Victoria made me want to kick things.
One of Damien’s sisters paused to shake my hand before following the rest of the group. “I’m rooting for you,” she said.
“I always did like Carrie best,” Damien murmured with a smile.
As Damien’s family filed out the front door, I stepped away from him. Victoria looked ready to flay me alive, so I didn’t feel like making her angrier than she already was.
Ever since I’d first met her, a week before our parents married, she’d struck me as someone always playing a part, always with some objective in mind. She acted sweet and looked sweet and easily charmed anyone she set out to captivate. I had never been one of those people, however, so I’d been privileged to see a glimpse of her spoiled, manipulative self.
It had taken Victoria all of ten minutes to win my mother’s devotion and become the favored child in our odd little family. Luckily, we’d been attending different colleges, so I never had to see her, just hear about her. Even when I graduated from college and moved back in with my mom to work for their real estate business, I’d found excuses to be gone every time I’d known Victoria would be visiting on the rare breaks she got from med school. She could schmooze my mom all she wanted. I just didn’t want to be around to see it.
“So…” Damien said, rocking back on his heels. “This is fun, right?”
Victoria didn’t pay him any attention. Her sights were focused on me. “Ah, that lovely green dress your mom picked out for us to wear as her bridesmaids. It’s so sweet that you’re putting it to use instead of just donating it like I did mine.”
A thousand comebacks flashed through my mind, all of them witty and sharp. If I’d uttered even one of them, no doubt she would have felt the burn for a week. But as always, I knew there was more power in silence.
“Yes,” I said, not bothering to smile or sweeten my voice.
Victoria blinked at me, not sure how to take my response. But instead of continuing to be catty, she paused with an arrested expression and stared at Damien. “Wait a second. My mom told me she saw you with your new girlfriend the other day, but when she described her, it was definitely as a curvy girl with red hair.” Then Victoria swept her eyes up and down me. “So, what gives?”
Damien met my eyes. I watched the dawning realization in his eyes that mirrored my own. How had I failed to make the connection? He’d told me that his ex-girlfriend was my boss’s daughter, but somehow I hadn’t yet made the connection that my boss was my stepsister’s mom.
Our cover would be blown unless we could somehow cover this up, and I was drawing a complete blank.
Damien, however, was more desperate than I was. Desperate enough to dish out a little honesty. “I guess we’ll just have to tell her, Krista. She won’t blab to her mom.” He gave me a look—one that clearly begged me to play along with him.
“How do you know?” I was acting, sure, but I actually didn’t want Victoria to blow Tessa’s secret.
Damien turned to Victoria. “Well? Can you keep a secret?”
Victoria’s expression said she’d practically sell her soul just to hear what he was talking about. “You know I can. I never told anyone about the time you—”
“True,” Damien said, interrupting her. “I believe you. Okay, look. Krista’s boss, Tessa, needed a fake boyfriend for reasons we won’t go into because they’re confidential—”
“And irrelevant.” I added firmly.
“Yes. So Krista talked me into playing the part.” As if to make his point, he reached out and smoothed back a strand of hair that had fallen out of my bun. His voice deepened and took on a seductive note that made my insides hum. “And I can’t deny her anything.”
Appalled at my reaction to his acting skills, I dredged up as much annoyance and sass as I could in my traitorous little heart and lifted my eyebrow. “Really? Good to know.”
Damien’s brows rose at the purr in my voice.
Apparently Victoria didn’t care that we were having a moment. “Are you saying that was a fake date?”
Damien nodded, then pointed his finger at her. “But don’t forget you promised not to tell your mom.”
She widened her eyes and managed to look absurdly innocent, but I saw the glee in her eyes. “I won’t.” And then she walked away.
“Where are you going?” Damien asked, calling after her.
&nb
sp; She turned around and walked backwards a few steps. “The reception is going to start soon. I’m going to go find my seat. Oh, and your mom said she would make sure I was next to you.” She laughed. “You probably don’t want to be late. Your mom might kill you this time.”
“We’re in trouble,” I murmured.
Damien took my hand. “Only if we aren’t convincing. Plan B is out since you probably don’t want to beat up your stepsister—”
“Oh, I’d love to beat her up.”
