Chapter 191: Infinitely Yes
- DEX -
Once Luciano is gone, Raya melts into my side, and I sigh heavily with the feeling of her body against mine. It’s the most comforting thing, and it’s effortless.
I can’t imagine anything more relaxing than just feeling her presence. Her face, her voice, her touch—every aspect of her is home. I’m so fucking grateful, and I will always be. I’m never going to take this sweet girl for granted.
"It will get better," I tell her with a soft chuckle, referring to the number of tense feelings that have already arisen in this vacation so far. I can feel them corded in her muscles and in the acute rigidity of her fingers when they snake across my chest seeking the the same calm that her presence offers me.
It was never my expectation that the four of us would just jump on a plane and have all of our problems disappear. Not in the slightest. This is not a looped, separate reality that I’m trying to bring Raya into in order to make her my wife.
I wrap my arm around her, draw her more snugly against me, kiss the top of her head and close my eyes listening to the foreign sounds of this wild around us.
"Luciano really cares about her," she whispers. "I didn’t know what to expect with them being together on this trip, but it wasn’t this. He is completely different from before."
"The security system, the guard, the flowers... I guess that was all pointing to it, but seeing them together is... eye-opening."
"Yeah. Luci is intense," she mumbles.
"So is Rory."
There is a soft puff of air that washes across my chest with her chuckled reaction—one that suggests what I’ve said is an understatement. It’s an understatement for both of them.
I caress Raya’s hair, running those silky strands through my fingers that look like spun gold under the romantic lights on the deck.
"I can’t believe they shared a dream. This is way bigger and different than we thought," she says.
Rather than comment on it, I let my thoughts wander along the hills and valleys of all that was discussed during dinner—talk of mythical stregas wielding dark magic right alongside the very real mafia. The archetype of the mysterious wild feminine with her powers harnessed from nature next to the outright horrors of violence of the masculine in his pin-striped suit.
A mafiosi and a witch would make strange bedfellows.
I wonder if the mafia ever did hunt "witches" in the pursuit of power. If Nonna told Luciano those stories, there could have been a less obvious meaning or lesson behind them. I have no idea what the lesson would be, but it’s odd to me that he speaks of stregas as if it’s possible that they are real.
When you find yourself sharing a dream with another person, though, I suppose all kinds of possibilities fire to life in your mind. And I am certainly not one to discount them. I have my soulmate in my arms right now because of it.
"There are doctors here of course," I mutter into Raya’s hair. "We can have one of them look over Rory tomorrow."
She nods against me. "I’m probably overreacting."
"You’re not. We’re all concerned about her."
"She hates the attention."
"Wait until she finds out that Luciano has had someone watching the house for weeks," I can’t help but chuckle. "If this is going somewhere with the two of them, one thing she’s going to need to get used to is attention."
It’s heartbreaking, because neither one of these women have received the care that they deserve. As much as I like Will, he has proven to be a fairly absent father when his daughters go through traumatic events. I don’t know about his personal correspondence with Rory, but he didn’t stop by the house to check on her after the threat of her disappearance at my father’s funeral.
Rory won’t know how to take all the attention from Luciano, because like Raya, she has likely never been on the receiving end of something like that. People love her from a distance without having to get too close or personal. And given that it sounds like Rory was the victim of something as horrifying as rape, I can only imagine the type of armor she has had to create around herself.
Her history almost makes Luciano the perfect guy for her in a way, even if it is entirely unexpected. He has already proven that not only will he not shy away from the hard things like other men in her life have, he will literally kill to keep her safe. Without a thought.
Maybe that makes my cousin a monster. Maybe it makes him a hero. The two don’t seem all that distinct.
"When Luciano was talking about your Nonna’s stories," Raya says, pulling back to grace me with her eyes. "I had this wild hope for the first time that maybe our mom left to protect us. Like the witch in the cave he mentioned who had to leave her daughters so that the hunters wouldn’t find them."
A soft, innocent smile curves on her lips, and an ache feathers out across my chest for the hurts she has endured. I sigh and kiss her forehead, and her lashes flutter closed when I do.
I could have lost her several times already since meeting her. The car accident. Kenneth Rider. Lawson. When it comes to Raya, the present time is the most important time. I don’t want to leave anything to the future. I have half a mind to never return to the city after this—to just stay suspended in the present wherever it takes us.
"Marry me." The words just come out... sparked from that ache in my chest and as ungraceful with time as ever. All I want is to be with her. All I want is to never lose this feeling of her by my side. "Be my wife, Auraya."
"Okay," she giggles softly, that sweet smile spreading. "I already told you yes, Alexander."
I pull the box from my pocket, deciding there will never not be a perfect time. It doesn’t have to be on the beach at sunset or overlooking some magnificent natural wonder. We’re here. She’s in my arms. That’s always been enough. At least it’s not outside the bathroom at the country club on the day of my father’s funeral.
When she notices the small box, there’s a flicker of surprise and recognition, and she sits up. Her brows pinch together and mouth falls open.
"I have been carrying this around for weeks. My father gave it to my mother, and now I’m giving it to you."
Raya swallows and gingerly takes the box from my hand, glancing between me and it several times before opening it. Inside is the Old European cut diamond surrounded by many smaller ones.
I was always fascinated by the ring as a kid, because it looks different from every angle and there is so much detail to take in. The smaller diamonds are nestled within delicate leaf shapes, surrounding the round central stone. The white gold is pierced in a way that makes it look like an antique. And yet it all flows together like one solid design—one glittering band of light.
She gasps and stares. When her eyes lift, they’re glittering with tears. The ring pales in comparison to those eyes of hers.
I find myself swallowing against a knot of emotion when I take the box from her and remove the ring to slide it on her finger. Her hand is trembling when I do.
"I want to take you home as my wife, Auraya," I confess softly. "Is that okay?"
A sputter of laughter comes through the tears that are now silently sliding down her cheeks, and she pulls me to her—kissing me, flowing into me, answering me without words before the words finally do form.
"Yes," she whispers, breathless against my lips. "Yes, infinitely, yes."
