Page 23 of Scandalous Kingpin
When I told my best friends, they got all excited and insisted I needed a night out. So here I was on the dance floor, getting down and dirty with some thumping club music, tolerating the foul mixture of liquor and sweat.
My gaze landed on my bodyguard, the intimidating man with a permanent scowl who lingered in the shadows, and I gave my head a subtle shake.
“As long as he stays well enough away,” I muttered to myself, letting euphoria fly through me as I swayed to the beat. Here and now, I was okay, the pain of the last week dulled to the point where I no longer felt it.
“What?” Juliette yelled, her worried gaze on me. Wynter and Juliette had been doing their best to keep my spirits high, which included rescuing me from the penthouse I’d been holed up in—one of many the Callahans seemed to own.
I waved my hand to signal it was nothing. Distraction was key to suppressing worries, and I was determined to drink all that I could handle.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” Wynter beamed, her hips rolling slowly, her husband (surprisingly) nowhere in sight.
“I guess there are some benefits to arranged marriages,” I said, flashing her a dry smile. Aiden had been invisible since we parted ways at the tarmac, deepening my suspicions that he wanted as little to do with me as I did with him.Suits me, I thought with a sly grin. “Speaking of, where areyourhusbands?”
Basilio and Dante hated being separated from their wives, usually lurking close by.
Juliette shrugged. “They have a meeting in the back somewhere.”
I smiled, fighting the temptation to ask if Priest was with them. I knew he traveled just as much as my brothers, but the DiLustros usually moved as one unit. So, my plan was to keep myself good and tipsy in case hewasin the city. The last thingI needed was to be blindsided by another run-in—my birthday party was still too fresh.
“We won’t let them ruin our night, will we?” I said, grimacing like an idiot as my gaze darted to the side where my bodyguard lounged against the bar, his expression one of boredom.
“How are you doing?” Wynter asked.
I shrugged. “Fine.”
“You’re not fine.” She knew me too well. “I thought you… and Priest would—” She struggled to find the right word. “We could be sisters. I know I’m biased because he’s my brother?—”
“And my brother-in-law,” Juliette chimed in.
Wynter continued, “But you are perfect for him, and he’d be good to you. Just imagine, all four of us would be best friends and actual family. Our children would grow up as cousins.”
I flashed her an uncomfortable smile. I never told my friends about Priest’s rejections—which still stung—and I had no intention of reopening that wound.
“It just wasn’t meant to be,” I told her. I certainly wouldn’t chase after the arrogant prince. As the saying went, he could kiss my Irish ass, because I sure as hell wouldn’t kiss his. “Besides, I’m engaged.”
I lifted my ring finger as if to prove it, but I completely forgot it was still ringless.
“Don’t tell me you’re into Aiden?” Wynter challenged. “He’s not even your type.” She took my hands into hers. “Priest is just complicated. Just get into his space and demand his attention. He stares at you like it’s his full-time job.”
I rolled my eyes, but I’d be lying if I said that Wynter’s words didn’t make my stomach flutter in all the ways it shouldn’t considering I was marrying someone else.
“I’m engaged to Aiden,” I reasoned, stating the obvious.
“You’re not really going through with it, are you?” Juliette questioned, scrunching her nose. “Aiden Callahan is old enough to be your father.”
It was an exaggeration, though not completely outside the realm of possibility. At forty-one, Aiden Callahan had no business being unmarried—at least not in our world—and I had half a mind to put an ad in the paper and pray that a woman would snatch him up.
Saving me from responding to Juliette’s question and nearly bursting my eardrums in the process, a shriek sounded in my ear, followed by a set of hands wrapping around me. I turned and found a couple smiling down at me, flanked by two guards the size of mountains. I didn’t need to peek inside their suit jackets to know they were carrying.
My face lit up. “Davina!”
She grinned. “Surprise.”
We all collided in a messy, laughing group hug that would’ve ended with us on the floor had Davina’s husband—older than Aiden Callahan, I might add—not steadied us.
“I thought you couldn’t make it!”
She rubbed her growing stomach, her eyes glowing with mischief. “There will be no baby coming anytime soon, so I demanded these two get my butt over here.” She hiked a thumb over her shoulder in the guards’ general direction.
