Page 119 of The Temptation

His first reaction is to reach for his daughter, but I twist my body away. I’m not ready to hand her back yet.

“For fudge’s sake, Luc. Don’t cry all over her, you’re going to give her a complex.”

If it were any other moment, and I wasn’t feeling such utter devastation, I would’ve laughed at him saying fudge instead of fuck.

“I just need to squish her a bit longer,” I say through my tears.

He instantly reaches for her again. “The fuc—udge you do.”

“Please.”

“I’m not going to stand here and let you squish her,” he growls.

“It’s a good squish, not a bad one.”

He just stands there flexing his hands like he’s debating whether to yank her away or let me fall apart with her in my arms.

“Romeo is alive,” he says, and those words stop me cold.

“What did you just say?”

“He didn’t die, Luc.”

“Are you telling me the truth?”

He rolls his eyes. “No, I’m lying to you and giving you false hope. Of course, I’m telling you the truth. I have proof if you don’t believe me.”

I suck in a sharp breath and hold it as I watch him pull out his phone and run his thumb across the screen.

When he turns it towards me, the first thing I see is Romeo lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to so many machines.

“You love Lucia?” Dante asks.

“Oh, God. I love her so damn much. She makes my heart goba-bom,ba-bomevery time I see her.” Romeo’s words are a little slurred as his hand moves to cover his heart. A heart that was no longer beating the last time I saw him. “Every time she yells at me, I fall a little harder. It’s like music to my ears. Beautiful, angry music. It makes my cock go rock-hard.”

A huge, genuine smile curves my lips as I listen to him. The tears that now leak from my eyes are happy ones.He’s alive.

My gaze darts up to Dante, and there’s a bemused look on his face.

Romeo keeps going, he talks about Big-O and the assassination, and I find myself hoping that everything he says about me, about how he feels, is real. Because he’s never said those words out loud before.

When he confesses he’s my husband, I gasp. “He told you we got married?”

Dante lets out a dry chuckle. “He was high as a kite and barely making sense.”

For some reason, his eyes drop to my hand and his brow furrows. He does a double take, then actually steps back like he’s seen a ghost.

The hand that’s holding the phone drops down by his side, and although I can no longer see the screen, I can still hear Romeo talking.

“Why the hell is there a wedding band on your finger?”

I swore to Romeo I’d keep our union a secret, but now that he’s let the cat out of the bag, I guess that vow’s moot now.

“We got married.” I can’t stop the smile that spreads across my face. “He’s my husband and I’m his wife. I’m Mrs Romeo De Luca.”

The colour drains from my brother-in-law’s face as he retreats another step. “You two got married? When?”

I’m the one frowning now. “Does it really matter when?”