Page 108 of All for her Forgiveness

"What?"

"Do you want to take a shower again? I have a surprise for you later."

She blushes. "Ireallyneed another shower after . . .”

"After I fucked you so good."

"I'm going to take a shower," she says, this time almost running to the bathroom, and when she gets there, she adds, "Don't follow me."

The desire to accept the challenge is great, but we don't have much time before we have to leave for the registry office.

Ten minutes later, Kennedy is back, this time covered in a terrycloth robe.

I hold the ring box in my hand and hold the other out to her.

Kennedy hovers in place, looking unsure whether she wants to approach me or escape, but she ends up coming.

I separate my thighs to fit her between them. "I asked you to marry me, but I didn't give you a ring."

"I don't need one."

"You will have everything you deserve. I want to follow tradition. Don't want a party? Okay, but you'll never say I wasn't at your feet, woman." I gently push her back.

"You don't need to do that."

"Quiet, that Irish blood of yours sometimes gets in the way. Now where were we again? Oh, yes. Kennedy Juliet O’Neal, I’ve made several mistakes, and the main one was not tying you to me when I had the chance, as soon as I met you. That will never happen again, because you are in my blood, not just in my heart. It's an essential part of my life and what makes my world go round. Marry me. Forgive me later. Love me now, or when you're ready. I don't care what order we follow, just be mine."

Kennedy

I would have to have a heart of stone not to get emotional. Maybe we are making a mistake. Maybe our relationship will end in less than a year, but for now, I decide to just live in the moment.

"I accept," I say out loud, extending my hand for Hades to put on the ring.

Then, I complete it just for myself:

I don't know about forgiveness, but my love has always been yours.

Kennedy

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

I haveknots in my stomach.

It's not because my son is now officially King O'Neal Kostanidis but because of what is about to happen.

King is relatively sociable, but he seems a little scared by the crowd around us and tries to hide in his father's shoulder, his arms locked around Hades' neck, as if asking him to protect him from the world.

"He's anxious," I whisper softly to Hades, "and so am I."

"We'll be done here soon. It's just a formal announcement. I want everyone to know definitively that you're untouchable now."

Today, before King's registration was formalized, we took photos, the three of us, with a professional photographer.

Madison, Cici, and Serenity took me shopping a few days ago, and now I have a wardrobe like theirs, filled with famous brands and prices so exorbitant that when I saw the tag on the dress I tried on in one of the stores, one of the options they gave me to wear on my wedding day, I spent fifteen minutes sitting in the fitting room trying to calm my nerves because it would equate to almost a year's worth of my old cleaning lady salary.

The chief of the Kostanidou's public relations team arranged for an image consultant to advise what would be the best way to present our family to the world. Even our clothes and the pose we would strike in the photos were not decided by us—they were all orchestrated to convey credibility to the public, the man said.

Hades and his brothers talked to me and explained how this whole circus works. Although in theory judges and prosecutors should be impartial, they read newspapers and magazines, watch TV, and are influenced by their families' opinions.

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