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He stands, leaning down and kissing me so deeply, I feel tingles all the way down to my toes.
“Do you like the ring?”
“I love the ring. It’s unique and beautiful and every time I look at it, I’ll remember your sweet words.” He cringes at the word “sweet.” “And you’re going to learn, as my husband, I’ll call you sweet all I want.”
He looks down at the ring. “The band is a little wider than the rings you normally wear but there’s a reason for that.”
I love the thickness and width of the band. It’s solid, like our connection. “Why?”
“So if there ever is a time when I’m not with you—which I don’t plan on happening often—I want every man around you to be able to see it and know you are mine.”
I give a soft laugh at that. It’s sweet, but ridiculous. “Nikolaos, you need to know—you’re the only man I’ve laid eyes on in almost a decade. When I first saw you at the Benefit Ball at the Hamlet, I couldn’t take my eyes off of you.”
“Still. I’m happier with it on you. They need to know you’re taken.”
I like how he thinks men would be checking me out. It’s flattering. I give off such a Betty Homemaker vibe. I’m rarely hit on. Maybe Charlie 2.0 would get some looks in her sexy little black dresses, but it wouldn’t matter anyway.
He’s the only man for me.
We spend the week swimming in the sea, warming ourselves in the sun, dining with family. At the end of the week, he takes my hand in his and says, “Let’s go home.” And I know by home, he means back to his castle because he knows there’s no place I’d rather be.
This Beauty finally has her Beast.
24
Beast
Now that I’mgoing to have a wife living here, the boathouse will no longer be a safehouse. I won’t risk Charlie’s safety. Dark Island is going back to being just my home. A tucked away place for Charlie and any children we might have one day.
I’m trying my darnedest to get one in her belly, taking the opportunity to try to impregnate her every chance I get. So far, she’s not made a single complaint. In fact, every night she’s shouting, “More! Please. More!”
I’m no longer helping with the dismantling of the trafficking ring since my name being out there with the ringleaders has taken me out of the loop. Instead, I’m working with the family in a new capacity. We’re going to continue to use the lake for shipping. We’ve decided we’ll be investing in gold, and we’ll be storing it on the island. I’m in the process of building a secure warehouse on the far north end of the property.
Charlie immediately dived into a project, converting the now-empty boathouse into a B&B for the family. Anyone who needs a weekend escape can travel to Dark Island for a day or two, do some boating, have a meal on the riverboat in the boathouse, have a drink in the speakeasy.
Bronson and Paige have already booked it for their tenth wedding anniversary.
Charlie’s completely redecorated the place. She kept the dining room she redid the first time she was here, since that was already done to her standards, but everything else has changed. She’s created three guest rooms. All done up in flower themes.
She has her Botanical Boho Room, filled with earthy tones, wallpaper with green-leafed plants, tons of lush green potted plants and shelves of small ceramic pots filled with succulents. Then there’s her favorite, the Begonia Room. There’s a mural of huge, colorful flowers painted on the walls and soft quilted bedding on the gold-framed bed. And the Lilac Room, a pale purple room filled with vases of dried lavender, gold-framed prints of lilacs hanging on the walls.
Charlie wants it to be a throwback in time, a place to relax and get away from the busyness of the city. She added a small kitchen that’s fully stocked for whenever a visitor might not want to be disturbed by staff. The main room where we used to have the beds is now a living room with deep-cushioned gray velour sofas. She has a record player with hundreds of vinyl records stashed away in the record cabinet, and a television with no internet but a DVD player and a cabinet of all kinds of old movies to choose from. She says there’s nostalgia in having low tech and also opted for sets of cards and shelves of books and board games.
Leaning against the outside wall of the boathouse she’s got a few lightweight canoes. There’s a shed she added as well as paddleboards, and life vests organized perfectly. I had to put my foot down when she wanted to paint the sides of the boathouse, so she had the shed’s siding painted in a floral mural similar to the one in the Begonia Room.
She even brought in a hot tub, something she used to dream about when she was a little girl. Apparently, a friend of hers had one when she was growing up and they just looked so fun to her, she wanted one out here. She housed it in a little gazebo, the roof of the gazebo clear glass so you can see the stars at night when you’re soaking in the hot tub.
Owning a bicycle was another little girl dream of hers. Beach bikes with wide tires are parked at a covered bike rack, next to higher-tech mountain bikes for use on the gravel paths that wind through the woods. She even bought a bike trailer for parents to tug their little ones behind them on a ride.
Charlie continues her work for the women. She hates that she has to do it from a distance, that she can’t hold their hands and give them manicures, but she does what she can, keeping our safehouses stocked with clothing and shoes. Each new safehouse we open I take her to decorate and put her homey touches on things, but forty-eight hours before any shipment arrives, we’re back, safe at home.
I may be the boss in the bedroom, but what Charlie says at the castle goes. She’s the head of the household now, running the castle and our staff the way she wants it done. Which, in classic Charlie fashion, is absolutely perfect. The staff are smitten with her, even more than they were when she first arrived, and they’ve welcomed her with open arms. Her feminine touch softens my hard edges.
They like that. A lot.
No matter how busy our individual days are, Charlie and I know every night we’re going to be sitting down to dinner together. Tonight we’re having her favorite: Chef Remy’s take on pasta carbonara.
After dinner, we have a glass of wine in the speakeasy. My segue into an invitation to my dungeon. She, of course, accepts.
