Marriage by Bravery - Book 3

Chapter Eleven

Kim

Three days after the heated moment we shared and I was still quivering in pleasure from the mere memory of it. Looking back, I was disappointed that he didn't take it further but in the moment I was too caught up in my post-orgasm daze to fight his decision, I had genuinely believed I wouldn't have been able to handle anymore pleasure right then.

Stupid girl, now he's avoiding you again! I scolded myself.

Okay, so maybe he wasn't exactly avoiding me but he surely wasn't allowing us to get that close to end goal again. He kept saying that if my plan was going to work, we needed absolute focus. This annoyed me to no end because we aren't anywhere near the point that would require our actual participation just yet. Unfortunately, he refused to see reason and so I had to find something else to distract myself or better yet something else found me.

"What do you think of this one?" Mrs Giordano asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

She held up an embroidered napkin that frankly looked exactly like the seven she had shown me before. Luca must have let on that I was going out of my mind with bored torment because the minute he left the house his mother showed up with a box of designer napkin samples saying that she needed my help choosing one for the table placements. We had been at it for about an hour and half, maybe even two and I simply couldn't take this monotony for a second longer.

"Mrs G, why are we even doing this again? " I asked unable to keep the whiny brat tone from filtering into the question.

"Silly girl, for the wedding of course!" She answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Who's getting married?" I questioned wondering why it was us and not the bride being subjected to this torture.

She looked at me then as if I had suddenly sprouted another head. Had I been drooling while helping her sort them? Maybe I had developed a bit of a lazy eye from utter boredom, my left eye was feeling a little droopy.

"Oh my," she said in a truly concerned voice, maybe the eye really was bad, "I was under the impression that you were aware of everything."

I stopped fidgeting with my eye to answer her question. "Huh? Aware of what? Am I missing something here?" I asked in exasperation when the look of concern on her face only seemed to deepen.

"These napkins are for the tables, at your wedding," she told me gently, as if speaking to a slow child.

"I think I'd know if I were getting married Mrs G," I said with amusement before the seriousness of her expression really set in.

She wasn't laughing, she hadn't even cracked a smile. This woman either had one hell of a poker face, which wouldn't be unheard of being that she was the wife of a crime lord, or she was actually being completely serious. If she was, there was only one viable candidate for the position of groom, which meant...ooooh my goooood, my wedding? Oh my god, I was getting married? Oh my god. Did he- did Luca tell his mother we were getting married? Oh my god! Were we even talking about the same Luca? OH MY GOD!

"J-just to make sure we're on the page here, are you saying that we're planning a wedding at which I, Kimberly Howard will be the bride of Luca Giordano?" I asked shakily, desperately trying to remind myself to breathe.

She was now looking at me as if I were a stark raving lunatic but she nodded and this time there was no keeping it in.

"OH MY GOOOOOOSSSSSH!!!" I screamed, right before I passed out.

The hushed whispers around me brought me back to consciousness. I fought the dizziness as I tried to get up, but as the memory of Mrs Giordano's revelation came back to me, my body grew weak and I slumped back into the bed with my eyes full of unshed tears. I could hardly believe that not only did Luca have the intention of marrying me, but he already had his mother planning it. The butterflies were going wild in my stomach, pushing me almost to a point of sickness. The happiness was almost overwhelming. I moved to sit up on the bed again and promptly found myself being aided by a pair of strong familiar arms. My husband to be. I mean, yes, I wanted to marry him eventually but I never thought in a million years that he would come round to the idea so easily and so soon without me having to badger, stalk or sexually assault him. Better yet, I never expected him to take full initiative and put the planning into motion.

Wow, this must be a dream, I thought to myself as his lips descended on my forehead.

"Cara," he whispered against the skin of my face, "you have caused me to worry, are you not ready to become my bride?" He asked in a worrisome tone.

For whatever reason and for the first time since I got to Italy, I actually stopped to think about my actions first. Was I ready to marry Luca? The man I flew across miles and miles of ocean to be with. The man who captured my heart within hours of meeting him. The man I had been willing to fight and utterly disgrace myself for if the need arose, as long as it meant he'd be mine in the end. The man I was fighting alongside for the right to live and love as he chose to. Was I ready to commit my life to this man and spend the rest of my days loving him with everything I had?

I looked up at his face, he had grown uncertain in light of my hesitation to answer. I reached up, cupping his stubble covered jaw in my palm.

"I'm ready."