Page 123 of The Gangster King

“Yeah, you do.” He grins.

“Say it back.” I laugh.

“No. You can wait twenty-six years like I did.” He kisses my lips. “Actually fuck that. I love you. I fucking love you.” He yells the last bit, and I swear he wakes the dead.

I giggle.

I’ve done that a lot in the last hour.

When he rolls off me and returns from the bathroom with a cloth, Dante lies on his side, watching me.

“What were you crying about in the coffee shop?”

Oh.

I feel my cheeks heat. “Nothing. No. Nothing.”

His arm reaches over me and tugs me against him. “No more secrets, baby. Please tell me.”

I toss the washcloth away and sigh.

“The man looked like you. She, I think, told him she was pregnant. I...it made me realize what I’d run away from.”

Even though we are now engaged, I feel silly admitting my reaction.

“Good,” Dante says, and I blink. “Because when we are settled, I want to knock you up.”

“Maybe you just did.” I shrug.

“Are you not on birth control?”

“I forgot it,” I confess. “It’s in the bathroom back home. I was going to go to the doctor in a few days.”

He tugs me hard up against him. “Don’t say shit like that. I don’t even want to image you thinking about fucking another man.”

Neither do I.

“Then hurry up and marry me.”

“We need to discuss logistics. Do you want to marry with our real names? Or new identity? And where do you want to live?”

For the next few hours, we lie naked on my bed and plan our lives. By the time we head out for dinner, I’m truly excited about my life and future.

Smiling, I let Dante take my hand, and we walk down to the beach to eat our pizza, watching the sun go down.

Never thought I’d marry a gangster, and I most certainly didn’t think it would be Dante Baldassare.

Or maybe I did.

EPILOGUE

DANTE

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

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“Put the...for the love of god, give me that.” I take the tray of drinks from my pregnant wife, and she smirks at me.

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