Page 23 of Stealing Her Heart
“Yes,” I whisper, smiling against his lips. “Yes. We were…we are fate. I am your princess, my king,” I murmur with a little laugh.
Because I am. I am his and he is mine and not even a dance with death could ever change that. I love him. I love the me I am because of him. The girl who laughs, who dreams, who loves, no matter the pain that washed me out for so long. We can do this. We can survive this war and any other that comes our way. As long as we do it together, we will survive anything.
“Ahh, there she is. There’s my princess. Missed her. Come here, give me some sugar. It might heal this all right up,” Gabriel teases, pulling me closer.
Sighing against his mouth, I am smiling. I brush my lips over his as he cradles the back of my head with a gentle hand. It is the gentlest kiss we have ever had. It tastes like a promise. Tastes like a brand-new start.
“Oi, doc,” I shout, knelt at his side. “Come stitch the capo up!”
Grinning up at me, he winks at me as he settles back down. The doc comes in, but I refuse to leave. I am there through the curses, the stitches, the tinging of bullet fragments dropping in a tin bowl. Each clink of shrapnel makes me flinch. Gabriel sucks down some whisky and smiles up at me.
“My pretty princess. Going to make a beautiful bride. We’re going to have gorgeous babies. Can’t wait to see you pregnant.”
Beaming down at him, I bend to touch my nose to his. I am dreaming with him again. About a future, a family, a life of freedom that I get to choose. I want to be his wife. I want to have his babies. I want to be tied to him in every way possible.
“Will we have a lot of babies, capo/? I tease him, watching him wince as the doctor beings sewing up the wound on his shoulder.
“Damn right, at least four. I want you to be pregnant a lot.”
Gabriel kind of laughs and I smile because I know the whisky and the pills the doctor gave him must be talking for him. Lying there with a smile, he goes on about wanting two boys and two girls. So, they always have a built-in best friend. It is the sweetest thing, and he is adorable even as he is bleeding all over the floor of the tiny cabin.
Dario helps me get him to bed in an upstairs room. We get him settled and Dario tells me to look after him. The two share a look that says how important they are to one another and then he is gone. I climb in bed beside him, letting him snuggle up against me as he drifts off.
“Little mafia princes and princesses. Little dreamers,” he hums before he clutches me close and passes into what I hope us a rest full of dreams.
Chapter Thirteen
Gabriel
I might be a bad man, but I am good to the ones I love.
Sitting by the fireplace in the small cabin we’re all tucked inside of, I can’t help but be proud of my life. Dario and Stefan survived the ambush at the Bianchi house. Dario will have a limp for a while, but he is loving the attention my sisters have been paying him. Stefan is quiet, but I sense he is proud of being drawn into our inner circle after the part he played in it all.
He and Primo are laughing about something, but they have both been on high alert since it all went down. We’re in one of the houses we keep just for this sort of thing. A place to sneak off to, off the grid, where we can be safe and make sure our families are safe.
Some of Dario’s favorite jazz plays over the hum of conversation, the fire is going, and all the people I care about most are here and safe. My sisters fawn over all the other men, tending to their wounds, keeping their drinks full, and bringing out copious amounts of pasta and meatballs.
Even with a war raging, we’re still celebrating life together.
“Come here, little princess,” I call my girl over, eyes trailing over her pretty lavender dress. Jesus, her body was made for those princess dresses. Somehow, she looks both sweet and sinful and I eat it up.
Grinning at me with her eyes sparkling, Gianna comes to sit at the arm of my chair. I suck at my cigar, even though it fucking hurts to draw the smoke into my lungs. Frowning at me, she snatches the cigar from my hands, puffing on it herself. I laugh and pull her down to settle her on my lap.
“Doctor said no smoking for a while, capo,” she teases me, blowing a cloud of smoke in my face.
“Don’t give a damn what that doctor said, baby,” I shoot back.
“Thought you might say that. Listento me—no cigars until you heal. Those shots beat up your lungs the way a fat baby beats up a pinata.”
Laughing at her adorable analogy, I shake my head. “I will always do your bidding,” I tease, kissing her jaw as she blows out more smoke.
Stubbing the cigar out, she adjusts herself on my lap. It has been a few days since I got shot, and she has been looking after me like a mama kitten looks after their babies. I love it but I also hate it. I have not had her beneath me—or on top of me or bent over for me—since everything went down.
While I love her playing nurse, I am done with her holding back. Pulling her back against my chest, I give her a single warning. “Do not move. I want you where I put you, princess.”
With a little shudder, she nods. Her round ass is soft in her thin sweats, and I love how it settles against my cock. If we were alone, I might rip them open to get my dick inside her. Dario will be taking my sisters and the others to a different safe house a few miles down the road. I told him I need time alone with my reason for living.
We just got word that Anto is with the other heads of the families, talking strategy. He came up here right after the ambush. Seeing Gianna run to her big brother with tears in her eyes, I think it healed a little part of me. They talked all night about their lives, about all they have missed, and about all the things they recall from their time together.
