The Devil I Love (Devil's Knights 3)

“Because you love me.” A smile stretched the corners of her mouth. “I always knew you loved me, but I honestly never thought you could say the words.”

“What binds us will destroy us.”

“Our love,” she whispered. “Losing it would destroy us. See, you knew even before you could say the words.”

I rolled my shoulders against the chair. “I love watching you paint. Get back to work, baby girl.”

She shook her head, and curls fell into her eyes, forcing her to shove them away. “When we’re in this studio, I’m the boss.”

“Okay. I can work with that. But in the bedroom, you know your place.”

“I like when you dominate me.” She rolled a paintbrush between her fingers. “So boss away when we’re in bed.”

I tipped my head toward the canvas on the floor in front of her. “What are you working on?”

She glanced down at the sketchpad beside the canvas and then handed me the book. “A new series. I’m calling it The Devil’s Knights.”

“Babe, it’s called a secret society for a reason.”

“No one will know the truth behind the paintings. Just look at my sketches before you tell me no.”

I glanced at the page. She drew a group of men wearing hoods, dressed in long cloaks, with their faces blacked out. The man at the center of the group had eyes that shone various shades of red and orange, while the others had X marks over their eyes.

“This is incredible. What gave you this idea?”

“When you woke me up on the DeLucas boat, and I looked over and saw you and the men who helped bring me home, I realized you might be the Devil, but all of you protected me. And this Queen needs her Knights.”

I nodded in agreement, then pointed my finger at the page. “Why did you cross out their eyes?”

“For anonymity.”

“So why are my eyes different?”

She laughed. “Who says that’s you?”

“Please, Drea. We both know the man at the center of this sketch is me. I’m in every one of your paintings. The Devil You Know, The Devil You Hate…”

“The Devil I Love,” she added. “I’m planning to reveal that painting at my show next month.”

I handed back the sketchbook. “Let me see it.”

“It’s a surprise. Think of it as a delayed wedding gift.”

“I’m buying it. Don’t even try to stop me.”

“Nope.” She pressed her lips together. “I made one just for you, so don’t you think about it.”

“I want the original.”

“The one I painted for you is for your eyes only.”

I wiggled my eyebrows. “Sounds kinky.”

She threw back her head and laughed. “It’s more suggestive than my usual work. We can hang it in our bedroom.”

“I want it now.”

“Good things come to those who wait, Mr. Salvatore.”

“I want to meet all the Knights.”

“You’ve met them.”

She shook her head. “No, I mean, I want to meet all of them—every Knight in the country. I want to know everything there is to know about the Knights. I was thinking about your mom earlier. I sat in front of her self-portrait and had a conversation with her.”

“Crazy and beautiful,” I joked. “I guess I can’t get one without the other.”

She chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’ve never talked to her after she died.”

“Yeah, but it’s different. She was my mother. I knew her.”

“I have always felt like I know her. Her art speaks to me. The way a song would for others. I don’t need to hear her words to understand how she felt.”

“What did you say to her?”

“I looked at the pieces she created while she was dating your dad and after she married him. And now that I know what she went through to be with him, I can see that she embraced being the Queen of the Knights. And I will, too. I told her she’d always given me the strength to be with you. I also told her I would take good care of you.”

My eyes stung from her confession. “She would have loved you.”

She pressed her lips to mine. “I love you, Luca. I want to be your wife and your Queen.”

I sucked her bottom lip into my mouth. But before I could get out another word, my cell phone rang. She pulled back with a groan as I reached into my pocket.

I raised the phone to my ear. “Yes.”

“Grab your brothers and meet me in my office,” my dad said, hanging up without another word.

I shoved the phone into my jacket pocket. “Duty calls,” I told her.

“Will you be gone long?”

“I don’t know, baby. I’m just going downstairs to talk to my dad and brothers. Dom is outside the room. I’ll send him in after I leave. He won’t let anything happen to you.”

“You don’t have to fear my safety inside this house. We have more protection than the president.”

I slid my hand beneath her chin and tilted her head until our eyes met. “No matter where you go, there will always be a target on your back. People will want to hurt you just to hurt me. But I will keep you safe.”