Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken

by Michelle Hardin

  Oh dear lord Jesus don’t faint. Don’t faint, don’t faint; Reanna, please don’t faint.

  When he stood in front of her, she stopped breathing. She didn’t know why, she just stopped. She watched him as he pulled his bottom lip from between his teeth, and a sweet determination entered his eyes. Bringing his hands up, he placed them at her sides, and then slowly got down on both knees in front of her, sliding his hands down to her hips as he did.

  He looked up at her. “Reanna Pierce.”

  Her response was a whimper as she fought against the sob threatening to burst free from her lips.

  He took her left hand in his, and brought it to his lips for the gentlest kiss. “I love you more than I will ever have the ability to accurately express …”

  Her smile widened. Holy shit, he’s asking!

  “… will you marry me, woman?”

  It was as if the words and the genuine sincerity on his face breathed life into her. She became so overwhelmed with emotion that she could barely speak. Reanna cried, even as she nodded her head, confirming that she would do as he asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Yes, to everything. Yes, to moving in with him and Sofia, yes to being the best mother she could be to that precious little girl, and yes, she would be his wife. She would love him, honor him, and sometimes obey him—depending upon what he told her to do—for the rest of her life. Yes, she would redecorate that plain apartment with family photos, flowers, and multicolored throw pillows, and yes, yes she would accept the beautiful house that he would be buying her and Sofia once they were ready to add more babies to their family. Yes. Yes, to it all. Yes, to him …

  “Are you serious?” he asked, relief flashing through his gorgeous eyes. “You’ll marry me?”

  Reanna nodded her head. “Of course I will, Kyle,” she laughed softly. “Yes.”

  “And you’ll live with us, too?” he shamelessly added. “Move in as soon as possible?”

  Reanna laughed again, this time bringing her hands up to cup his face as she bent forward and kissed his lips. “Yes,” she kissed the tip of his nose, “I’ll move in.”

  Agreeing to move in as he wanted her to, seemed to push Kyle’s happiness to an entirely new height as he stood to his feet, immediately lifting her into a tight embrace, and kissed her until her head started spinning.

  She loved it when he did that.

  No man had ever kissed her so … thoroughly before, and now she would be able to kiss him like this forever. Forever. Because, yes, Reanna was getting married.

  Kyle Valente, the proclaimed player, the dangerously sexy forever bachelor, and New York’s most hated womanizer fell in love with her. Not only did he fall in love with her, he proposed … to her. It was unreal.

  “Promise me …” she breathed. “Promise me we won’t wait too long to have the wedding.” She sighed breathlessly, barely pulling her lips from his as she brought her hands up and slipped her fingers into his hair. “I want to be your wife.”

  Kyle grunted, his embrace tightening around her almost painfully as he kissed her deeper.

  Yes … It felt so good. So freaking good.

  Reanna didn’t even need to hear the words, that kiss was a host of promises in and of itself. He wanted this as badly as she did, and that fact made her want to scream her joy from the roof top of this stunning luxury cabin.

  They were both just as lost in this love; they were united, together. Not one of them more devoted to it than the other, but instead … both of them madly, deeply, and hopelessly in love. And that love didn’t even frighten her any more. It didn’t cause her pain, it didn’t make her worry, and the last thing she wanted to do right now was run; this was all she’d ever wanted. Everything she wanted, more than she dreamed, and so much more than she deserved.

  Sighing as she continued to kiss him, Reanna shut off her brain and allowed her self to drift back into she and Kyle’s personal little world.

  This was their last night of their escape, and she didn’t want to miss a second of it thinking about anything other than their future—the life they would share, the home, the family. Reanna kept her eyes shut tightly as she allowed herself to dream of these things, to keep her mind in a state of peace rather than allow it to drift to what tomorrow would bring.

  Was it true that she and Kyle had just made things more complicated by getting engaged? Maybe, but Reanna didn’t care. This was for them. It was their lives, and whatever came tomorrow as a result of their decision she believed with her whole heart she and Kyle could conquer it, that their love was strong enough to outlast any obstacle. She believed this.

