I texted Lidia.ETA.
Venus has landed, her response was almost immediate.
Best friends must tell each other every fucking thing. Lidia had called her Venus, the Roman equivalent of Aphrodite. I’d never called her that in front of anyone, so I knew Leonora had told her.
I fixed my tux and made sure my hair was in place before I set off to find the goddess I was waiting on.
She was on the other side of the penthouse, gazing out of another window.
My feet stopped in their tracks.
She was wearing an embellished Grecian-style dress that was made for her body. Her hair was half up and half down, and I could smell her essence floating in the air.
Her eyes moved to the right a little, and she startled when she realized she wasn’t alone.
A slight smile lit up her face as she turned around to face me. “I’m your Aphrodite, so…” She did this weird little curtsy, showing off a thigh-high slit and sexy heels that wrapped around her ankles.
“You don’t need a dress to prove it.” My voice was rough.
“I know,” she whispered. “I just…” She looked away for a second before she met my eyes. “I wanted to wear something special. Something that spoke to you.”
“All I can see is you. All I can hear is you. Everything else is foreign. Translate for me.”
“This dress says…this woman says yes, even if she wasn’t asked.Because you can’t just ask a woman like her. The answer will always be no, until a man like you makes her stubborn heart admit it’s ready.”
I closed the gap between us, pushing her against the wall, kissing her until she melted into my arms.
It was never about what she owed me. It was always about this. Getting her right here, to this moment of surrender.
I’d fucking surrendered to her the moment I’d seen her.
For her heart to turn, I knew I was going to have to turn her resolve. She would have rather I cut off her hand instead of marrying me. And in my own fucked-up way, that was how I knew it was real between us. Real fear will make a person do crazy shit, and if she wasn’t truly afraid of what existed between us, she wouldn’t have put her hand down and told me to take it.
She was offering it to me now.
She was quiet as I bypassed everyone vying for my time, until we set foot in the ballroom of the casino, and she repeated vows to me that would last forever.
The rest of the night, I introduced her to my world as my wife, Mrs. Bigatti.
CHAPTER13
Mr. Big
Before my wife’salarm went off, I took her phone and turned it off. We’d just gotten to bed an hour ago. Angelo was being released from the hospital, and she wanted to be on time to pick him and Phoenix up. I wanted to get to her brothers first. She’d told them she was getting married, but she didn’t go into detail about how much she’d told them about me—about us.
She was my wife, and it was time I introduced myself as her husband. Depending on what time Angelo was released, Leonora could meet us there or at the new house. She didn’t know about it yet. It was going to be a surprise for all of them.
Except for my time in Italy, I’d never lived outside of the casino. Even though I was only going to be a few minutes away, it was going to be an adjustment. I’d made a bed for myself at Portofino and made it my life.
How fucking wild the twists of life could be. I hadn’t planned on her either—or ever expected to get married after I decided not to marry in Italy.
Different time. Different place. Different man.
After a shower, I dressed in a suit and met Lidia and Umberto in the kitchen. He was finishing his coffee and cornetto. Lidia mirrored his breakfast but gave it to me to go.
I didn’t want to be late.
While I dodged traffic, I turned on the radio. An old romantic song played, and I turned it up. Umberto looked between the dash and me. It was usually Gio who was into this sound, but what the fuck. I was feeling it.
