I traced the hard line of his jaw. “You’ll believe that you deserve it one day. I’ll keep telling you until you do.”
He pressed a swift, hard kiss to my lips. “I love you so much, Nora. You don’t know what you do to me.”
I offered him a lopsided smile of my own. “I have a general idea.”
Even after six months of our secret marriage, Dante made my knees weak every time he walked into a room. He was just as magnetic and terrifying as ever, but he was my monster now. My beautiful, cruel fallen angel.
I took a breath and put my trust in him.
“I’m ready,” I assured him. “I want to see Luca.”
Dante led me the short distance to the space that’d been the scene of some of my worst nightmares, and my breaths quickened as we approached.
“Say the word, and we’ll leave immediately,” he promised.
I nodded, and the door swung open to reveal my other husband: the ruggedly handsome man I’d secretly wanted for years before he’d stolen me away and made me his wife.
He held out his arms for me, and I was instantly caught up in his warm, reassuring embrace. Nothing bad could touch me when he held me with fierce possessiveness. He wouldn’t allow it.
“Are you all right?” he asked, leaning back slightly to study my face. “Dante wanted us to meet here. I agreed, but?—”
“But we’ll leave if Nora is at all uncomfortable,” Dante finished for him. “I already promised her.”
And he always kept his promises.
I reached for him, drawing him closer to Luca and me, so that their strength surrounded me in a protective cage. Even my darker memories couldn’t get to me when I was in their arms.
“I’m okay,” I promised, studying the erotic space with fresh eyes.
The whips that’d once terrified me now piqued my curiosity. And the coils of rope that hung neatly on the far wall sent an echo of remembered pleasure shuddering through me. I loved when Dante bound me and toyed with me for hours on end, taking my mind to the transcendent peace that I could only find with him.
Maybe I’d been wrong to avoid this place. We had each other now, and we didn’t have to be afraid anymore. We could reclaim the space for all three of us, a kinky haven where we could engage in the most wanton, deviant acts, and no one would judge us.
I glanced between the two men. “I think I’d actually like to spend more time in here if that’s something you would both want?”
Dante grinned. “You make me so happy, darling.”
“Anything for you, Nora,” Luca swore.
I searched his caramel eyes, but I didn’t find any shadows haunting their depths. He’d left the pain of those awful days behind him too.
“I have something for you,” Dante reminded me. “Both of you.”
My brows lifted, surprised that he’d gotten a gift for Luca too. They got along, but they weren’t exactly affectionate.
Before I could puzzle over it further, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar length of rose gold chain. He opened his fist, revealing the delicate heart-shaped padlock that marked me as his.
My heart clenched at the sight of it. I thought the Russians had stolen it from me, a trophy to remember how they’d defiled Dante Torrio’s wife.
A shiver raced over my skin, and my men stepped closer, enfolding me in their comforting, steady heat.
“You got a new one?” I asked, my voice small.
He shook his head once, jaw tight with his own awful memories of that terrible day. “I took it back from them. But look. I fixed it for you. For both of you.”
At first, I thought he meant he’d gotten the broken lock repaired. I peered at the trinket, and my breath caught. Dante’s initial wasn’t etched into the gold; Luca’s was.
My eyes burned. “What is this?”
