Page 36

Quinn

I’m lying on the floor in the dining room, out of breath after multiple orgasms, and with red marks all over me from playing with our new toys.

What a freakin’ session…

And what he told me towards the end of it… I’m kind of in shock.

“ All that stuff I said about not wanting a family, ” his whispering voice replays in my head, “ I’ve changed my mind. I’ll have one… only with you. ”

My slit salivates just replaying it over and over. He really changed his nonnegotiable for me?

Wait a second… where’d he go?

I get to my elbows. “Silver?” The kitchen is empty. His shirt is on the floor next to me, but his pants are gone. “Hey! I thought we were done playing games.”

“ Come in here, I want to show you something,” his voice resounds from the kitchen, but I don’t see him.

“I literally have your stuff spilling out of me right now.”

“I left you a tissue. Plug it up,” he growls.

“But I like it here. The floor is warm after our little playtime.” I smile, spreading my arms like an idiot.

“ Kid, ” he says more assertively.

“Alright, alright.” I grab the tissue and stick it as a plug in my slit so his stuff doesn’t start running down my leg. Looking down, my nipples are still bright pink from the clamps and my body is sore as a mother. “What is it— ah! ” My hands cover my mouth. My eyes go wide.

Silver is on one knee, shirtless, holding up the most beautiful pear-shaped diamond I’ve ever seen.

“Was going to take you to a nice dinner first, but you keep almost bumping into the damn box, so here I am.” He smiles at me, and my heart melts into molten liquid, tingling me all the way down to my toes.

“Ever since I first laid eyes on you, my heart sprung back to life. Your fiery eyes drew me in like a helpless moth, and since then, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.

If you say yes, I’ll protect you, love you, and spank you for the rest of our days. ”

I giggle at that last one, feeling jittery energy as he presents to me. It’s the cutest and most out of character thing he’s ever done.

“Quinn Dall, will you marry me?”

As much as I want to scream yes, I tilt my head and tap my chin. “Hmm. Under one condition…”

He growls.

“You never abandon me like that again.” My expression hardens.

“I can do that.” He smiles.

“Of course I’ll marry you, Silver. It’s all I ever wanted.” I leap on him and plant a big kiss on his lips.

“The ring!” He tries to speak through my lips on his.

“It’s beautiful.” I glance at it and kiss him again.

“Why aren’t you putting it on?” he tries to speak again.

“Because…” I kiss him again, and again. “You. Just. Gave me a bomb of love. Marriage? A family? Yes, Silver. Forever yes.” I finally lift off of him and accept the ring on my finger.

Wiggling my fingers makes it shine in the kitchen light. “Goes so well with my outfit.”

He purrs like a lion and starts feeling me up again. “It does.”

“Silver,” I’m aghast. “Again?”

“Why not?” His teeth nibble on my nipple.

“Did you take a blue pill or something?”

“Fuck off. I don’t need any of that.” He slaps my ass, which makes me tingly all over again.

I bite my lip. “Show me.”

xxx

After a redo dinner at Athena’s Delight , we make some new memories filled with jokes and plans about our future, which helps to subdue the very dark night of nearly losing him a month ago.

He seems lighter these days, like he came to an agreement with some of his demons and is finally letting himself live.

A part of me worries, though. Life can’t work out this perfectly, especially after what I’ve seen.

Then again, who am I kidding? Showing up to Ferraro’s funeral a few weeks back was a horror show of trauma. Pretending that he was still my Uncle F for all his family, hugging Big Bill and telling him Ferraro was a good man… it still rattles me to my core. But that’s all over now.

“Ready?” Silver throws cash into the receipt booklet and folds his napkin on the table.

Butterflies shoot around my belly. “We’re actually doing this?”

“Of course.” He holds out his hand.

“What if he—”

“He won’t,” Silver assures me.

The ride to my dad’s house is full of nerves. I know the two of them have put aside the two-ton elephant in the room after they both nearly died at the hands of the bratva, but marriage? That’s a big deal. I’m his favorite person.

He grabs my hand and squeezes it. “Let me do the talking.”

