“I’m going to kill my whole security team,” he grumbled. “And fucking Cade. What the fuck happened to his security?”
Burying my face into his neck, I couldn’t answer any of his questions. I just needed him to hold me. Needed him to be with me.
“Are you okay, Morina?” He rubbed my back, no doubt feeling the shivers that wracked my body from the adrenaline wearing off.
“Please don’t let go of me right now.”
“I’m here to have and to hold forever and ever, remember?” he murmured into my hair.
He kissed my cheeks where tears streamed down them.
“You killed two men.” I closed my eyes not wanting to look.
“If I’d have lost my ragazza, I’d have killed a lot more.”
“Jesus,” I whispered, trying to digest what had happened. “You’re going to jail and I’m going to have visit you there.”
He held me at arm’s length for a second and laughed like I was ridiculous. “Morina, that was self-defense. I’m not going to jail for even a day.”
“That was pure anger and murder,” I countered. “I saw your face!”
He smirked. “Ah, the fight’s back in you already. Look at the color on your skin.”
“Oh shut up.” I shoved at his arm.
His mouth closed, and his jaw ticked. Then, he lifted his hand and smeared away the blood from my lip mixed with my own tears. When he brought it out in front of me, he frowned.
Sighing, he said, “I’ll always have a devil, Morina. This family is full of demons we can’t lock up.”
I held his thumb out in front of me. “Tell me to open, Sebastian.”
His eyes darkened as he stared at me, reading and assessing and trying to figure out if all this was fair for me. I’d take a little pain if I got all the man. I let him take his time. I’d wait for him until death do us part. “Open, ragazza.”
I did and licked my blood from his hand before saying, “I’m yours. Your Untouchable. And every part of you is mine. The good, and mostly the bad. I think the bad part of you chooses me every day and I’m too insecure to want anything else.”
The deep breath that came out of him as he looked down at his leather shoes held so much weight. “Morina Bailey, you’re like the oceans you love so much. Swift and beautiful in every decision you make. So fast, ragazza. And I wonder how an ocean can mix with sand and filth. You flow over all the jagged parts of the world and I’m there like sand, moving over each one trying to smooth it over and make it right somehow. Yet, I’ll always leave filth behind. I don’t know if we can survive that together.”
“Why can’t we? The sand and the sea move together and exist in harmony.”
“You’ve always acted based on feelings, ragazza. I act based on overthinking. Today, I just felt. It’s a dangerous thing.”
“You told me once I’m in more danger without you than I am with you, Bastian.”
He sighed, closed his eyes, and pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed. “We need a clean up at my location. Get in touch with the media and the feds too. I have Morina and will be leaving.”
He steered me away from the scene toward our cars. The man with his hand on the small of my back had just laid out two bodies for me. I should have been scared or wanted to mourn their deaths. Instead, I wanted to climb his body like a tree and tell him I loved him.
“Morina, you understand this is all because I ended the deal with the refinery obviously.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and I saw the darkness under his eyes. “They forced my hand today and the country will be better for it.”
Nudging his shoulder with mine, I nodded up at him. “You did what you thought was right but you maybe followed your gut too.”
“I did what my gut told me without even thinking. It’ll make a bold statement.”
“Can you handle it?” I knew he could but I wondered if he realized it.
He stared at me and then glared out at the water. “Yeah. I’ve pushed the president to move toward clean energy in this state. We’ll do it fast. It’ll work out.”
“You’ve made enemies doing that today, though.”
“I’ll make more and more.”
“You’ll probably have to hold your temper better in the future.”
“Morina, I’m fully capable of–”
“You’re capable of anything.” I said it because I truly believed it. “But you don’t go down the right path all the time. Together, we can probably pick one or two good roads together.”
“You want to stay?”
“I want and need to. My horoscope today even said to do what I want and need. And Cade told me you cook for peace.”
His eyes turned to chocolate and his hands went to my waist. “I’m not a saint. He thinks I am.”
“He thinks you're his big brother who turned a broken empire into a golden legacy again. You taught him to cook Bastian and they count on you to bring peace. I’m proud you knew when to step up and bring war too. Don’t discount everything you do.”
He shook his head at my praise. “I should have told you about the deal, Morina.”
“You should have. But then you served them all Sebastian Armanelli, the man that unleashes rage just for me.”
He chuckled. “You’ll always be risking something when you’re with me, you know that?”
I hummed. “So, are you going to do what’s best for me and let me go?”
Sebastian Armanelli smiled wide before he responded:
“Not a chance in fucking hell.”
40
Epilogue
“What are you doing?” My breath came faster in the living room of the penthouse that we’d somehow made a home. Bastian had bought my grandmother’s house only for me to tell him to sell it again. I loved living in that high rise with him watering the damn plants with his spray bottle more than I ever thought I would.
“I’m tying you up,” Bastian replied, as he wrapped my wrists in silk like his mind was already made up and this was the most logical thing to do.
I pulled my hands away, but they were already tied and he yanked the end hard toward him. I stumbled into his chest, completely off balance.
Moonshine had already wandered off to her bedroom. The dog was a fucking princess when it came to her sleep schedule. She whined to get into her bedroom and every night at eight o’clock, Bastian followed her down the hall, gave her a dog treat from the linen closet and told her he loved her.
My hair fell over my shoulder and I looked up at him through it. “You think this is fun?”
“If you don’t like it, tell me to stop.” He shrugged. “I’m here to accommodate my wife because it seems she needs someone to remind her she’s loved even when she’s being ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous about what?”
He turned me with him and slid open the patio door.
“Oh, no, Bastian.”
“Oh, yes. Morina. You need to come sit out here and enjoy the salt lamps I installed on our balcony.”
“I really appreciate that you did that.” I pushed away from his chest but he gripped the small of my back like I wasn’t going anywhere. I tried yanking at my wrists and he yanked back. “But I don’t think I’ll enjoy it as much as you.”