Chapter 18 - The Quiet Room|
We returned to the Evanston townhouse at one in the morning.
The house was quiet, bathed in the soft amber glow of the garden lights.
I helped Alina unzip her emerald silk dress in our master suite, her dark hair cascading down her bare back like a waterfall. I pressed my lips gently against her shoulder, wrapping my arms around her waist from behind as we looked into the large gilded mirror above the vanity.
"Are you happy, Alina?" I whispered into her hair.
She turned around in my arms, resting her hands against my chest, her dark eyes glowing with a deep, peaceful warmth that made my heart leap.
"I have been happy since the moment you burned those papers, Dante," she murmured softly.
"I almost lost you," I confessed, my voice dropping into a raspy whisper as I remembered that terrifying night three years ago. "If I had signed those papers ten minutes earlier..."
Alina reached up, pressing two fingers gently against my lips, stopping my words.
May you like
"You didn't sign them, Dante," she whispered. "You listened. You looked past your own pride and fought for us. That’s all I ever wanted."
I leaned down, pulling her into a slow, deep kiss that lasted until the autumn moon rose high over Lake Michigan.
