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He’s asking me instead of commanding, and I can tell, for the first time, this fierce man loves me. This whole time, he loved me, and he knew it, and it’s why he protected the wounded nine-year-old boy still somewhere inside him more fiercely than he would have if he were with someone he didn’t care about. He knew I could hurt him, in the same way I knew he could hurt me.
But I’m so glad that whenever we parted before, we found a way back to each other. I’m so glad I stuck around, because this kind of man loves only once. And it just so happens, one late New York evening, I walked into his apartment so that he could love me.
I walk over and wrap my hands around his middle, press my ear to his heart. It’s beating strongly in anticipation of what I’ll say. Will I say it?
“I’m your wife. I’m your wife till death do us part.”
45
LUCKY JERK
CORRADO
She’s mine.
She’s finally mine.
She’s always been mine, but I just couldn’t make her mine without telling her what she means to me. After our rocky start, the secrets I still hide, which she’ll have to accept, I owe her those three words she seeks.
When Severio walks out of the trees beyond the property, I kiss my wife’s head. “I love you, Michela Mancini. You are the light of my life, and I’m never letting you go.” I had her followed, stalked, guarded, watched. Now I’m just going to have her. Period.
“I love you too, Corrado Mancini. You are my prince.”
And with that, she cracks open the armor around my chest, and I can almost feel it dissipate as if it’s ashes on the wind. It makes me feel exposed, but also lighter. So much lighter. I can finally breathe.
She looks up all red-eyed and happily crying.
I wipe her tears with my thumb and taste the salty little drops. They make me hard, but that’s neither here nor there now that I’m having a moment with my wife.
That’s how Severio finds us when he walks in from the back door.
“Severio,” I greet him, annoyed he’s come to collect me, but grateful he has, because an escaped felon I helped free is coming for me, and I sure could use a ride out of town. Or country.
“Little brother,” he says, then looks from me to Michela. His gaze lingers on her a tad bit longer than I like. Angels are hard to look away from, but he could at least try.
After what feels like forever, he offers her his hand, and I know that when she returns the handshake, he’ll bring her hand to his lips.
Severio doesn’t disappoint. Those killer blue eyes lock on my wife as he kisses her knuckles.
“My brother is a lucky jerk,” he says.
When Severio smiles, I think Michela might faint. “Thank you,” she squeaks out.
For fuck’s sake. Ever so slightly, I pull her away.
Severio picks up on my tug and smirks, then gazes about the room, pausing at my gun on the table. He looks up and points at the TV. “I take it that prison housed one Gordon Reyes, aka Knight?”
Gordon’s last name is different from Michela’s. It’s also significant for us due to the connections and wealth of the Reyes family.
I nod. “Drago’s first prison break. He’s very proud of himself.”
“He earned a raise,” my wife says.
We stare.
“Or not,” she adds.
Severio shrugs off his jacket and folds it neatly over the back of the couch. “I see you’ll fit nicely with our family.” He then speaks in Latin, testing whether she knows the serpentine sayings we use to identify Order members. I’ve told her nothing yet. I couldn’t expose my family to someone I wasn’t sure loves me. Luckily for me, Michela does. I kiss the top of her head again and lean beside her to open the back door.
