She reached across the bed and took my hand. “I was thinking that I couldn’t just stand there and watch you die right in front of me.”
“So you decided to throw yourself in front of a bullet?”
“No. I was just trying to push you out of the way.”
I took her hand in both of mine and leaned closer, sticking my face in hers. “You could’ve been fucking killed,” I snarled.
She squeezed my fingers. “That wasn’t my intention.”
“I don’t need you to protect me,” I told her. “Do you understand? Don’t you ever, EVER, pull that kind of shit again.”
A small smile broke out on her perfect face as I yelled at her.
“Jesus Christ, Sera.” I pulled her hand to my mouth and kissed her fingers. “Promise me you’ll never do anything so stupid again. You can’t put yourself in danger like that. My heart can’t take it.”
“I promise I’ll try.”
“Marry me,” I begged. “Marry me and let me keep you safe.”
She didn’t refuse me right away this time. “Why do you always insist on proposing to me when I look like shit?”
“You’re beautiful,” I told her again, and I meant it. “I’ve never met anyone as beautiful as you.”
She laughed, touching her hair self-consciously. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not.” I wracked my brain, trying to think of something I could say that would convince her to bind herself to me. Forever. “Please, marry me.” I shook my head before she could say anything else. “Don’t,” I told her. “Don’t refuse me again.”
“Is that an order?”
“No. It’s a plea. Sera…” I took a deep breath. I wasn’t good with words. They made me feel exposed. Vulnerable. But I knew they needed to be said. And maybe, over time, it would get easier to say them. “I love you. And I really wish you would just…fuckingletme.”
She stared up at me, her blue-gray eyes too big for her face. “Okay,” she said softly.
It took me a moment to comprehend her answer. “Okay?”
She nodded her head, and a gorgeous fucking smile broke out across her face. “Yes. Okay.” She suddenly got serious. “When I saw that gun aimed at you…” Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat. “I just…I couldn’t…” She looked away, but I didn’t miss the tears filling her eyes.
“Hey, hey. None of that, baby girl. I’m right here, thanks to you. And I’m not going anywhere.”
She wiped at her face with her free hand and then turned back to look at me. “But you can’t lock me up in the bedroom.”
“I can’t promise you that,” I told her honestly.
She smiled, and I leaned over and took her mouth with mine in a possessive kiss.
Mywife.
EPILOGUE
Tristan
“Are you ready?”
I looked over my shoulder to find Enzo standing in the doorway to my room, dressed all in black except for the white flower pinned to his lapel. I didn’t miss the way his eyes flickered over the scars on my back. He was good at hiding his shock from me. Always had been. Much more so than Luca the few times he’d seen me without a shirt. Or perhaps he was just used to the pieces of torn up flesh that had never had the chance to heal correctly.
I didn’t turn toward him as I picked up my dress shirt from the bed and shrugged it on. The front of me was much worse. “Coming,” I told him.
He leaned against the doorjamb with his big arms crossed over his chest. But he wasn’t fooling me. I could see the way his hands shook because he was holding his sunglasses dangling from the fingers of one hand.
