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“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I whisper into the still air.
Men who know they’re about to die often pray for peace, but I know there’s no prayer that will give me solace. Only this woman might.
Apparently, he shares the sentiment, because he does something completely unexpected. He crosses the room and pulls me into a tight embrace. A choked laugh escapes me as I slap his back a few times. “My God, Cleo really did a number on you. Look at you, expressing all these emotions.”
“I not only forced Blake to marry me, I also set her house on fire so that she’d move in with me.” Rafe makes a surprised huff. “I didn’t realize this was a competition, but all right, you win.”
“I’m about to get my head blown off, and you’re still giving me shit.” “What else am I supposed to do? Cry?” “Fuck, no. I have a feeling you’re an ugly crier. I don’t need to see that in my last hour on earth.”
But the puzzle of Ferraro’s motivations fades from my mind, overtaken by something more urgent, more vital. I’m going home. To Blake. To my wife. And I’m not going to waste this second chance to make all my wrongs right.
Since when do you want a simple life? What happened to your thirst for adventure, passion, romance? It disappeared once I realized living the plot of a romantic thriller is a lot more difficult than simply reading it.
“You can be mad at me,” he says in a low voice. “You can hate me. You can wish me dead. But you will never threaten to hurt yourself again. If you do anything to put yourself in harm’s way, I swear to God, Blake, I will build a cage and lock you in it.”
“You are the wife of a very dangerous man, Mrs. De Luca. No one wants to risk doing or saying something that might offend you.”
Then I find it—a signed special edition of Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver, the one I know for a fact had a limited print run. My jaw drops. How did Nero manage to get this? For over an hour, I sift through the boxes, uncovering every book that was destroyed in the house fire. Every. Single. One.
“No.” I get to my feet and walk right up to Alessio, who’s looking at me curiously. I’m so angry and tired that I don’t have the energy to hold my tongue. “I was up all night because of what you did to him. I’m not doing that again. You hear me? You’re out of your damn mind if you think he’s going anywhere today. He’s going to get some rest, and you’re going to leave us alone.”
Suddenly, I’m overcome with the urge to strangle him. “You will never do anything like that again. Not while I’m here. Not while I’m the one who’s waiting for you at home.” His skin turns ashen. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
I roll my eyes at the text on my phone. Pick up a coffee for me on your way over. Extra large, splash of oat milk. From Bar Volo. That’s the only one I drink. What is this? The mob version of The Devil Wears Prada? Alessio Ferraro is a fucking diva.
And then she scolded Alessio Fucking Ferraro like he’s a kid in middle school instead of the biggest psychopath in New York City.
Alessio takes another loud bite. “I won’t hurt her. I like her.”
Alessio pops the apple core into his mouth. What is he, a fucking horse? “Go ahead. You can take breaks, you know? Wouldn’t want your wife to yell at me again about the working conditions.”
That reminds me, I need to get her something better than that cheap band from the Vegas chapel. She doesn’t need a reminder of our less than stellar wedding on her finger. She needs something sparkling and heavy, so that whenever she looks at it, she’ll think about what we can still become.
“At first, but Darkwater Hollow grew on me. Especially after I met Blake.”
“He didn’t care about being perceived as a good person. That’s the point. He cared about the people around him, the people he loved, far more than the opinions of others.”
“Back when I only had myself to worry about, sure. But with you here, everything is different.”
Do you think I like knowing the kind of work Alessio is having you do every day? Do you think I like worrying about what you’ll look like when you come home each night?”
If another man touched you, I would cut off his dick before I killed him and deliver it to you in a box.”
“And I will end it immediately if it feels like we’re getting too close to the fire,” I warn. “I will not risk your life for the Ferraros, Blake. You have to swear you’ll listen to me.”
I’m still attracted to him. I want to leave marks on him. I want to carve my name into his skin.
“I want you to stop denying that there’s still something here. Something that’s worth fighting for. I was willing to die for you, Sunshine. Do you really think I’m just going to give up on us after I got a second chance to make you mine?”
