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And yet beneath it all, I’m certain I can smell my woman getting closer, riding the elevator up, her womb and her perfume and her just-Rosie scent shivering closer to me.
We came through hell together.
Now it’s time to look for our heaven.
I pause next to the glass table and the silver chairs, so shiny I catch parts of my reflection in the metal. Everything is glistening and star-bright, but none of it burns with the passion I hold for my woman.
I sigh, relief seizing my chest, when I think about Vito’s fate.
He has been exiled by his family for the stupid move he made on me. And he’s been arrested by the Feds for countless charges. He’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison, and every Mob guy has been ordered to forget I exist.
The other criminals want nothing to do with me.
I was clever with how I took Vito out because a good predator knows when to use his mind as much as his brawn, but I could’ve charged out there and torn them to pieces.
I could’ve unloaded like it was a Western, taking them all out, or beat Vito to death right in front of them.
But I need to be better, more human, for my woman and for the children we’re going to make together.
Finally, the elevator beeps, calling me from my thoughts.
I stand up straighter, my heartbeat getting louder and slamming into my chest with more pressure.
It’s been two days since the craziness at the safe house. I’ve spent every second of it with my woman, in bed exploring her from head to toe… and walking Chopper with her, sharing laughter, smiles, things I never thought a man like me would be blessed with.
It’s all led to this, to here.
My heartbeat thunders against the ring box in my inside jacket pocket.
If I was a different man, maybe I’d wait a few weeks or a month.
Maybe I could hold off on branding her mine, just mine, for the whole world to see.
But my need for her is like a hot tattoo, marking me indelibly.
I wander to the edge of the garden, standing behind the vine-covered trellis. The weaving of the plants is just wide enough to let me see through and peer at the scene.
Rosie appears from the edge of the roof, walking over on short heels, her eyes moving down over the red carpet, around the garden, and finally settling on the glass table.
“Ryland?” she calls, spinning in a slow circle.
My whole body stiffens at the sight of her. It’s not just my manhood, but other parts of me, emotions I never knew I could even feel before I met Rosie. She calls for me with her body and her passion and her love—her love, because I know she feels the same as me.
She’s wearing the forest-green dress I left for her, framing her gorgeous thighs in a dignified way, cut high to cover her cleavage… so she doesn’t distract me when I’m down on one knee. It’d be all too easy to reach for her mouth-watering tits when I’m kneeling beneath her.
“Ryland?” she says.
I walk around the side, my hands behind my back.
“Why are you standing like Harold?” she teases, her face lighting up in a smile when our gazes meet.
I smirk, letting out a chuckle.
But beneath the laughter, another flare of relief fires.
Harold and Thomas are safe. Jackie is safe. My woman is safe.
We got through all this craziness alive and together.
“I love you,” I growl, striding across the garden and looming over her.
She gasps, gazing wide-eyed up at me. “Seriously?”
“Yes,” I tell her passionately, grabbing her hands and squeezing them tightly, hoping she can sense my love searing through my skin. “I loved you the moment I saw the photo of you. The moment I was told to kill you, I loved you. How crazy is that?”
“How us is that?” she counters, a sob making her voice crack. “I love you, too, Ryland. So, so much. This is all so amazing. I can’t believe you feel the same. I was terrified you wouldn’t.”
“Really?” I ask, sliding my hands up her body, framing her face.
I love holding her like this, feeling the warmth of her cheeks through my palms, spreading up my arm, telling me how alive she is, how fertile, how ready to bring our family into this world.
“I thought it would be too fast,” she murmurs.
“That’s insane,” I say. “There’s no such thing as too fast with us, Rosie. We’re going to go a hundred miles per hour together, a thousand—a million. However fast we need to go to get to our dream life.”
I let go of her face and slide fluidly to my knee, gazing up at her as her expression shifts from shocked to disbelief, waving her hands in front of her face as though fanning the onset of her tears.