  She just hoped that Kyle believed it, too. Because the only way that she’d be able to hold on to what they’d built over their last few days of isolation, was if he was right beside her, being just as strong, and holding on with her..

  Chapter 17: Home again

  It was a fucking Tuesday morning, and Kyle was late for work.

  Shit, shit, shit! I’m late.

  It was so much easier to throw caution to the wind when he was with Reanna. Only two hours ago he hadn’t given a fuck about being on time for work. Two hours ago he’d been in bed, making love to his fiancée. Then he’d taken her perfect ass to the shower with him, where he’d fucked her again; then in the closet before they’d dressed, the bathroom counter after she’d gone in there to do her hair … then last, but not least, against the front door, before he and her had finally made it out of the cabin and into the car—both of them hoping to God they didn’t have to deal with any shit once they returned to work.

  He’d been too damn lost to even remind himself there’d most certainly be consequences for his actions. That Nathan would surely spend a good portion of the morning shouting at him, and his missing work over the weekend—as well as Monday—would make it basically impossible for him to give a quality update on how peace negotiations were going with the Bonaducci clan.

  Fuck!

  Now that he was back in New York—running through S.O., his suit disheveled, shirt untucked, and his body tired from his … active morning—Kyle was thinking clearly.

  He was late. Very late. Nearly an hour, and his brothers, Carterina, and the other’s of the French organization were probably wrapping up the morning meeting that he was supposed to be a part of.

  Shit, shit, shit!

  He was pretty sure he was fucked. Usually, he always had something to say, something that could smoothly get him out of situations like this, but today he was pretty much drawing a blank. Besides reminding himself how much he missed his little lady bug about a million times on the way home, Kyle was now stuck in a constant loop of thoughts about his beautiful new fiancée.

  He couldn’t get her out of his head; he still couldn’t even believe she’d said yes. He thought for sure that his ‘putting the expensive diamond on her finger’ trick wouldn’t work, but it had. And it hadn’t even been about the ring for the woman either. She’d said yes because she actually loved his dumb ass. Kyle understood now why his father had spent so much time asking Anastacia to marry him. Falling in love with a woman was no fucking joke. He was positive that if Reanna hadn’t accepted his proposal his ass would still be proposing marriage to her right now. But hearing her say yes to being his wife, yes to sharing her life with him and Sofia and moving in with them, had made Kyle feel so fucking good he was pretty sure it would have crushed him if she’d turned him down like he’d thought she would.

  Not only that, but, although it was pathetic of him, he fucking missed her. He missed everything about her—her hair, her body, her laugh, her smile. He missed their place already. He missed spending the entire day with her instead of in the office he hadn’t even gotten to yet. It was annoying as fuck, wanting something he couldn’t have at the moment. He wanted to go back to her so bad and spend another few days, or weeks, or months up at the cabin with her and Sofia. Just the three of them, a happy little family. No work, no stress, no distraction, just fucking happines
s.

  “Sir?”

  At the call of one of his men next to him, Kyle looked up from his thoughts.

  “Yes?” he replied, glancing back at the man.

  They were surrounding him now, his men. Some in front of him, some behind, and Jake, his head of security, standing at a door some little ways behind him.

  Oh …

  Kyle pointed to where Jake stood. “I walked past the fucking door,” he said, walking back amidst the chuckles of his men. “What the fuck is wrong with me?”

  “You are a man in love, boss,” Jake said, entering the elevator room behind him. “I remember being the same way after I met my wife.”

  Closing the small distance to the elevator, Kyle keyed in the code for the twenty-seventh floor. “You’re married?” he asked Jake, looking back at the man. “Why didn’t I know that?”

  He gave a light wave of his hand as they boarded the elevator. “It was only a short time ago, a private ceremony.”

  “No family, huh?”

