Dating the Don (Savage Crime Lords #1)

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

MAEVE

One Week Later

Casual he says.

It’s a little bit disappointing to finally be allowed to go on a real date with Cristiano and he says to dress casually. More than a little disappointing, if I’m being honest. I choose a cute pair of jeans that Ada would call ‘mom jeans’ and a sweater that I made out of colorful scraps of leftover fabric from various different projects that I’ve worked on over the past year. It’s just oversized enough to fall off of one shoulder with a cute V-cut in the front. I pair it with a cute black choker and pull my hair half up. I curled it just enough to let the short red ringlets frame my face loosely.

It’s not about the outfit, I know. The important thing is that I’m going to get to spend time with Cristiano. We both deserve a night of slow-paced fun, given everything we’ve been through. Not to mention he needs to stop nearly tearing his stitches. He did get shot only a week ago, after all. I still can’t believe that he won’t let me apologize for shooting him.

“Ready?” Cristiano calls from the bedroom. I hear him spritz cologne on himself just as I leave our bathroom. I do a slow spin for his approval which he gives me with a low, impressed whistle. I return the sentiment. He looks damned good in his own jeans and black long-sleeved shirt. Yet, even with rags on, I don't think he could pull off‘casual’. “If this is your casual…” He mirrors my thinking.

His words trail off like he’s at a loss for them. He could look at me like that forever. I don’t think I will ever truly get used to the open admiration on his handsome features.

“Thank you,” I move to grab my clutch and Cristiano takes it right back out of my hands and clicks his tongue at me. I frown. “You can’t just pay for everything all of the time, you know.”

Cristiano smirks and shrugs his shoulders. “I think that you will find that I can. Besides, it’s all about to be just as much yours as it is mine. So…”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll just be another one of the rich elite, like you love to keep telling me. I don’t have to approve of that aspect just because I’m marrying you.”

Cristiano sighs. “That’s just your stubbornness talking. I don’t see why you’re upset about how many doors a fortune like ours will open for you. And I don’t want to hear you lecture about how you feel like it’s cheating either. You’ve more than paid your dues and you know it. Now, I’m paying for the evening and that’s that.”

I pout. Just a little bit.

Cristiano places a hand around my waist and pulls me in close to his side. “I know that you told me all about your dream date, and there will be plenty of time for me to make up for all of the dates that we’ve had to miss by doing this whole relationship backwards. I promise. But, you’re really going to like tonight.”

“So you said,” I playfully push him with my shoulder. “I think I’ll be the final judge of that.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

“If it helps, you can consider tonight an engagement gift,” Cristiano teases ominously as he escorts me out of the room and we start to head toward the garage.

I’m not sure I like the sound of that. After all, it just means that whatever tonight is going to end up being is going to be something not only extremely over the top but also likely disgustingly expensive. I know buying big-ticket items like houses and new cars is just a drop in the bucket for him, but I don’t think that I’m ever going to be comfortable with that.

Cristiano opens the car door for me and helps me inside. I wait until he slides into the driver’s seat before angling my body toward him. “What about guessing? If I guess where we are going before we get there, will you tell me what it is that you’ve planned?”

Cristiano grins impishly. “You can guess, but you’re never going to get it.”

“Oh ye of little faith,” I goad him confidently. “Is it… a movie?”

“How mundane,” Cristiano answers, but his smile widens.

“Okay, then give me a hint.”

“I never agreed to that.”

“Meanie.” I fold my arms across my chest, but it’s not giving me the leverage that I want. I see his attention shift to my cleavage for just a moment. Tempting. I bet if I went ahead and took my shirt off, he might reconsider not giving me hints. “How about… an arcade? Laser tag?”

He scoffs. “You couldn’t be further away from the truth. Which is really gratifying.”

It’s thrilling to know that he went out of his way to plan whatever this is. Clearly, it’s going to be something that I love. I have faith in him. Even though, outwardly I’m pretending to be exasperated and frustrated. All this last week, when he should have been focused on his recovery only, he’s been going out of his way to prove how serious he is about us and moving forward with our relationship.

