< Second Chance for the Mafia Prince
Dance With Me Part II
“Why didn’t we dance more?” she asked quietly.
“Many reasons. I was keeping us very low key to keep Duchess from thinking you meant more than she believed. I had the weight of the world on my shoulders and dancing didn’t feel like something I could do. I knew I was lying to you and the guilt weighed on me. Having fun like this felt like something I shouldn’t be allowed to do.”
“You knew it was wrong.” She held his gaze as she looked up at him.
“I did but I thought I could fix it. I believed it with all my heart that our love would be able to beat the secrecy I felt was necessary to protect you,” he stroked her cheek, sadness in his eyes interrupting the moment of joy they.” “I was a fool.”
“Sit down, Gulliver.” She patted his hand on her shoulder. “Please, sit with me.”
He moved around the table and retook his seat, but his were on her. “I should have danced more with you.”
eyes
“Well,” she grinned at him, “you can dance with me any time we’re together so long as it’s appropriate. I’m sure Kaylee would love it if we were dancing in his presence.”
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< Dance With Me Part II
“I bet she’d be right between us.”
“Probably. She does like to be the center of attention.”
“Speaking of attention–seeking,” he sipped his wine, “I saw you texting furiously before you started getting ready. I presumed it was your mother demanding your time. Was everything okay back home?”
“Mom sent me a text asking me when I was coming home and saying it’s not fair I’m keeping her from Kaylee and that I’m acting like a child by avoiding the hard conversations with her. I screenshotted it and sent it to Dad and didn’t answer her.”
“That must have been hard. You usually are pretty reactive.”
“Ouch,” she pulled her head back at the comment.
“I’m simply saying, you tend to jump in with guns blazing before you collect your thoughts. It’s why I’m still trying to understand how it was you stood outside my office back then and heard Thisbe and I, yet you never came in and confronted
me.”
She frowned at him and then nodded slowly at his words. “You’re right. I do usually react, but I also do tend to shoot my mouth off and then retreat, lick my wounds, think on what I’ve said and then go back for seconds. In the moment back then,” she lifted her own wine glass and acknowledged his words, “I 2/5
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went from being so excited about coming to tell you about being pregnant to feeling the entire world shift under my feet. I could barely speak. I called Dad and he picked me up. He made one call to Davis and in hindsight, I was just glad everyone else was making decisions for me. I was a wreck, Gulliver. I could barely recite my own name let alone go after you and give you shit.”
“I wish you would have. I know it’s not your fault. I know you did nothing wrong. I know that you were within your rights to simply walk away and not give me a second thought but if you’d confronted me back then, there is no doubt in my mind I would have been on my knees begging forgiveness. I’m sure I would have been able to convince you to stay and to trust me. Our love was strong and I am confident it is a love to defy the ages. The eight years we were apart are going to be a fraction of the life we are going to live together, January. We will be together for decades to come.”
“You sound very confident for a man on his first date with a woman who a few weeks back hated his guts.”
He smiled as he leaned back and swirled his wine in his glass, “cocky, arrogant, confident. You can call it what you will, January but you never hated me. You were angry. You were hurting. You were sad and defiant even. Hate though? No. That emotion was not real.”
“It felt real.”
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< Dance With Me Part II
“Easier to cling to rage than to remember love. You love me and I hurt you.”
“I don’t recall saying I love you still.”
“You don’t need to say it, my love. I can see it. Your eyes still follow me wherever I am in the room, the same way mine follow you. Your heart calls to mine, January.”
“Wow. That’s a lot of bullshit. You might want to lay off the wine,” she pressed her lips together as she struggled not to laugh at his antics.
“I believe it but if you want to call it bullshit, may it fertilize the flowers of our love.” He gave her a cheesy grin as she leaned her head back and groaned loudly at his words. “Too much?”
“Yes.” She snickered as he gave a one–shoulder shrug as if he didn’t care he was being schmaltzy.
“I am not afraid to lay it all out there, January. In the past I kept to much to my chest. This time, I’m going to let it all out there and let the world see how important and special you are
to me.”
“What if she tries to kill me?” She wasn’t sure where
the question came from and at his quirked eyebrow she elaborated. “You were worried she would hurt me before if you
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< Dance With Me Part II
backed out of the engagement. What if she tries to kill me now?”
“I will slit her throat before she gets within ten feet of you, my love. I promise you that. In the past I was trying to save my grandfather’s embarrassment and his friendship, and I didn’t have the family support I have now. Now. I will use the entire army at my disposal to annihilate her before she even breathes a syllable of your name.”
“Wow.” She blushed at the intensity of his commentary.
“What I’m saying,” he said bluntly, “is I will murder with reckless abandon anyone who dares come for you. You are my wife, past, present, and future and I dare anyone to test me in my pursuit of keeping you safe.”
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