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It takes me a moment to speak past the tightness in my throat. “I can’t ask you to do that,” I whisper. Iwantto. I want to say yes, to ask him to leave it behind—to just be apersonwith me. Not a mafia boss, not the head of a family, but just Dante.
Just mine.
But he wouldn’t ask that of me.
“We both have lives that are important to us,” I say softly. “They’re a part of who we are. I can’t ask you to stop being yourself.”
“I can’t lose you. Emma—” His hand presses against my face, sliding to curl around the back of my neck.
And then he leans in, and his mouth is on mine.
I can taste salt in the kiss, between our lips. His forehead presses against mine; the kiss is soft and deep and slow, full of all the longing that we both feel. I don’t break the kiss, even when I know I should, because Ican’t.
I never want him to stop kissing me.
“There has to be some way for us to figure this out, Emma.” Dante breathes in, his lips still nearly touching mine, his hand at the back of my neck. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” My voice cracks, breaking as I speak, and I feel fresh tears well up and spill over. “But I don’t know—”
“There has to be a way.” Dante pulls back a little, looking at me. “We can figure this out, Emma.”
“I have to have my own life.” I look at him helplessly, reaching down to intertwine my fingers with his. “I can’t be the mafia wife that you need. I can’t do all those things—”
“What things?” Dante shakes his head. “You’re everything I need already, Emma. You can keep your condo, keep working as a tattoo artist, have your own shop, if you want.” His fingers slide under my chin, tipping my face up so that I’m looking at him. “Since I became don, I’ve wanted to do thingsmyway. Not the old way. I want you forever, Emma—but on your terms. You’ll have your life, and all the things you want. I won’t ever take that away. And I’ll keep you and our child safe. I promise.”
I reach up, covering his hand with mine. “You can’t promise that.”
“I can,” Dante whispers fiercely. “As much as I could ever make anything in the world safe for you. There’s always going to be danger, Emma, no matter who we are. But I’ll never let anything within my power hurt you.”
His gaze holds mine, for a long moment. And then he leans in, kissing me again, and this time I don’t fight it. I kiss him back, my arms around his neck, and when he whispers against my lips that he loves me, I whisper it back.
I’m terrified of what’s ahead of us, of all of the unknowns. But as Dante’s arms go around me, picking me up and lifting me against his chest, I know that he’s the only place I can truly feel safe.
He will keep me safe, no matter the cost. And that doesn’t frighten me as much as it used to.
I’m not sure that it frightens me at all, anymore.
Dante kisses me again as he walks back up the beach, again and again, all the way into the condo. He carries me into the bedroom, spilling me back onto the bed as he follows me, his mouth never leaving mine, even for a moment. His hands slide over me, stripping away my clothes, smoothing over my skin as I arch upwards and gasp his name. When he slides into me, I wonder how I could have ever thought that we were anything but perfect for one another.
From the moment we met, this was inevitable. I tried to run from it, but I could only run away from home for so long. And as Dante kisses me, his hips rocking against mine as he buries himself inside of me, I know that my home isn’t just this place.
It’shim. It’s this—this moment, when we’re as close as two people can possibly be, and I know that we were never meant to be apart.
Some things are simply meant to be. And whatever happens next, we’ll face it.
Together.
EPILOGUE
EMMA
One year later
“Where are we going?”I look at Dante over my shoulder as I slip a small gold hoop into my ear—a concession to my disinclination to wear jewelry after he gave them to me for my birthday. Dante is standing in the doorway of our bedroom, dressed down in chinos and a t-shirt, shifting from one foot to the other with a glinting sparkle in his eyes that tells me he’s up to something. “Is the babysitter with Lilly?”
“She’s down for her nap and doing just fine.” Dante walks into the room, his hands on my waist as he turns me so that he can lean down and give me a kiss. “As for where we’re going, it’s a surprise. You wouldn’t want me to spoil it, would you?”
“No, I suppose not.” I chew on my lower lip, looking at him suspiciously. “Alright, let’s go.”
