Page 76 of Black Widow's Kiss

“I want your mother to like me.”

“Don’t worry. She will.”

“Does she know about me?”

“Everyone knows about you. Everyone knows I married you.”

“But, I mean, does she know about you and me?” he asked squeezing my hand.

He was asking if she knew that I was falling in love with the man I married. For that to be true, she would have had to know that I liked men.

“She doesn’t know how I feel about you,” I admitted.

“And how’s that?”

“What? Are you gonna make me say it?”

“I’m not going to make you do anything,” he said looking away.

I didn’t want him to think that I was anything other than head of heels for him. I didn’t know it was possible to be as happy as I was with Kuroi. I felt awake and alive when I was with him. Being with Kuroi gave my life purpose.

I was put on this earth to protect him. It wasn’t like he needed much protection. He could take care of himself. But in spite how deadly he was, he seemed to have no defense when it came to his family.

I didn’t like what Yuki had said to him during that Facetime. It’s weird, though. Ever since then, he’s been walking around with less weight on his shoulders. I can’t explain it. But if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t do it.

Then there was Sato. Kuroi has since told me how many times Sato had given Kuroi to someone in exchange for a better deal. It was three times. I was the forth.

The first time Kuroi was a child. He had no choice. The next two times, Kuroi wasn’t as young. He could have refused.He was definitely old enough to refuse to marry me. But he hadn’t. He went through with it without fighting back.

Sato had some sort of hold on him. What else would he do if Sato asked him to? Could he refuse his father’s wishes even if he wanted to?

My new purpose in life was to protect him from that. Sato would die for what he did to him.

“I love you,” I said staring through the windshield with my hand engulfing his.

When he didn’t say it back, I glanced over at him. He looked conflicted. That was fine. My loving him didn’t require him saying it back.

“I will always be there for you. Do you hear me? From now on, you come first. You are my family. I want you to know that.”

I relaxed into my seat having told him. It was enough that he knew it. Finding a spot on my parents’ street, I pulled over and parked.

“Are you ready for this?” I asked Kuroi squeezing his hand one last time.

“If you are,” he replied squeezing my hand back.

Getting out of the car, I waited for Kuroi to retrieve our contribution to dinner from the trunk. With it in hand, I led him to the steps of the brownstone I grew up in and ascended.

Knocking and entering, the first person I saw was Lorenzo.

“You’re late,” he told me clearly on his second glass of bourbon.

“You can’t rush perfection,” I told him raising my eyebrows hinting at my own frustration.

“I didn’t want to be here,” Lorenzo reminded me.

“I know. Thank you for coming. It is a momentous occasion for our family and it was important that you be here for it.”

I grabbed Lorenzo by the back of the neck, stared into his eyes, and kissed him on the cheek.

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