And fuck if I want to return to how things were. That’s impossible now.
“We both know that we can’t,” she expels a long breath ringing with dejection. Her sigh goes straight to my chest where it wreaks carnage. “Once we return, we…we break up.”
Her words detonate in my ears, like she pulled the pin of a fucking grenade and threw it at my feet, blasting my world to smithereens.
My chest vibrates with refusal. “No.”
Her eyes bug out, the panic swallowing her pupils. “Yes. That was the deal.”
My jaw sets in a hard line, determined to cut through the nonsense. “Dahlia, forget the fucking deal. We both knew it was bullshit.”
“Mika.” Her tone sounds pleading, but determination underlies it.
She might be stubborn, but I am even more so.
“It’s for the best.”
“For fucking whom?” I ask, my voice rising with the loss of control.
“For peace.” She snaps. “I won’t be responsible for the chasm between you and my brother.”
Fucking hell. I drag a hand down my face, inhaling deeply not to lose my composure. “I love Enzo. He’s my brother, my best friend, my partner. But it fades in comparison to what I feel foryou. I’ve lost years. I’m not willing to lose the rest of my life in the name of loyalty.”
My decision drops between us with the force of a sledgehammer. I won’t back down.
She eyes me with glistening eyes, shaking her head. “Please. No.”
Too fucking late for second guessing, baby girl.
“Strange how you’ve wanted me for so many years and now, when I could make it all real, you back away. What did you expect to happen, Dahlia?” My voice cracks, just like the sham of control. “All these years, when you thought your feelings were unrequited, and I put up one wall after another. All you’ve done is decimate them until I lost the will to build another one.”
She swallows hard, terror flickering in her eyes that shift from left to right.
I continue, undeterred. “You’ll stand by me, or so help me God I will blow BRACON to its very foundation.”
I know she’s afraid. But she’s my priority. I am done loving in the shadows when I could have her with me, in my bed, in my life.
“Come on. Let’s head home,” I say and kiss her lips, ending this discussion.
She rolls out of bed, silent as a shadow, as she goes to the bathroom.
On the drive to the airport, the atmosphere tenses with all the things we don’t say.
I want to return to the playfulness and teasing.
I caress my suit pocket, where a velvet box lies hidden. She wants my everything, just like I yearn to give her everything—the filled life she desires. The life I’ve been too terrified to even consider.
I am done thinking about what is best for her, refusing to entertain the thought that it could ever be me. She chose me,and fuck if I won’t create an entirely new world for her, where it bends the knee to her, submits to her will.
Life with me will bring its own tribulations, but as a Mafia princess, she has gotten used to the security, to the constant danger. By my side, the protection will increase. I care little about losing my empire, but losing her is unfathomable.
Once we’re in the jet, I wait for her to take a seat. She looks unsure at first, and when I realize where she’s heading, my jaw hardens, my molars may crack at any moment.
She sits in the seat by the corridor, forcing me to take the one in front of her.
“Scoot up or move your ass next to me. Right now,” I say, not caring that I sound rough.
She raises a brow at me, the brat rising, and my hand itches to punish her.
