Page 130 of Rosabel and the Billionaire Beast

His grandma laughed, pushing aside the hat box so the container clanked with the silverware. The water in the glasses wavered.

“You were raised for more than this,” Grandma said with dignity.

Beside her, her daughter-in-law raised her chin.

“Men like you don’t go settling down with their assistants.”

“I do. I will, if she’ll have me. I love her. I want to marry her.”

My heart wedged up my throat so quickly I nearly coughed.

WHAT? He did?

I gaped at him. He met my glance with nothing but conviction.

Holy crap.

Grandma scoffed. “Look at her. She’s not the marrying kind. She only wants your money.”

Why did they keep saying that? Was that really the best comeback they had?

Duncan stood with his hands fisted at his sides. His chest pumped, his shoulders rising and falling.

“Watch what you’re saying,” he said.

She sniffed and elevated her chin. “Why should I?”

“Because you’re wrong,” Duncan said. “She’d love me even if I had nothing to my name. She is aperson,Grandmother, and for that reason alone, you should treat her with the respect she deserves. But also because I love her, and I won’t stop any time soon.”

Silence followed his pronouncement. He cast his gaze along our audience. And then he tilted in and pressed a kiss to my mouth. He held it there, letting his kiss swim through me before resting his cheek against mine.

“Ignorance breeds misunderstanding,” he muttered. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

“Yes,” I said, tears welling in my eyes.

Duncan turned to the Hawthornes. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your party,” he said.

Lifting my chin, I gave each of them my most scathing look before walking with him, past the onlookers with their whispers and their cell phones, toward the room’s exit.

The floor felt as though it wouldn’t hold my weight, yet every step we took got us closer to the door. People watched us leave.One woman gave us the thumbs up, another raised her flute at us, and another applauded us.

“That’s what every man should say about his lady,” a man near the door said, commending Duncan.

Duncan inclined his head in the man’s direction, increasing his pace and tugging me faster behind him.

Before we managed to step out of this awful room, however, Eudora sidestepped us. She no longer held her flute, and much of her purple lipstick had been smeared off. The most noticeable thing about her was the disappointment searing her lined face.

“Goodbye, Eudora,” Duncan said. “Enjoy the rest of the party.”

She tsked and shook her head, stopping him with a hand on his arm. “What have you done, you idiot, boy? I told you not to.”

He glanced back at me with vulnerability in his eyes before returning his gaze to her.

“It’s too late,” he said before guiding me out the corridor.

THIRTY-THREE

rosabel

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