“Why is there a ring on my finger?” I ask in an unnaturally high pitched voice.
“I thought that would be obvious,” he says and I only stare blankly at him. “You’re marrying me.”
“I’m marrying you,” I echo.
“Si. Do you not want to marry me?”
I stammer. “I—I. Isn’t this a bit soon?”
“You chose me. I choose you. Why wait?”
I blow out an exasperated breath. “I don’t know, shadow,” his lips tip up at the nickname, “maybe because we haven’t been together long enough? Or because you’ve sworn your loyalty to Constantine and have not done the same for me.”
“Ah,” he murmurs as if he’s experiencing an epiphany.
“Ah what?”
“This is why you are doubting me. Us,” he clarifies. Pushing off the doorframe he strides towards me. The bed dips as he sits next to me. “I am loyal to Constantine, this is true.” I cast my eyes downward but he has none of it. With his knuckle he tips my chin up. His eyes hold me hostage. The beautiful deep blue depths that are shining with emotion. “But I am loyal to you, Imogen. I have been the moment I caught you. It just took some time for my brain to catch up.”
My heart pitter patters. “But the famiglia?—”
“Comes second to you,” he finishes with a declaration that renders me speechless.
The damn organ beats viciously against my chest as flutters swarm in my stomach. “Rico,” I say his name in absolute awe, wonderment and adoration.
His thumb then brushes my bottom lip reverently. Like I’m something to be worshipped. To be cherished. And I feel it. With his touch. With how he looks at me. “I’m not particularly good at explaining how I feel. I understand the gravity of expressing oneself in a relationship. I ask for patience in that regard. I always thought I felt nothing but until I met you, until I captured you and claimed you as my own I know that to not be true. I think, like my mother, I have always felt too much, which led me to believe I felt nothing at all.” He pauses as he thinks of what to say next. “I’m aware how contradictory it sounds.”
“I’m listening.” I kiss his thumb and give him an encouraging smile.
“Growing up I could never explain exactly what I was feeling. The best way I can describe it is I had the physical sensations but I could never correlate it to a specific emotion. And because I could never identify what I was feeling I convinced myself I felt nothing at all. In some ways I think it made it easier.”
“Made what easier?”
“In existing in day to day life. I still had my struggles but pretending it didn’t exist. . .”
I supply softly, “Was the only way you could deal with it.”
He nods his head. “But you,” he looks at me and I feel my insides liquify, “you make being me easier. I can simply exist with you, Imogen. Being with you brings me a peace I never thought I would have. I not only can’t imagine my life without you by my side, I also can’t imagine you not being a part of my routine. I need you, gazzella. I need you just as much as I want you.”
I pull him to me and kiss him hard. He wraps me up in his arms and deepens the kiss. I’m completely pliant for him.
When I reach my hands at the bottom of his crew neck to take off he halts me. I ask between kisses, “Any reason you’re stopping me?”
I feel his lips quirk against my mouth. “Because I have a priest coming to marry us in less than an hour.”
I rear my head back. “Less than an hour?”
His lips kiss along my jawline and then the tip of my nose. “Si.”
“Why the urgency? And how did you even get a priest to officiate a wedding not in a church?”
He gives me a look that’s self explanatory. “The Donati Famiglia owns the east coast. I called a priest and he was more than willing to help.”
“I’m sure he was,” I reply dryly. He probably thought his feet would be cemented to sink at the bottom of the river. “You still haven’t answered my first question.”
His eyes cast to the side. “You’ll only be upset.”
I narrow my eyes. “You have no way of possibly knowing that.”
