I'm here

Forty Three

What Kiana did not expect was for this date to actually be a date after the car situation. She didn't expect Luca to rent out an entire fancy restaurant for just the two of them, and have the staff tending to their very needs. She didn't expect to have him stare into her eyes and tell her about himself as one would do on a normal first date. She didn't expect him to reach his hand across the table to interlock with hers, and keep it like that the entire evening.

"Wait so you're telling me that when you were fifteen, Antonio pissed you off so much you shot him?"

With a small smile on his face, as he lifted his glass of whiskey to his lips, Luca replied, "Yes"

"Why, Luca?" She scolded, knowing that shooting your bestfriend at the age of fifteen was certainly not something to be smiling or laughing about or to tell her as a fond memory when she'd brought up the topic of his and Antonio's friendship

"I warned him, tesoro and I'm not one to break my promises, but I'd never kill him. I'd never kill someone who's that close to me" he said a matter of a factly, knowing that deep down Antonio was one of the most annoying people he knew, but he was practically a brother to him and he'd never kill hkm

Staring at him across the table as she watched that same amazing smile that made her feel like she actually was getting the real Luca for once, the one who was free, the one who didn't have all these responsibilities and everything on his shoulders, she asked him a question which was playing on her mind, "Would you kill me?"

Not even a second later, Luca answered with no hesitation, "Never" he said as he stared deep into her eyes

"What if I betrayed you?" She asked, quietly, wondering how deep his morals with the familia would come, compared to her - a woman he'd only known for a few months but believed he loved deeply

"Have you betrayed me?" He raised his eyebrows at her previous question

"I think we both know that if I was dumb enough to do something like that, you would already know and I would have disappeared just like i was nothing" she said smoothly, as she picked up her glass of water, taking a sip, watching him nod approvingly at her answer

Maybe she was built for this life.

"So you know my ways, so why ask if I would kill you?"

With a sigh, Kiana admitted the truth of what was on her mind,"because I don't think I mean as much to you as you say I do" she said running her finger around the rim of her glass, refusing to look up at Luca as she heard him mumbled something in Italian

"Tesoro if I knew you wouldn't turn me down and say no straight away, there would be a ring on your finger right now" he stated, as he watched her movements pause for a moment as she glanced down at her hand, realising that he didn't just want her fill of her body, but he wanted to bound to her for life, legally and emotionally

Swallowing to help her suddenly dry throat from what Luca had just sprung on her, Kiana looked up at him, dead in the eye and asked him if she had just understood what he had said correctly, "You want to marry me?"

"At somepoint, yes but I do not want to ruin what we're buliding nor move too quickly for you. I want you tesoro, I want you by my side for the rest of our lives" he smiled at her, as she held a hand over her heart, feeling just how rapidly it was beating at Luca's confession

"What is this? What are we doing? What- I mean why have you taken me here, Luca?" She asked, very confused because if this wasn't a proposal, why was he saying all of this, why was he making her feel so special?

Clearing his throat, as he took another sip of his whiskey, letting the liquid burn his throat for a little bit of courage that he actually needed, when he spoke to the only woman who could make him nervous, he reached across the table - grabbing Kiana's free hand as he held it, "I want to ask you something"