His lips twitched into a flash of a smile before he said, “Okay, but you probably shouldn’t. So it looks like Plan A and some PDA are our only option. Let’s go.”
Chapter Seventeen
When we went into the huge ballroom, we immediately saw Damien’s mom and dad seated at a table with Victoria one seat away from them.
“This looks ominous,” Damien said.
“Yep.”
Then his mom saw us and waved us over. Damien released my hand but only to nudge me forward with his hand on my lower back. He left it there as we wove our way between the tables, then moved it to my hip once we came up to the table. It took me about three seconds to see Damien’s name on the card for the place setting between his mom and Victoria. It only took a few seconds longer to see that my name card was nowhere to be seen.
“Sit down, Damien. The bride and groom are coming in now. Krista, I’m so sorry, but by the time you said you were coming, all the table placements were already set. They put you over at that table next to Great-Uncle George.”
Damien frowned. “Mom. You should have said something.”
But his mom just looked sad and helpless—which we all knew she wasn’t. “I didn’t want to make things complicated. I know how stressful it is to plan something like this, and I didn’t want to cause your Aunt Kate anymore problems. It’s only until after the dinner. After that, you guys don’t even have to sit down.”
As I looked down at Damien’s mom, I could see the ill-hidden satisfaction behind her sorrowful expression. This was why Damien had needed someone tough—not because she was mean, but because she knew how to get what she wanted. And she wanted Damien and Victoria to sit together like the couple they once were.
It was time to live up to Damien’s belief in me.
I rested my hand on Damien’s arm and squeezed it gently. “You know what? I bet Great-Uncle George would appreciate having a seat closer to the front. Look at the way he’s squinting through his glasses. Come and introduce me to him.”
As I grabbed Damien’s hand and pulled him away toward the other table, his mom’s squawk of dismay made me so happy. I even smiled. Uncle George thought I was smiling at him, and though he looked confused and worried—like he didn’t recognize me and was afraid he should—he grinned back.
Damien smiled at him as well. “Uncle George, my mom felt bad with you being stuck in the back like this. We’ve come to trade seats with you.”
“Oh, I don’t want to put anybody out,” he said. But he was obviously touched.
I pointed to my name card in the empty seat next to him. “You’ll be helping us out. I’m Damien’s girlfriend, and if you trade seats with him, we’ll get to sit together.”
“You’d be doing me a big favor,” Damien assured him.
“Well, if it would help you two younguns out, I’d be happy to.”
Damien helped him up from his chair, and I handed him his cane, which he’d propped against the edge of the table.
“I’ll be right back, sweetheart,” Damien purred at me, his voice so full of suppressed laughter that I almost giggled. I repressed the urge just in time.
As I watched Damien settle the sweet old man into the seat by his mom, I eased into my own seat and enjoyed our victory. It probably wouldn’t be our last battle of the evening, but at least maybe his mom knew who she was dealing with now.
As Damien came back and sat next to me, he said, “I knew I picked the right girl.”
Since he was leaning toward me until our faces were only inches apart, a sense of intimacy flooded the short distance between us. I glanced sideways and saw that both his mom and Victoria were watching us. Damien wanted to convince them, and now I was one hundred percent committed to the part I was playing.
Damien’s masculine, teasing lips were too close to mine to stop the impulse to kiss him. I’d been the one to take that tactic off the table, but I was ready to bring every weapon we had to this fight. So…I closed the distance between us and tipped up my chin to press a soft, lingering kiss on his slightly parted lips. The only problem was that once I’d made contact, I almost couldn’t pull away again. It was too exquisitely novel…and, yes…pleasurable. If I’d known it would feel like this, I definitely would have thought twice about it.
But when I finally managed to pull back, I almost laughed at the shocked expression on his face. “Careful. They’re watching, and you do not look used to getting kissed by me.”
