To be loved is a Success. To love is a Duty.
To be with someone you love is an
Achievement. To be with someone
who loves you is Life.
—Nishan Panwar
ARIANA DE LUCA
One Year Later
“I feel like a virgin,” I admit as we stand in line for popcorn.
Everett and Tessie are with us, fighting like they’ve been doing since the first time they re-met. I keep the grin off my face as they debate Power Rangers colors like it’s a matter of national security.
Bastian groans and adjusts himself beneath his slacks. Who wears a suit to a movie theater? My man.
When he told me he was taking over the family business—a sacrifice he’d initially made for me, no less—I’d been worried. But he’d struck an agreement with his dad, taking full control of the legitimate side of things while his family began the shift from illegal to legal businesses.
“Don’t tell me virgin fantasies get you hard.” I keep my voice low so the kids don’t hear. “You’re popping my movie theater cherry not my actually cherry.”
His pulls me into a hug, so he can whisper in my ear. “Keep talking, and I’ll slide a cherry into your tight little ass and pop it with my cock piercing.”
Like the deviant I am, I like that answer. “I dare you.”
I can feel his erection between us, and I slide a hand between the nonexistent gap separating our bodies and stroke him. Then I step back and watch him button his suit jacket to cover his erection, but his suit is too tailored, and I can still see the massive outline.
He looks down, then slides me in front of him to cover it. I can feel his breath on my neck as I step up to order. The flustered teen behind the counter tries to keep her eyes on me, but they keep darting to Bastian. I don’t blame her. I see him every day, and I still have trouble looking away.
“W-what can I get you?” Her voice cracks, and I can’t help my grin.
In twenty years, I suspect Bastian will still get this reaction out of women. Possibly even some men. I’ve seen some do double takes as they walk past him, like they’re checking if he’s real.
“Gummy bears!” Tessie shouts, way louder than she needs to.
“No, sour gummy worms!” Everett’s jabbing the clear display, right above a bag of gummy worms.
Tessie hip checks him out of the way. “No—”
“We’ll take both,” I interrupt with a polite smile. “And a large popcorn, a large Coke, and two small ICEEs.
I swear, I can’t take these two anywhere, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. After Vince’s death, Tessie’s parents agreed to split her time between them evenly. Now she’s in New York every other month, which means she and Everett get to fight over literally everything every other month.
“Cherry!” Everett jumps up and down.
Tessie pushes him out of the way again. “Coke!”
“Nope.” Bastian wraps an arm around my waist. “No caffeine. She’ll take a blueberry and strawberry mixed.” He arches a brow at Tessie. “Okay?”
“Fine.”
I’m biting back another grin, always smiling at their antics. I can’t believe this is my life, being hugged by the man in a bespoke suit who could model for GQ; wearing tattered sweats because it’s what I like, and fuck everyone else; beside a kid who has become a son to me and the little sister I never knew I needed.
Bastian leans his chin on my shoulder as we wait for the awestruck teen to get us our junk food. “You look happy.”
“I am.”
The happiest.
I can’t even quantify this feeling or describe it.
The kids grab their drinks and candy, I take the large Coke, and Bastian grabs the popcorn. When we get into the theater, it’s completely empty. There are previews playing already, but no one is in here.
I look around. My hair flings into my eyes, and I brush the strands away. “Are we in the wrong theater?”
Bastian nudges me forward with a hand on the small of my back. “Nope.”
“But it’s crazy crowded out there. Are theaters normally empty?”
He takes the seat beside me, Tessie on his side and Everett on my side. “They are when you buy out the theater.”
“What? No way.”
“It’s your first time,” he says like it’s the obvious thing to do.
Tessie shushes both of us. “You’re not supposed to talk in the theater.”
I roll my eyes, set the drink in the cupholder, and lean into the reclining chair. Everett grabs my hand on my left, and Bastian grabs my right hand. The last trailer ends, and the movie starts playing.
Long intro credits. Three guys fighting. A bunch of blood Everett and Tessie shouldn’t see, but I’m sure they’ve seen worse. By the unfazed expression on Everett’s face, I know it to be true.
And then the movie cuts off. Right out of nowhere. The screen flickers. I look back at the projector to make sure it’s on before the screen lights up again. Two words consume it from wall to wall. Giant. In my face. All caps.
MARRY ME.
No question.
A demand.
Because that’s the type of man my new fiancé is.
BASTIANO ROMANO
One Year Later
Dad half drags me out the door as I grab random things I think we’ll need and throw them into the baby bag Ariana packed a few months ago.
His hand fists my collar, and then I’m unceremoniously shoved out the door. “Your kid is coming with or without you…”
I let him take the wheel as we leave my penthouse garage and head to the private hospital. I check the contents of the bag. Double check. Then triple check. Ariana is an absolute rage monster with her pregnancy hormones, so I tossed a vibrator and twelve-inch dildo in the center of the bag just to watch her reaction in the hospital.
“Have you named your girl?”
“Not yet.”
I still can’t believe he’s beside me. Ten years ago, if you asked me what I thought about my dad, the words, “Dead to me” might have crossed my lips. Now he’s driving me to the hospital to watch my first baby girl be born.
And I’m calling him Dad.
That happened after the first anniversary of Uncle Vince’s death, and we admitted life is too short to hold grudges against the ones we love. We’ve been mending our relationship since. It hasn’t been overnight, but it’s happened.
The nurse rushes us to Ariana’s room, remembering my face from the million trips we’ve taken here—and the large donation I made to make sure my girls get the best care. Everett is already here, sitting outside the room. He was with Ari when her water broke, picking him up from school.
He hugs my leg when I reach him then jumps onto Dad’s back. “She’s making weird noises.”
I ruffle his hair, then enter the room. He’s right. Ariana is moaning and groaning and making literally every noise in between. She sounds like she’s speaking whale as the nurses tell her to breathe.
“I am breathing! How the fuck do you think I’m still alive?!”
See?
Rage monster.
She’ll be appalled when the baby is born and she finds out she actually yelled that.
“Oh, thank fuck,” she says when she sees me. Her hand reaches out for me.
I grab it and intertwine our fingers. “I think fucking is what got us here, Mrs. Romano. We could have stuck with anal.”
The nurse’s cheeks turn bright pink. I’m tempted to wink at her as Ariana clamps down on my hand with the force of a Sumo wrestler. At this rate, I’ll be in the E.R. getting a hand transplant before the baby is born.
I let her hold down until my hand is numb, I don’t think feeling will ever return to it, and I’m considering how I’ll finger her without my fingers.
An hour passes.
Then another.
And another.
Ten hours later, I hear the first cry.
Our baby.
It’s a blur as the nurses take her away, clean her, bring her back, and a million other things I can hardly process because another human has entered this world, and she’s ours.
“What should we name her?” Ariana has a pen in one hand and a form in the other. She should be asleep, but for a former law enforcement officer, she never does anything she should.
I press a kiss to her temple. “Surprise me.”
“My mother’s name. It means fate.” She writes something down, then hands it to me. “She’s going to hate us for giving her a boy’s middle name.”
“It’ll be fun. Think of all the teasing she’ll get to blame on us.”
Ari rolls her eyes as I take in the name and realize how blessed I am.
This wife.
This son.
This daughter.
This life.
It’s all ours.
Everett trails behind when the nurse brings in our baby girl and hands her to me. I look down at her cherub cheeks until her blue-green eyes pop open.
Dalia Vincent Romano.
The End.
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