Page 97 of Contract of a Billionaire
A sardonic breath left me. Autumn had claws. Truthfully, I didn’t mind the banter. It’d make for a great makeup sex.
“Not to worry, love,” I mused, taking a drink from the tray. “I have a change of clothes in the car.”
“Of course you do,” she remarked, rolling her eyes. “Are you ever unprepared?”
“Be nice to our guest,” her father defended me, surprising the fuck out of me. “He just built the pirate ship playset for Kol.”
“I could have gotten a man from Home Depot to do that,” she grumbled.
“But would a Home Depot man build the playground and drive you home?” I mused.
Autumn rolled her eyes. “I see how it is. Men against women. I’ll let you eat Maman’s cooked dinner. My cooked portion will be only for friends,” she said, but her little smile didn’t escape me.
Something was up with her Maman’s cooking.
“Kol, come on buddy,” she called out to him. “Let’s go eat stuff that Mommy cooked. We’ll leave grandma’s cooking for Grandpa and Alessio.”
“Grand-mère sing?” Kol mumbled.
“Probably. Now let’s go before Aunt Branka eats all the good stuff.” She picked up Kol and started walking towards the house. “You two have twenty minutes to get showered. Or no food for you.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were all seated around the table in the dining room. Pictures of smiling Autumn decorated the walls everywhere I looked. There were quite a few of Branka and Autumn from their high school years.
There was one that stood out the most. Autumn, Kol, her mother and Branka with their faces tilted up to the sky, catching raindrops with the Eiffel Tower in the background. They looked so fucking happy that it made me both happy and jealous.
“Let’s say a prayer,” Mrs. Corbin announced. Was she joking or was she for real? The woman was a fucking killer in her young days.
I flicked a look at my sister, then Autumn. They both just shrugged and went along, mumbling the prayer. Kol did too, switching between English and French. I was the only one who had no fucking clue how the words to the prayer went.
“Her kicks for prayers come and go,” Autumn whispered in between two prayer words.
I cocked my eyebrow. “Salvation and eternal glory,” she choked out, her words full of humor.
“Autumn Michelle Corbin,” her mother scolded her. It was another thing Autumn and Branka had in common. Same birthday and same middle name.
Autumn flicked a gaze her mother’s way. “What? The trend comes and goes. Even you have to admit that.”
Her mother grumbled a few words in French and I was pretty sure they were not the good kind of words.
“Why Autumn?” I asked curiously, shifting the heat away from my woman. “Her birthday is in August.”
Her parents shared a look, a hint of anguish passing between them. “Autumn was due in November. My wife’s parents kidnapped her, induced her labor prematurely, and attempted to steal Autumn.”
What. The. Fuck?
Autumn’s grandparents kidnapped their own daughter and risked not only their daughter’s life but Autumn’s too by doing shit like that. Those fuckers would be dead before the week was over.
“Let’s not forget the deal of turning me over on my eighteenth birthday,” Autumn retorted dryly.
“We weren’t going to let them just take you,” her father chimed in.
“Exactly,” her maman agreed. “All that is in the past now.”
“And here I thought I found anormalfamily,” Branka snickered softly.
“Okay, that’s not a topic for our lovely day. We are all a little bit abnormally normal.” She chuckled like it was funny while Branka and Autumn rolled their eyes. “Everyone dig in,” Mrs. Corbin announced. I barely fucking blinked, Autumn and Branka went for the manicotti on the right. They both laughed, stealing food from each other’s forks. And all the while the manicotti on the left remained untouched.
Kol squealed, smashing his plastic plate against the table. “Food,” he demanded.
