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I ignore her last statement. “You want to elope with me?”
The color on her cheeks deepens, but she lifts her eyes and nods as she whispers, “Yes. I do.”
I do.
I like the sound of that.
“Okay.”
Her eyes widen. “Okay?”
I nod. “Yes. Let’s elope.”
“You’re sure?”
“Are you sure?” I counter. After all, Catarina is the one who’s been abducted, nearly forced to marry a deranged criminal, and put in a position where she had to take that same man’s life to protect herself. Not to mention, she just discovered her oldest brother was a human trafficker.
I really shouldn’t entertain her idea of an elopement. She may not be thinking clearly.
I decide to insist we take a few days to consider if this is the route we really want to take, but I’m too selfish of a bastard to say that now. I want to hear Catarina’s response—I want to know she’s just as invested in this unconventional relationship between us as I am.
I’m not disappointed.
“I’m sure, Declan.” Her hand moves to the back of my neck, drawing me down towards her. “And I’m tired of fighting the way I feel about you.”
I smile.
Just before our lips meet in a kiss that is just as electric and passionate as the first one we shared on that fateful night at Mystique, I say, “Well, then, by all means, my beloved. Your wish is my command. Always.”
Epilogue
Catarina
One Month Later
“You’re making my life hell. You understand that, right?”
I laugh and adjust my hold on the cell phone pressed against my ear. “That’s rich coming from you, Nero. Or are you forgetting that going against Father’s wishes is one of your favorite pastimes?”
The waiter serving the poolside bar and grill approaches and places the strawberry margarita I ordered on the neon pink table where I sit. I mouth a silent thank you just before he turns to leave.
“Exactly,” my brother replies. “Disappointing Father ismypastime. You’re supposed to be the angelic, easygoing child. You’ve completely rattled his world with your elopement. He’s called me twice just this week to complain about it.”
Nero’s words bring a smile to my lips. He and Father have spoken more since my run-in with Luis Diaz than they had all last year. It’s like the discovery that his eldest son wasn’t quite the prodigal son he thought made Father reconsider his opinion of Nero.
And Nero graciously opened a door for communication despite all the reasons he had to not want anything to do with the man who raised us.
While I wish there was a different way to motivate them to reconnect, I’m glad for the way things turned out.
“I’m sorry my marriage is causing you trouble,” I say with a grin. “Maybe you should take a page out of your own book and take a trip to a Caribbean island again?” I reference the vacation he took several months ago—the same vacation where he met Heather. “Declan and I are loving it here in Antigua.”
Both of our phones started ringing nonstop once the tabloids got wind of our elopement last week. Our families were absolutely livid that we didn’t tell them about our plans, none more so than Salvatore Furnari.
As he said in one of the longwinded voicemails he left, he’d used hours of precious time to coordinate our engagement party and upcoming wedding ceremony with Colin MacKenzie, and he resented the little regard we’d shown them with our ‘selfish decision’ to get married without any family present.
Neither Declan nor I regret what we did. Abandoning the stress associated with a grand wedding ceremony and focusing on my marriage to the man who makes my heart flutter with a single glance was the best decision I ever made.
But to keep the peace with our families, we compromised and agreed to go along with a big wedding ceremony in a few short months. Then, Declan and I jumped on a plane for a spontaneous tropical honeymoon and turned off our phones.
