Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Alessio and Antonio nod their understanding. Even Ricardo bobs his head, looking at Callandria with a new appreciation.
We fight with guns and knives and underhanded deals. They live in the same world we do, and they need none of that to survive it. When they're required to fight, they do it with their brains and sheer force of will. They aren't delicate. They aren't helpless. We don't protect them because they're weak. We defend them because they're the most deserving of all of us. Protecting our women is an honor. One any single Made man worthy of the name would die for without hesitation.
"Come, bella," I murmur, holding out my hand to her. "I think you've won enough of their money for one night."
"Oh, I'm not keeping it," she says.
"Yes, you are. Maybe next time they'll think twice before underestimating you because you're a woman."
"Luca, really," she protests.
"Hush, bella. It's your money now."
"So that means I can do what I want with it, right?"
"Anything except give it back to my men," I agree.
"Fine." She gathers up her chips before shoving them into my hands. "This is for you," she says. "Please put it toward Mrs. Ricardo's care. Oh. And also toward whatever you're paying Alessio and Antonio to protect me." She pats me on the chest, beaming at me.
"Cazzo," I growl as she sails past me out of the kitchen, satisfied with herself.
All three of the men at the table look at me with the exact same expression.
"Don't even say it," I growl. "Not a fucking word."
Alessio actually cracks a smile.
I curse and stomp out of the room after Callandria, pretty sure I walked right into that one myself. Dio. She's too smart for her own good, and she's fearless.
Yes, I love her. So much I can't fucking think about anything but her since she entered my life. She's the only thing that matters.
By the time I make it upstairs, she's already in the bedroom. I stop in the doorway, drinking in the sight of her bathed in the moonlight filtering in through the windows. It lights her with an ethereal glow.
"Did you mean what you said down there?" she asks without turning to look at me. "Do you really think principessas are everything you said?"
I stride into the room, pushing the door closed with my foot before I deposit her chips on the dresser. "I know one who is," I answer.
"Who?"
"I'm looking at her, bella." I strip my shirt off over my head, joining her in front of the windows. "You dropped me to my knees without even lifting a hand against me."
"Oh, I lifted one," she says, smiling.
"Yeah, you did." I drag her back against my chest, pressing my lips to her ear. "That's the moment I fell in love with you."
"Luca," she gasps.
"I've been waiting for you to give every piece of yourself to me, but I'm an idiot," I murmur. "I never told you that you already have every piece of me. I'll wait as long as it takes for you to find room in your heart for me, too."
"What if…" She turns her head to look up at me. "What if you're already there, Luca?"
"Don't say it if you don't mean it, bella," I whisper…plead. Cristo. Yes, I plead. Because I won't fucking survive if she changes her mind later and tries to kick me out of her heart. I need her. More than air or water or fucking life.
She's the one thing in this world that makes it worth saving. That makes me worth saving. My brothers and I…we're damned. But this bella principessa makes me feel like there's some hope for a future that isn't bleak. There's hope for salvation. This world doesn't have to be destruction and devastation. We don't have to dismantle to win. We can build. We can be rebuilt.
And if I still get cast into hell, at least I'll go knowing what it means to be complete. I'll go knowing what it's like to hold the world in my arms and see forever in her eyes. She's my soul, the one thing in this world that brings me peace. The only fucking thing that gives me hope.
I need her to survive.
"Don't say it if you don't mean it," I whisper again.
She turns in my arms, placing her palm against my cheek. Her amber sirens' eyes meet mine, dragging me even deeper under her spell. "Ti amo, Luca," she breathes, the words so soft I strain to hear them. But my heart does. Fuck. My heart does.
"Cristo," I growl, wrapping her hair in my fist. I crane her head back, tugging until her eyes darken. "Say it again, bella."
"Ti amo."
"Again."
"Ti amo."
She means it. The truth is painted across every beautiful line of her face. It spills from her eyes in two drops, making tracks down her round cheeks. She's mine. Finally, this beautiful little princess is mine.