She slaps my arm. “Don’t swear when you call me that,” she scolds, making me laugh.
I’ve never been one for public displays, but something possessive and primal drives me to bend down and capture her lips with mine. She tastes like champagne and the chocolate dessert we had not too long ago. Sweet and intoxicating, just like her. When I pull back, her eyes are hazy with desire, a look that makes my cock stir.
“Save it for later, cuz,” Matteo calls out, his single eye gleaming with mischief. “We’ve got more entertainment planned first.”
As if on cue, Raven and Piper move to the center of the room, glasses in hand. Piper steadies herself against Raven’s shoulder, clearly feeling the effects of the alcohol.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Raven announces with a theatrical flourish, “we’ve prepared a special poem for the newlyweds.”
“God help us,” Enzo mutters, though there’s fondness in his voice as he watches his wife.
“At least they’re not singing,” Matteo grins. “I honestly don’t know who’s more tone-deaf between them.”
Piper clears her throat dramatically. “Roses are red,” she begins.
“Violets are blue,” Raven continues.
“Raffaele is as brooding…” Piper sways slightly.
“As the night is dark too,” Raven finishes with a grin.
They continue alternating lines, their timing impeccable despite Piper’s increasing unsteadiness.
“He collected a baker,” Raven says, winking at Alina.
“Whose cupcakes were divine,” Piper adds, raising her glass so enthusiastically that champagne sloshes over the rim.
“Little did he know…” Raven places a steadying hand on Piper’s arm.
“She’d steal his heart in time,” Piper declares, ignoring the spilled champagne on her gray satin dress.
I feel Alina’s gaze on me, questioning. Heart? Is that what this feeling is? This constant awareness of her, this need to keep her close, this unfamiliar softness that threatens to consume me?
The women continue their poem, each line more ridiculous than the last. They make jokes about my scowling, about Alina’s baking skills, about how I probably intimidated the priest into skipping the ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ part of the ceremony.
They’re dead wrong, though. Remus did that.
Each barb earns laughter from our small gathering, even from me. But it’s their final lines that silence the room.
“So here’s to the collector,” Raven says, her voice softening.
“And the woman he claims as his own,” Piper adds, suddenly seeming more sober.
“May you find in each other…” Raven places her hand on her belly.
“What we all search for… a home,” Piper concludes, her eyes meeting Enzo’s across the room.
The sincerity in their voices catches me off guard. A home. Is that what Alina has become for me? The thought is both terrifying and exhilarating. I look down at her to find tears sliding silently down her cheeks, her blue eyes luminous with emotion.
Without thinking, I reach out and brush away a tear with my thumb. “Don’t cry,” I murmur.
“Happy tears,” she whispers, leaning into my touch. “I never thought I’d have this. A family.”
The words punch through me, reminding me of all she’s lost. Her mom’s dead. Her sister’s absent—good fucking riddance—by choice. And here she stands, surrounded by my family of murderers, criminals, monsters by any definition. Yet she’s finding joy in their acceptance.
I pull her closer, pressing my lips to her forehead. “You’re a Russo now,” I tell her. “You’ll always have a family.”
What I don’t say, what I can barely admit to myself, is that she’s given me something too. Something I never knew I was missing until I found her.
