HIS DOE HIS DAMNATION (by Vivienne) novel Chapter 54

Meadow’s POV:

The soft, rich sound of classical music greeted us as we stepped into the large ballroom. The outside was massive and spacious, but the inside…..

Looked like a fucking dream.

Glass chandeliers hung from the ceiling, the floor was polished, and the crowd of people in the room was intimidating in a way, as if you weren’t rich or extra–rich, you couldn’t belong here.

I didn’t exactly belong, but I wasn’t a stranger to luxury. After all, I was raised in it.

“Wow…” I whispered in wonder as I watched the waiters dressed in black and white weave through the crowd with trays containing wine, champagne–all kinds of alcohol.

“Yeah,” Alaric chuckled, looking down at me. “My mother usually goes all out. Doesn’t do mediocre.”

I tightened my grip around his arm even though I knew he couldn’t feel it. “Yeah, I can see that.”

Well, obviously it wasn’t just Alaric who was popular. His mother seemed to have a truckload of elegant friends.

Who were now looking at me?

I shifted on my feet as a small group of women well over their fifties watched me and Alaric, leaning into each other’s ears probably to spill a gossip or two. One of them sized me up, narrowing her eyes at me.

I rolled my eyes as Alaric steered me away from their sight. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say your mother’s friends are jealous of me.”

“They are.”

“No, they’re not,” I scoffed. “The only way they would be jealous is if you’ve had something to do with them and” I trailed off, tilting my head at him. He only shrugged.

My gaze narrowed. “Unless you did have something to do with them.” Something ugly settled in the bottom of my stomach.

If this was what jealousy felt like, I never wanted to feel this way again. How many more of his mother’s female friends had he slept with?

“It’s not what you think, Meadow,” he murmured.

“Yeah? Well, I don’t think I want to know what it really is,” I said under my breath. “And I definitely need something to drink.”

A waiter slowly passed with a tray and I grabbed a champagne flute from it, my mouth already watering from the relief the golden liquid was going to bring me.

“Should I be worried about you, Meadow?” his tone was indifferent but his eyes wrinkled with mischief.” We’ve already established that you’re lightweight given the way you acted the last time you had a single glass of wine.”

Heat crept up my cheeks and I looked away from him, swirling the liquid in the flute. He was referring to the night that he ate me out on the kitchen counter.

My thighs rubbed together. “That was different. Your fault for letting me drink alcohol when I’d only just gotten off my pain meds.”

“You weren’t on pain meds, Meadow. You’re just a lightweight.”

I rolled my eyes. “One glass won’t hurt, Alaric. You don’t have to be worried.”

Maybe alcohol wasn’t the best thing to turn to when I was about to meet his mother, but I needed something to calm me down. Distract me.

And like I said, it was only one glass.

Alaric didn’t get to say anything in response because just then, another voice cut through the bubbly atmosphere

“Well, well, well

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my insufferable big brother and his beautiful wife!”

We both turned around.

Nolan Ashford stood a few feet from us, a drink in his hand and a dark smirk on his face. The black eye Alaric had given him was already clear, and he looked so much better than the last time I saw him

And he still looked fucking good then.

Alaric bristled beside me.

“I think your date’s bored,” I said finally, my eyes flicking to the woman. “She keeps staring at you like she’s trying to remember why she agreed to come.”

Nolan blinked. Alaric’s shoulder dropped and I looked up just in time to see his mouth twitch.

“Claws,” Nolan muttered. “I like that.” And then he took a sip of his drink. “Well, I’ll let you lovebirds get back to whatever the hell you’re doing. Go find our mother, Ric.”

And then, he walked off, but not before his eyes narrowed into slits at me again.

Nolan knew his brother could feel me, but why did I feel like he didn’t like that at all?

I turned to Alaric, taking the final sip of my drink and dropping the glass onto a passing tray.

“What is your brother’s deal?”

“My brother doesn’t like what he can’t understand, Meadow,” he muttered. “And right now, you’re on top of that list.”

My breath caught.

Alaric tensed again as he looked away from me, his eyes focusing on something else.

Or someone.

“And here Mutti comes.”

I froze.