Page 460 of Reign

He says it like my future can be rearranged around me.

Maybe with him, it can.

I reopen the laptop and click the button before I can reconsider it.

A small circle spins in the center of the screen.

Then the confirmation appears.

YOUR DEFERRAL REQUEST HAS BEEN SUBMITTED.

My stomach flips.

“Oh God.”

Luciano looks at the screen. “Regretting it?”

“No.” I release a breath. “I think I’m excited.”

“You should be.”

He takes the laptop from me and places it on the nightstand.

That’s when I see it.

A narrow gold band circles one of his fingers. Dark red runs through the center, polished until it catches the afternoon light like glass.

Luciano doesn’t wear rings.

I catch his wrist before he can lower it.

“Wait.” I bring it closer, narrowing my eyes at the darker shape suspended inside the resin. “What is that?”

Luciano looks at the ring. “A piece of the linen I used the first night we were together.”

My eyes snap to his.

The white linen.

The one he knelt between my legs with after he took me against the bathroom wall.

“You put my virginity blood inside a ring?”

“I put a piece of the stained linen inside it.”

“That correction does not make this better. That is completely unhinged.”

“Probably.” He shrugs.

“Luciano.”

His thumb passes over the ring. “I preserved the first night my life had you in it.” His eyes return to mine. “Nothing I own means more to me.”

I should probably be horrified, but the meaning behind it is so specifically Luciano that the tenderness catches me off guard.

“Besides you, of course,” he adds with a smirk.

I swat his chest. He catches my hand and presses a kiss to my knuckles.