  Jake nodded. “Our families didn’t want us getting married, so fuck ’em.” He lifted his shirt, revealing the tattoo of his wife’s name over his heart. “We got married anyway.” He pushed down his shirt. “Pretty soon, your brothers will be taking you to get yours.”

  Kyle nodded. Ahh yes, the coveted tattoo of the name of the woman who owns your heart across his heart. Beneath her name would be the names of their children.

  Kyle had thought about getting one after Sofia came into his life, but decided against it. Having some fucking person he didn’t know touching all over him was not something he was looking forward to. That one would most likely be a tradition that he’d have to forgo … for the purposes of guarding his sanity of course. Being touched wasn’t really his thing anyway.

  The elevator had reached the twenty-seventh floor in record time, much to Kyle’s chagrin. It was quiet, so he knew everyone was already in the conference room for the Tuesday meeting.

  After dismissing Jake, Kyle ran through the office, hoping he’d at least made it in time to catch the end of the meeting. Maybe he’d sneak in while Nate had his back turned, play it off as if he’d been there the entire time. Or maybe he’d just plead, apologize for his tardiness, and promise that he’d do better.

  No. Fuck that. He wasn’t really one for pleading.

  He had a plan anyway. If shit got too bad, and all else failed, he’d just use the ammo he knew would surely make them forget that he was a shit brother, and had been a shit consigliere for the last couple of days.

  He’d tell them he was getting married.

  When he got closer the office, he took in a deep breath the moment the sound of Nathan’s voice hit his ears. They’d already begun. Nate was discussing a plan for introducing a few new associates to the Manhattan table this week. Dammit! That meant Kyle had missed a contract signing over the weekend, too. For the first time in his entire career at S.O.—since he was just sixteen years fucking old—Kyle didn’t know what the fuck was going on … he was behind, and out of the loop. A feeling he did not particularly like.

  As he neared the door, he noticed something.

  The talking, it had stopped. Or maybe they’d gotten quieter or something because he could no longer hear them. Once he stood about an inch away, getting ready to enter the conference room, his progress was halted when none other than the Donna of the Salerno Organization, Carterina Salerno, appeared right in front of him.

  “Hi.”

  Kyle’s eyes widened.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get a word out of his mouth, Carter reached forward, gripped on tightly to his tie, and yanked him into the conference room.

  “Carterina!”

  Kyle stumbled into the conference room behind her, confused as hell as to why he’d just been assaulted.

  “What the hell, Car—”

  “He’s here,” she cut him off, now looking to all in the conference room. “Pay up all of you who dare to think my perception skills are lacking.”

  Immediately men began to reach for their money.

  “What the fuck? How do you do that, Carterina?”

  Carter shrugged, smiling smugly. “Training.”

  “I need to stop gambling,” Dante said, throwing a pile of cash on the table. “I’ve done this same thing with you countless times, and I know you always win yet I keep betting you. It makes no sense.”

  “If you knew she’d win then why the fuck didn’t you tell us …”

  “Because it’s more entertaining this way,” Lucca chuckled. “If you’d seen your face when she pulled him in the room.”

  “Well excuse me for thinking the consigliere would skip out on another work day after he has missed so many.”

  “Aww, go easy on him,” Nathan spoke up from the head of the table. “In his defense, the work we did over the weekend was not planned.”

  “But a possibility. And yet, the consigliere found something better to do …”

  “All right now,” Lucca said, glancing over at Kyle. “Go easy on our brother. He couldn’t help it … he has fallen in love for the first time.”

  Kyle made a face of disgust.

  What the fuck is all of this shit? Salerno. Salerno. Salerno. More fucking Salernos. The room was flooding with them.

  Kyle turned to Nathan, his eyes widened in utter horror. “What the fuck are they all doing here?”

  ~*~

  Reanna rushed through the door of her studio and straight to the set, where she could already hear her crew setting up for the next shoot.

  I’m late!

  And she couldn’t believe it; it was so unlike her to be so careless about time, but Kyle Valente made her forget about her responsibilities back in Manhattan. All she’d wanted to do this morning was prolong the time they’d had left in that beautiful cabin, away from the world and all of its people.

