Page 144 of Devious Kingpin
His face hardened and the darkness that plagued all the men of the underworld flickered across his expression. Unforgiving and hard.
“I’d kill them all over again,” he rasped, and I knew he would. That was who Dante was. Relentless and stubborn, almost to a fault. “I just want to make you happy.”
My pulse accelerated as we drowned in each other’s gazes. A tear rolled down my cheek, then another one.
“I love you,” I whispered. There were so many feelings dancing in my lungs, bouncing off the walls. “So fucking much that it scares me.”
He froze, his eyes glimmering like black diamonds. “What?”
The rasp of his voice sent shivers down my back.
“I love you, Dante.” I inched closer to him, inhaling his scent deep into the marrow of my bones. “I don’t know when it happened or how it happened. But I know that living without you would kill me. You love me at my worst. I hope you’ll love me at my best. At least as my better self.”
Another tear rolled down my cheek. The weight lifted from my chest with my admission. My stubbornness and hate had made me blind. I should have seen it long ago. I fell for him hard.
“Do you know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that?” A sob tore from my throat. It was silly to be so shaken up about it, yet here I was. It felt like I’d come to an earth-shattering revelation. “Jesus, I love you so much that being without you physically hurts. It hurts.” Another sob wrecked me. Concern was etched between his brows, he watched me worriedly. He brought our faces close together, the tip of our noses brushing together. “Why are you crying, Wildling?”
I sank into him, wrapping my arms around him and gripping him to me for dear life.
“I don’t know.” I buried my face in his chest and inhaled his scent deep into my lungs. He smelled so good. So warm.So mine. His embrace made me feel safe. “I missed you. I might be becoming a wimp.”
We must have looked ridiculous. He was dressed in his typical three-piece suit. I was wearing a casual midi dress in his favorite color. Blue.
“I missed you, Wildling.”
I’d seen him every day for the past month, but it wasn’t the same. We didn’t touch. We didn’t kiss. We talked. He took me out on dates. We were getting to know each other. I was with him, but it wasn’t the same asbeingwith him.
“We’ve seen each other every day,” I pointed out, sniffling.
All this time, I’d been afraid to let him into my heart. But truthfully, I’d hurt myself in the process too. I’d believed myself too vulnerable to love, but what I failed to see was that letting myself experience it could also make me stronger.
“It’s not enough.” Dante pulled away an inch and tilted my chin up, his eyes boring into mine. “I want you with me every day, all day. All night. I want to burn with you.”
I swallowed hard. It was time.
I was ready for him.
“I want to go home.”
CHAPTER59
Dante
She loves me.
Nothing and nobody mattered but those three little words. From her. My little wildling wife.
Trouble and happiness became one and the same for me. The devil in disguise. A fallen angel with broken wings. The two of us—ruined, untamed, and desperate for each other.
It was who Juliette DiLustro was. And she was mine. I broke every single traffic rule speeding from the hotel across town back to our home, holding her hand in mine. When I had to shift the gears in my grandfather’s car, I put her palm on my thigh, and to my fucking delight, she left it there.
I scooped her up into my arms the moment we jumped out of the car. She giggled, the soft melodious sounds warming my chest. It was the only thing I wanted and cared about.
My wife’s happiness and contentment. That made me happy.
“I feel like a bride,” she remarked, smiling. Her face was buried in the crook of my neck, her lips skimming across my skin.
We barely made it through our bedroom door when I couldn’t hold back anymore. I slammed it behind me with my foot, then crushed my lips to hers. She moaned. I grunted. A shudder rolled through me. The kiss was deep, fierce and consuming. Desperate.
