Chapter Fifty–Two
Stefano
AS IF IN DEFIANCE, she remains still.
It’s fine. I can wait.
Seconds stretch. Her shoulders rise and fall with a measured sigh…and, slowly, she turns.
Just like that, warmth spreads through my chest, seeping into the hollowed ache that’s lived there too damn long.
She’s it. My completion. Everything my heart and soul wants, needs, craves.
She leans back against the railing, impassively cool, but her slender fingers gripping the ledge don’t go unnoticed.
“Soraya...”
Her name falls out as nothing more than a breath. Like a prayer. A curse. Worship.
Gone. I’m fucking gone for her.
Why didn’t I come sooner? Why didn’t I chase her? What the hell was I thinking, pretending I had any power against this fist-tight grip she has on me? I can barely fucking breathe just looking at her.
She breaks the charged silence. “You sure took your time coming home.”
“Took my time?” I move forward a step. “The deal was one year. I came to find you. I stood under that damn clock waiting like a fucking idiot.”
“The deal?” Her laugh slices the air, sharp and bitter.
“You made that deal, not me. I didn’t agree to shit.
” She shakes her head, another cutting laugh on her lips, frayed at the edges.
“What, you thought I’d just show up like some prize at the end of that ‘deal’?
Who the fuck do you think I am? I’m not your prize, Stefano.
You are my prize. You’ve been my prize since I was fif-fucking-teen.
I own you. I am SORAYA! You do not goddamn summon me. ”
I see her now. Really see her.
Her power. Her presence. Her ego.
Her true aura.
The princess who barged into my kingdom and planted her flag. Built her own fortress inside mine.
And I…fall in love.
All. Over. Again.
Man, I’m going to have so much fucking fun challenging her. Pushing her. Getting under her skin. Anticipation flares, igniting something raw, something reckless, sparking my jaded will back to life.
“Besides, you didn’t seem too broken up about leaving me behind.” She crosses her arms, the movement subtle. Protective, not defensive. “You were living it up. Like a year-long bachelor party.”
Is that really how she saw it? “I think you mean I threw myself into rebuilding what was damaged and did whatever I could to distract myself from the very demanding urge to break that blood-inked deal and run back to you.”
She looks away, then back. “And what about the Mayor?”
“What about her?” I push back.
“Why isn’t she dead?”
“Because she’s a good person who unknowingly and naively stepped into a bad world.”
“Or because you love fucking her,” she bites.
An unintentional laugh falls out of me. “If you truly believe that, you’d have done more than burn off her tattoo.”
Indignation twists her features as she surges forward and shoves my chest. “You’re mine! How dare you put your fucking name on her!” Another shove. “How dare you prance around with her and let her hang all over you!”
“I’m yours,” I agree, voice low. “So why didn’t you come back and put an end to it sooner?”
“Because I wanted you to hurt like I did,” she admits. “I wanted you to know how it felt to be left.”
I shake my head. “All that time fuming, and you still haven’t stopped to consider it from my point of view?
” I take another step forward. “Soraya, I see your dad at least twice a month now. Your mom—well, she’s still.
..her. But every once in a while, she’s not.
Your baby sister is my mamma’s namesake. ”
I close the gap between us. “I explained that I didn’t want a dysfunctional relationship with you, Soraya.
And after I left, I realized I didn’t want one with your family either.
Not that mine’s perfect. But I handle bad blood differently than you do.
You keep it around, live in strife with it, let its thorns choke the life out of your beauty.
But I rip it out before it infects the rest of the garden.
“There’s no way in hell I could’ve seen your brother and not disemboweled him.
No way I could’ve looked at your mother and not ripped her fucking throat out.
No way I could’ve been around your family, watched them hurt you again and again, and done nothing.
In the end, you would’ve hated me. Because I would’ve found a way to kill them all. ”
I pause, let that truth hang. “You said you didn’t want a man who’d burn the world down for you. And I never thought I’d ever be that man. Not in a million years. But I’ve realized...I am that man, Soraya. For you. I’ll slay all your demons.”
Her shoulders relax as she exhales an unsteady breath. “Mom was right, then.”
“What?”
She shakes her head. “Never mind.” Her gaze drops, teeth pressing into her bottom lip. “He’s dead, you know. She killed him.”
“Sevyn?”
She nods, slow and pensive.
My dreams never lie. “Why do you seem upset by that.”
“I’m not. I’m the one who told her to do it.” Another small shake of her head. “It’s just… she was so quick to do it to save herself. But for me… she couldn’t.”
“So…” I reach up and catch her chin, tilt her face toward me. Needing those pretty eyes on me. “Catch me up. You two patched things up? Or is she still our enemy?”
“Somewhere in between.” A careless shrug. “I guess you could say there are two queens and one crown. I don’t want it. But if she pushes me, I might be forced to take it.” A mischievous glint flickers in her eyes. “Why, you want peace?”
I’m not here for her family drama right now. That shit’s enraging.
