Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 109882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
“Let's go back to your place,” I murmured suggestively. “I’m not ready for the night to be over with.”
He slated a heated look and chuckled deeply. “Oh, bella, it’s cute you actually thought I was taking you anywhere but back to my place.”
My belly tightened with all the sexual promise his words evoked in me. I didn’t think I could fall harder for Enzo, but he was proving me wrong on every single front.
Epilogue
Enzo
One year later
I moved off Bianca and immediately pulled her in close to my body, our skin damp and sweaty from the hours of fucking we’d done. I lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm, then turned her hand around to look at her fingers… specifically her ring finger where the engagement ring was.
The large solitaire diamond caught the moonlight and sparkled, and I felt this swell of pleasure and possessiveness slam into me. Our wedding was set for later this year, one that would be big and grand and hold so many invitees that I was sure the day would be a blur for everyone.
Underbosses, captains, associates, and everyone else of importance in The Family would be in attendance. They’d pay their respects to the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with, the woman who would give me even more strength simply because she was by my side.
She was mine. And nothing would ever change that.
We’d moved in together a couple of months after she met my mother for the first time, and truthfully, I would have had her do it sooner if I hadn't been worried that the swiftness of my feelings and how permanent I wanted to make things would have terrified her. But when I suggested living together, she had absolutely zero hesitation. She launched herself into my arms and told me she’d expected me to ask her earlier.
That memory had a smile moving over my lips.
We lay there side by side in silence, our breathing once erratic but now calming. Over the last year, I found this happiness and pleasure that could only be because of Bianca. The fact that she accepted who I was and didn’t shy away, wasn’t afraid, told me she’d been made for me and the world I was in.
My life was gritty and sometimes ugly, and I’d always shield her from that as much as I could, but I knew there would be times when my life collided with the one I was creating with Bianca, and that terrified me. There wasn’t much in this world that could scare a man like me, a man who tortured and killed and felt nothing afterward, but to think of Bianca being caught in the crossfires of the mafia life could have brought me to my knees.
I pulled her impossibly closer, her body so lush and curvy… so fucking perfect.
“I’ll always protect you, even with my last breath. I’ll try to keep my darkness from the life we’re creating and growing together.”
She shifted on the bed, and I felt her looking at me, but I stared at the ceiling, my thoughts suddenly in turmoil at the very real fear that maybe I wasn't as strong as I had always been. Maybe I couldn’t protect her as much as I wanted to.
For the first time in my life, I feared I wasn't strong enough to keep my word to her. For the first time in my fucking life, I had a weakness.
I looked over at Bianca, her bright blue eyes hooded from our lovemaking. I let go of her hand and cupped the side of her face, stroking my thumb over her cheek, her skin still slightly damp from our exertion.
My enemies had always tried to find a way to hurt me, but aside from my mother and Paolo—the latter not so much as a weakness because he was just as brutal as I was—I’d never had a vulnerable aspect in my life.
“I’ll never let anyone take you from me.” I leaned in and kissed her, and she met me halfway, slanting her lips on mine, holding on to me as if she were just as desperate for me as I was for her.
“I’ll never let anyone take you from me,” she whispered against my mouth, and I couldn’t help but smile at the conviction in her voice.
I pulled her closer so half her body was sprawled over mine. My cock hardened again despite having come so fucking hard just moments before. I could tell her over and over again how much she meant to me, how much I cared for her, but right now, I needed to show her with my body. All night long.
I pulled her on top of me so Bianca straddled my waist.
“Again?” she asked huskily and lifted an eyebrow when she glanced down and saw how hard and thick my cock was, the length resting on my belly and moving a little past my navel.