After Rebirth, I Became My Ex's Aunt-in-Law

”Trouble in paradise?” Diana smirked, taking a slow, elegant sip of her sparkling water.

Damien turned his head and looked right through her, treating his older sister with the indifference one might reserve for a particularly ugly piece of patio furniture.

Without uttering a word to acknowledge her existence, Damien strode past the wheelchair and stepped into the elevator, hitting the button for the garage.

The metal doors slid shut, leaving Diana with a frown on her lips.

Down in the parking garage, Aria was marching toward her waiting black SUV.

The sharp click-clack of her stilettos echoed aggressively off the concrete pillars. She was fuming. Her tailored white blazer dress swished around her thighs, and her perfectly blown-out rose-gold hair bounced with every furious step.

Standing at attention beside the rear passenger door was Richard. He pulled the door open as she approached.

”Good morning, Mrs. Sinclair,” Richard greeted.

”It’s a terrible morning, Richard,” Aria snapped, grabbing the doorframe to slide inside.

She didn’t even get one foot into the cabin.

A hand clamped down over her shoulder.

Damien closed the distance with predatory speed. He spun her around effortlessly and backed her directly into the side of the SUV, boxing her in with his broad frame.

His large hand slid up from her shoulder, his long fingers wrapping possessively around the front of her neck. He wasn’t choking her, but the grip was meant to hold her firmly in place.

”What makes you think you can just walk away from me like that?” Damien demanded, his voice a low, gravelly tone that usually had grown men trembling in their oxfords.

Aria glared right up into his gorgeous face.

”Let go of me,” Aria warned, her emerald eyes narrowing. ”Before someone in this garage sees us and decides to sell a ’Demon King Caught on Camera in Domestic Violence with his Wife’ headline to TMZ.”

She paused, a dry, humorless chuckle escaping her lips.

”Oh, wait,” Aria mocked, tilting her chin up defiantly. ”I forgot. You’d just kill the person.”

Damien froze.

He stared down at her, genuinely thrown off balance. Nobody spoke to him like this. Ever. His entire life consisted of people bowing to his demands.

”I am trying to keep you alive, Aria,” Damien gritted out, his jaw ticking as he tried to regain control of the argument. ”You are being too reckless with your own safety.”

”And you are being a paranoid, suffocating control freak!” Aria shot back. ”You cannot just eliminate people because you had a bad feeling! I need proof! I am not ruining Leo and Jade’s lives on a hunch!”

They bickered, trading sharp, heated barbs back and forth against the side of the car, completely ignoring the fact that Richard was standing less than two feet away, staring blankly ahead.

”I have to go,” Aria finally groaned, throwing her hands up in exasperation. ”I am late for my morning talk show appearance, Damien.”

”I’ll take you,” Damien ordered, refusing to drop the issue.

”No, you won’t,” Aria crossed her arms tightly over her chest, jutting her hip out in defiance. ”I’ll go with Richard. You should go to work. Don’t you have some innocent lives to ruin today?”

With a huff, Aria reached up and easily batted his hand away from her neck. She turned, sliding gracefully into the plush leather backseat of the SUV.

She crossed her legs, smoothing her blazer dress, and looked at her driver.

”I’m ready, Richard. Drive,” Aria commanded smoothly.

Richard didn’t move.

He just stood there, his hands clasped behind his back, staring blankly at a concrete pillar on the opposite side of the garage.

”Richard?” Aria repeated, her voice pitching up slightly. ”I said drive.”

Richard didn’t even blink. He was an elite operative on Damien Sinclair’s payroll. He took his orders from the man currently glaring a hole into the side of the vehicle, and that man had not given him the green light to move.

”Richard, you traitor!” Aria gasped, deeply offended by the mutiny.

”Get out of the car, Aria,” Damien growled, stepping up to the open doorway.

”No!” Aria shrieked, scrambling backward across the leather bench seat to get away from him.

Damien didn’t argue. He leaned into the cabin and blindly grabbed both of her ankles.

”Hey! Let go!” Aria yelled.

Damien forcefully yanked.

Aria slid across the leather seats with a loud squeak. In the struggle, both of her pointed-toe white Louboutin stilettos popped right off her feet, dropping onto the floor mats.

”Stop it!” Aria screamed, clinging to the center console armrest for dear life as Damien tried to drag her out of the vehicle by her legs. ”Richard! Save me! He’s kidnapping me! Call the police!”

Richard continued to stare intensely at the concrete pillar, acting as if he were deaf and blind to what was happening two feet away from him.

With one final, effortless heave, Damien broke her grip on the armrest and hauled her entirely out of the SUV.

He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, hoisting her up against his chest.

Aria completely lost it. She went totally feral.

”Put me down!” Aria shrieked, thrashing against him like a wildcat. She kicked her bare feet, her elbows flying, squirming with a chaotic, uncoordinated frenzy.

Her pristine white blazer dress wrinkled violently. Her flawlessly blown-out rose-gold hair turned into a static-filled bird’s nest as it whipped around her face.

She was a wild woman.

With a sudden twist of her torso, Aria miraculously managed to squirm right out of his iron-clad grip. She hit the concrete floor in her bare feet and instantly bolted.

”Aria!” Damien roared in disbelief.

The Demon King of New York found himself sprinting across a parking garage, chasing his barefoot wife around the vehicles and concrete pillars like they were two toddlers playing a game of tag.

Aria’s bare feet slapped loudly against the pavement. She was fast, but Damien’s long strides ate up the distance in seconds.

He rounded the back of a blacked-out Escalade, closing the gap instantly. He lunged forward, his hands reaching out to catch her around the waist.

Hearing his footsteps right behind her, Aria’s body didn’t think. It just reacted.

Aria spun around on her heel, shifting her weight, and launched a perfectly aimed front kick directly between his legs.

”Hya!” Aria screamed.