LOGINChapter 131Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦“And the pool,” Millie interrupted. “Don’t forget the pool.”Dallas was scrolling on her phone where she had found the resort’s listing. “There’s a private terrace pool in the premium suite. The petals. The champagne. He spelled things out in rose petals, Estelle.”“I know. I was there.”“I wonder how he planned all of that,” Millie grinned proudly. “He was with you for most of yesterday. When did he—”“I asked the same thing,” I eyed her suspiciously, but I was smiling to myself. “Apparently he’s very good at multitasking.”“He’s a criminal mastermind with infinite resources and a disturbingly romantic streak,” Dallas said dryly. “The combination is deeply unfair to the rest of the male population.”The door opened.We all turned.Kegan stood in the doorway, still in what appeared to be the same dark clothes from earlier, though he’d clearly been out— there was something alert and purposeful in the way he looked that suggested he’d been working since be
Chapter 130Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦The first thing I registered was silence.The deep, cotton-wool silence that only existed when you’d slept so thoroughly your body had basically checked out of consciousness and gone somewhere far more pleasant. The second thing I registered was the smell of roses and candle wax and something distinctly warm and masculine that belonged entirely to Kegan.The third thing was the phone.Screaming at full volume from somewhere near my head.I groaned, reaching blindly across the bed, patting the sheets until my fingers closed around the device. I dragged it toward my face without opening my eyes, squinting at the brightness of the screen.12:52 PM.Twelve. Fifty. Two.I sat up so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash.Twelve fifty-two?Back at home, I never slept past eight. Ever. Not even on weekends, not even after the most exhausting weeks of my life. And yet somehow Sicily, Kegan, an impromptu nightclub adventure, a private pool, rose petals, champagne, a
Chapter 129Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦We saw a proposal on the dance floor—a man getting down on one knee while his girlfriend cried happy tears and everyone around them cheered.“That could’ve been us,” I teased. “You could’ve proposed in the middle of a club.”“Absolutely not,” Kegan said. “You deserved better than a drunk crowd of strangers.”“I don’t know, it looked pretty romantic.”“Estelle.”I laughed. “I’m kidding. Your proposal was perfect. This is perfect. Everything is perfect.”“You’re perfect,” he countered.“Okay, now you’re just trying to get in my pants.”“Is it working?”I pretended to consider. “Maybe.”His eyes darkened. “Maybe?”“Definitely maybe.” He leaned in, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “What if I told you I’ve been thinking about getting you out of that dress since the moment you put it on?”Heat pooled low in my belly. “I’d say that sounds like a plan.”“What if I told you I’ve been imagining all the ways I could make you scream my name tonight?”“Kegan,”
Chapter 128Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦A car was waiting outside. Not just any car—a sleek black Mercedes with tinted windows and a driver who nodded at Kegan with a deference that suggested he knew exactly who he was working for.“Boss,” the driver said, opening the back door. “Everything is ready as you requested.”“Perfect. Thank you, Lorenzo.”We slid into the back seat, and Lorenzo closed the door behind us, sealing us in soft leather and tinted privacy.“Lorenzo?” I asked as the car pulled away from the resort.“One of Marcel’s guys,” Kegan explained. “He’s stationed here. I needed someone reliable since Marco is busy.”“For what, exactly?”“You’ll see.”I gave up asking and instead settled against him, watching the Italian countryside roll past the windows. We drove for maybe twenty minutes, winding through narrow streets and then onto a coastal road that hugged the cliffs. Finally, we pulled up to a building that looked completely out of place in this sleepy part of Sicily.It was ma
Chapter 127Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦Millie had pulled out her phone to document everything because “this is going on Instagram immediately,” and Vivian interrogated Kegan about wedding plans like we hadn’t gotten engaged literally an hour ago.But eventually, people started to drift away. Russel and Allesia first, citing the baby’s bedtime. Then Stacy and Vincenzo, wrangling two overtired boys who protested they weren’t sleepy even as they yawned.Vivian and Millie lingered longer, both of them talking a mile a minute about dresses and venues and flowers until Kegan gently but firmly suggested they could plan tomorrow.“We literally just got engaged,” he pointed out. “Can we have one night before you start planning the entire wedding?”“Urgh,” Vivian huffed. “I’m definitely texting you a list of venues tomorrow.”“I’d expect nothing less,” I said, hugging them both.When they finally left, retreating to their own rooms in the resort—because apparently, Kegan had booked rooms for everyone,
Chapter 126Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦Every day in Sicily did wonders for my soul.The tension that had been coiled in my shoulders before we got here gradually unwound with each passing day. I laughed more freely, slept more soundly, and seemed to exist in a state of contented peace I hadn’t felt in months.Every day for the last three days, Allesia insisted on taking us to explore the city on what she called ‘Made Girls Tour 101.’ The men—particularly Russel and Vincenzo—were saddled with taking care of all three kids. Of course they help from Kegan, and I always had to suffer for it at the end of the day when he’d tell me endless stories on how hard it is looking after toddlers. We’d spent the days exploring vineyards that stretched endlessly across rolling hills, hidden beaches where the water was so clear you could see straight to the bottom, villages where time seemed to have stopped somewhere around the Renaissance. And of course, there was a lot of gossip and bickering.I’d fallen







