Page 497 of Reign

Luciano feels the change immediately. He pushes the blanket down and looks up at me. His hair is messy from my hands, his mouth wet, his eyes fixed on my face.

“It’s my birthday?” I ask.

The question sounds thin. Childish.

His expression changes.

“You forgot.”

“No.” I search for the date and find it waiting for me, undeniable. Wedding appointments and fittings have swallowed the calendar, but that isn’t why I stopped looking at it.

I didn’t want to know this day was coming.

“Oh.”

Luciano pulls the hem of my nightie down over my thighs before moving up the bed. His hands slide beneath my arms, lifting me directly into his lap.

My thighs bracket his hips automatically.

My body begins shaking after he has me safely against his chest.

One of his hands cups the back of my head. The other moves slowly along my spine.

“I have to get ready,” I say.

“For what?”

“We have to go somewhere.” My thoughts scatter faster than I can catch them. “Angelo’s house or Santo’s. I don’t know whose turn it is. Did they call? What time are we supposed to be there?”

“We aren’t.”

I pull back enough to see his face. “What?”

“We aren’t going anywhere.”

“But they’ll be expecting me.”

“They were.”

“Were?”

“Angelo called at six thirty. Santo sent me an itinerary at seven.”

Despite everything tightening inside me, I stare at him. “An itinerary?”

“Three pages.”

“Of course it was.”

“I told them you were unavailable.”

“Luciano.”

“Do you want to go?”

The answer comes before I can arrange it into something less terrible.

“No.”