“Soraya…” I hook two fingers into the waistband of her shorts and pull her closer. Her breath catches. “Tell me what you want. Because I know what I want. I want you. Need you. Everything’s so fucking dull without you. To find out you’ve been here, this close, all this time...”
Her lips curl into a mischievous smile. “It’s not my fault you took so long to come home. What kind of king doesn’t know who’s planting roots in his city?”
“Well, you made damn sure it’d be impossible for me to find that out, didn’t you?”
A wicked glimmer dances in her eyes. “Don’t you just love how good I am at hiding?”
“No. No, I fucking don’t. It’s been the bane of my existence ever since we met.” I slide a hand around her waist, tracing the sliver of bare skin between her top and her shorts. Every nerve in my body jolts to life at the contact, her closeness, her heat. “Tell me. What do you want?”
Her breath is controlled, but heavy. “Will you do anything I want right now?”
I lean in and brush my lips against her bare shoulder. Fuck, she smells good. There are no adequate words to describe her intoxicating scent, nothing to compare it to. She just smells…like her. Soraya. “Hmm-mhm.”
“Anything?”
I nip at her skin. “Two minutes. Carte blanche. Whatever you ask for in the next two minutes, I’ll agree to. No reneging. No loopholes.”
“Okay…” Her lips twist to the side as she considers.
Take the bait, little queen. Ask for what I want. Ask me to marry you.
“Alright,” she says. “I want three things. First: an oath. Swear to me you’ll never leave me again. No matter what. No matter how much sense it makes. Even if someone threatens to kill me unless you leave, swear you’ll let me die by your side, rather than live without you. Swear to me, Stefano.”
Not sure I’m on board with the part about her dying, but a deal’s a deal. “I swear.”
Ask me to marry you.
“Second...” She dips her chin, eyes gleaming. “Kneel for me.”
Oh, that’s easy. No hesitation, I drop to one knee.
Surprise flickers across her face at how quickly I comply, then she giggles. Soft and sweet. The prettiest sound in existence. “Oh my god, you’re such a simp.”
“Am I supposed to feel shame about that?”
“Considering your giant ego? Maybe,” she says, her smile nervous. “I was expecting you to tell me to fuck off.”
A scoff leaves me. “I’d kneel for you a million times over, little queen. Fuck ego. I’ll never be ashamed of loving you. Now, what’s number three?”
For fuck’s sake, ask me to marry you.
“Third...” She traces her fingertips along my jawline. “Ask me…ask me to marry you.”
It takes everything in me not to flash a full-blown, shit-eating grin. Who the hell could ever convince me this woman wasn’t made for me? That we weren’t meant to crash into each other, tear each other apart, and still fall headfirst? That she isn’t the love of my life?
I must’ve gone quiet too long, because she bites her lip, uncertainty flickering in her eyes.
Her voice wavers as she adds, “Ask me to marry you so you can keep your first promise. Because I’ve realized Mom was right about our separation, and I don’t want that woman to ever be right about anything involving you ever again.
I don’t care if it’s to my own detriment. Ask me to marry you, Stefano. Please.”
I take her hands in mine. “I’ll ask you to marry me, little queen.
But I’ll be asking you because I’m in love with you.
I’ll ask you because life no longer feels right without you.
I’ll ask because you own every part of me.
I’ll ask because you are the beginning of living for me.
I’ll ask because I don’t want to spend another moment without you. ”
I press a kiss to her ring finger. “When I ask, don’t say yes because you’re afraid I’ll leave. Don’t say yes just to stick it to JB. Say yes because you love me. Say yes because you want to be married to me. Because you truly believe I’m the man for you.”
I pause, searching her eyes. Her guard’s still up. But the way she’s worrying her lip...the slight tremble in her hands...it tells me enough. “Can I trust you to say no if your yes won’t be for the right reasons?”
Still chewing her lip, she nods. “Ask me.”
“Soraya Byrd, will you share your life with me? Will you marry me?”
She makes me wait. Five seconds. Ten seconds. Fifteen...
I don’t mind. I want her to be sure. A thousand percent sure. Like I am.
“Yes,” she says softly. “Yes, because you’re the love of my life. Yes, because my heart beats only for you. Yes, because you’re my obsession. Yes, because I desperately want to be your wife and share the rest of forever with you.”
That’s my girl. The grin hits before I can stop it, spreading across my face like a damn victory lap.
“Well, this wasn’t planned, so...” I release her hands and slide my late papa’s Castello signet off my index finger. “This will have to do for now.”
She giggles again, soft and unguarded, and offers her hand. I slip the ring onto her finger. It hangs loose, way too big, and she laughs even harder.
Fuck, I love that sound.
“I’ll rock it on my thumb for now,” she says, adjusting it. “But I’m thinking tattoos for wedding bands. With my life, jewelry’s a nuisance that always gets lost.”
“Tattoos it is, then.” I straighten up. “Will be my first.”
“That’ll make it even more special. You overcoming your fear of needles for me.”
A defensive scowl pulls at my brows. “What? I don’t have a fear of needles. Tattoos just aren’t my—”
She throws her arms around my neck, tips up on her toes and seals her lips to mine.
And the world fucking sings.