  She smiled.

  It’d been a good morning. One she couldn’t take her mind off of, and still had her body humming the sweetest, pleasurable tune. The three days she spent in the mountains with Kyle would forever be in her heart as the most amazing of her life, from the ‘unsure ride to the cabin’ to the moment she woke up wearing that stunning diamond on her finger.

  She’d never forget a second of it.

  “Girl!”

  The sharp scream of her best friend, and roommate, Ronaldo caused Reanna to stop in her tracks. Ronaldo came strutting out of her office, dressed in his normal attire—black leather pants, a colorful shirt that read ‘FLAWLESS’ in golden bedazzled letters across his chest, a matching leather jacket, and a pair of very bright, metallic, high top shoes.

  Uh oh.

  “Girl!” he shouted sharply. “Where the hell have you— ah!”

  Reanna closed her eyes the moment she heard his horrified scream.

  Catching her bottom lip between her teeth, she shook her head, then slowly opened her eyes, giving him her best ‘I’m sorry’ doe eyed look as she ran her hand over her hair. She’d done her absolute best this morning in effort to soften the blow when he saw it. Spent an hour in front of the mirror, using every bit of hair lotion she had to aid her in pulling her wildly frizzed hair together and locking it in a tight bun on the top of her head. She’d even left out her baby hairs on her forehead to make it look cute.

  But it seemed all of her effort was for naught … because he hated it.

  “What the hell, Rea?” he screamed, displaying his distress in an ever so flamboyant manner. His hand shot to his chest in a dramatic display of horror. “What did you let that white man do to you?”

  Now Reanna pursed her lips.

  Okay, he was being a bit much. She’d worked hard on it. “Its not all that bad Ronaldo,” she said softly, walking toward him now. “It was worse this morning.”

  “It was?” His mouth dropped open as he shook his head. “How is that possible? This is horrible.”

  “It’s not that bad, Ronaldo.”

  “It is that b
ad, girl …”

  Rolling her eyes, Reanna stormed past him, but didn’t get far before he caught up with her, grabbing on to her hand and pulling her back.

  “Hell no girl! You ain’t goin’ in there like that. These people have to respect you, Rea, they can’t see you like this—”

  His words came to an abrupt halt as his hand tightened around hers.

  Reanna’s heart stopped.

  Shit! How could I forget to take it off?

  He held tightly to her left hand in complete silence for an unnecessarily long amount of time before he suddenly ran in front of her and brought it up to his face.

  Tamara was going to murder her for this! Ronaldo found out first, before her, and that would be something which was close to unforgiveable in Tamara’s eyes.

  “What. The. Fuck!” he screamed, jumping up and down as he stared deeply into the crystals of her huge diamond ring.

  “No,” Ronaldo cried breathlessly. “No he didn’t, girl.”

  Pathetically unable to resist, Reanna smiled. “Ron, please,” she chuckled, amused by his excitement. “Keep quiet, don’t draw any attention. I don’t want anyone here to know. They’ll leak it to the press and we haven’t told the family yet. Tamara, his parents, his brothers, Carter and Gabe, and especially Sofia. I can’t risk it, please.”

  He stared into her eyes, his eyes widening as he did. “You’re getting …”

  She nodded her head, then put her hand up to warn him when she saw his eyes water. “Don’t you dare, Ron. I swear I’ll smack you if you cry.” If he cried, then she would, and they’d both be standing over here looking a ridiculous mess, raising the suspicions of their coworkers. “I’m just going to take this off,” she slipped the ring off of her finger and into her pocket, “and hide it. No one can know yet, you got it?”

  He nodded, pressing his lips together tightly to contain a sharp squeal.

  Reanna laughed softly. “You’re so silly, Ron.”

  “We need to do your hair before he sees you again today, honey.”

  She nodded. “I know,” she agreed, gripping onto his hand. “After the shoot …”