Page 90 of Sins and Secrets

Alessio lets go of my hand and gets up from the couch. He storms over to where he discarded his suit and rummages through his pockets until he finds his phone.

“You don’t need to call her and deal with this,” I say, leaning back into the cushions. “It isn’t that big a deal. I can put up with her bullying me a little bit.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” he says as he dials her number. “She has got to learn to respect you. Clearly, she didn’t learn her lesson the first time.”

I sigh but I know that he isn’t going to listen to me. I don’t want to make his relationship with his mother any more strained than it already is. Though, there is a part of me that likes his willingness to stick up for me.

“I’m going to say this and I’m going to say it once,” Alessio says, his phone pressed to his ear. “You are not to insult or harass the woman I’m going to marry. You are not going to come over to my house and pull that shit. You are not going to pull that shit in public. You are going to treat her as my future wife because that is what she is.”

He hangs up and tosses the phone onto the counter. His chest heaves and his cheeks are red.

The world shifts out from under me as I look at him. My mouth drops open, and I don’t know what to say for a long while.

He wants to marry me.

Happiness flows through me, but terror is close behind it. While I’ve thought about the future with him, I didn’t think he had given it much thought yet.

I thought this conversation would be a long time coming, not something that was happening right now.

But as he said it, I realized I want to marry him. I’m not going to love anyone the way I love him. My future is with him.

One day, Alessio is going to be my husband.

I can’t wait.

“So,” I say, grinning as I try to lighten the mood. “We’re going to be getting married, are we?”

Alessio lets out the breath he’s holding and laughs. “I want to get married someday. But I guess that I should have asked you what your thoughts on marriage were too.”

“I want to get married someday. I want marriage and kids, honestly. Although, a lot of people have told me that it won’t be possible to run my own business and have children. A lot of people like to make it seem like it has to be one or the other.”

He shrugs and comes back to the couch, settling into the cushions beside me. “I don’t see why it would have to be one or the other. You’re a bright and capable woman. If anyone is going to be able to get everything they want, it’s going to be you.”

“We have time to figure that out.” I smile and lean closer to him. “Any news on Paolo today?”

“None. He’s back into hiding after the attack. Christian will be returning in a few days with some of his men and then we are going to start turning the city over until we find Paolo.”

“He’s still going to come for me. You know he is.”

Alessio nods and closes his eyes, moving to put his head in my lap. “I know. We’re going to handle it, though. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he will go after another person in my life to try to torture me with.”

I run my fingers through his hair. “I doubt that, but we’ll figure it out.”

Even though I have no clue how.

30

ALESSIO

“I lowered your protection detail today,” I say late one night, getting naked before jumping into the pool with Billie.

She is grinning from ear to ear as I surface. When she throws herself at me, we both go tumbling back into the water.

“You mean that I won’t have a bunch of men following me around all the time?” Billie asks as we tread water in the deep end. “I can’t believe this. You don’t know how excited I am to not have people looking over my shoulder all the time.”

I shake my head, though I can’t help the smile that stretches across my face. “Close, but not quite. It only lowered from six people to four. I know that you’re capable of handling yourself. Six people is overkill when you always have a gun with you. Hell, you might be a better shot than I am.”

Billie is still smiling as she floats on her back. “That’s better than six people, though. Thank you. I felt like I was being smothered when I went grocery shopping the other day. It was like all the eyes in the building were on me. I hate that feeling.”

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