Chapter 23 Fully Committed #2
He walked with a hunch, and probably usually used the cane that leaned, forgotten, against the side of the sofa, but neither his slouched form nor his limp disguised his truth.
He was, or had once been, an impressive man in his own right.
Perhaps never as tall as Santino, but he was clearly where Santino got the blue eyes and if she had to guess, probably the light hair. Though Nonno’s was thin and silver now.
“Nonno?” Santino asked, a note of cautious curiosity in his quieted voice.
The older man raked his cloudy blue eyes over Reiko unabashedly. He was the first man who’d done so since Santino had swooped into her life, she was pretty sure. His eyes locked onto hers before she could dwell on that. “Do you expect me to thank you for killing my granddaughter?”
Reiko sucked in a breath at the grating question.
“Nonno,” Santino said again, more firmly.
“No,” Reiko answered before either man could say more.
She kept her words as soft as she dared, taking her cue on acceptable volume from Santino, and valiantly held the elder man’s stare.
“I don’t want gratitude, and I won’t ask for your forgiveness.
Whether or not I had taken action, your granddaughter would not have survived the hour. We all know it.”
Saying the words aloud drove it home in a way she hadn’t consciously processed yet. She’d killed a woman. She had ended another human’s life with her own hands. The reality of that was heavy, until she forcibly repeated—to herself—what she’d just told Santino’s grandfather.
Her own actions had only changed the face of Adele’s executioner. Adele’s death itself had been long decided. If she was going to survive in the world of the mafia, probably it was best she not get hung up on more detail than that.
Nonno released a throaty, wheezy growl. “And what gave you the right to interfere?”
Santino’s chest heaved, the sense of irritation radiating from him.
Reiko lifted an arm and curled it around his back, her fingers digging into his hip. “You see where I’m standing right now? This gives me the right. I will never be a quiet decoration on a shelf, merely taken down and shown off from time-to-time. I will be here. Always.”
Santino’s grip tightened. “Fuck,” he muttered, the sound barely carrying.
Nonno’s eyes narrowed, his nostrils flaring. “So, what is it you want with my grandson?”
Reiko smiled, the expression arguably too warm for the scene but wholly honest, and replied, “Everything.”
“I will be here. Always.”
A little more than twelve hours after she’d so confidently said those words, and Santino still hadn’t recovered. The memory of her sweet words was like an adrenaline shot to his libido, every time.
He groaned even as he nibbled at the skin of her throat before hauling himself upright in the interest of letting her rest. He could admit he’d been a bit overenthusiastic that morning before they’d dragged themselves from bed. But fuck had it been worth the exertion.
“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not helping,” Reiko said, squirming over his lap.
Santino made no effort to stop the grin, dropped another kiss to the corner of her mouth, and finally reached for the tablet he’d had the foresight to bring over to the table.
He queued up the page he wanted and slid it in front of her.
“Just thinking about you, beautiful,” he teased.
“Now, go shopping. I feel bad your poor chrysanthemums have been neglected, so buy yourself some more, and whatever else you want. We’ve got a big house and plenty of garden space. ”
She didn’t know it yet, but he’d already decided to have her sit down with a landscape architect and redesign the garden however she liked.
He didn’t want to overwhelm her, though, and she’d had an emotional reaction to learning he was renovating the wardrobe and attached ensuite rather than force her to live with a space that held bad memories. So, one thing at a time.
Reiko made an adorable face as she examined the website displayed on the tablet.
“Snapdragon Blooms,” she read aloud. She was actually reading the store’s biographical page.
Then she pointed to the screen and turned another adorable frown at him.
“Santino, this place is located in New Jersey. Shipping’s going to be insane.
I’m sure there’s a perfectly good florist in Missouri we could use. ”
He chuckled and gave her a squeeze. “Oh, trust me, beautiful. This is the place.” Just imagining the look on Dante’s face when he heard Santino’s name and address popped up on the billing information for a large order at Mrs. De Salvo’s flower shop would be worth the expense on its own.
Probably he did need to properly explain the whole inter-state mafia alliance thing to his fiancée, though.
One thing at a time, he reminded himself.
Reiko gave a short shake of her head and began scrolling. “You’re impossible.”
“Impossibly in love.”
“I’m not sure that’s cute.”
“Need me to crawl under this table while you shop and convince you of my devotion?”
She choked on a laugh and jabbed him lightly with her elbow. “I swear, if you don’t give me at least half a day to rest, I’ll write something really demeaning in kanji, instead of my name.”
Santino dropped his head back and bellowed a laugh at her threat.
She could absolutely get away with it if she wanted.
The characters would be on his skin long before he’d know better.
But the fact that that was what she’d threatened was damn hilarious.
He folded his arms properly around her and bent so his face was half-buried in her neck.
“You really are a treasure, beautiful. I don’t deserve you. ”
She shuffled against him—unhelpfully—and laid an arm overtop of his while she scrolled slowly through the digital catalogue. “Let’s not fight about who deserves whom. As long as we’re happy, I think it’s okay in the end, isn’t it?”
He licked the back curve of her jawbone, because fucking hell, all of her bone structure was sexy.
All of her was sexy. When had he developed a bone-structure kink?
Was that even a real thing? He pushed the thought away.
“Yeah, baby,” he said as she shuddered in his arms. “That’s the most important thing.
” He pressed a kiss to the skin below her ear.
“No, you, you are my most important thing.”
Her fingers spread out to curl around his forearm, nails biting faintly into his flesh. “Maybe, instead of looking for flowers for the house, we should be talking about wedding plans.”
He sucked in a breath of her, then adjusted to prop his chin on her shoulder. “Yeah?”
“I want to be able to see my feet at my wedding,” she said. “But I have no idea how long it really takes to plan and organize all of that. We might already be past that option.”
It was not his fault his dick twitched at the less-than-subtle suggestion of her already being pregnant with their first child. The fact he kept his hands in place at the thought was perhaps one of his top lifetime accomplishments.
Aloud, he said, “If we were normal, working-class people, you’d probably be right.
” He turned his head enough to breathe his reminder into her ear.
“Tell me what style bride you want to be, and I’ll have a personal boutique set up for you in the house by next weekend.
If you can’t find exactly what you want, we’ll order custom. ”
“That’s—”
He licked at her lips to silence her when she half-twisted toward him. Then he eased back, met her gaze, and teased, “The billionaire way, beautiful. We do everything over the top. I’m going to spoil you whether you ask or not.”
Reiko sighed against him, but her exaggerated movement did not disguise the laugh that shook her frame. “Fine. But you can’t be there for the private session part.”
Santino pouted dramatically. “Spoilsport.”
She pinched his arm. “We should look into cake sampling or something, too. And venues. And whatever else. We can do those things together.”
He kissed her hair. “Can’t wait to marry me?”
She drew an audible breath, lifted her head from his shoulder, and smiled far too warmly at him.
“It’s not the wedding,” she said. “Not specifically. I do want to marry you, Santino. But the thing I’m most eager for is everything after …
for us.” Tears sparkled in front of her brown eyes.
“I’ve never looked forward to anything more than the promise of us. ”
His chest burned in a way he was scarcely familiar with, because he understood. He tipped forward, brushed his lips over hers for a moment, then let an almost painfully genuine smile split his face. “Neither have I, beautiful.”