Chapter 10 - The Sovereign Union
Three weeks later, the storm had long cleared from the skies over Lake Michigan.
The early summer sun reflected off the repaired glass walls of the penthouse, casting warm, golden light across brand-new herringbone hardwood floors and restored Italian furnishings.
The scent of gun smoke and blood had been replaced by the rich aroma of fresh espresso and white lilies blooming in crystal vases.
I stood at the kitchen island in bare feet and an oversized cashmere sweater, watching the morning traffic flow peacefully along Michigan Avenue sixty floors below.
A pair of strong, warm arms wrapped around my waist from behind.
Carlo pulled me back against his broad chest, burying his face in the curve of my neck, breathing in my scent with a quiet, contented sigh.
His ribs were still tightly wrapped beneath his silk shirt, and a faint white scar ran across his jawline where Falcone’s men had cut him.
He was healing.
We both were.
"The New York families finalized the treaty an hour ago," Carlo murmured, his lips brushing against my ear.
"They surrendered the eastern rail corridors."
"They paid full restitution for the damage to the tower, Frank's family received ten million in a blind trust, and they recognized you as the sole co-executor of all Barbieri holdings."
I smiled, leaning my head back against his shoulder.
"Sole co-executor?" I teased lightly.
"Does that mean I can finally fire your accountants?"
Carlo let out a deep, rumbling laugh that vibrated against my back, a sound I had feared I would never hear again on that terrifying midnight three weeks ago.
"You can burn the accounting firm to the ground if you want, my heart," he replied, turning me gently in his arms so that I was facing him.
His dark eyes were no longer cold, no longer masked behind the brutal necessity of survival.
They were filled with an adoration so deep, so profound, that it made my knees feel weak even after seven years together.
He reached down, taking both of my hands into his own, lifting them to his lips and kissing my knuckles with reverent tenderness.
"I spent seven years trying to keep you clean," he said softly, his voice thick with emotion.
"I thought that loving you meant keeping you in the light while I walked through the mud and the blood."
"I thought I was being noble when I threw you out into that storm."
"You were being an idiot," I corrected gently, smiling as I reached up to touch the scar on his cheek.
"I know," he confessed without hesitation.
"I forgot that an empire isn't held together by a man with a gun."
"It is held together by the mind that guides his hand."
"You saved my life, Bianca."
"You saved our family."
"You are not my liability."
"You are my sovereign."
Carlo reached into his pocket and pulled out a heavy platinum signet ring, engraved with the intertwined crests of our two families, surrounded by a band of black diamonds.
He slid it onto the thumb of my right hand, sealing the new order of our world.
"From this day forward," Carlo swore, looking directly into my soul, "no decision is made, no bullet is fired, and no contract is signed without your seal."
"We rule together, or we burn together."
I looked down at the ring, then up into the eyes of the man who had been willing to die a torturous death just to give me a chance to breathe.
The world outside was still cold, cruel, and dangerous.
Syndicates would rise, rivals would plot, and shadows would always linger along the edges of our kingdom.
Yet as Carlo leaned down and captured my lips in a slow, possessive, and endless kiss, I knew that no storm on earth could ever tear us apart again.
May you like
He had thrown me out at midnight to die for me.
And I had returned before dawn to conquer the world with him.
