Page 119 of The Strength Of A Woman

His eyes are smiling.

His teeth sparkle in the moonlight.

“Sorry? For what, baby?”

He brushes a few strands of hair away from my face.

“I didn’t know how to tell you about this.”

He studies my face with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“There was no time for you to tell me anything,” he says, gently moving his forefinger over my cheek. “I had to assume things like everybody else. Don’t worry about it. I wish we had done it in a different order, though.”

“Meaning?”

Curiosity beams in my voice.

He clamps up, unwilling to elaborate.

“What do you mean?” I insist, lying on top of his chest, whatever’s left of my crumpled dress still clinging to my body.

He looks at it and removes it so I can be naked on top of him. He’s still wearing his pants, although his pants are open and he is full and hard again.

“I want to marry you, Leilani,” he says in a low, serious voice that makes me shudder at first before I realize the full meaning of his words, and my mouth falls open.

He uses this opportunity to nudge me off and peels his pants off before picking up a towel and covering himself.

It’s useless in my opinion since he can’t hide how hard he is, if that was his intention.

“You want to marry me?” I murmur, shifting my eyes from the hand palming his groin to his face.

He props himself against a pillow and looks up at the sky for a moment.

“Like now? How soon?” I ask.

I know that he said what he said about us growing old together.

It looks like I need him to say it a few more times for it to register with me.

“How soon would you like?” he asks.

I tap my fingers on his hard, tattooed chest.

“Well, I need to marry that guy first, don’t I?” I say with dark humor. “Can’t we just kill him and be done with him?” I go on, and he studies me, entertained.

“Iwillkill him. It’s just that we need to wait till next month when the two of you are having the wedding.”

I rub a hand over my face, having a good laugh.

“You’re funny,” I say.

“So are you.”

I lock my eyes with his again.

“Can’t we just kill him in Taormina?” I ask.

“I thought about that too, but it’s too risky to do it here. Things need to be set up properly to prevent a full-fledged war.”