Rosabella sucked in a breath at the revelation, her eyes sparkling as her fingers curled in his hair at the back of his head.

"I see you, Rosabella. The real you... and you are hauntingly beautiful..."


She finally kissed him. And it doesn't stop there. Over and over, both of them kissed and kissed, only ever pulling away when they needed air to then return to an intense lip lock.

---

An hour or two must have passed by as they lay naked under the satin, their bodies curled together after making love.


"What do you want to do, Rosabella? I'm a man of my word, I can make you disappear if you don't want to be associated with this life. I just need time to sort it out one by one reasonable manner." Charles spoke into the quiet room as his fingers played gently with a lock of her hair.

Rosabella placed a small kiss on his chest.


"Or is?"

"Or... well... you stay with me. Stay here."

Lifting her head, Rosabella looked at him curiously for a moment.

"Doesn't that mean you're going to break protocol?"

Charles suppressed a smile. He was surprised that she still remembered what he had told her months ago, having thought that she hadn't listened as carefully as she had.

"You killed my enemies for me. Saved me. In our world, that means I owe you my life."

She frowned at him making him chuckle.

He knew she most likely had some mischievous return to such a statement, but she surprised him when she wasn't joking but sticking to the subject.

"Ok, so if I stay here, what will our lives be like?"

Charles bit his lip and tried to keep his poker face.

In fact, he wanted to smile like an idiot when she said our lives were the opposite of mine.

"I'll be honest with you. My job won't change. But you'll be my woman. I'll make sure everyone understands that. You'll be with me and us, within our limits. this lifestyle, how we want this to look is up to us." He explained.

He looked at her as she took a long minute to think about this before her eyes returned to his.

"What do you want?"

At this point, Charles no longer cared. He will put his card on the table and make it clear.

Despite the fact that she didn't reciprocate his confession, her reaction was still so positive he wouldn't start everything sugary right now.

He let out a determined breath. "I want you to marry me, Rosabella. Be my wife."

Rosabella's lips parted. The shock was probably not a word Charles would use to describe her expression, but he knew that it was the intensity and weight of his reaction that caused that look on her face.

He continued. "I won't lie to you. It won't be like a normal marriage because we will always be part of the mafia. But we can be happy, Rosabella. Whatever we want. We maybe even have a family if that's what you want..."

For a moment, Rosabella allowed her to visualize it.

She finds herself living in this mansion while everyone knows about her and Charles, openly showing their affection for each other and holding hands at the dinner table instead of sneaking into each other at night.

She sees her crawling into bed next to Charles in a larger, refurbished room for two while the walk-in closet space will be his side, hers.

And then she sees her with the kids, raising them with Fanny and Michel's children, watching them play together as she and her best friend chat.

Rosabella couldn't resist the dreamy smile that was slowly creeping across her face. Though there was something that kept hovering above all vision, like a dark rain cloud.

"What about my role? What will it be?" She voiced her concerns when she returned to reality to see Charles.

"What do you mean?"

Rosabella adjusted herself in bed as she rearranged the silk on her bare breasts.

"I mean what do you make me do? On a daily basis, I mean? Do you expect me to just stay here while you risk your life every day? You know, I'm not like Audrey or Fanny. That would drive me crazy."

Charles frowned at her, unable to follow what she was implying.

"You're the nurse, Rosabella." He speaks realistically.

"And you think I can only stay as a nurse after what happened?" She tilted her head to the side, still detecting the confusion on his face.

Rosabella took a deep breath and cleared her throat.

"If I stay here, I have a condition." She said as she waited.

When she got no response, she assumed Charles was allowing her time to explain. So she did.

"I want to work."

"But..."

"I don't want to be a nurse or just a wife. I want to be on par with you."

The frown on Charles's face only deepened as the line between his eyebrows rose.

"Rosabella."

"Either we do this together or not at all."

At that statement, she felt him inhale slightly uncomfortably.

She knows exactly that he's trying to stay calm about it all, but it's clearly starting to get harder and harder for him.

"What kind of person do you think I am? I can't let you risk your life like that."

"Oh, can I?"

Charles kept his piercing gaze on her as if he couldn't understand what she was trying to get through.

"Neither of us can do that, Rosabella."

"Why? You taught me to be different but then you just want me to stay home, look pretty, and keep your bed warm?"

"This isn't the same. I was born into this. I don't know anything else. You can be anything but this. Remember what happened to Archibald. Do you really want this? Does this become your daily life?"

"Yes."

"You can not."

"Then you have it." Rosabella choked back tears as she saw him staring at her with an expression that had wiped all previous happiness from his face.