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A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!"
She draws in a breath, then rubs her cheek against my shirt. We sit there in silence as the sun rises overhead. Finally, she stirs and looks up at me. Her eyes are swollen, her nose reddened by her crying jag. Her beautiful lips are pink and moist. I catch myself leaning in toward her and pull back. I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and she shivers.
"Are you cold? I can give you my coat—"
"No," she shakes her head, "the heat of your body is all I need to keep warm. The scent of your skin is all I need to turn me on. The fire in your eyes…" she swallows, " is all I need to consume me. To take me. To mark me as your own. The darkness inside of you," she pushes her palm into my chest, "is my own. I know that now."
I tip her chin up, "When did you get so poetic?"
"Says the man who quotes Byron," her lips tremble in a ghost of a smile. "Why are you named after him?"
"It’s a family tradition." I peer into her features, "Every first-born takes it as one of the given names."
"That whole four name thing... It’s daunting." She blows out a breath, "Imagine giving birth to a baby and saddling him with a name that long."
"Would you have minded if I had done that with our child?"
She blinks rapidly and a lone tear slides down her cheek.
"Cazzo!"I didn’t mean to bring that up.
"No, it’s good," she swallows, "we should talk about it. It’s healthy to talk about it, rather than hiding it away and pretending it didn’t happen."
"I miss him" I murmur. "I miss our baby, and I never even knew him or her."
"Me too," she glances away, "sometimes I wake up from my sleep and am sure that I can hear the patter of a child’s footsteps outside my bedroom door."
I draw in a breath. "Beauty," I cup her cheek, "I am so sorry for what happened."
"It’s not your fault," she tips up her chin, "it is one of the reasons I felt like I had to leave, though."
My heart begins to race. Subconsciously, I had been aware that she may well blame me for the loss of our child, but hearing her say it aloud, makes my stomach knot.
"What were the other reasons?"
"Seeing you almost killed in front of me."
I open my mouth and she shakes her head, "I know, that’s rich coming from someone who almost killed you." She raises a shoulder, "But things change. I stopped trying to get at you, but I forgot that there’s an entire world out there who is out to get you."
"He’s gone," I say in a low voice. "My father, who was the culprit behind everything that happened, is dead."
"The rival gangs—"
"I have made my peace with JJ and Nikolai. The Kane Company and the Bratva have proved themselves as my allies."
"There will be other gangs," she murmurs. "There will always be someone who’ll want to get to you, who’ll try to use me to get to you."
"That’s the price I pay for my past." I square my shoulders, "It’s where I come from, but…"
"But?"
"But it needn’t be the future that we bring our children into."
"What are you saying?" she whispers. "Do you mean that—"
"With my father no longer involved in the Cosa Nostra, I have the chance to change the course of what is to come. I plan to legalize our businesses, something I have been working on for a while now."
