Page 76 of Dirty Big Sins

I smirked. “You should probably quit while you’re ahead, pretty boy. I’ve only just forgiven you for your interference. We don’t want to end up right back at square one.”

“Advocacy.”

“Huh?”

“I’m your advocate. I’ll fight for you all day and all night long. Any time, any place.”

I leaned over and hesitated a breath away from his lips. “Shut up and kiss me already.”

His eyes danced as I closed the gap between us and fell head first into the sweetest kiss of my life.

Love. I could hardly believe it. I certainly would have never predicted that a one-night stand, blackmail and a conniving Italian mafioso would have led to this.

Life was weird.

Gloriously gloriously weird.

Epilogue

ZIA

Three weekslater

The kitchen had gone to hell in a hand basket with every possible thing going wrong that could.

One of the refrigerators had stopped working and the first batch of desserts I’d painstakingly created had ended up in the trash. Three of my handpicked waitstaff had not shown up for tonight’s shift and after a mad dash for replacements, we’d barely gotten them here on time. Then our fresh food delivery had gotten mixed up with someone else’s and I’d been forced to change half my menu before noon.

And yet, it was the best damn night of my career.

Guests were sending many compliments to the chef, the tables were overbooked with more clamoring to get in, and somewhere out there sat a food critic so enamored with my food he’d already tweeted about his experience.

I didn’t think life could get any sweeter than this.

It could and it did.

“Hey, gorgeous.”

I whipped around at Vincent’s voice to find him standing in my kitchen all decked out in a tuxedo that fit him like a glove. It reminded me so much of the night we met, when he’d loomed larger than life in Romeo’s house. Sexy as fucking hell and making my lady bits go off like a three-alarm fire.

It was hard to believe we were here now, standing in my kitchen, about to go to another party together and this time as a real couple. After Italy, I would have never believed this scenario in a million years.

“Wow, you look amazing.” Good enough to eat actually.

“You look frazzled.”

“I am. Isn’t it great?” The skeptical look on his face said he wasn’t sure how to answer that question. The man worried about me more than he should, but truth be told, I kind of liked it. I might’ve had to wrestle him a time or two to keep his nose out of my business, but thus far things were working out fairly well.

Living together certainly had its perks.

“I can’t believe we pulled this off.”

“No, bella. This was all you. This restaurant was your vision and you made it come to life.”

I surveyed the now sparkling kitchen once again. “I did didn’t I?” I laughed, turning back to him. “But seriously. It’s not that simple. This was more than any one single effort. I couldn’t have done it without you. It’s made all the bumps and bruises along the way worth it, don’t you think?”

“Without a doubt,” he said, laughter tinging his voice.

“I’m going to say something, but you have to promise not to hold it against me in the future.”

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