Page 37 of Claimed By the Possessive Mafia Prince

DARIO

Five Years Later

“ W as it there, Daddy?” Dante says, pointing out at the ocean.

I grin and lean back on the beach towel, nodding. The sun has set, but the Maldivian sky is clear and the stars shine down, making the sea gleam. “It was right there, son.”

“Whoa.”

I ruffle his hair. He’s got his mother’s honey-colored eyes, with my black hair, and a smattering of freckles across his cheek like his maternal grandmother had when she was little.

“And you swam into her boat like a shark.”

I chuckle. “Something like that.”

“Did you know it was Mommy?”

“I didn’t know her then,” I tell him.

Not like we know each other now, as if we’ve lived inside each other’s minds, as if every piece of us is carved into the other, our souls intertwined. My wife. My child’s mother. My angel.

“Mommy said she thought you were a merman.” Dante giggles. “I bet you were a really good swimmer.”

“I am an excellent swimmer, I’ll have you know.”

He leaps to his feet and starts running for the water.

“Hey, where are you going?” I laugh, chasing after him.

“I’m a better swimmer than you!”

We spend some time splashing in the waves together. The sound of my son’s laughter is addictive. Then, I catch him. I lift him up and hold him on my shoulders. He grabs the top of my head, pushing it one way and then the other.

“What’re you doing, little man?”

Another adorable giggle escapes him. “Steering!”

“Okay, then. Take me to Mommy.”

“Gotcha!”

He guides me to our hut. Siena looks up from her paperback novel with a contented smile. “Nice time at the beach?”

“Daddy said he was a merman, and he loved you like that .” Dante attempts to snap his fingers when I put him down, then runs right to his mommy.

Siena smiles over the top of his head. “Love at first sight, huh?”

I wink. “You know it. Soulmates- that’s what I told him. Room for one more?”

I cuddle up next to them. After a few minutes, Dante begins to snore softly between us. Siena speaks in a low whisper as moonlight seeps through the open balcony door and turns the room blue.

“As the years go on,” she whispers, adjusting her dress, her body still as curvy and perfect as always, her face more beautiful each day because, each day, I know her just a little bit better. “I begin to wonder.”

“About what?” I ask.

“You and I. Fate. Soulmates.”

I smile. “You sound like Mother.”

“As the years go on,” she says, taking my hand, “I’m starting to think that’s not such a bad thing.”

THE END