Mafia Kings: Valentino: Dark Mafia Romance Series #6

So I went.

Like the stupid, pathetic fool I was…

I went.

Right after I talked to Alessandra, I packed and checked out. Then I hailed a taxi.

The driver hadn’t even heard of Resuttano before. He had to look it up on Google Maps.

We drove for three hours. Then he dropped me off at a bed and breakfast – the only inn in the village.

I spent a sleepless night tossing and turning…

And then, the next day at 11:30, I walked through the town towards the chapel, with Alessandra’s words echoing in my ears:

You should go see him tomorrow… even if it’s only to say goodbye.

I made my decision.

If he would run away with me, then everything would be perfect.

It would be a fairy tale come true.

But that wasn’t what I thought would happen.

Though it made me sick to my stomach, I promised myself that he if refused to leave with me…

That if he was actually going to go through with marrying her…

Then this would be the last time I saw him.

I would leave Sicily and probably die of a broken heart…

But I would end it.

So when I was walking towards the church and saw him in the distance, my heart stopped.

I froze as I watched him walk into the church.noveldrama

Half of me wanted to rush to him, to fling myself into his arms, to kiss him madly –

But the other half wanted to run away.

To flee the heartbreak I knew was coming.

The part of me that wanted him was too strong.

I hurried down the lane, across the churchyard, and then stopped outside the door.

My entire body was trembling –

From desire or fear, I didn’t know which.

Then he said my name –

“Caterina?”

And it was the most beautiful music I’d ever heard –

Because he said it.

I walked up the steps and paused, my heart beating wildly in my chest.

He turned. All I could see of him was a silhouette in the red and golden light of a stained glass window –

But I would have known that profile anywhere.

“Val,” I whispered, my heart both breaking and full of love.

He stepped forward into the light from the doorway, and I could finally see his face.

I put my hand to my mouth in shock.

The entire right side of his face was horribly bruised. Not only that, he had dozens of scrapes and cuts.

He gave me a lopsided smile. “Not so good-looking anymore, am I?”

Tears welled up in my eyes, and I dropped my hand and smiled. “I’d give everything I have to wake up to that face… exactly the way it is right now… for the rest of my life.”

He looked at me with a combination of pain and longing.

I stared at him with tears in my eyes.

And then I was running to him –

And he swept me up in his arms.

Before I knew it, his mouth was on mine, and his hands were all over my body –

And I gave in.

One last time.