His Stolen Bride - MINK Page 0,38
want me to do, I can, but there’s a catch. If you take over Carrera ...”
I hold my breath waiting for him to tell what it is.
“You’re not allowed to go back and stay at that home. You’re not just a Carrera anymore; you’re a Baldoni, and I need you by my side.” My eyes burn with tears. Never in a million years would I have predicted this outcome when Santino came here claiming everything as his own.
“You think I would ever leave you?” I raise my chin in challenge.
“Wasn't really giving you the option.”
I try to keep glaring at him, but a smile wins out. ““I don’t want the Carrera name. I want my name. Bella Baldoni.”
“God, I love you, beautiful.” He kisses me again, hard and wild, just like him.
But I break away. “Then what do we do?”
“I have an idea. Do you trust me?”
“You know I do. I think I trust you more than I trust myself, to be honest.”
“The feeling is mutual, beautiful.” He takes my hand. “We have business.”
“I’m coming to the meeting?” I asked, shocked.
He raises a brow. “You’re now the head of the Carrera family, are you not?”
Well, hell. I guess I am.
I bet my father never saw that coming.
Epilogue
Santino
Bella cries on my shoulder, her handkerchief already spent with tears. I hand her another and wrap my arm around her.
“Come now,” I whisper.
“It’s just so beautiful.” She waves a hand at the arbor covered in pink and white flowers where Gianna and Leo just made their union official.
I reach down and rest one hand on her growing belly. “Just as you are.”
She sniffles. “I’m so happy. Tell me all this is real. That I’m married to the man I love, that Gianna and Leo are married, and I’m soon to be an aunt.”
I kiss her hair. “All true, beautiful. Every word. And Leo and Gianna are now in charge of the Carrera name and line. We’re all safe, united. Baldoni, Davinci, and Carrera.”
“Forever, right?” She looks up at me, her big brown eyes still swimming with tears. “Things will be this way forever?”
“Nothing lasts forever.” I run my fingers along her soft throat. “Except my love for you.” I kiss her, tasting her salty tears and the pangs of joy and fear that seem to be at war inside her. She feels everything these days, but that was true before she carried my child. Bella is sensitive and kind but also strong when she needs to be. Her armor is reserved for others. No walls between us, she and I are one.
Pulling back, she smiles. “Let’s go get cake.”
“As you wish, beautiful.” I rise and help her up, then walk past the small array of white chairs. Cato and Apollonia sit in the back row. I’m glad no children were at the event, because what they’re doing is likely too explicit for young eyes.
“Ah, tigress, you always run so hot for me,” Cato does a sex growl that I hope I never hear again as he pulls her into his lap.
Bella giggles as we hurry into the guest house behind the Carrera villa. I refuse to let her set foot in the house where her father abused her, but I made an exception for the guest house. After all, as Bella said, there’s cake. I would never deny her.
Leo and Gianna beam at each other as they cut the four-tier dream in white and pink, and the small crowd of close friends and allies cheers as they feed each other bites of the confection.
Bella’s stomach growls.
“Sit, my perfect one.” I ease her down in a chair beside the arbor on the terrace, the greenery surrounding her like a halo. “I’ll get you a double slice.”
“Oh, it doesn’t have to be that big,” she says, but then licks her lips.
“A triple slice then.” I kiss her forehead and fetch her cake.
We spend the afternoon chatting with each other and the families in attendance. Leo and Gianna dance, and I waste no time in taking Bella to the floor.
“Do you wish we’d had a ceremony, a bigger one, I mean?” I ask as we sway to the music.
“No.” She rests her hand over my heart as I rock her and our unborn child slowly under the moonlit sky. “I think the way we were married—it was the only way it could’ve happened. And I loved every moment of it, even though at the time I felt like you’d stolen me.” She sighs dreamily. “Now it’s