by Brook Wilder
“O-okay.”
Concern flooded her expression and he swore under his breath. He wasn’t good at this shit. Give him a fucker to kill and he could do that. But fucking propose to a woman again? He couldn’t find the right words.
“I love you,” he started, figuring that was the best place to start.
“I love you too,” she said, her expression softening. “Very much so.”
“I know,” he said, meaning it.
She showed him every day how much she loved him. Against his better judgement, he had let her decide if she wanted to return to her classes or not, which she had, but online instead of actually attending the classes. He had picked up the pieces of the fractured Anafesto family and, together, they were starting to rebuild, no one truly missing Rocco. Things were a lot quieter now without him around and Vittorio hadn’t killed anyone since his death.
Maybe, just maybe, his life was turning around. That is, if he could propose to Sharon.
Clearing his throat, he knelt before her, seeing the surprise on her face as she realized what he was doing. Carefully, he reached into his pocket for the multi-carat emerald diamond that was there, holding it up for her to see.
“This is just a ring,” he started out, the words just coming to him. “But it symbolizes my love for you. I never thought I would do this again, love another person to distraction that would keep me up at night worrying about how to protect them. I never thought I would have a relationship that would mean a damn, one that I could see being the last one I ever had. But then you came into my life and turned it upside fucking down until you were all I could see.”
“Vittorio,” she breathed, tears glistening in her eyes.
“I love you,” he continued, gripping her hand tightly. “And I will love you until the day I am put in the ground. I promise to keep you safe and happy if you will let me. Marry me, Sharon.”
She looked at him, and he could see the love in her eyes and feel the love he thought he would never feel again.
“Yes,” she said softly, her hand trembling in his. “Yes!”
Relieved, he slipped the ring on her finger before gathering her into his arms, kissing her tears away.
“I fucking love you.”
“I know,” she whispered, pressing her lips to his. “I fucking love you too.”
“Dirty mouth,” he laughed, holding her close. “Just the way I like it.”
Sharon laughed and he spun her around, unable to contain his own happiness. There had been many times in his life when he thought that he would never have happiness like this again, that his world was meant to be violent and cold. But she had changed it for him. Sharon had shown him that he could love again and find it in the most unlikely place. She had dropped in his life and no matter how hard he had fucking tried to break her, she wouldn’t budge.
She was everything to him.
Chapter 22
Sharon
Sharon leaned back in the seat as the plane took off, her ring catching the sun from the window as the plane rose into the clouds. Beside her, Vittorio gripped the armrest, his eyes closed as the plane ascended. Who would have thought that her big, bad mob boss hated to fly?
“It’s almost over.”
“Shut the fuck up, Sharon. No it’s not.”
She laughed and placed her hand on top of his, her giddiness hard to contain. They were on their way to Kansas, to see her parents and give them the good news. She had purposely withheld the announcement until she could tell them in person, knowing that they would have to get over the initial shock of Vittorio himself. Her parents would never tell her to not marry him, but she wanted them to see the man she knew, the one who slept beside her at night and held her like she was made of glass.
The plane leveled out and Vittorio’s hand relaxed, his eyes focusing on her.
“Tell me again why I didn’t drive to Kansas?”
“Because,” she said, gripping his arm lightly. “This is a heck of a lot faster to get there. All you would see is corn fields and cows. Not exactly the best road trip, I promise you.”
He blew out a breath, his normally tanned face starting to gain its color back.
“Next time, we take the private jet. That way I can be fucking you on takeoff.”
“Vittorio,” she said, flushing as the people around them looked over their way, some in disapproval.
“What?” he asked, interlacing their fingers. “They are just fucking jealous. Ignore them.”
She sighed and laid her head on his shoulder.
“What are you going to tell them that you do for a living again?”
Vittorio chuckled.
“I’m going to tell them that I owe several businesses in the city. We met at a bar, right?”
Sharon thought about the lie she told her mom long ago, when she thought Vittorio was gone for good.
“Yes, and not the strip club either.”
“So, you want me to lie to your mother,” he said with a laugh. “Alright.”
She blushed again, thinking that, well, he was right. They had met in a strip club and, at the time, she had thought she was going to die. Not once had she ever thought it would turn out like this. “And don’t tell my dad that I’m about to marry into the mafia. He might need time to warm up to the fact.”
