Page 32 of Aine

“It took some convincing, for sure.” He chuckles, squeezing my hand.

Avia’s eyes follow his movements, her smile transforming into a smirk. She raises her eyebrows suggestively at me, clearly falling for Damien’s gesture, before excusing herself. I expect Damien to remove his hand as she walks away, but he keeps it in place, politely ignoring the sweat that seeps from my palms.

A few others stand and walk over to us, quietly introducing themselves with friendly smiles. Nobody asks anything too personal and they keep their visits short. I appreciate it and feel hopeful this dinner will go by quicker than expected.

My eyes follow the line as everybody grabs plates and serves themselves. Alex wasn’t kidding when he said the veggies would all be eaten today. My plate is full of today’s picks and is topped off with a large chunk of meat. It was nice of Avia to bring this over for us.

I wonder what kind of meat it is I’ve been served but refrain from asking in fear of sounding dumb. We didn’t eat a lot of meat in my old village, and I’m not familiar with it. Occasionally, a deer or larger mammal would wander too close to the treeline and get caught, but it was a rarity and the meat was almost always reserved for our leader and his family.

“So,” the woman across the table says as she cuts up her daughter’s meat, “how are you liking it here?”

Everybody within hearing distance perks up at her question, and I feel Damien’s hand tense around mine, a silent warning to lie.

“I like it,” I respond, setting my fork on my plate. “Everybody’s been kind to me.”

There are a few chuckles at my response, and I instinctively turn to Damien in panic. My stress has me overanalyzing everybody’s reaction, constantly worried I’ll say the wrong thing and anger him. He gives my hand a gentle squeeze, and I take that as a sign I haven’t said anything wrong.

“And I see it didn’t take long for Damien to mark you!” a woman farther down the table shouts, causing all the ladies to start giggling while the men shake their heads.

She’s clearly a beast, but the large yellow hat she wears makes her look much less intimidating.

I hesitantly smile before reaching up to touch the spot. Damien’s grip on my hand tightens as my fingers come in contact with my wound, and before I can register what’s happening, he’s ripping me out of my chair and pulling me into his lap.

An unattractive shriek falls from my lips as my body’s thrown around, and I flail to stabilize myself. The entire table howls in laughter, causing those at the other tables to stop what they’re doing and look over.

Damien wraps his arms around my midsection and holds me firmly against him.

“Stop touching it,” he whispers into my hair before pulling away and dropping his head on my shoulder.

“What can I say? I couldn’t resist.” He presses a sloppy kiss to my cheek for good measure.

I try not to look too stiff but am sure my tense muscles are incredibly transparent to anybody who looks hard enough. Damien’s breath brushes against his bite as he jokes with everybody at the table, the sensations making me clench my thighs together.

As embarrassing as it is to be getting aroused in front of so many people, my shame is only amplified by the fact that Damien is the one causing it. He’s made it more than clear that this is all an act, but my attention-starved body has not gotten the memo.

The beasts sitting at the table continue to hammer us with questions, but Damien handles most of them. His acting is better than I anticipated, and at some point, I find myself leaning back into his chest.

He doesn’t seem to mind, tightening his arms around my waist in response.

“Did you like the food?” Damien asks, nodding toward my empty plate.

I’m honestly surprised I managed to eat everything I was given. It looked like so much on the plate, but once I started eating, I couldn’t bring myself to stop.

“It was delicious, and it’s fun eating the veggies I picked,” I say.

Damien chuckles and presses a kiss to my exposed shoulder. It admittedly feels good to have somebody caring for me, and I do my best to remember this is all just an act. I repeat this to myself as his fingers trail underneath my dress and trace along the seam of my underwear.

I reach down and push his hand away, blushing at the laughs from around the table. My rejection wasn’t as subtle as I thought it was.

“Can we expect to see you here more often?” the guy sitting across from the woman in the yellow hat asks, pointing his fork in my direction.

I don’t immediately respond, taking a second to think over my answer. While I expected this meal to be uncomfortable and tense, everybody’s been surprisingly nice. Plus, it’s refreshing getting to eat a full dinner and have conversation that isn’t with Alex.

I have to put up with Damien, but if he’s going to be on his best behavior during meals, I think it’s doable.

“I should hope so!” Damien chimes in when I take too long to respond, his fingers lightly pinching the skin on my thigh to bring me back to the present.

There’s some more idle chitchat as everybody begins to finish up, the beasts gradually leaving once they’re done. They give me polite waves as they exit, and I wait patiently until Damien nudges my thigh and urges me to stand.

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