Page 147 of Savage Saint
"Absolutely insane," he agrees.
I look up at him, and the intensity in his dark eyes steals my breath. We can joke about it all we want, but the truth is written in every line of his face: he believes it. Completely, utterly believes that his dying mother somehow saw across time and left him a message about me.
And God help me, so do I.
"So what now?" I ask quietly.
Angelo's hand comes up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone with infinite tenderness. "Now I tell you something that's been building in my chest since the moment I saw you walk out of those flames."
My heart starts beating faster. "What?"
He takes a deep breath, his eyes never leaving mine. "I've spent my whole life believing I didn't deserve happiness. That I was too broken, too stained with blood, too much of a monster to deserve anything good."
I start to protest, but he shakes his head gently.
"Let me finish," he says. "I believed it for so long that it became my truth. I built my whole identity around being the one who does the dirty work, the one who sacrifices everything for family duty. I thought that was all I was good for—being the person who kept everyone else safe."
His thumb traces my jawline, the touch sending shivers down my spine.
"But you," he continues, his voice rough with emotion, "you taught me that redemption isn't about erasing the past. It's about choosing something different for the future. You showed me that I could be more than just what my father made me. That I could be worthy of something beautiful."
"Angelo—"
"I don't want to wait another day," he says, the words tumbling out in a rush. "Not because I'm afraid of dying, not because tomorrow isn't promised, but because I finally believe I deserve to live. Really live. With you."
My breath catches as understanding begins to dawn. "What are you saying?"
He slides off his stool and drops to one knee in front of me, taking my hands in his. My heart stops completely.
"I'm saying marry me," he says, his voice steady despite the emotion burning in his eyes. "I want to build something with you. I want to wake up every morning knowing that we chose each other. Not because some fortune cookie told us to, not because fate decreed it, but because we looked at all our options and decided this was what we wanted."
Tears blur my vision as the magnitude of what he's offering hits me. Not just marriage. Partnership. Equality. Choice.
"I spent my whole life having things done to me," I whisper, my voice shaking with the weight of the truth. "Jerzy's training, his missions, his control. Even my memories were taken from me. Every choice was made for me, every path decided by someone else."
I look down at his face, at the vulnerability and hope written there, and feel something click into place in my chest.
"But this," I continue, my voice growing stronger, "this is the first real choice I've ever been given. The first time someone asked me what I wanted, instead of telling me what I was supposed to do."
"What do you want, Butterfly?" he asks, and the question holds the weight of the world.
What do I want?
I want morning coffee and terrible jokes. I want someone who sees the Red Widow and loves Kasia anyway. I want to build something beautiful on the foundation of our shared darkness. I want to choose love every single day for the rest of my life.
"I choose this," I say, my voice growing stronger with each word. "I choose you. I choose us."
The smile that spreads across Angelo's face is like watching the sun rise after the longest night.
"I choose now," I add, laughing through my tears.
He surges up to kiss me, his hands framing my face as our mouths meet in something that tastes like promises and forever. When we break apart, we're both breathing hard.
"So that's a yes?" he asks, grinning like a man who's just won the lottery.
"That's a yes," I confirm. "Though I have some conditions."
His eyebrows raise, and that wicked smile I love so much spreads across his face. "Already making demands? I like this side of you."