I didn’t think there would be such a sudden flip in his behavior.

Every clan meeting he’s held all week? I’ve been a part of it. I still don’t know much of what’s going on. It’s true that for the most part, I just sit there and take notes of things to ask him about later, but there’s not been a single time this week since I killed my father that he’s left me out of. It’s like all doors are open to me now. When he said he would prove to me that he was sorry, he meant it.

Words can’t express how happy I am he took me so seriously.

He’s even started asking my opinion on things when I ask him my questions after said meetings. He’s actually implementing my feedback and seeing how we can run this clan together. It’s a hell of a steep learning curve but I’m loving each and every minute of it. I never imagined how good it was going to feel to be treated properly as his equal. He even let me help set the borders for the new Irish territory. A hell of a lot smaller, but they saw that coming.

Even Ada has noticed the change in the both of us. I can barely walk near her without her chanting below her breath in a sing-song tone, ‘Maeve is in loooove’. I shush her every time, but she’s not wrong. If she thinks I haven’t noticed how Al is constantly in her orbit, she’s mistaken. As soon as I’m off this cloud-nine glow of mine, I have every intention of teasing her right back.

I hope that he makes her even a fraction how happy Cristiano makes me.

She is free to blameher brother's overprotectivenessforAl's persistent watching, but I knowthe truth. I see the way they have been looking at each other.

The vehicle comes to a stop in front of a mall. It's small, with only a few buildings inside, and the lights are off at every storefront. They seem like boutique-style establishments.

Cristiano parks the car and then opens the door for me. He holds a hand out to escort me just like a true gentleman before pulling me back into his side. I love that he’s gotten to be so touchy. I take care not to jostle his injury at all as he leads us towards a darkened door.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in there,” I mutter with a soft laugh.

Cristiano says nothing as he pulls out a small keychain from his pocket and starts to unlock the store. Did he rent a place after hours for us? Some sort of painting class or something with just us? That would be adorable.

“Close your eyes,” he says, and I obey him. He moves around to stand behind me and places his hands over my eyes just after he pulls the door open. We waddle awkwardly inside of the building and he flips on a light, but I’m effectively blind.

“The suspense is killing me, Cristiano!”

“Alright, alright, since you’re being such a good girl,” he chuckles, and I feel the vibrations of the sound in my back, warming me to my core. He pulls his hands from my eyes and I open them tentatively.

It seems that we’re standing in the middle of a fine boutique. Only the shelves are empty and there’s only one dress form. The mannequin directly in front of us is wearing a dress, my dress. The one I wore at our engagement party before all of this business with my father started up.

“What…?” I ask as I look around. He releases me just enough so that I can move and properly see the space. It’s a shop. It’s a dress shop…

“Do you like it?” Cristiano asks with a hint of nerves in his voice. “I thought this would be the perfect engagement gift for you. A space of your own, just your own to work and, well, whatever else you could want. Open the shop with Ada or something.”

My breath catches in my throat. It’s such a kind, generous gift that I could cry. I might cry. I am wholly and utterly overwhelmed by the generosity of the gift. I will cry.

“But you…” I sniffle back tears. “You can’t give me an engagement gift when you haven’t even propos?—”

I turn to look at him, and he’s on his knee.

He takes out another engagement ring from his pocket. The perfect fit for the ring I selected for myself. It's the ideal fusion of my past and the future I've decided to build with Cristiano.

“Yet…” He smiles up at me. “Maeve, love of my life, will you?—”

“Yes!” I shout before he can even finish getting the words out.

I sink to my knees and fling my arms around his shoulders, kissing him so fiercely that we nearly topple over backward onto the floor of the shop. My shop! My first one! All of my dreams are coming true and it feels wholly and utterly surreal!

I smother everyinch of his face in kisses, and then hepausesgently to giveme the engagement ring. He’s been much easier to convince that I should be on top while he’s been recovering. I have no delusions that he’s going to repay the favor tenfold as soon as he’s medically cleared.

But for now? I intend on showing him exactly how much I love my present.