171

171
Raella's POV
Two months later
I was trembling so hard I couldn’t even scratch my face without almost poking an eye out.
“Stop doing that!” Jordan grabbed my hands and pinned them to my sides. “You’ll ruin your makeup.”
“My makeup is already ruined.”
I had been crying on and off all morning.
When I unzipped the garment bag that held my dress: tears.
When Calista and Giselle came out in their bridesmaids’ dresses: tears.
When I asked for a latte and Lorenzo brought me decaf because “you do not need the extra energy. You’re about to buzz out of your skin”: tears.
In my defense, I had been so nervous the night before that I couldn’t sleep. I was exhausted and anxious and—
“I don’t know if I can do this.” It was the first time I let myself say the words out loud.
Calista frowned but, with her smokey eyeshadow and bronzer, it looked like she was posing for a magazine. “Can’t do what? Scratch your eye?”
“Get married!” I blurted. I spun away from her and immediately tripped on the train of my dress. It took me a second to extricate my heel from the lace and stand tall again.
When I did, Calista was gaping at me. I wondered what lipstick she was wearing. It was flawless. “You don’t want to marry Vincenzo?”
“What? Yes! I mean—No. Er, I do want to marry him. Of course I do! I love him.”
She pressed a hand to her chest. “Oh, thank God. I would not want to be the person who had to deliver that news to Mr. Tall, Dark, and Felonious.”
“I want to marry him; I just don’t know if I can. I mean, I can’t walk in this dress. It’s only been an hour and I’ve already smudged my lipstick, cracked a nail, and lost a pin in my hair. I’m just not made for all of this.” I picked up the layers of intricately embroidered lace that cinched around my waist and fell to the floor in delicate ripples. “I’m not a princess.”
“Uh, yeah, you are. You’re as close as most people are ever gonna get, anyway. Plus, you picked all of this—the dress, the hair, the makeup. Vincenzo told you he’d get married in the kitchen with Joey as officiant if you wanted.”
“Maybe I should have taken him up on that,” I muttered.
A small ceremony would’ve meant fewer witnesses when I inevitably faceplanted in the aisle or recited my vows with lipstick on my teeth.
Calista stepped in front of me and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Let’s break it down. Question one: do you love him?”
That was an easy one. “Of course I do. More than anything.”
“Excellent.” She smiled. “Question two: are you sure you want to marry him?”
That was a slam dunk, too. “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”
“Then, girl—” She spun me towards the full-length mirror behind me, her head peeking over my shoulder—“stop freaking out and enjoy what should be the best damn day of your life.”
All at once, the fears and worries fell away.
Maybe I would land on my face in front of everyone. Maybe all of my nails would chip and I’d lose an eyelash and my dress would get stuck in a door. As long as I ended the day married to the man I loved, nothing else mattered.
Suddenly, Calista pecked my cheek and whispered in my ear, “I’m going to make myself scarce. I’ll be back before the ceremony.”
I frowned. “What? Why? Where are you—”
But she was already hustling away… past Vincenzo, who was standing in the doorway.
Calista ducked out behind him without a peep. I had never loved her more.
“You aren’t supposed to see me in my wedding dress,” I protested weakly.
Somehow, Vincenzo looked at me even harder. His eyes were shining as he traced every line of me. Was it suddenly extremely hot in here or was it just me?
“We were engaged before we even started dating. It’s in our nature to do things a little backwards.” He arched a brow and stalked towards me slowly. His smell invaded the room ahead of him. I inched backwards until I bumped into the vanity and almost screamed at the unexpected contact.
“Like, maybe we should have cake and then say our vows?” I suggested.
“No,” he growled. “Not like that at all.” He unbuttoned his jacket and draped it on the arm of a chair. There was a lot of talk about men in suits, but I didn’t think we had given proper consideration to men working their way out of suits. He undid the cufflinks and dropped them to the floor with a clink-clink.
I recognized the heat in Vincenzo’s eyes. I had seen it more than enough times to know where this was going. I might have been nervous about the wedding all day—but this? I didn’t have any doubts about how to do this. We had known how to do this since before we even knew each other’s names.
I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. “Then what?”
Vincenzo slipped his bow tie off and dropped it in the trail of clothes he was shedding. Little by little, he went from billionaire boss to dangerous don. Tattoos revealed themselves. Muscles. Harshness and sexy brutality in the slope of his lips and the flame in his eyes. “I think you have an idea already of where I’m going with this, love.”
He was only a foot away from me now and he was right—I did know. I also knew that I couldn’t stop myself. I reached out and undid the top button of his shirt. He was still playing the game, but I couldn’t wait. I knew where this was headed and I wanted to get there.
Now.
“Ah, now, you’re getting it,” he breathed. He took the final step and his hips arched forward to come rest against mine. I hated every layer of lace keeping us apart.
I undid the final button and then stroked my hands up the hard plane of his bared stomach. His skin was tan and warm, and I wanted to drown in the woodsy smell of him.
It didn’t help that I heard the voice of tradition screaming in my ear. The groom seeing the bride before the ceremony? Wrong. Vincenzo being here with the door closed and that look in his eyes? Very, very wrong.
Too bad that only made it all that much hotter.