Westminster lets out a bark of laughter. “But isn’t revenge supposed to be sweet, not sparkling?”
“Revenge is ice cream. Sweet and served cold.” Maybe Caterina’s humour is rubbing off on me. “But we’ll have to make do with champagne.”
We chuckle as we climb the stairs out of the cellar, and at the door, I switch off the lights.
Back in the garden, Steve and Westminster take charge of the alcohol we just acquired, and I search the crowd until I find the most beautiful woman in the world, wearing a white dress. She’s with her mother and a group of the London Mafia Syndicate women, sunlight spilling all over them, making them shine.
They part as I approach, and I take Caterina’s hand and interlock our fingers as she’s mid-sentence.
“She’ll be back in a minute. I just need a moment with my bride.”
There’s a chorus of “ahhh” and “so cute” as I draw Caterina away. I intend to only go far enough to speak alone and kiss her in privacy, but my feet take us to the entrance of the maze.
“Angel,” she murmurs, leaning into me and squeezing my hand as she sees it.
But I only pull her out of sight and drag her against me as I sink my back into the firm outer hedge, surrounding us withthe scent of the leaves as I claim her mouth in a kiss. It’s several minutes before I ease off consuming her.
“Much as I’d like to fuck you right here and now, looking so gorgeous, I’ll wait until later when I can chase you, hold you down, and properly hear you scream your pleasure into the darkness,” I promise against her lips. And this is her wedding day. I’m not risking messing up the dress and makeup she so carefully did when tonight I can rip the white lace negligee I saw her slipping into the wardrobe yesterday.
She makes a breathy little whimper and I smile as I kiss her again.
“Thank you. For everything,” she says, holding the back of my neck as she stands on tiptoe to kiss me more.
“Are you having a good day?” I check.
“The best,” she says against my lips. “And you?”
“It’s perfect when I’m at your side.” Carefully, I hold her jaw and stroke her cheek lovingly as I look into her deep brown eyes. My wife. I’ll never let her go. I’ll never let anything bad happen to her again. “A day to remember.”
EPILOGUE
CATERINA
10 years later
People who say you can have too much of a good thing have clearly never met my husband.
I peek around the door to the twins’ room to watch Brody read them a bedtime story.
It’s their birthday tomorrow, and when I shooed them upstairs to bathe after their two younger siblings had already been washed, they were hyped up with excitement. But they’re both now calm and entranced by their dad reading to them.
He does excellent voices. I’ve tried to tell him he should do audiobooks. His are the best growly man dragons, and sweetest girl dragons. I bet he’d do rough and sexy romance heroes who would cause mass swooning events, even as mothers everywhere insisted they only followed his social media because their children adored his kids’ book’s characters.
He’s making this dragon book so good I’m honestly listening, despite having read it to the twins at least a hundred times.
“And then, the red dragon roared out red flames. Raaaahhhhh!”
I grin. He gets so into reading to the children, my sulky, grumpy quiet husband. He’s still a scary shadow of a mafia boss. My Dark Angel remains part rumour, part legend, part hushed disbelief when some lowlife goes missing.
But the Dark Angel will laugh with his babies. He’s bright and fun with them.
And with me.
I keep watching as he reads, the soft glow highlighting the planes of his face. He has more silver hairs now, but I love that even more. He says he loves my stretch marks in the same way, and certainly he has shown no signs of enjoying my body any less.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
I can’t believe I get to see him whenever I want. The years of longing—we laugh sometimes when remembering our mutual pining—are a distant memory. Almost forgotten. The story of how we met has taken on a rosy hue with time, and us being together with our kids is the source of so much joy it’s hard to remember it wasn’t always like this.