“You know they could just look me up on the internet.”
“If they had it,” she countered.
Vittorio’s eyes grew round.
“What the fuck? Where are you taking me Sharon?”
Laughing, she stroked his face.
“I’m taking you to Kansas, Vittorio.”
“Shit,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “No internet, no strip clubs. No wonder you were so naive.”
Sharon grinned, thinking of how not naive she was now. Vittorio had showed her things in both life and in the bedroom that she never knew she would experience, taking her places that she had thought she would never see in her lifetime.
And now he was about to be her husband.
Her parents would likely think that she was too young to get married, but Sharon knew she wanted nothing more than to marry him. When she looked at her fiancée, she didn’t see the head of the most powerful mafia in New York. She saw the man who had protected her more than once during their time together, the one who had tried to break her but she would never bend to. She saw the man who never once gave her pause to think she was making a mistake, the man who had taken her life and turned it upside down when she had least expected it.
Most of all, when she looked at Vittorio, she saw the man she loved, the man that would eventually give her children and she would grow old together with.
And when there was nothing left, they would have each other, for all eternity.
“What?”
Sharon sighed.
“I was just thinking about how happy I am.”
He brought their joined hands up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of hers, squeezing it gently.
“I’m happy to.”
“Even with me dragging you to Kansas?”
“Even so.”
***
The trip took a little over three hours. Vittorio nearly raced Sharon out of the plane, causing her to laugh at his aversion to flying. She would have never imagined a man who lived such a brutal life would have been so scared to fly.
They walked through the terminal, hand in hand, Sharon starting to feel the butterflies in her stomach.
She had talked to her parents numerous times since she had moved in with Vittorio, attempting to prepare them for the man they were about to meet. Of course, she had left out some of the bigger, heart attack issues, such as he was a mob boss and she had wild sex with him almost daily. Sharon didn’t think her parents were ready for that tidbit of information. She wanted them to love him as much as she loved him, putting all her favorite people in the same room together.
Rounding the corner, she spied her parents waiting near the entrance to the airport, her heart sw
elling as she laid eyes on them for the first time in forever.
She was truly home.
Chapter 23
Vittorio
He was in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Vittorio swallowed as Sharon led him over to a middle-aged couple standing near the entrance to the airport, thinking how he would rather be doing anything than meeting her parents right now. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but he knew what they would see when they first laid eyes on him and what their perception was going to be.
More than that, he didn’t want to upset Sharon. She truly believed that her parents were just going to accept him as he was, but Vittorio knew that was wishful thinking. In the world of cornfields and county fairs, he stood out like a sore thumb.
“Mom! Dad!” Sharon yelled as they grew closer, waving her hand wildly so they could see them through the crowd.
Vittorio watched as the petite woman broke out into a smile and met her daughter halfway, Vittorio letting go of Sharon’s hand, so she could hug her mom.
“Oh, my baby!” she exclaimed. “I am so glad you are here!”
Her father eyed Vittorio as he approached his family, hugging his daughter next.
“Welcome home sweetheart.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Sharon said, a glimmer of tears in her eyes as she turned back to Vittorio.
He saw the love there and was glad when she reached back to grab his hand. Nothing had changed between them. She still fucking loved him, which was all he needed in life. It was funny how his world, his very existence, revolved around this woman.
“Mom, Dad, this is Vittorio.”
Vittorio forced an easy smile, though he felt like puking, as her mom turned toward him, giving him a once over. There was no disappointment in her eyes, only mild curiosity as she held out her hand.
“Nice to meet you. My daughter has told us a great deal about you. I’m Margaret.”
“Nice to meet you,” he stated, shaking her hand firmly.
Margaret gave him a smile as she turned to her husband, Sharon’s father.
“This is Bill.”
Vittorio held out his hand and the older man shook it, his grip firmer than his wife’s had been.
“Welcome to Kansas.”
“Thank you,” Vittorio said, seeing the distrust in Bill’s eyes. He couldn’t blame him. There would come a day when he would have to deal with the same shit, some wet-behind-the-ears boy attempting to date his daughter. He would put him through the ringer too.
“Well,” Margaret said a moment later. “Shall we go? We brought the car.”
Sharon tucked her arm into Vittorio’s as they walked to gather their baggage, then followed her parents out to the car.
“You’re doing fine,” she whispered, giving him a squeeze.
