Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 27333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
A smile tugged at her lips. "Am I right to think you don't like to talk much?"
"I talk when I need to."
Her smile widens. "As opposed to us girls, you mean? Since we talk even when we don't need to?"
Lorenzo shrugged, but this only had his wife releasing a soft, lovely laugh that had an instant impact on his body.
The door to the dining room opened again, and Teo's smile was one of blatant satisfaction when he saw the bouquet in his wife's hands.
"May we start serving the first course, signore, signorina?"
Lorenzo gave his majordomo a warning look. This is the last time you'll meddle with my marriage, old man.
But Teo only acted as if he had been given the green light for dinner service to start. "Very good, signore."
Lorenzo was starting to feel seriously pissed. It was time to make Teo understand that his marriage was no joke, and—-
What the hell?
Gazelle had taken the initiative to slip her hand in his, but she was also blushing as she glanced up at him.
"I just thought it was important that I match your honesty."
Again: what the hell?
"None of my brothers were as forthcoming as you are when they were first married. And that's why I want you to know how much I appreciate this." She lifted the bouquet she was holding in her other hand.
They were just flowers, for fuck's sake. Why was she making it seem—-
"And that I want the same thing, too," she said earnestly, "even if neither of us has fallen in love before.
—-that he had confessed his love for her?
"I've seen how things progressed between my brothers and their wives, though, and so I think it should be the same for us."
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
"We just have to spend as much time with each other, and love should follow naturally."
No, it would damn well not.
A muscle started ticking in his jaw, and his mood only worsened when he saw Teo and the rest of the staff struggling to keep their faces straight as they took their leave.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Lorenzo waited until he was alone with his wife before grabbing her shoulders. It was time to make her understand only an idiot would equate a bouquet of roses to a romantic confession.
But when he gazed down at her, and she smiled up at him—-
Shit.
"What do you think?" Gazelle asked him shyly.
Her smile hit him like a ton of bricks, and instead of shaking some sense into his wife, it turned out to be the opposite. Lorenzo was the one who ended up shedding off more of his brain cells as he heard himself say, "The only way to find out is if we give it a try."
Journal Entry
Somebody gag and tie me up, please.
Because I'm clearly not myself around my own husband.
I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT we ate.
Or talked about.
I do have some vague memories of giggling a little too much, but I'm hoping I'm wrong about that.
And I think I drank a lot of water.
Because right now I feel like I'm about to pee a barrel.
Or maybe that's just my nerves making me feel antsy since the torture dinner is finally over, and my husband has taken my hand as he gently pulls me to my feet.
Hooded green eyes stare down at me, but instead of frightening me off, everything has changed.
The longer I lose myself in his gaze, the more I want to throw myself into his arms.
I no longer want to run away.
But instead, I want to run towards him and stay where he is.
Because my husband is my home.
And when he finally speaks—-
"I need to make a call."
I just feel like dying because I never imagined such thoughtfulness from the Beast of New York. It just goes to show how rumors are never to be trusted, but more importantly than that—-
"I didn't expect you to be this sweet," I confess. "I thought you'd be the type to simply tell me to get ready and wait for you in bed. But instead, you're making up excuses just to give me time to compose myself."
Lorenzo looks at me as if he wants to say something, badly, and my heart goes out to him because I totally get it. He's obviously not used to receiving compliments, and while I hate how cruel the world has been to him, that's all in the past now.
He doesn't just have me on his side now.
The moment he married me, my famiglia has also become his famiglia, and my God, his God.
He just doesn't know it yet.
Courage I didn't even know I possessed has me stepping forward and slowly raising my hands to cup my husband's beautiful face.
"I know you're thinking about what you read in Sarica's texts," I whisper. "And in a way, it is true that I'm just a bit worried. Everything about you is a first for me. But what nobody doesn't know is how my fear is nothing compared to my trust in you. The world may think of you as the Beast of New York, but to me, you're my beast in Westmancott, and I trust you with my life. Always. I'd choose you over all the world's armies combined, and I'd—-"