So that’s what’s been worrying her? I know Romeo’s faithful to Vittoria, but he’s the only one who ever has been. Even my Uncle Leo had a side girl in Tuscany when his wife was in America. He never even tried to hide it. Mario fucks anything with legs, and Tavi’s too broody and stern to consider marrying right now. Santo…no one ever knows what’s going through that guy’s head.
I lean forward and take both her hands in mine. My voice is low, but a direct command she’s been taught to obey. “Look at me, babe.”
Tentatively, she raises her eyes to mine. And like a good girl, she holds my gaze. “Yes?”
“I don’t ever want anyone else between us. Ever. I will not take a mistress.” I lean across the table. “And you already know any man that touches you would lose limbs before I’d allow that.”
“You wouldn’t even let them help me out of the car,” she says in a breathy voice, as if surprised.
“Of course not. That’s my job.”
After a few long moments, she finally nods. “Okay, alright. You won’t have a mistress.” She exhales, sagging with obvious relief. “And I for sure will only be touched by you. Well, that’s a relief.”
“Which part of that?”
She sighs. “All of it. Another question.”
“Yes.”
“Are women in your…family…allowed to go to college?”
Jesus, really?
“Of course. Why would you even ask such a thing?”
Her hands grow clammy in mine. “Also a question stemming from my family.”
The waiter brings over a charcuterie board, a mid-meal appetizer, as it were, and we release hands long enough to fill our plates. I watch as she takes a small sampling of everything.
“You like all of those things?”
“Oh,” she says with a gentle flush. “I have no idea. But I’m willing to try anything.”
I take a bite of Manchego cheese with a rustic cracker and groan. God, I love food almost as much as sex. “I love that about you.”
“What?”
“Your sense of adventure.”
She shoots me a wicked grin. “Any woman married to you would have to have a sense of adventure. Wouldn’t she?”
Why do her eyes grow wistful when she looks at me like that? We’re already married. She’s already mine. We’re committed to each other and nothing short of death would tear us apart.
“I guess you could say that. Hey, listen.” The black velvet box in my pocket burns like a hot coal. It’s time. “I got a little something for you. We’ve done shit so backwards, I guess it makes sense I got this for you after our wedding, and not during the engagement like every other asshole does.”
I watch her eyes widen, and her lips part adorably.
“You bought me something?” she says, as if I just told her she’d sprouted fairy wings and could soar into the night sky.
“I did. Open it.” I hand her the velvet box, but she only stares.
“But I didn’t get you anything, Orlando. I didn’t know…that was expected.”
“It isn’t. I wanted to get you something, and so I did. I don’t want or expect you to reciprocate. Now are you gonna take this, or will I have to spend the rest of this meal holding a velvet box in my palm?”
Gingerly, her fingers clasp it. “It’s heavy,” she whispers.
Better be heavy. Fifteen carats is nothing to sneeze at.
“Do I…?”
“Open it? Of course.”
She does that thing where she bites her lip as she raises the lid to the velvet box, but I don’t expect the tears that shine in her eyes. “Oh my God,” she says in a trembling whisper. “Oh, God, Orlando. This is… this is too much.” Yet she traces her index finger along the first twinkling diamond. “I can’t…”
“Take it? You’d goddamn better.” I look at the dainty gold chain studded with star-shaped diamonds in the box.
“It’s like fairy-spun gossamer,” she whispers and swallows. “Oh, it’s so lovely.” When she lifts it from the box, she gasps again. “Orlando. You didn’t.”
Against the black velvet backdrop, a little silver tag reads A Riot of Flowers.
“Come here,” I say softly, as she swipes at her eyes. I rise and walk to her. She’d have a fit if she knew this string of precious gems cost a cool five mil at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong. She doesn’t need to know that. She’s worth it. “It’s your wedding gift. Get over here, and I’ll put it on you. There are rubies and diamonds set in white gold and precious platinum, whatever the fuck that means.”
“You’re so romantic.” She sticks her tongue out at me and I give her chin a little squeeze. She flushes pink but doesn’t take her eyes off the string of diamonds the entire time. “It’s so rare to see one star-shaped diamond like that,” she whispers, clearly an expert. “I can’t imagine how…how much…all those diamonds…”
I stifle a chuckle. I love that I’ve bought her a gift that’s rendered her speechless.