He looked down, his heart squeezing as it did every time he looked at her. He was a lucky mother fucker to have her in his life, and if she wanted this to work… well, he was going to make it work.
They piled into one of those four door compact cars, Bill in the driver seat, and pulled out onto a flat highway with nothing but fields on either side of it.
“So,” Margaret started, turning in her seat to see them both. “Is this your first trip to Kansas, Vittorio?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said, remembering to watch his words. “I’ve lived in the big city all my life, so this is a new adventure for me.”
Sharon squeezed his hand lightly, encouraging him as he spoke.
“Vittorio is an entrepreneur, daddy. Just like you.”
That was fucking stretching it.
“Nothing like you. sir, I assure you, but I do enjoy owning my own businesses.”
“Uh-uh,” Bill said, his eyes meeting Vittorio’s in the rearview mirror briefly. “Do you do well enough to support my daughter?”
“Bill!” Margaret admonished, lightly hitting her husband on the shoulder. “Did you not see her engagement ring? I think Vittorio must do alright.”
“It could be fake.”
Vittorio snorted with laughter, unable to help it. At least the man was honest.
“Yes sir. Sharon will never want for anything as long as I breathe. I will provide and protect her.”
Bill nodded, and Vittorio let out a breath. Every father just wanted to hear that his little girl was gonna be taken care of.
“What about her schooling? We didn’t send her there to drop out.”
Sharon squeezed Vittorio’s hand tighter and he returned the squeeze, urging her not to worry. Fuck he had stared down a room full of goons wanting to kill him. He could do this.
“I don’t want Sharon to stop her college classes. She came to get a degree and she will get her degree.”
Bill met Vittorio’s eyes once more, surprised.
“You want her to finish?”
Vittorio nodded.
“Of course. Sharon does what Sharon wants. I’m just along for the ride and damn happy she is letting me be in the car.”
Sharon gasped, but Vittorio didn’t dare look in her direction. He was laying out his plan to his future in-laws, attempting to explain how much he cared about their daughter.
The silence, however, was fucking killing him.
Bill drove a-ways, until they came to a four-way stop before he looked back at Vittorio in the rearview mirror.
“Good.”
Chapter 24
Sharon
Sharon carried the blanket as they stepped off her parents’ porch, still not believing that she was home. The air seemed cleaner, the noise reduced to crickets and the occasional cow bawling. She had forgotten how quiet it truly was here.
“Where are we going?” Vittorio asked as she took the familiar beaten path out of the yard.
She squeezed his hand, so glad that he was here with her. After the tense ride in the car, her dad had started to warm up to her fiancée and, before dinner, she had caught them discussing Vittorio’s businesses.
Well, the ones he could talk about.
It warmed her heart to know that her father sorta approved of her fiancée.
“We are going to one of my favorite spots.”
“Are we going cow tipping?”
Sharon stopped in her path and looked up at him, arching a brow.
“What do you know about cow tipping?”
Vittorio rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.
“I… hell, I did some research before we came out here. Cow tipping was at the top of the list.”
Laughing, Sharon shook her head.
“No, but if you really want to do it, then we can.”
He looked embarrassed, so she reached up and kissed his cheek, her heart overflowing with love for her man. He cared enough to attempt to learn something about where she was from. That had to show his love for her, the commitment to their future together.
“Come on, you!”
She pulled him past the tree that still held her tire swing, wondering if someday she would bring her own kids to visit their grandparents with Vittorio at her side. Oh, how she was looking forward to those days!
On the other side of the tree, far away from the house, she laid down the blanket, sitting on it before patting the side next to her.
“Come on city boy. Let me show you some of the country life.”
Vittorio folded his large frame next to her and she scooted to his side, allowing him to wrap an arm around her waist.
“What are we waiting for? The corn to grow?”
She laughed, as she did a great deal with him these days. Since Rocco was gone and some of the tension had been dissolving around the city, Vittorio was more relaxed, more playful than she had ever seen him.
“No silly. Look up.”
He did so, and she watched his expression change from laughter to awe.
“Damn, look at all of them.”
Sharon looked up at the millions of stars that graced the night sky, something she had missed living in the city. The filled the dark background, not a cloud
to dim their brightness.
“It’s something, isn’t it?”
“It’s fucking gorgeous,” he said quietly, his hold tightening on her waist. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”