Vicious Minds (Children of Vice #4)(84)

“All of this is very romantic,” I whispered, glancing over my shoulder at him. “Are you going to sing me a song too?”

“If you’d like.” His eyes looked over the tight dress I wore. “It seems that despite my best efforts, you knew this was coming.”

“I truly did not.” I picked up one of the roses. “I just felt like looking nice, and maybe I want to seduce you a bit tonight.”

“You succeeded.” His voice was barely above whisper as I smelled the rose.

“You didn’t have to do all this,” I told him as I stepped on to the rose petal path.

“Yes, I did. I’ve listened to you say ‘your family’ or ‘you Callahans’ for long enough. This is your family, you are Callahan, now come here so I can give your prize,” he demanded.

I glared, but it was rendered useless by the grin on my face. My butterfly heels clicked softly over the roses as I walked towards. “I’m only listening because I’m expecting you to get on your knees.”

“Knee,” he corrected, pulling out a dark velvet box. “I’m not bowing, I’m proposing.”

“Same thing, isn’t it?” I joked, and he shook his head, getting down on one knee. Before he could open the box, I warned him, “This better be one hell of a ring—”

He opened the box and grinned knowing it was in fact one hell of a ring. It was well over 30 carats. The diamond was bright red and in the shape of a tear drop, with smaller white diamonds surrounding it. It was set in gold and was by far the most beautiful ring I’d ever seen.

“My mother stole this diamond from Alexei Rozhkov when she was only eighteen. Red diamonds are the rarest in the world, one of this size is even rarer. No one even believed Rozhkov when he said it had it. He was petrified to show it to anyone. It was worth 14 million then, and that value has doubled by now. It’s the largest red diamond in history. My mother showed it to me a year before she faked her death and I asked her why she never wore it. She said at first, it was because everyone was looking for it and it drew unwanted attention. Then as people forgot about it, she never wore it because she loved the ring my father gave her. And then finally she decided she was going to leave it to her daughter.”

“Yet you’re giving it to me.” It wasn’t a question because now that I saw it, it was mine.

“She simply said daughter. That includes daughter-in-law as well, doesn’t it? She gave her own daughter a damn country. The least she could do for the love of her son’s life is to allow me to give her this ring.” He lifted the ring from the box and took my hand. “Calliope Seraphina Orsini, will you allow me to…. put this bloody ring on your finger so I can get up off my goddamn knees? I was shot recently—”

I snatched my hand back, crossing my arms “Try again.”

He laughed and smiling at me he nodded. “Calliope Seraphina Orsini, it’s been almost twenty years, but yes, I accept your proposal. I will marry you.”

He pulled my hand back to him and slid the ring on I glared at him, ready to…ugh. Damn it! He was right; I was the one who proposed, well demanded we get married first, as kids.

“Would it kill you to be a bit more romantic?” I muttered when he got off the floor.

He shook his head and pointed around the room. “Did this look easy to set up? I’m all romanced out at the moment.”

“Is that so? Excuse me if I don’t kiss you then—”

He pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around my waist and placing his hands on my ass. “That I cannot excuse, Mrs. Calliope Callahan.”

I put my now heavier ring finger over his lips. “I don’t need a song, but I need to hear something so romantic that this dress cannot in good conscience stay on.”

He opened to his mouth to speak.

“I want to hear the truth, not just lines, and I want to hear it in Italian.”

“Yes, your majesty,” he said in Italian, resting his forehead on mine. “But know I have never once not told you the truth. Mostly because I never wanted to lie to you and secondly because you’d know it was a lie to begin with. You’re asking me for romantic words, I don’t know if I have them or if they are any different from what I have already told you. But I’ll say it again. Calliope, there is no other person, living or dead, that has ever understood me, frustrated me, scared me, excited me, and made me as happy as you. Every moment you were not with me I missed you. I missed you to the point where it was less painful to pretend you didn’t exist, to just force you out of my thoughts, than to think of you. I have hated and regretted every moment I betrayed you. The thought of you with anyone else was enough to drive me mad, and yet you patiently stood by as I…as I worked. No other woman could do that, not even my mother. You are so strong; at times, it terrifies me because I’m not sure if I’m being fooled by you, if you really love me too. I’ve fallen that deep and that hard, and I don’t even care. You could cut out my heart and I’d still call you la mia anima, because I know you are my soulmate—”

I kissed him. How could I not kiss him? How could I not jump him? Picking me up, he carried me over to the bed. I heard him accidentally kick one of the candles, but he didn’t care. He dropped me on to the bed, already pulling at my dress.

“Marry me,” he finally said as he kissed my neck, his hand already on my bare breast.