She Left Her Cheating Fiancé, Then Met the Mafia Boss Who Wanted Her novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Street Door
The Pell Street rooftop was empty at dawn.
The string lights were gone. So were the white chairs, the long tables and the projector screen that had played my life to sixty people.
There was a bare floor of grey tile, a low wall, and the whole city turning pink below us.
Dominic held the stairwell door open and let me walk out first.
"I had it cleared," he said. "All of it. The day after the steakhouse."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't want you to come back to a place that looked the way it did."
I walked to the wall and put both hands on the cold stone.
Down there was the street, small and quiet. The same street door sat in the side of the tower, grey and plain.
I had gone through it in my party dress, with my ring in a champagne glass behind me.
A stranger in a black coat had said my name.
"You were standing right there," I said, pointing. "In the lobby, behind the glass. You'd been standing there for an hour."
"Two."
"Two hours."
"I would have stood there until morning."
I turned around and looked at him.
He wore the black overcoat. His hair was silvered at the temples and his black eyes were steady.
He had held my hand on a sidewalk and told me he wanted me.
He had not once, since, taken one step I hadn't asked for.
"I told you in the car," I said. "Ask me again, and stay."
"I remember."
"You did. Twice."
"I'd do it a third time."
"Then do it here."
He didn't kneel. He crossed the roof and stood in front of me, close, and he took my hand.
"Ariella Hayes," he said. "I am forty years old, and I have never wanted anything the way I want you. I'd like you to stay. I'd like you to stay in the suite, or over the bakery, or in a house I haven't built. I'd like you to wear my collar, or not, as you choose. I'd like you to go to work in the morning, and come home to me at night, and tell me no when you want to, and know that I'll hear it."
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