King of Mine: Book 1 In the King Of Mine Series)

CHAPTER 37

"Please come...sit," Damien King ushered Katya with a wave of his hand, gesturing at the only vacant chair in the room, its position conveniently next to his.

All other chairs that surrounded the huge ebony black marble dining table were occupied, making it seem as if they were all gathered for an occasion of some sort, whether joyous or not, Katya couldn't say.

With the exception of her boss and his father, who sat at the head of the table, the rest were strangers to Katya.

Katya's eyes scanned the table; beautifully arranged with expensive looking utensils and silverware, a table so properly adorned that its grandeur spoke of the manner of people that resided in this mansion; rich and important.

One important thing Katya noted also, as she practically dragged her unwilling legs forward one step at a time towards where all the eyes were projecting from, was that their plates were clean, and unused. It seemed as though, for some strange reason, all that were in this room, had been waiting for Katya's entrance to begin lunch.

'How strange,' Katya's panic stricken mind processed, as she came to a stop in front of the chair next to Damien King, her eyes making a conscious effort not to meet the almost ten pairs of eyes that followed her.

Indeed, this was a lunch for many.

Damien King patiently said nothing, watching the nervous Katya draw out the chair and sit down, her eyes focused on the plate in front of her.

As Katya sat down, she felt a cold chill flow through her spin, as she observed another upsetting and rather uncomfortable fact; no one was saying anything, no friendly chatter that was usual around dinner tables, no sound, nothing!

Not even the sound of breathing.

The silence was so palpable that Katya was afraid to even breathe, in case hers made a sound.

What was really going on here? Why the solemn gathering?

Clearing his throat, Damien mercifully broke the deafening silence, "This is Katya May, my new assistant. Katya, these are a few members of my family."

For the first time since Katya walked into the room, she braved eye contact with the many eyes that had been following her since she entered the room.

"Hello," Katya managed a smile, her eyes sweeping through the mini crowd that sat around her. Her forehead had broken out in sweat and she patted her hands on her skirt, thankful that they were hidden underneath the dining table, away from public view.

"Hi Katya, I'm Shannon, Damien's sister," a petit red haired freckled face woman, sitting directly across Katya said, her smile surprisingly registered in her midnight blue eyes and not her lips. In truth she looked more like Chris than Damien

Katya smiled, relieved that these people who moments earlier were as stiff as mannequins could actually talk.

"Hi I'm Sebastian, Shannon's fiancé..."

"Ex-fiancé!" Shannon scoffed, rolling her eyes at the dark-haired gentleman with golden-rimmed glasses that sat on her right hand side, the same man that had just introduced himself as her fiancé.

"This is not a circus! Remember we have a guest in our midst," Damien King's father growled rather impatiently, as he hit his glass with a spoon.

"A circus would have been preferable to the dysfunctional joke we have here."

As if it was choreographed, everyone on the table turned to look at the one who had just made the last comment.

Sitting directly at the opposite end of the table from where Damien King's father sat, was a young man, no more than twenty years of age, with a curly mop of black hair, whose arms were folded across his averagely broad chest, his face tilted high confrontationally.