“I love you, Dominic Wilde.” The words came easier than she’d expected. As natural as breathing. “I loved you even when I hated you for what you did. I loved you when I left. I loved you when I tried to forget you. And I love you now.”
He exhaled shakily, and his hands came up to cover hers. “Can I say it now?”
She nodded, not trusting her voice.
“I love you, Viv.” He turned his head to press a kiss to her palm. “I never stopped. Not for a single day.”
It was the starkness of it—the truth, stripped of all decoration or apology—that broke her open and she couldn’t stop the rush of tears.
“We wasted so much time.”
“We have plenty more.” He thumbed away the tears and pressed his lips to her forehead. “And for the record, I do plan to marry you. Whenever you’re ready.”
The words should have terrified her. Should have sent her running for the door. They didn’t.
“How about tomorrow?” she heard herself say.
Dom blinked. “What?”
“Tomorrow. City hall. Just us.” The idea took root as she spoke and felt right in a way few things ever had. “Unless you want the whole Wilde family circus.”
“Jesus, no.” He looked stunned, but a smile was spreading across his face. “You’re serious?”
“Dead serious.” She felt lighter than she had in years, as if some invisible weight had finally been lifted. “Life’s too short for long engagements. Especially in our line of work.”
Dom laughed, the sound warm and genuine. “Tomorrow it is, then. City hall. Just us.”
“And maybe Sabin,” she amended. “If he’s having a good day.”
“And your dad, unless you want him hunting me down with Bordeaux.”
“Fine. Sabin and my dad. Mama, too. She’d be heartbroken if I got married without her.”
“Yeah, and my parents, too. And brothers.”
“And Rowan and Rue.” She leaned in to press her forehead against his. “I wouldn’t expect you to leave them out.”
“Right. But no one else.” His hand came up to cup the back of her neck, drawing her closer. “God, I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered against his lips, the words still new enough to send a thrill through her. “Now take me to bed, future husband. You need to rest that shoulder if we’re getting married tomorrow.”
Dom stood and pulled her up with him. “Yes, ma’am.”
As he led her down the familiar hallway to their bedroom—because it was theirs now, fully and completely—Vivi felt the final pieces of her world shifting into place. Raines was dead. Sabin was healing. And tomorrow, she would marry the man she’d never stopped loving, even when she’d tried her hardest to.
Some things, it seemed, were simply meant to be.
thirty
“Canyou believe Dom went and got himselfmarried?”
Daphne tugged at the sleeve of her blue cashmere sweater and shifted her weight from one foot to another as she stood outside Café de Flore. She was only half-listening to her sister in her earpiece, her attention split between Celeste’s disbelieving commentary and the busy Parisian café before her. A year of conversations with Titan—a year of encryption challenges and philosophical debates that stretched late into the night—had led to this moment, and her heart hammered against her ribs like it was trying to escape.
“Hello? Earth to Daphne? Are you even listening to me?”
“Sorry, sis. I’m just—” She checked her watch for the fourth time in as many minutes. “I’m a bit distracted.”
“I can tell. But seriously, Dom and Vivi eloped! City Hall! Just like that!” Celeste snapped her fingers loudly enough that Daphne winced and adjusted her earpiece. “No planning, no bachelor party, no cake! But of course, we all crashed it. You don’t get married in this family without inviting, you know, the family.”