I hear two bottles clanking around in the back seat. “Did you?”

“Yeah. Went to the liquor store before,” he says.

“Wow. You really planned this out.”

“What did you expect? That’s what I do.”

“Oh, so you meant to propose to me while my pale ass was out?”

“No better way, if you ask me.” He laughs, calming my nerves a bit.

We pull up to my old house. We tried to get the bear to sell it, but he’s stubborn and settled on a complete renovation to erase all the horrors we encountered in it, and added lots of security cameras all around.

The kitchen and dining room were supposedly just finished yesterday, and I’ve yet to see it.

Silver reaches for the champagne bottle, takes my hand, and leads the way.

Din-dan-don!

The newly installed front entrance camera lights up, and my dad’s heavy-footed steps come toward the door.

God. Oh God. My teeth clatter.

“Arosso, Little Bear, it’s late.” He looks at us both suspiciously. “And what’s with the dress up? Not you, Arosso, her.” He nods at me, and I sink a little farther behind Silver.

“May we come in?” Silver asks.

“Lucky I’m just watching a little TV before bed. What’s up?”

I shut the door behind us and triple lock it out of post-abduction habit.

“Pat, we’re here to celebrate something big, and we wanted you to celebrate with us—”

“What? On a Tuesday night? The hell is the matter with you. Wait. ” His eyes bulge out of his head. He looks at me with the fury of a thousand suns, then back to Silver. “Absolutely not . No! ” He’s getting tense like he’s going to fight Silver.

“Dad!” I shout, but Silver just throws out his arm for me to hold off.

God. My heart thunders in my ears. It’s almost as bad as when the Russians dragged me out of Ferraro’s house. What the fuck was he thinking?

“We hoped you would share this special time with us, Pat,” Silver says. Even he seems a little taken aback, which breaks me down farther into a fearful puddle.

“I thought this fucking thing would fizzle out by now!” Dad stomps his foot. “Don’t tell me, let me see your finger!” He points at me, only his heavy breathing resounding around us. “ Now , Quinn!”

I slowly show him, and the silence is harrowing.

His angered face slowly breaks into a slow smile. Then he and Silver start cracking up hysterically.

“What? Oh no, you two didn’t! ” I start hitting them both as they laugh harder at me. “You’re both sons of bitches. Sons. Of. Bitches!”

“Ha, ha, ha. Arosso came to ask me a few days ago. We already had a few beers and my blessing.” Dad gives me a big kiss on the cheek before bear hugging me.

“Congratulations, you two! I’m going to get the glasses.

” As he’s stomping excitedly to the other room, he’s talking to himself, “She said yes. Wow . My little pistol of a girl.”

“I was as surprised as you are,” Silver jokes, then winks at me.

“You’re a piece of shit.”

He shrugs. “Then why you smiling so hard?”

“Because you got me good.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

The next hour is full of jokes and clinking glasses.

Dad makes a few comments as to how fast this is all happening, but he couldn’t be happier now that he knows Silver really is out of the mafia.

I tell Dad about the sets Silver’s been taking me on, and how being intertwined in the TV business makes watching the shows that much more fun.

“So, big wedding like your sister?” Dad asks.

I side-eye Silver. “We’re both a little weird. We have friends, but… kind of loners, you know?”

Silver raises his eyebrows in agreement.

“Something more intimate then?” Dad says.

“Yeah, I think so.” I smile at Silver and he squeezes my hand.

“Wouldn’t be good to have the Valentino don and the captain of homicide at a big wedding venue,” Silver comments.

“Intimate it is.” Pat laughs nervously.

“Sorry, Pat. He’s my cousin. He’s got to come. I’m sure you all can play nice for a night,” Silver says.

“I’m on borrowed time thanks to that bastard. I’ll make another exception.”

Silver gets up from his seat and beckons my father to do the same. With all the shock and awe in my life, I never expected to see Silver wrap his arms around my dad. I think I may have just died.

“Thanks for stepping in, even though it was the dumbest move ever,” Silver says.

They both cackle.

“And thanks for accepting me into your family. She’s my world.”