Chapter 9 - The Real Vows
When Luca kissed her, the rest of the world vanished.
It was not a soft, polite kiss like the ones Gregory had given her before formal dinner parties. It was deep, demanding, and filled with a raw, intense hunger that made Nora’s knees go completely weak against the stone balustrade.
Luca lifted her effortlessly, holding her soft hips against his broad chest as his mouth claimed hers again and again under the starry New York sky.
Nora tangled her fingers in his thick, dark hair, pulling him closer, opening her mouth to his, matching his intensity with a passionate fire of her own that she had kept locked away for seven long years.
When he finally pulled back, both of them were breathing heavily, their foreheads resting together in the cool night air.
“We need to do this properly,” Luca murmured, his dark eyes sparkling with a rare, radiant warmth.
Nora smiled, resting her hands against his broad chest. “Do what properly?”
“The wedding,” Luca said, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. “Six weeks ago, we signed paperwork in a sterile lawyer’s office with three security guards as witnesses. That was a contract.”
He pulled a small velvet box from his trousers pocket.
Nora gasped.
He opened the box. Inside lay a breathtaking, custom-designed ring—a massive, emerald-cut blue sapphire flanked by two brilliant, flawless diamonds, set in a band of heavy platinum.
“This is not my mother’s ring,” Luca whispered, lifting the ring from the velvet bed. “My mother’s ring belonged to the past. This ring was crafted three days ago in Manhattan. It belongs to the future.”
He looked into her dark, shining eyes.
“Nora Bennett, will you marry me? For real this time. No contracts. No clauses. No exit strategy. Just you, me, and Leo for the rest of our lives.”
Nora looked at the brilliant blue sapphire gleaming in the moonlight, then up into the face of the man who had pulled her out of the shadows and given her a empire of love.
“Yes,” Nora wept happily, holding out her hand. “Yes, Luca! A thousand times yes!”
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Luca slid the heavy platinum band onto her ring finger. It fit perfectly—a seamless, unbreakable symbol of protection, power, and absolute devotion.
He pulled her back into his arms, spinning her around on the stone terrace as her clear, loud, beautiful laughter echoed out over the dark waters of the harbor—a sound that no one would ever try to silence again.
