And that’s exactly what I’m going to be for the rest of our lives.
I ease to the side, pulling her with me, uncaring that we’re probably making a giant mess. I’m not ready to let her go yet. Hell, I might not be ready for that for a long damn time. Even this morning, when we were getting ready to leave Ilya’s home, I wasn’t more than a few feet away from her. Afraid that if I looked away, she might disappear again.
To the point that she told me if I didn’t back the hell away, she was going to punch me in the dick and let Hades finish the rest. I didn’t listen, but I think I’ve made up for it.
And if not, I’ll be happy to do it over and over again until I have. Or at least until she’s too exhausted to argue with me about it.
I’m still a prick, sue me. She knows what she’s getting into.
“How long until we land?” Rori finally asks, her voice husky and sleepy.
I lift my wrist to check my watch. “A couple of hours. Are you nervous,orsetta?”
She doesn’t answer right away, but I can feel the tension starting to creep back in. I rub my hand along her back soothingly. “Yeah, I am,” she finally murmurs. She turns her head, resting her chin on her arm as she looks at me. Her green eyes swirl with nerves and dread. “Sienna might forgive me,but everyone else…I get it that they probably won’t trust me. Especially Lucy.”
“Why Lucy?”
“I knew that it was Lane holding Soren. I knew the danger of that and let it happen. I don’t imagine that she’ll ever really forgive me for it. Even though Soren was never in danger.” She sighs, and her eyes close. “And it’s not like Nico is going to be happy with me letting her into the house in the first place.”
“Did you actually let her in?”
She shakes her head. “No. That night you came to my room, arguing with me and I shoved you out? That was the night she revealed she was there and I knew I had to get you out or she might just decide to get you out of the way.”
“I knew something was wrong, and I’ve kicked my own ass for not insisting you tell me,” I sigh, a twinge of regret hitting my gut. Maybe then, all of this bullshit wouldn’t have happened. Even if the outcome was surprising.
“Nothing was going to stand in her way, Alonzo, and there’s no point in the what-ifs now. Now it’s just moving forward, and that might very well mean that you need to accept that not everyone is going to be happy to see me, or willingly accept me.”
“I won’t stand for them to be cruel or unkind to you, Aurora,” I say firmly. I’ve already told my family we’re heading home, and that if anyone has a problem with Rori being with me, then they can talk to me. I don’t mind bashing a few heads together to get the point across.
Even if it includes a pain in the ass Don that needs to take the giant stick out of his ass.
She shakes her head. “You need to keep out of it, Alonzo. All of this, it falls on me to fix it. It falls on me to explain. You can’t stand in front of me because all you’ll do is make it worse. I’m a big girl, I’ve done and seen things that are worse than facing your family and the others. Time will help, but until then, all Ineed is to know that you’re behind me. Everyone else, I can work with their timelines.”
Damn it, I know she’s right, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I lift my head to press a quick kiss to her mouth. “I don’t like to see you hurting,orsetta. Especially with everything else you’ve been through. I’ll try not to interfere, but that’s all I can offer. When it comes to you, I’m not exactly the most rational.”
She grins. “Yeah, I got that.” She stares at me for a moment, her grin slowly dropping away, until finally she says, “I’m also nervous about you and me.”
I startle at that. “About us? Why?” How can she be having doubts about us? This woman is my everything. It’s not like I travel across the country, fighting dangerous assassins for fun.
“Because you and I haven’t exactly had a normal relationship, Alonzo,” Rori moans. “We’ve been at each other’s throats, we’ve fought, and now with all of this behind us, how the hell are we going to be in a normal situation? I’m not exactly a housewife, and I’m not going to be happy sitting home twiddling my thumbs. I don’t know what my life is going to look like now. Not to mention, you live in another country, so it’s not like I can continue bounty hunting either. I have money, more than I know what to do with actually, but that doesn’t mean I can?—”
“Aurora,” I interrupt firmly. I can practically see the spiralling thoughts twirling in her head as panic starts to set in. She snaps her mouth closed, staring at me. “Let’s get this out of the way now so there is no doubt. I love you. And that means I love you as you are. I never expected you to be a woman who would want to sit at home and suddenly become a housewife. Do I hope we have our own family some day? Yes, but not now, not for a while. I want you to myself for a bit.”
“Yeah, we haven’t talked about that.” She winces. “The idea of kids freaks me the hell out. I don’t know that I’ll be a good mother with my background.”
“Then we don’t have them.”
“You can’t give up your dreams for me, Alonzo.”
“Aurora, the only dream I have is growing old with you. If children are not something we decide to have, then that’s fine. It’s not like there won’t be lots around with the way my brothers and the Carusos are dropping like flies. Hell, even Sofia will probably have a few eventually. We will make those decisions together, Aurora, but not until you’re ready.”
She relaxes instantly. “And what if in a few years you realize that you want something else? You want all that, and I don’t want to give it to you? Or we just realize that we don’t work?”
Impossible, but I keep that to myself. “Then we figure it out, but let me tell you this, Aurora. I love you, and we have been through some of the worst we could ever go through. That will not push us apart. Am I going to fuck up and piss you off? Fucking right, I know I am because I’m a stubborn ass and overprotective of the people I care about. Are you going to piss me off? Something tells me it’s going to be consistently, but that’s just who we are. We fight, we make up, and then we keep moving forward together. But I’m not going into this relationship waiting for those moments. I’m looking for the good ones. The memories we create, and the highs that we get to experience together, whatever those may be.”
“And some really hot sex,” she adds cheekily.
I chuckle, running my hand down to cup her ass. “Some really fucking hot sex. And I plan on doing that as often as you’ll let me.” I smile at her. “We’ll make this work, Aurora. And we’ll set our own pace and expectations for each other. No one else gets to dictate that for us. All I need is you, with me, and willing to put in the work with me.”
