When we made it into Palermo, I pulled up to the designer wedding dress shop and watched her hop out to walk in alone since I wouldn’t be able to accompany her. But I was happy she’d gone to an expensive designer instead of just some boutique. I wanted her dripping in fucking diamonds. We didn’t talk about it, but I knew she’d started drawing the same salary as herfather after she took over, so I suspected she wanted something expensive because she could pay for it herself.
I thought the whole independent woman thing was sexy as hell, so I was fine with it. When we were married, it wouldn’t matter anyway.
I found parking down the road then went to a nearby bar to have a drink while I waited. I texted a couple people back who’d hit me up and stared out the window to check if Francesca had walked out yet.
About an hour later, she stepped out of the shop and texted me.I’m done.
I left my half-empty drink on the table and walked out to meet her across the street. “How’d it go?”
“I really liked it in person. They fitted me, and it’ll be ready next week.”
“So we can get married next week?” I asked hopefully.
“Looks that way. My name opens a lot of doors and helped expedite the process.”
I grinned before I tugged her into me and placed a kiss on her lips. “Good. Couldn’t wait longer than that anyway.” I took her by the hand, and we walked to a restaurant to have dinner. It was the end of August, so the summer was blistering, and on an evening like this, the air was still warm to the touch.
We sat outside on the terrace over candlelight, and I ordered the wine before we looked at our menus.
“You want to see what the dress looks like?”
I shook my head. “I want to be surprised.”
“It’s kind of slutty.”
I’d been looking at the menu, but my eyes immediately shifted up to meet hers. “Tell me more.”
“It’s got a deep cut in the front…and a high slit up the thigh.”
I could already picture it, her knockout tits on display and her sexy, toned leg exposed. Then I pictured myself ripping it off her and leaving it on the bedroom floor, consummating our marriage for all eternity.
“Wolfe?”
“Hmm?”
“You’ve been staring at me like that for two minutes.”
I dropped my eyes back to my menu. “Have I?” I looked through the selections until I found something I wanted.
She glanced at her menu before she set it aside. “I wonder what the fresh catch of the day is.”
The waiter came over and took our order, and after our glasses of wine were filled, it was just the two of us together.
She sat perfectly straight without the support of the chair, and whenever she sipped her wine, she looked directly at me, her diamond ring a prism of rainbows. After she took her drink, she curled her fingers underneath her chin and met my look across the table.
I could look at her forever—seriously.
I couldn’t believe she was mine. I’d literally found the only woman I’d ever want to marry, and I didn’t even have to search the whole world to find her, just looked in my backyard.
“There’s something I want to ask you.”
My euphoria was destroyed by the tone of her voice, like this wouldn’t be a happy conversation. “I’m listening.”
She absent-mindedly ran her finger around the base of her glass. She stared at the surface of the white wine before she looked at me again, her prominent cheekbones distinct in the candlelight. Her eyes were luminous too, a beautiful flash of green. “After we got the vineyard back, I kinda just took over, and we haven’t really talked too much about it.”
What was there to talk about?
“But I want to know what you want, Wolfe.”
