STUCK WITH MR. BILLIONAIRE FOR CHRISTMAS novel Chapter 24

Chapter 24

DANTE:

M M

Cinnamon reached me in a way no one ever had.

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She didn’t pry or ask what I’d done or where I’d been. She just kelt in front of me, steady hands cleaning blood from my skin, fed me like it mattered that I stayed upright, then dragged the out into the cold and showed me something beautiful.

She let me be.

For a few hours, the noise in my head thinned. The constant calculation, the anger, the weight of everything all went quiet.

Peace. That was the word for it.

And then Marcus stepped into it and ruined the whole thing.

The worst part wasn’t even seeing him.

It was watching Cinnamon’s body lock up the second she noticed him. The way her shoulders went stiff and she said his name through her teeth, every syllable like it scraped on the way out.

I didn’t need her to explain anything. I could see and feel it.

Whatever history they shared, it had been complicated and far from over.

Rage surged up my spine. I wanted to hit him. Not just for showing up here and looking at her like he still had a claim. But for earlier, on the phone, when he’d brushed off my mother’s abuse like it was an inconvenience instead of a crime.

My fists curled on instinct.

Then something strange happened.

The anger stalled.

Because when I really looked at Marcus, all I saw was mom’s face staring back at me. Same bone structure, eyes twisted into a familiar reflection warped beyond recognition.

The rage didn’t just disappear. It flattened and went cold.

I’d been involved in enough violence for one day. My knuckles urt and it was swollen from what I’d done to Max. I wasn’t going to make a spectacle of myself in the middle of a town square.

So I looked at Cinnamon instead.

She was staring at Marcus with pain. Underneath it was longing.

Why?

The sight of irritated me.

“Cinnamon,” Marcus said, voice soft, almost careful. “How have you been?”

She folded her arms across her chest. “What are you doing here? Her laugh came out brittle. “You never even liked Meadowbrook.”

He smiled and took a step closer. “I missed you. Missed Christmas here. Thought it was time I visited.”

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Chapter 24

I rolled my eyes.

Liar.

mM.

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Marcus never moved without a plan. I didn’t need to ask what this one was. The Meadowbrook project. Max had sent him to sabotage me.

“You’re disgusting,” Cinnamon said. Her voice shook now. “You stand there saying all this when you don’t mean a word of it? When you just got engaged?”

That was news to me that Marcus got engaged. Well, we never knew what went on in each other’s lives.

“I broke it off.” Marcus reached for her hand.

She yanked it away like his touch burned.

“Being with her was lying to myself,” he said calmly. “I know where my heart is. With you.”

Cinnamon laughed. Not a happy laugh. A broken one that came from a wounded and shattered place.

Heads turned. The crowd began to stare.

I hated the way attention clung to us.

“You think you can come back here and say those things?” Her voice rose, carrying across the square. “After what you You left me standing at the altar and vanished without a single explanation?”

did?

“Cinnamon-”

“No.” She cut him off. “You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to show up two years later and put up whatever this act of yours is. You’re a coward. A selfish, manipulative coward.”

Her hand found mine. Fingers lacing through with enough force to hurt.

“We’re leaving.”

She pulled, and I went with her without hesitation.

Marcus stepped directly into our path.

“You’re just going to walk away?” he called after us, “Without saying a word?”

Cinnamon spun back around. “Are you insane? I said more than enough-”

“I wasn’t talking to you, sweetpea.”

She stopped short. Flinched.

And in that instant, something inside me finally snapped.

Marcus looked at me, his eyes measuring more than just my face

“I didn’t know you’d moved on to dating my exes, little brother, he said lightly. “Guess you always wanted what I had.”

Heat surged straight up my spine.

“No one wants your ex,” I shot back. “You’ve never made a right choice in your life. Why would I want to be with a liability you once chose?”

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Chapter 24

Damn!

m M.

I wanted to slap myself in the face the second they left my mouth. What I said was so wrong.

Cinnamon’s hand loosened in mine, slipping free. She turned to look at me with sorrow.

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“Cinnamon isn’t a liability,” Marcus said smoothly, stepping in like a hero in his own delusion. “She’s everything any man would want.” His mouth curved. “At least I got that right when I chose her.”

“At least you did,” Cinnamon muttered, scowling at me.

Marcus’s smile widened. “You must have a thing for brothers.”

Cinnamon went still. “Brothers?” Her gaze flicked between us. “You two are related?”

Her hand dropped from mine completely. She took a step back, looking between us like we’d both just admitted to being serial killers.

“Oh, little brother didn’t mention family?” Marcus’s expression turned smug. “That tells you he isn’t really into you as much as you

think.”

Cinnamon’s face drained of color.

“Well.” Marcus shrugged, already bored. “It was nice seeing you both.”

He reached out, cupping Cinnamon’s face with one hand.

“Don’t touch her,” I warned, smacking his wrist away from her face..

Marcus chuckled. His plan of getting under our skin worked.

“I’ll win you back, sweetpea.” He leaned close to her ear, voice dropping just loud enough for me to hear. “You know you missed this cock. How I made your body shiver.”

Rage exploded in my chest.

But Marcus was already walking away, hands in his pockets, whistling like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb in the middle of the town square.

Cinnamon stood frozen for three seconds, panting heavily and then she went wild.

“HE WASN’T EVEN GOOD IN BED!”

People stopped mid-conversation, turning to stare. A mother covered her child’s ears. An elderly couple exchanged scandalized looks.

“Cinnamon.” I reached for her arm, keeping my voice low. “People are watching.”

She took it away from me. “I don’t care! Let them watch!”

“You’re making a scene-”

“Good! Maybe everyone should know what a selfish, mediocre lover Marcus really is!” Her chest heaved, tears streaming down her face. “He lasted three minutes on a good day! And he ever cared if I finished! Just rolled over and fell asleep like he’d done me some kind of favor!”

I stepped closer, trying to block her from view, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Cinnamon, please. Not here.”

“Why?” She laughed. “You worried about your reputation? Or his

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Chapter 24

“Yours,” I said quietly. “I’m worried about yours.”

That seemed to get to her. She blinked, some of the fire dimming. That didn’t last long.

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“And he had the audacity to act like he was some kind of sex god when half the time I had to fake it just so he’d stop!”

I glanced around. At least thirty people were now openly staring

“Okay, maybe we should-”

“Two years! Two years I wasted on that man! And he has the nerve to show up here acting like I should be grateful he’s gracing me with his presence!”

I reached for her again. “Cinnamon, calm down-”

She spun on me, eyes blazing. “Stay away from me.”

“What?”

“You didn’t tell me Marcus was your brother.”

“I” I stopped myself. Wait a damn minute. This wasn’t about me. “There was no reason to. Family wasn’t arrangement. I don’t owe you that information.”

part

of our

Her expression crumbled.

“I took you to meet my family.” She began sobbing. “I introduced you to my mother. My sister. And you thought it was none of my business to know you’re related to the man who abandoned me?”

Oh.

Oh, fuck.