"I'm not being a third wheel," Renzo announces. "I'll stay back."
"I have those lamb chops you like," Annika tells him.
Renzo points at her. "That is why you are my absolute favorite."
"Excuse me," I say. "What about me?"
Renzo looks between us rapidly. "That's why you're both my favorites," he says. "Equally. For completely different reasons. Both are very important."
We all laugh and there are hugs. Annika kisses my cheek. Kirill tells me in Russian, slowly, that I am welcome any time, and I reply in Russian that I will hold him to that and he laughs. Annika says, "Joint piece. Call me." and then Luca's hand is at my back and we move toward the door.
Luca kisses me as we leave and his hand finds the bare skin of my back above the dress and stays there. I feel his mouth smile against mine.
He pulls back.
"I can't wait to get home," he says, against my ear. "I need you out of this dress."
I look up at him. "Then take me home," I tell him.
Epilogue
Luca
The door of the house barely closed behind us when I push her against the wall. My mouth is on hers as I taste her sweet, soft mouth that yields under mine as I devour her. My tongue slides deep tasting every corner of her, sucking on her tongue until she whimpers into the kiss. She bites my lips, the sting sending heat straight to my cock, and I groan against her mouth.
I fist one hand in her hair, gripping tight at the roots, tilting her head exactly where I want it so I can kiss her deeper. My other hand grips her waist, fingers digging into the soft curve there, pulling her body flush against mine. We're both breathing hard already, heavy pants mingling between kisses, chests heaving against each other.
She moans into my mouth. I keep drinking her in, licking her sweet mouth, sucking on her tongue and biting her lips until they're swollen and red. Every time she tries to pull back for air I chase her. My tongue plunging back in, swallowing her little gasps and moans like I'm starving for them.
I lift her without and she wraps her legs around my waist, ankles locking behind my back. As I carry her through the entrance hall I spank her ass hard with my open palm. She jolts against me and moans louder into my mouth, the sound wet and desperate. I spank her again, squeezing the soft, heated flesh right after, feeling her ass cheek under my hand while my tongue strokes her mouth.
I set her down on the wide armchair in the living room, just long enough to yank my tie loose. take her wrists, raise them above her head, and wrap the tie around them in a quick, tight knot. I hold her bound hands there with one of my own, pinning them to the back of the chair.
We're both breathing hard now, chests rising and falling rapidly. I look down at her face, flushed cheeks, swollen red lips, eyes dark with want. Her dress is already riding high on her thighs from being carried, her breasts straining against the fabric with every deep breath she takes.
"You look incredible," I tell her, stroking her jaw with my free hand, thumb brushing her lower lip. "You have always looked incredible, but tonight was genuinely unfair. You can't wear this dress anymore. I'll lose it."
Does she know what she does to me?
She looks up at me with those blue eyes, still catching her breath, and smiles softly.
"Marry me, Luca."
I go still.
She is looking at me and I can see her reading my face and I can see her beginning to construct the sentence that will take it back. I untie her hands.
"Luca, I didn't mean—I know it's too early."
I reach into my jacket pocket and I produce a box and she stops. The ring had been sitting in every jacket I wore for a month. I tried to propose so many times. I always seemed to chicken out. Kirill and Renzo were tired of my many failed attempts, I just couldn't bear her saying no, after all she just went through so much, she just had a whole wedding planned a mere five months ago. I doubted she would want that again, at least for now.
Yet, here she is standing in front of me right and she has just asked me to marry her. Everything was worth it if it meant this moment was promised.
Before Nathalie, I had not been interested in acquiring certain powers before her. I had been interested in control, which was a different thing, the management of territory and relationships and the quiet maintenance of a world that ran on my terms. Power for its own sake had never moved me.
But the thought of anything from her father's world touching her, the thought of her name in a headline or her face on a news website attached to something she had not done, had produced in me a focused and comprehensive motivation that I had not previously experienced. I rebuilt connections I let go dormant.I had made calls I was postponing for years and I pulled every string I could. I wanted her at peace. I would do it again without hesitation because she was the light in a heart that had been dark for a very long time and I was not interested in anything dimming her.
I loved this woman to death.
