Page 167 of Mafia King's Secret Baby

So, I hold him close and kiss him softly on the lips. He looks up at me, his eyes shining with something that looks like hope.

I smile at him, and I’m not holding back anything when I speak.

“Of course I’ll marry you. I love you, Elio Rossi. You’re an idiot and bossy and ten times more difficult than any man has a right to be. But I love you, and I want to bring the world to heel with you.”

Elio gives me a smile. A genuine, huge, dimple-filled smile.

My heart, when he takes my lips again, is full.

This is the world I was given.

And this is the world that I’m going to make the best of. For my daughter. For my husband.

For our future.

EPILOGUE

ELIO

When Caterina stirs in my arms, I shut my eyes quickly.

I do not need her to know that I have been watching her sleep this morning.

She arches against me, her body touching mine, igniting more lust than I can handle this morning.

“Caterina,” I whisper, pressing a light kiss on her neck. “It’s time.”

“She’s not even awake yet.”

“But she will be soon.”

Much as I would prefer to spend the morning making love to Caterina, today is an important day.

“I want everything to be perfect today, amore mio,” I whisper into the delicate skin of her neck.

Caterina pulls back and smiles. “Elio. Are you nervous?”

Am I nervous to tell my daughter that she’s my child? Finally, after all this time?

Hell. Yes. I would never think that she should just accept me, or that I don’t owe her all of my devotion to try and make myself a better father.

“Yes, of course I am,” I mutter. I’m not afraid to share my worries with Caterina, and I know that no matter what, our love will see us through.

But that does not mean I am not worried about what Luna’s reaction will be.

“She’s going to be thrilled. When she’s a teenager I’m sure it will come up again, but right now, she’s going to just be excited that she has a dad, and that it’s you.”

I frown. “What do you mean it will come up again when she’s a teenager?”

Caterina smiles. “Trust me. Teenagers just hate everything. She’s going to have all kinds of things to say to us then about how this all went down.

“She will not be pleased?”

“Who knows, Elio. There’s just so much kids hate, I can’t imagine that it will be popular.”

Luna as a teenager.

The concept seems foreign entirely. She’s currently a five-year-old girl with a strange obsession with architecture. But someday, yes, she will be a teenager.