Epilogue
Luca
The door of the house barely closed behind us when I push her against the wall.
My mouth is on hers as I taste her sweet, soft mouth that yields under mine as I devour her.
My tongue slides deep tasting every corner of her, sucking on her tongue until she whimpers into the kiss.
She bites my lips, the sting sending heat straight to my cock, and I groan against her mouth.
I fist one hand in her hair, gripping tight at the roots, tilting her head exactly where I want it so I can kiss her deeper.
My other hand grips her waist, fingers digging into the soft curve there, pulling her body flush against mine.
We're both breathing hard already, heavy pants mingling between kisses, chests heaving against each other.
She moans into my mouth. I keep drinking her in, licking her sweet mouth, sucking on her tongue and biting her lips until they're swollen and red. Every time she tries to pull back for air I chase her. My tongue plunging back in, swallowing her little gasps and moans like I'm starving for them.
I lift her without and she wraps her legs around my waist, ankles locking behind my back.
As I carry her through the entrance hall I spank her ass hard with my open palm.
She jolts against me and moans louder into my mouth, the sound wet and desperate.
I spank her again, squeezing the soft, heated flesh right after, feeling her ass cheek under my hand while my tongue strokes her mouth.
I set her down on the wide armchair in the living room, just long enough to yank my tie loose. take her wrists, raise them above her head, and wrap the tie around them in a quick, tight knot. I hold her bound hands there with one of my own, pinning them to the back of the chair.
We're both breathing hard now, chests rising and falling rapidly. I look down at her face, flushed cheeks, swollen red lips, eyes dark with want. Her dress is already riding high on her thighs from being carried, her breasts straining against the fabric with every deep breath she takes.
"You look incredible," I tell her, stroking her jaw with my free hand, thumb brushing her lower lip. "You have always looked incredible, but tonight was genuinely unfair. You can't wear this dress anymore. I'll lose it."
Does she know what she does to me?
She looks up at me with those blue eyes, still catching her breath, and smiles softly.
"Marry me, Luca."
I go still.
She is looking at me and I can see her reading my face and I can see her beginning to construct the sentence that will take it back. I untie her hands.
"Luca, I didn't mean—I know it's too early."
I reach into my jacket pocket and I produce a box and she stops.
The ring had been sitting in every jacket I wore for a month.
I tried to propose so many times. I always seemed to chicken out.
Kirill and Renzo were tired of my many failed attempts, I just couldn't bear her saying no, after all she just went through so much, she just had a whole wedding planned a mere five months ago.
I doubted she would want that again, at least for now.
Yet, here she is standing in front of me right and she has just asked me to marry her. Everything was worth it if it meant this moment was promised.
Before Nathalie, I had not been interested in acquiring certain powers before her. I had been interested in control, which was a different thing, the management of territory and relationships and the quiet maintenance of a world that ran on my terms. Power for its own sake had never moved me.
But the thought of anything from her father's world touching her, the thought of her name in a headline or her face on a news website attached to something she had not done, had produced in me a focused and comprehensive motivation that I had not previously experienced.
I rebuilt connections I let go dormant. I had made calls I was postponing for years and I pulled every string I could.
I wanted her at peace. I would do it again without hesitation because she was the light in a heart that had been dark for a very long time and I was not interested in anything dimming her.
I loved this woman to death.
I kneel and she puts her hand over her mouth.
She walked into my life looking for her father's approval and dismantled everything I thought I knew about myself in the process. How did I ever function before her?
I realize, I didn't, I was just going through the motions and calling it a life.
"I don't believe in miracles," I say. "I don't believe men like me deserve them if they exist." I pause. "But I wake up every morning and I see your face and I understand, suddenly and completely, how miracles happen."
She is crying.
"I will watch you pursue every dream you have," I continue, "whatever form they take.
I will never allow a single hair on your head to be touched by danger or worry as long as I am alive.
" I hold her gaze. "And I promise this not only to you but to your mother.
To the woman who raised you and deserved to see you become this. I promise her too."
"Will you marry me, Nathalie?"
"Yes." she says softly, stretching her hands toward me. I slide the ring into her finger and I stand, take her face in both hands, and kiss her.
I taste her sweet, soft lips, then push my tongue deep into her mouth. She moans into the kiss and kisses me back just as desperately, her tongue sliding.
I lift her again and I carry her toward the bedroom, still kissing her the entire way.
My free hand grips her ass hard, fingers digging into the fabric of her dress as I walk.
She kisses my jaw, then my neck, her teeth grazing my skin as I carry her.
I kick the bedroom door open with my foot. It slams against the wall.
She pulls back just enough to look at me.
"Luca," she says, "This dress is expensive. You cannot rip it."
I exhale. "Just put it in my side of the wardrobe! Yours has too many dresses. I can't wait."
I set her down and I help her unzip the dress, she opens my wardrobe and she reaches up to hang it and something falls and it lands on the floor between us.
We both look at it. And I curse under my breath.
The bra. Her bra! I completely forgot. I had hidden it the minute we came to Las Vegas keeping in mind to throw it away subtly myself when I had the time. And I had forgotten! I had been so busy these last months that I forgot.
I had part of the room changed into a walk-in closet so she never had a reason to go to my wardrobe. Except now! I am cooked.
The bra is now sitting on the wardrobe floor. I close my eyes briefly.
She reaches down and she picks it up and she holds it and she turns it over and she looks at it and she reads the tag and her expression moves through several stages and then she turns and she looks at me and she says, very slowly, "Luca? What's this?"
"Nathalie—"
"This is bra." She holds it up. "This is an old line. This specific design. I had one exactly like this." She looks at me and her eyes go wide. "Luca. Is this my bra? It looks one I had ages ago."
"Listen—"
"Oh my God, you're the pervert," she breathes. "From that night. It was you."
"If you would just let me—"
"It was you," she says again. She looks at the bra and then at me. "The crystal. That's why you asked me about it. It came off your watch that night, didn't it."
I nod.
I reach for her. "I know what you're thinking and I need you to understand that you already agreed to marry me, you can't change that."
She laughs.
I pull her toward me and she is still laughing and I say, with more urgency than I would like to admit, "You cannot leave me. The ring is on your finger."
"Alright, alright," she manages, between laughing.
I hold her and I wait.
She composes herself. She looks up at me and she asks, "How long were you going to hide it?"
"Indefinitely," I tell her honestly. "I was going to take that information to my grave."
"Because you were worried I'd think you were a pervert."
I hold her gaze. "The thought crossed my mind."
She looks at me for a moment, still smiling, and then she says more quietly, "It is a bit perverted, taking someone's bra."
I hold my breath.
"But," she continues, tilting her head, "it also means that fate had us meant for each other before either of us knew it." She looks at the ring on her finger and then at me. "I was the woman you were searching for."
"You were the woman I was searching for," I confirm.
She smiles. "I love you."
I take her jaw in my hand and I stroke my thumb across her cheek. "You have no idea what you mean to me."
She rises onto her toes and she puts her lips against my ear and she whispers, "Show me."
Every last shred of control I have snaps.
I grab her face with both hands and kiss her hungrily. When I pull away, she is breathless. I kiss her forehead and I hug her.
"Thank you for coming into my life," I whisper. Her hand wraps around me. I love you so much, Nathalie."
"I love you, Luca."
She looks up at me and she smiles. I lower my face to hers for another sweet kiss.
The End?