She sits awkwardly tense with my arm around her, but she nods. “Alright,” she agrees.
“Now, will you come and join us for dinner? It smells incredible. Roast lamb with some kind of mint sauce and all sorts of roasted vegetables,” I say.
She nods, and I stand up, offering my hand to help her up, too. She takes it, and I push her ahead of me with my hand on her lower back, guiding her to the dining room.
My eyes trace over her back, her curvy figure, and her silly hair. She is a beautiful woman. Definitely my type. There is a gentleness about her that has me intrigued. A quietness that tells me she has a kind heart.
Before we enter the dining room, I can already hear the two of them going at each other, and I groan deeply.
“You fucking think that because this is your place you get to dictate what I can and can’t say?” Artur snarls, heated and angry.
“I expect you to show some basic respect for everyone around you because the world doesn’t fucking revolve around you!” Joseph growls back at him.
Joseph is so levelheaded and calm with everyone else. It’s wild how much he lets Artur antagonize him.
“Joe,” I say gently.
“I can’t do this,” he mutters under his breath, standing up and pressing his knuckles against the table.
“Joe, sit down. Maria is joining us for dinner,” I say, pointedly tilting my head toward her.
How swallows hard and stands up straighter. “Maria, I’m sorry about that,” he mutters, realizing how loud they were being. “Please, sit. I’ll dish up some food for you.”
Joseph grabs an empty plate and starts adding meat and vegetables to it. “Do you eat everything? Is there anything you don’t like?”
“I don’t like carrots very much,” Maria says, eyeing the food.
“Luckily, there are no carrots tonight. I’ll have the chef remove all of them from the house at once,” Joseph jokes.
No one smiles except Kazimir.
“Tough crowd, man,” Kazimir chuckles.
“Indeed,” Joseph sighs, walking around the table to place the plate of food in front of Maria, who has chosen to sit in the open space between Kazimir and me.
Kazimir lets his eyes wander over her blatantly.
“Pink always looks beautiful on a lady,” he says.
I withhold the unimpressed huff. Can he leave the girl alone? She already didn’t want to be here, and now he’s pawing at her with his eyes, and the compliment is so fucking generic it’s atrocious. Nothing personal about it. He just made it clear he likes all girls in pink.Well done, moron.
“Can I pour you a glass of wine, Maria?” I ask, cutting Kazimir off before he can add any more stupidity to his comment.
“Yes, please,” she says softly.
I set a glass of red wine in front of her.
Dinner is a tense, silent process of knives and forks clattering against crockery.
Artur is silent, but the heavy glances he shoots at Joseph are cold and flooded with unspoken words.
Kazimir is quiet, but his eyes are constantly exploring Maria, clearly making her uncomfortable.
Half of me wants to grab the edge of her chair and pull her closer to me to save her from him. But I can’t provoke anything in the already tense atmosphere.
When Maria does look around the table and happens to catch Artur’s eyes, she sneers at him with hatred. She doesn’t even try to hide it.
The animosity in this room is palpable.
