“Shut the door!”
“Now,” I growled.
The door slammed close, then Tore pummeled his fist or palm against it. “Just hurry up, will you?”
“Fuck off!” Renzo and I both yelled. The moment we heard him leave, we both sighed, our bubble officially cracked.
“We should get moving,” Renzo finally said.
I huffed in irritation, but rose off him and pulled my pants on. He probably had meetings toattend.
I thought that was the end of the morning’s events until, later on, I caught Tore loading my suitcase into the trunk of Vinny’s black SUV. Renzo didn’t give me time to question it. He swept me off my feet bridal style and walked to the car with a mischievous smirk that I couldn’t look away from. The moment we found our seats, he tucked me against him and kissed me senseless.
“You’re my everything, you know that?” He cradled my face. “With you, I see a future I never thought was possible for a man like me.”
“You getting cheesy on me?”
His green eyes glimmered.
“I’m serious,” he whispered, over the hum of the engine, as the scenery blurred by. “With everything that’s happened. My father. My sister. Prison. I never thought to hope for happiness until you forced your way in and dug your claws so deep, there was no getting you out.”
Love and adoration radiated from him. Only I got this softer side of him, and it filled me with a deep sense of awe and devotion. I pressed my forehead to his.
“I can’t think of anyone better to hold my shattered pieces together. You’re my man, my heart, and my best friend.”
“These last seven months were only the beginning.”
Those words were a balm to the lingering heaviness the absence of my parents and Noah had left on my heart. Lou and Boyan had patched up my broken pieces and kept me whole when I’d been on the verge of crumbling. Tore and Vinny had been the glue that kept the pieces together when I’d still been fragile. And Renzo, over the years, he’d become the frame surrounding the pieces, a constant presence of support, protection, care, and now love. I couldn’t imagine my world without any of them, but him, most of all.
“We’ll have a lifetime of moments,civetta,” he said, his index drawing down my bottom lip. “You and me, forever.”
Even after the orgasm he’d already given me, I was heady with need. Honestly, had the car been parked—regardless of Jac being in the driver’s seat—I would’ve happily gotten to my knees, unzipped his pants, and deepthroated his cock for a start to round two.
“I have something for you,” he said, pulling me away from my thoughts.
From inside the car door pocket, he retrieved a square box about the width of my palm and set it on my lap.
I glanced at him curiously, then slid the top off to reveal a flower of life pendant, just like the one he often wore, on a beautiful flat-snake, gold chain. I peeked at his neck.
He chuckled. “Yes, it’s the one I wore. Now it’s yours.”
I picked up the pendant, the chain scraping along the box, and thumbed the intricate design. “It’s beautiful. Why give me this?”
“It was my mother’s. She believed everything in the world was connected one way or another. Coincidences were the world’s way of balancing out the wrongs with the rights. To her, everything served a purpose. Every action taken was just another branch on the web of destiny. I think it was what she clung to so that her worst days still had meaning.”
He fitted the pendant and chain around my neck, dipping his head down to press a kiss to my throat. His earthy scent filled my nose, and the metal settled above my breasts like a mini shield over the top of my sternum.
“She always wore it, except the day she died, so I kept it as a way to stay close to her.”
“I can’t take this from you.”
He stayed my hand before I could unclasp it. “You can, and you will. After everything that happened between us, I think she’d want you to have it.Iwant you to have it.”
My eyes bounced between his. “Why?”
“You and I…we’re fate’s work. Two completely different people, born far apart, with nothing in common. One of us good, the other not, and brought together by the worst moments of our lives. If that doesn’t mean we’re meant to be…well then, to hell with the world because I’m keeping you. Forever. Fuck death do us part.”
I tossed my head back, laughing. “Next, you’ll start spouting sonnets.”
