Marriage by Bravery - Book 3

Chapter Five

Kim

His mother spent a couple hours with us, during which she shook me down for details of how I met Luca in exchange for more stories about him and his brother as children. I got the distinct feeling that she didn't really want to have a conversation along those lines, but simply chose a nice, relatively safe topic so Luca wouldn't feel too uncomfortable. Although, I was pretty sure he wasn't totally comfortable regardless. I mean there were two women who were clearly against a particular life decision he was making sitting in the same room. Not to mention they were getting along marvelously, that couldn't possibly mean anything good. For him at least.

However, I wasn't worried about the forced need for polite conversation, mostly because her conspiratorial glance as she left told me that there was much to come. I grinned at her after she hugged me for the millionth time. It was good to know I had such a powerful ally in this unknown territory.

He was quiet after he closed the door on his mother's departing figure, I decided it would be best to allow him some time to process all the new factors that had arisen before I pounced on him again.

Sad to say (not really), that resolution lasted all of two seconds. I was right on his heels as he made his way back to his office, with calm even strides that belied his true sense of unease. I wasn't a fool, I knew he was probably having a meltdown on the inside since more holes seemed to be appearing in his plans.

Despite all that, it seemed he didn't feel like being rude as he not only allowed me to follow him but even held the door for me once we reached his office. I was pleasantly surprised at this change in his behavior but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth by questioning it.

The door closed and the lock clicked into place. The next thing I knew I was pressed against the very same door and he was pressed flush against me, not sparing even an inch of space. I stiffened in shock before I happily gave in, like I said I wasn't going to question this.

Yessssssssssss! My body screamed in euphoric triumph.

The key to my plan was not playing hard to get, as that would be totally counterproductive to the end goal. Instead, I would use any advantage I could get, even if it meant playing on the fact that I was his greatest weakness at this point in time. There was not a second that could be wasted.

I laced my fingers through his thick, brown hair and began fully participating in the kiss. He clung to me and groaned into my mouth as I deepened the kiss. The sounds he made were almost pained as we sunk effortlessly into our mutual desire, clearly causing him some kind of internal conflict. Any decent woman would have felt guilty, but I couldn't. Not because I wasn't decent, because I could totally be decent sometimes, maybe.

The thing was, if I tried to coddle him and gently urge him into seeing what was so obviously in front of him he'd overthink everything and find endless reasons to cling to a sinking ship. No, sometimes the best solution was to rip the band-aid off in one go, kick him off the cliff and whatever other analogies conveyed that I shouldn't waste time tiptoeing around the issue for the sake of his foolish pride. I mean, I wasn't some kind of cold hearted bitch, but time was of the essence and there would be years upon years to make up for it and show him just how much I loved him. After we were happily married. Heck, I'd even see a therapist if he needed help getting over how we got together.

I knew deep down that he'd be thanking me for pulling him back from making a monumental mistake. He just wasn't ready to accept that yet and I didn't have time to wait around. His hands travelled down my sides and over my hips to cup my bottom. My brain scrambled a bit at the intimacy of our position. I was starting to feel light headed, not only from the kiss but also from the general lack of oxygen. If this was how I was meant to die, then by all means I was ready to face my destiny. I slumped against him helplessly, teetering on the edge of actually fainting. From a kiss!

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on the perspective, he pulled back and broke the kiss. I gasped for breath and knees buckled from the dizziness brought on by the sudden rush of oxygen. That kiss could definitely go down in history as the most amazingly terrifying thing I had ever experienced.

He swept me into his arms to keep me from making friends with the floor and carried me over to the couch. I expected him to set me down but instead he sat down and settled me comfortably on his lap. Still dizzy, I lay my head on his chest.

Okay, so I wasn't that dizzy but I wasn't going to pass up this grand opportunity to sniff his chest. Totally worth it.

"Kimberly, you're turning everyone around me into crazy people," he said on a sigh.

"And you smell divine," I blurted.

I expected him to toss me off his lap but instead his body shook as he laughed. He buried his nose in my hair and inhaled deeply.

"So do you," he mumbled into my head, "you're really turning me in circles."

"It only feels that way because you're fighting so hard to stop the inevitable," I answered, causing him to ease me off his lap and stand up.

He paced back and forth in front of me for a few moments before he opened his mouth to speak.

"Do you know what I do for a living Kimberly?" He asked, sounding genuinely curious.

I thought about his question. We had met during the time when Naia was missing. Between him and his brother they had been very resourceful. We had gotten a lot done and looking back now I noticed that not all of their "connections" had seemed like upstanding citizens. Being that I knew what Damian did for a living, I figured the questionable looking characters had to be "friends" of Luca. I knew that he was his own boss and also I'd watched enough action movies to put the dots together, but I decided that I'd let him tell me.

"I'm not sure but you can tell me."

"I am the head of one of the largest Italian crime syndicates," he stated frankly.

I felt the blood drain from my face and I sat there dumbstruck as I processed his words.

Ooooookaaay, so maybe that wasn't what my dots had formed. I was thinking something more along the lines of badass criminal lawyer living on the edge of society with deep connections on both sides of the law. But this, this was something else entirely.

"So you're saying that you run t-the-"

"The Mafia, Kimberly," he stated forcefully, as if to further impress on me the seriousness of what he was trying to convey.

Naturally, I was shocked to my core because I hadn't been expecting such a revelation, but if he thought he was going to shake me off with a little thing like being some big criminal overlord then he had another thing coming.

"Well alrighty then," I said as I got up to stand in front of him, " you're going to have to teach me how to use a gun and some self defense classes would be appreciated, you know just in case I need to protect our home and children some day."

He remained silent as I continued chattering away, "not that I doubt your ability to take care of us, believe me I don't. I'd just feel much safer with a few skills of my own.

"These lessons can't start until after the honeymoon, though, I don't wanna be too sore to rock your world," I informed him.

Now it was his turn to be shocked, it was clear he was slowly but surely starting to realize that this was not a game to me. I had no intention of letting him marry another woman. He was mine.

He would be mine no matter what.