Page 74 of Soulmate of the Mafia King
I laughed and slung an arm around her waist. “At this rate, you’re going to be buffer than me.”
“I’ll start stealing your suits to check.”
I dialed the hotel and asked them to send a courier for the dress—and the rest of the bags—then showed Paige a café I’d visited the one time I’d been to Paris without her.
I ordered in English, she stumbled through ordering in French, and I leaned back in the tiny metal chair to just look at her. She brushed her red hair back from her face, her dark eyes dancing with amusement. As expected, the ring suited her perfectly. I’d spent a long time picking it out, after talking to Killian for advice. A dozen jewelers in Philly showed me options that would’ve rivaled Sera’s for glitz, and while I knew Paige loved the finer things in life when she let herself, she liked them understated. And, I couldn’t stop thinking, a big ring with a stone that jutted out would stop her from doing all of her incredible work. She’d have to take it off to train or fight or patch up her women. No, I wanted her to have that piece of me, with the green for my eyes, on her at all times. That way, no matter how busy our work made us, no matter how crazy the world got, she could remember how much I loved her.
She smiled at me. “Penny for your thoughts?”
“I’m happy,” I said. “Everything is so perfect right now that I don’t mind knowing it’s never going to stay that way.”
She took my hand. “We’d get bored if it did. But I’m happy to be facing the craziness with you.”
CHAPTER 56
PAIGE
Isqueezed Tom’s hand in the car on the way to the airport.
“Sad to be leaving?” he asked.
I smiled. “Always. It’s so magical here.”
He laughed. “Not just saying that because we’ve spent most of the vacation in bed?”
I ran my free hand up his leg. “No, we have weekends for that at home.”
“Fair enough.” He kissed the back of my hand. “I do like going on these little vacations, though. It’s a nice escape for a few days.”
I nodded. I really was going to miss Paris, but I wouldn’t have wanted to stay much longer anyway. Lauren had been texting me updates about the shelter, especially the new one as women settled in. I kept thinking about how much I was missing, how much they needed me there. And I knew Tom was feeling the same. Apparently, Lyle had his sights set on someone new, and Tom was itching to pull the trigger. Anybody else would probably think we were freaks, desperate to leave a luxury vacation to get back to our grueling jobs. But those people didn’t realize just how much those jobs kept us who we were.
We pulled up to the airport and boarded the plane. The whole time, I kept thinking of Killian and Sera on the island. In the days after Tom’s proposal, I’d wondered if he was going to say something about buying an island like Killian and leaving the city. I’d kept jumping when I thought he was about to start that sentence because I’d just found the place I fit in the world. But I should’ve known. Tom understood me too well to suggest it. And I knew him too well to think he’d want that now either.
I sat next to him on the plane and looked him over for his usual anxiety tells. The furrowed brow, the bouncing gaze. But he just smiled at me. Was he really happy enough not to be worried on this little private jet?
The flight attendant shut a compartment loudly, and he jumped. I smiled. No work was ever done, but he was more relaxed than I’d ever seen him. When the plane started taxiing forward, I told him the story of my dad’s favorite movie because we’d spent so long talking now that I was running out of new things. Instead of closing his eyes, he held my gaze and nodded along. If it were possible, I fell even more in love with him.
The flight back home took a long time, and we both slept for most of it, but when we touched down in the mid-morning, I hopped out of my seat.
“Somewhere to be?” Tom asked sleepily.
I bit my lip. I hadn’t told him. “Well, I figured you’d be getting right back to work when we got home?—”
He stood and cut off my words with a kiss. “So you’ve already texted Lauren you’ll be in this morning.”
I nodded guiltily, and he laughed.
“Go.” He patted my butt. “Save those lives.”
God, I loved him.
I took the SUV he’d arranged to have dropped at the airport, and he called Lyle for a ride home while he inspected the refueling of his jet.
Pulling up to Rafael’s Angel Haven felt almost more like coming home than my first breath of Philly air. There was no welcoming crew out front, but that was how I wanted it. I walked inside, slipped my car keys into my pocket, and started heading back to my office.
“Um, hello?” Lauren popped out of the common room with a dramatically hurt expression on her face. “Were you just gonna breeze by me?”
I laughed. “I was going to go to work at work.”