He looks up from his phone, and when his eyes land on me, they widen. The glass slips out of his hand. CRASH.
One glance at Blake in that fucking dress is enough to turn my brain to mush, and the same is obviously true for every other bastard that’s dared to look at her. I’ve lost count of how many jaws dropped when she walked into the room. I can’t blame them, but at the same time, I still want to kill them all.
“I can’t stop looking at you.” “Is there something on my face?” “Definitely. Eyes I could spend the rest of my life gazing into. Lips I’d really like to kiss. And a mouth I’d love to taste and fu—”
“You’re the most beautiful woman here.”
“That dress fits you like a second skin. Will you let me peel it off you when we get back home?” “I’m not a piece of fruit,” she grumbles. “Your pussy sure tastes like one.”
She glares at me. “Nero.” “What?” “Why are you touching me?” “Because I’m obsessed with you, baby. Haven’t you realized that by now?”
“You’re taking advantage of the situation,” she mutters. “If we were here under normal circumstances, I’d throw my wine in your face.”
“I was prepared to love the world, but no one understood me, so I learned to hate.”
I swear I can hear his fountains fucking gurgling in the background. I don’t know how he lives like that. I’d have to piss all the time.
“Sunshine, history tends to repeat itself.”
“I’m worried I’m putting you in danger. I promised you I’d keep you safe, and this doesn’t fucking feel like me fulfilling that promise. This feels like me doing the wrong thing for selfish reasons again.”
“You say one more thing about my wife, and I’ll break your neck.”
“When are you going to understand that other women don’t exist for me anymore? There’s only you. There will only ever be you.”
He cups my cheek with his warm hand and forces me to meet his worried gaze. “Blake.” A tear slides down my cheek, and his concerned expression turns to pure stone. “What happened?” he asks in a rough voice. When I can’t get an answer past my tight throat, he directs his attention to the man beside me. “What the fuck did you say to my wife?”
“No amount of revenge or power is worth you putting your grubby hands on her. There is nothing you could give me, nothing you could promise, to justify a price that high.”
“If you ever make a proposition like that to my wife again, it will be your last sentence. Do you understand?”
“For fuck’s sake, of course I don’t. I would rather spend ten lifetimes working for Alessio than have Maksim lay his hands on you for even a second.”
But there’s one place where she will always be enough. Where she will always belong. Right here with me.
“It was always only about you. What I want is you. If I had you… Fuck, I’d be happy doing anything Ferraro wanted me to.”
I walk up to her and cage her in with my arms. “I told you I wouldn’t lie to you anymore after we got to New York. I stuck to that promise. But there’s something I’ve been holding back. And isn’t that just as bad? I don’t want to play these games anymore.” She tips her head back against the shelves. “What are you talking about?” “I fucking love you.”
“I’m in love with you. And I know you’re not sure if you feel the same way about me because I’m not the kind of man you ever imagined yourself with.”
“But, Sunshine, the more I see you fight the feelings that are trying to burst out of you, the more determined I become. I will wait for you for however long it takes. I’d rather face your scornful looks and your righteous anger than exist in a world where you’re not mine.”
“It’s torture to have you so close to me yet so far. It’s torture to remember how we were. When I think back to our days in Darkwater Hollow, the pain I feel is visceral. It’s worse than the pain of being in that ring with Alessio. I’d let him wreck me again and again if it meant I’d have a hope of getting us back.”
“Believe me, I know. But I also know that as long as my heart beats, I’m going to keep trying to find a path back to you. Back to us.” Her shining eyes pierce through me as she sobs. I press my forehead to hers. “You’re it for me. You are my first love. And you are my last.” She makes a choked gasp and shoves at my chest. “Damn you, Nero.” And then she crushes her lips to mine.
“I hope he ended up somewhere nice.” I swallow past the ball in my throat and turn back to face the road. “Yeah. Me too.”
