Page 127 of His Dark Vendetta

“Are you kidding?” His lips pinched, and his eyebrows drew together. “Gimme a sec.” He darted out of the room.

Was this really happening? When was the other shoe going to drop? When was Luca going to crush my heart again? It was coming. It had to be coming.

He marched back into the room, determination etched in the lines of his face. “This is not how any of this was supposed to go,” he said and licked his lips. “Our first time together, the pregnancy, the nursery, this…”

He lifted his hand, and between his thumb and index finger, a delicate gold band embedded with a row of rubies as deep a crimson as the specks of fire in his eyes glinted in the sunlight. And Luca Moretti—consummate playboy, breaker of hearts, Romeo to my Juliet—got down on one knee and looked up at me with expectation, hope, and so much love, the world around us faded into background and fate finally had its way.

“Something shifted the day I saw you in the lobby at Terme. I don’t believe in all that fate stuff, but something about that moment…” He shook his head. “It sent a boulder hurtling down a mountain, and it didn’t matter how many times I tried to change its course, nothing was going to stop that boulder. Nothing could stop our destiny, Siobhán. We were meant to be.

“I wasted so much time trying to purge my heart of pain with revenge, when all I needed was to let myself love you. And as soon as I did, the pain stopped. I’m finally free, and it’s because of you. Nothing will ever be more important to me than loving you.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks. I ran my fingernails along the edge of his hair, tucking it behind his ear, unable to imagine how we’d finally arrived at a destination that evaded us for so long.

“We’ve both been searching for family our entire lives. That’s all either of us has ever wanted. And we finally have it, Siobhán. Right here. This is our family. You, me, and our little miracle. I don’t ever want to let that go. I will fight every day to make sure we don’t lose this, and if that means I need to move to Ireland, I’ll move to Ireland. I own a house in Roma. If you think you can grow your career there, we’ll go there. We’ll go wherever you want to go, because wherever you are, that’s where I want to be. Because you’re my family.” He lifted the ring. “If you’ll have me.”

I stared down at the man I’d loved for so long, the man I’d lost more times than I could count, the man who held up a ring and whose voice trembled with hope and no small amount of fear, his entire future waiting on my answer.

Despite everything, Luca Moretti was the only man who’d seen the real me, and he’d done things for me not for his own gain, but because they meant something to me. He’d learned who I was, what I needed and what I wanted, without help or prodding, just to make me happy. He was ready to uproot his life, move away from his job, his foster parents, and his community so I’d feel safe and could pursue my career. There was no qualification to the sincerity in his eyes. No hesitation. Just an earnest desire to give us what we’d longed for our entire lives—family. Luca and Siobhán’s happy ever after.

The ring glinted between his thick fingers, fine and delicate and perfectly me. “It’s beautiful,” I said, dazed and breathless.

“It was my mother’s.” His voice shook through the declaration. “Or it was supposed to be. It’s a bond ring. My father bought it for her, but they never bonded in blood. When I moved back to Boston and we unpacked the house, Gina recognized it.” His lips bent in a crooked smile. “She helped him pick it out. She asked what I wanted to do with it, if I wanted to sell it. And I remember…” His eyebrows knit together. “I remember thinking I needed to hold on to it. That, for some reason, it was important for me to hold on to it. I never understood why. I do now. This ring was meant for you, Siobhán. It was always meant for you.”

He took my left hand and widened his eyes, asking permission, not only for us to bond but for us to put the pain and loneliness behind us and create a new future. Together.

He wanted to be my family. Someone who’d take care of me and who’d always think of me first. Someone who I could lean on to help shoulder life’s burdens. Someone who loved me as much as I loved him.

“Yes,” I said, nodding like a fool. “Yes. To everything. To you. To our family. To this house.”

His eyes widened.

“Yes, to this house!” Something between a laugh and a sob sprang from my lungs. Something that sounded a lot like a declaration of freedom. “I want more for our child than what we had. I don’t want to raise them without the support of the people who love us, and those people are here. In Boston. I’m done running, Luca. I want to build a life here. I want this to be our family home.”

He smiled, the genuine smile he reserved just for me, and slid the band onto my ring finger. And like everything else in our fate-filled story, it fit perfectly, as though it really had been made for me.

He brought my finger to his lips and kissed it, then rose and swept me off my feet, cradling me in his arms as he walked across the hall. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he placed sweet, loving kisses across my cheeks and on the tip of my nose with a lightness I’d never experienced with him before. He’d let love into his heart, and it vanquished the heaviness put there by his quest for revenge.

He set me on my feet next to the bed and traced the outline of my face with his finger, the hint of a happy smile still blessing his full lips. He trailed his finger down my neck to the buttons of my blouse and started to undress me, slowly and reverently taking care of each button, my belt, my slacks, until I stood in my underwear. His eyes flared to match my lingerie—crimson lace.

He ran his finger along the top edge of my bra and lifted his eyes for no more than a heartbeat before tucking his finger under the lace and pulling it down to reveal my nipple. He craned his head, flicked the peak with his tongue, and placed a kiss there. He let go of the fabric, and it fell back into place.

His hands cradled my face, and he lowered his mouth to mine. His kiss was sweet yet sensual, content yet urgent, a combination of the past and present but wholly Luca. I moved my lips and tongue with his, matching every stroke, and knew I made the right decision.

Luca was right.Wewere right. We may have taken a long and winding path to find our happy ending, but we’d finally arrived. We were home.

He pulled back until his lips hovered over mine. “Do you understand what it means to bond? Did Anna explain it to you?”

“Yes.” I nuzzled his cheek. “She did.”

“We’ll have to move every few decades. You’ll outlive your friends, your family.”

“You’re my family.”

He smiled. “Will you bond with me, Siobhán? Will you drink my blood and be mine for eternity?”

I nodded, emotion clogging my throat. “One lifetime with you would never be enough.”

Fire erupted in his dark eyes. The color swirled in a mesmerizing display as captivating as his handsome face. He pulled off his undershirt and dropped his shorts, his desire visible through his boxers. He picked me up, climbed onto the bed, and settled me across his lap, his back against the headboard.

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