Chuckling at his excitement, I began to carefully peel the paper off. Alfonzo huffed, his warm breath fanning the skin of my neck. “Just rip it off, mouse. It’s not like we’re using the wrapping paper ever again,” he chuckled. “Trust me, Anurak demands new wrapping paper every year.”
Anurak rolled his eyes at Alfonzo in averyrare show of brattiness. Rico laughed softly. “Because every year has to bespecial,” Anurak told him in a ‘duh’ tone.
Alfonzo rested his chin on my shoulder, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him stick his tongue out at Anurak, who just stuck his tongue back out at him in return.
“Open the gift, mouse,” Alfonzo said, giving me his attention once more.
I ripped the paper off, this time with much less finesse, and peeled the lid off the plain white box. Inside was a thick,supersoft sweatshirt. I pulled it from the box, laughing softly at the inscription that’d been stitched into it.
I like my men with dark souls.
Alfonzo barked out a laugh and pressed a kiss to my throat. I smiled at Anurak. “It’s perfect. Thank you.” And just so heknewfor sure I liked it, I pulled the sweatshirt I was wearing off, then tugged my new one over my head. It fit perfectly, anddamn,it was the softest thing I’d ever owned. The boy really knew how to damn shop.
“Grab mine for him next, will you, kid?” Alfonzo asked. “Then, you can find the one I got you and open it.”
Anurak hurriedly dug through the presents, finally revealing a small box. He passed it over to me, and I frowned, my throat tightening. It had the similar consistency of a ring box, and I swore to fuck if Alfonzo was about to ask me to marry him, I was going to combust. And I might fucking cry. While I knew none of them would judge me for my tears, I still wasn’t used to showing that much emotion to anyone but Alfonzo.
“Open it,” Alfonzo murmured in my ear before pressing a kiss to my lobe. The sound of Anurak ripping open his own gift reached my ears.
Blowing out a soft breath, I peeled off the plain black wrapping paper, revealing a black velvet box. Swallowing thickly, I lifted the lid, revealing a sterling silver band with tiny diamonds encrusted all around. It was masculine while still making avery largestatement that I was one hundred percent taken.
“Alfonzo…” I breathed, blinking rapidly as the Christmas lights gleamed over the diamonds.
“Marry me,” Alfonzo murmured. I turned my head to look at him, tears already glistening in my eyes. His smile was soft and patient—for once. “Marry me, mouse.”
I nodded all while a tear ran down my cheek. I was too choked up to speak, but for once, Alfonzo didn’t push me to vocalize what I wanted to say. He just took the ring from the box, then grabbed my left hand and slid the band onto it.
It fit perfectly.
Lifting my hands, I cupped his face, then kissed him. Alfonzo groaned and deepened the kiss all while Anurak shouted his excitement over the newest gaming console. And right then, I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. The Bratva was still my family, but this one, this family within the Martinez Crime Family, was where I was meant to be all along.
Epilogue Two
Maksim
Anurak beamed when I made my way down the stairs, rubbing sleep from my eyes. Alfonzo had a particularly brutal kill the night before, and when he’d finally come to bed, he’d been insatiable. He’d fucked me to the point I literally passed out. When I’d finally come to, he’d forced me to drink water and eat some chocolate before he cleaned me up and tucked me back into bed.
I wasn’t the least bit surprised that it was damn near lunch time when I finally woke up for the day.
“Hey,” I roughly greeted.
“Hey!” he exclaimed, chipper as usual—unless he was having a rough day. But I rarely saw him on those days. He was usually wherever Rico was when those kinds of days hit him, which meant I also usually didn’t see Bento, because Bento used those days to spend more time with Niran.
“You hungry?” Bento asked, popping his head around the entrance to the kitchen. “I’m whipping up sandwiches. I can make you one, too. And there’s coffee.”
Coffee. I really needed some fucking coffee. Maybe with some caffeine, my eyes wouldn’t feel all gritty.
Anurak fell into step beside me as I headed into the kitchen. Yawning, I stopped in front of the coffee maker and poured myself a cup before lifting it to my lips and swallowing a greedy mouthful, uncaring of it scalding the roof of my mouth and damn near melting my tongue. When I turned around, Anurak was eating his sandwich, and Bento was finishing off making a second one.
“Seen Alfonzo this morning?” I asked around another yawn.
Bento shook his head. “He’s off with Niran somewhere. Something about a potential new recruit, though that’s all I really know. I was half-fucking-asleep when Niran woke me to tell me.”
I snorted a laugh. I’d been dead to the fucking world when Alfonzo left that morning. There’d been a text on my phone when I woke up, reminding me to do my therapy exercises for my shoulder, eat, and workout. Working out might get shoved to the side for the day though. My ass was smarting, and I was a little more sore than usual. Alfonzo might get upset, but I could deal with that.
He never stayed mad at me for long. It wasn’t really in him to do so. He was too psychotically chipper to do so.
“Here, eat.” Bento passed me the sandwich. I grabbed it with a thanks and took a seat beside Anurak at the bar. He looked at me, his dark eyes wide and hopeful. “I know you probably havethings to do today, but will you watch a movie with us? We’re going to binge-watch theTransformersmovies.”