He shook his head slightly as if to clear away his befuddlement. “Sorry. I wasn’t ready for that.” Then before I could react, he leaned forward and kissed me as if determined to make up for any damage he’d caused by acting surprised. He claimed my lips with a confident, possessive intensity that made me believe he meant it for a moment. Then I felt his hand drop onto my knee, his fingers gripping tightly just before he pulled away. Even more than the kiss, that surprised me. Something about the intensity and intimacy of it caught me off guard—even more so because there was no way his mom and Victoria could even see it. I’d never before realized that my knee had so many nerve endings or that a man’s hand touching me there would make me feel so…feminine and wanted.
It was too much. Too wonderful and too confusing. I pushed his hand away. Damien looked down at it as if it had betrayed him somehow.
“Uh, sorry. I guess I got a little too into that.”
“It’s okay,” I said. But it wasn’t. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I did. Never in my life had I felt so flustered. I didn’t know what to do with my hands or how to look at him, but somehow I had to look natural, like our kisses were a totally usual thing. Luckily, the waitstaff had begun serving dinner. “Oh, good. Steak.”
Damien laughed. “I’m glad this isn’t affecting your appetite.”
I unfolded my napkin and draped it over my lap. “Are you kidding? I’m starving. All this acting takes a lot of energy.”
“Yeah.” His voice had taken on a defeated tone I didn’t understand.
Hadn’t we just rocked this whole fake-relationship thing?
Since I didn’t know the bride and groom, I only took a cursory interest in all the toasts and speeches. Damien listened intently, though, and laughed and clapped with enthusiasm. All too soon, I’d cleaned my plate while he’d only taken a few bites, so I began to eye his food.
The groom stood, his glass of champagne in hand and began a long, sappy declaration of love for his new wife. I took the chance to swipe a piece of asparagus off Damien’s plate. As I chewed it, I began to wonder if he’d notice if I stole part of his steak. I looked up at him to see where his eyes were. He must have felt my gaze because he immediately shifted his eyes to meet mine.
As our gazes held, I heard the groom say, “And now, let’s get this reception over with. I’m ready to get Isabella all to myself and get the rest of the night started.”
The room burst into laughter. Damien chuckled too, his eyes darting away momentarily to the front of the room again.
I took the opportunity to swipe his untouched roll.
But Damien caught my wrist. “Oh no you don’t.” Then he pried my fingers open and took it back. But since he was a sweet guy, he tore it in half. He even offered the top half—the best part—back to me.
“Thanks. If there’s anything else you feel like sharing…”
He ended up giving me half his steak and several roasted red potatoes. By the time we’d finished his food, the lights were dimmed and half the guests had moved to the dance floor. All a
t once, his mom was at the table.
“Damien, come dance with me.”
He glanced sideways at me with a very speaking expression but dropped his napkin on his plate without another word and stood up. “Of course.”
I watched them dance, trying to figure out how I felt about his mom. She was a pretty woman for her age, and as much as she’d made it clear that she didn’t like me, I couldn’t doubt that she truly loved her son. And he obviously loved her too, even if she was currently annoying him by trying to manage his love life. No doubt she was a perfectly lovely woman to Victoria.
Sitting in the back, in the dark, I felt very much like an outsider looking in. Which was what I was, but I still hated the feeling. Why did I feel so possessive and protective toward Damien? It wasn’t good, and it was definitely something I needed to nip in the bud.
But then the song ended, and Victoria came up to Damien and his mom. The two women must have planned it, because all at once, they were obviously pressuring Damien to dance with her. Short of walking away from them, there wasn’t much he could do.
It was the one thing Damien had specifically asked me to protect him from, but for some reason I wanted to see the two of them together. It was sort of like when I was a little girl and used to hold my finger close to the flame on a candle to figure out when it would start to hurt.
Victoria was taller than I was, especially in her heels, and with her full chest and tiny waist, she was the perfect complement to Damien’s well-built, masculine lines. They were yin and yang, the perfect representation of an ideal couple. And Victoria knew how to make the most of her long lashes as she looked up at him. But Damien? He was looking at me.
“They make a beautiful couple, don’t they?”
I didn’t jump at the sound of Damien’s mom’s voice, but I did flinch. Where had she come from?
“In an artistic sense, sure,” I said. “But since he doesn’t love her, that’s as far as it goes. Sorry.”
Oh, Keep Your Shirt On: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (Shaped By Love Book 2) Page 11
