Page 53 of Vows of Blood

When I press a kiss to her belly, she sighs, melting back into the mattress, all pretense of fighting me vanishing in the blink of an eye.

“What if you never had to go home?” I ask, jutting out my chin so I can scrape her silky-smooth skin with the scruff of my stubble. “What if your home was with me? Here.”

Sienna smiles up at me and laughs, one hand stroking through the curls at the back of my neck that seem to fascinate her so much. “You want me to move in with you?”

She thinks I’m joking, but it’s quite the opposite. I’m deadly serious.

“Yes, for a start.”

Sienna stills, like she’s figuring out how to react.

“I want you to be my wife, Sienna Fox. And not in a few years, not when we buy our first house or have our first kid. Now. Tomorrow. Today.”

Until I say the words out loud, I don’t realize just how much I want this. Now that I’ve told her, I’m more certain than ever. How we make it work with my father’s expectations that I take over the family business one day, I’m not sure. But I’ll give it all to Enzo and leave that life behind if I have to.

Once I have her.

“Luca, you’re crazy…”

“Crazy about you,” I whisper, sliding her top up and the cups of her bra down so I can drag one hardened nipple between my lips and tug on it.

“Are you really…” She bites her lip, not able to bring herself to say what’s going on here.

“Proposing, yes.” Hovering over her, I suck her bottom lip free and kiss her, knowing from the way she arches up into me, rolls her hips up to meet mine while her hands cling to my back, that she’s not opposed to the idea.

“Then where’s the ring?” she teases playfully, gasping when I rock harder against her, using my erection to rub against her clit and give her the friction she’s seeking.

“Ordered,” I say, deadpan. “But I don’t want to wait.” I kiss her again. “Is that a yes then?”

She freezes and blinks up at me. “You’re serious.”

I nod.

“But what about your father? I mean, he’s… he’s terrifying, Luca. And he hates me. He won’t let you…”

Catching the hem of her leggings and tugging them down hard, I just need to be back inside her, immediately. A swell of pride rushes through me. She’s going to be mine, going to be Sienna Calvano someday soon, and just the thought has me harder than I’ve ever been before.

“He might not like the idea, but he’ll get over it. I mean, if we elope and get married in Vegas, what’s he going to do?”

16

LUCA

All this time, I thought she abandoned me. Knew it. Believed it with every fiber of my being.

I make it as far as the hallway before my fist connects with the wall. The plaster cracks beneath my knuckles, pain shooting up my arm, but it's nothing compared to the rage tearing me up inside.

The whole time, it was him planting the idea she didn’t want me in my mind like poison. She was there, and he knew all this time.

My father's face swims before me, that smug fucking smile he wears when he's won, outmaneuvering everyone around him, and they don't even know it yet. And this time, he got me.

I was so fucking stupid.

A memory hits me as I shove into my room and slam the door behind me. My father, sitting in the chair beside my hospital bed, acting like a concerned parent, when he was the one who put me there.

The smell of disinfectant. My body was a symphony of pain, ribs cracked, back shredded, and one eye swollen shut. If my mother had been alive to see it, seeing me like that would have killed her.

Even high on painkillers, I refused to speak to him, but I wasn’t in any position to stop him from subjecting me to his endless justifications of what he did. Or had to do, in his mind.