Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 37733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
He tips my head back, his hazel eyes meeting mine. "Then let's make it true. Marry me."
"What?"
"Marry me, mio sole. Now, tonight. Tomorrow. As soon as we can make it happen."
"You want to marry me?" My heart leaps into my throat.
"Your uncle won't be able to touch your money. Neither will I. I'll sign a prenup to ensure it."
My heart falls into my stomach as quickly as it leaped. He doesn't want to marry me. He's just trying to protect me.
"No, thank you."
"You don't want a prenup?"
"I don't want to marry you."
He falls still, his eyes narrowing on me. It might be my imagination, but it looks almost as if pain shoots through his eyes before his expression goes flat. "You don't want to marry me."
It's not really a question, more like a clipped, cranky statement. But I answer anyway. "I'm not tying myself to you just because you think it'll keep my money safe, Domani."
I'm not sure I ever had dreams of getting married. Trapped in my uncle's house, my dreams were far sadder. I dreamed of escape. There were no white knights coming to sweep me away. No fairytale weddings. Even as a kid, I think I knew that wasn't the future waiting for me. Like most women born into this life, I was a tool to be used.
But if I ever did dream of a different life for myself, my future husband didn't tie himself to me out of obligation or a sense of responsibility. He didn't do it because he knew there was a possibility he wouldn't survive the coming days. He did it because he couldn't imagine surviving without me. That's what I want. I won't settle for anything less. With him, I can't. Because I might not have his heart, but I think he has mine.
I don't know anything about love. I don't know what it feels like, what it looks like, or what I'm even supposed to do with it. It's been so long since anyone felt that for me, or I felt that for anyone; it's a foreign emotion, one completely at odds with everything I know. And yet…when I look at Domani? When he touches me? I think it's the thing whispering through me. Those whispers grow louder with every passing moment.
Losing him may kill me. But tying myself to him when he doesn't love me will destroy me in ways far more corrosive. I know pain. I know what it is to lose yourself day by day. I've done it for most of my life. I won't live that way again. I can't.
"Then marry me because I can't fucking live without you," he growls.
My gaze flies to his, shock running through me.
"You heard me, tesoro. You think I ask this lightly? I don't." He cups my cheek. "I know what we face. I know what you think. I'm not asking you because I think we're going to die. I'm asking you because I refuse to allow that to happen. You're going to survive this, and so I am. And when it's over, your life will be permanently tied to mine. But in the meantime, your money will be safe. Your uncle will no longer have control over it, and you'll be free."
"Domani," I whisper, hope and fear crashing together like cymbals in my chest. I want to believe him so fucking badly. But do I? Can I? Is there really a future where the two of us walk out of this alive and together?
"Il mio cuore batte per te."
"I still don't know Italian."
"My heart beats for you, Finley." He grabs my hand, laying it flat against his chest. His heart thumps a strong, steady rhythm against my palm, shaking me to my core. "It'll always beat for you. I knew it before I carried you out of your uncle's house last night."
"How?" I whisper. How is he so sure? He's so confident, so unwavering. It's as if he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is what's supposed to happen, as if we're what's meant to be. I want to believe him so damn badly. But I'm terrified to trust the little voice screaming that he's my one. Not because I'm worried that I'll be wrong and he'll lock me away just like my uncle. But because I'm terrified that if I'm right, suddenly, I'll have something to lose. I've never had that before.
"Because you're a piece of me. Mio cuore. Mio sole. Luce mia." His lips brush mine. "Io e te per sempre. You and me forever."
I sob, pressing my face to his throat as he cracks my heart wide open and sends my walls crashing to the ground. They fall in a blaze of glory, allowing him to sweep into every space in my heart. I cling to him, tears pouring down my face as years of fear, grief, and rage pour out of me, and the bright sparks of love ignite a wildfire in their place.