Luca slid his eyes open at the feel of Nadia's fingers trailing over his wrist. He watched her slide her thumb over the face of his watch and a little gasp escaped her lips when it unlocked and came to life.

"What are you doing?" he murmured against her head.

"I wanted to see if my thumb worked on your watch too."

He thread his fingers through hers and wrapped their arms around her waist, "of course it does." 

"But...how or when did you get my thumb print?"

A blush burned over his cheeks as he nuzzled his face in her soft curls. "The first night you slept in my bed. You've had access to my watch for a while."

Her cheeks swelled and she turned around in his arms. Her green eyes were light and full of joy as she slid her hand to his cheek, "when did you fall in love with me?"

He chuckled softly, "probably the moment you tripped into my arms."

"No," she laughed. "I'm being serious. When did you decide to do all of this?" 

He sighed and kissed her forehead, "I decided to do this after we came back from Japan, but I started falling in love with you that night I read to you."

"Really?"

"Mm-hm, I think that whole weekend did it for me. I just didn't realise it at the time," he grinned, "when did you fall in love with me?"

She bit her lip, "this is going to sound so cliche, but it was the wedding."

He raised an eyebrow, "you're right, that's so basic, petite fleur."

"Shut up," she giggled, "it wasn't the wedding. It was being there with you and the way we danced together. Then when you kissed me..." she sighed, "I knew then but I was scared to feel this way for you."

"I was scared too. I'm still worried you're going to realize I'm not worthy of you one day."

She shook her head and kissed him softly, "I wouldn't have let you put this collar on me if I didn't think you were worthy of me. That we don't deserve each other."

His heart swelled at her admission. "I love you," he grinned against her lips, "and I have one more present for you," he said as he leaned away from her. He reached to the bedside table and opened the drawer to pull out a black folder. 

He sat up against the headboard and cuddled her under the crook of his arm as he handed her the folder.

"What is this?" She mumbled as her fingers trailed over the 'Z' on the cover.

"Open it," he whispered against her head as she slowly broke the seal and pulled out the documents inside.

"Luca," she gasped as she sat up, "is this the deed to my apartment building?"

"Yes, after we wrote up our contract. I realised how much your apartment meant to you and if you moved in with me I didn't want you to have to give it up. So, I bought it for you."

"B-but you bought the whole building..." she whispered.

"Well, yeah. Why would I just buy the apartment? That's not a good investment for you."

"I-I can't believe you did this," she breathed, "I don't know the first thing about managing a property."

"You don't need to worry about that. I have a property management company that will run it for you and I'll help you too. You don't really need to do anything if you don't want to," he said and kissed the side of her head, "I just wanted you to know that your apartment will always be yours and if anything happened between us you'd always be taken care of."

She stared at him and his heart slowly began to sink.

Oh, God. Was this too much?

She slid her hands to his cheeks and a dazzling smile lit up her face, "I really don't deserve you," she whispered and kissed him, "thank you for this, for everything." 

"You deserve far more than this, but you're welcome," he pecked her lips again, "would you like to sign the deed?"

She nodded excitedly, "yes!"

Luca sat at the table in the kitchen sipping on a cup of coffee while Nadia signed and initialed the deed and transfer of ownership paperwork. She looked up at him with a giddy grin on her face. "I know it's not polite to say this but, do I even want to know how much you paid for this?"

He chuckled and shook his head, "probably not. The owners were looking to sell it in a few years so I just offered a bit more than market value. If you really want to know you can look at the financial records. You're the owner, ma petite fleur." 

"Yes, I am," she grinned as she signed her name to the final page, "and I want to have a meeting with the management company when we get back. I have some changes I want to make."

A smile spread across his lips, "look at you taking your ownership seriously. I'll meet with them with you, if you want." 

"I'd like that," she nodded as she closed the folder and sighed, "Luca, I...I don't want to hide our relationship anymore at least not to our friends and family."

He slid his hand over hers and brought it to his lips, "I don't want to hide anymore either. I think we should tell them, but as far as being completely public I won't feel comfortable with that unless I deal with Ciara and Jonathan's men." 

She squeezed his hand, "I feel the same and we need to deal with that together."

"Ciara's not your problem to deal with."

"No, but neither are Jonathan's men your problem, but you've said it as if it is. So, we are going to handle them together." 

"Your safety is my responsibility therefore, those idiots are my problem to deal with." 

She chuckled and shook her head, "I love that you feel that way, but I think the best way to deal with our baggage is together and I'm not backing down from that."

The tenacity in her eyes and the grit in her voice filled him with pride. He loved that she wanted to take on their problems together and he actually welcomed it. He didn't want to involve her in any of this, but he also didn't think he could do it without her. 

She's the reason I feel so ready to face my demon.

He nodded and kissed her hand again, "Alright, we'll handle it together. We'll tell everyone when we get back and I want to have a meeting with Raquel and our guards to figure out a plan." 

A bright smile broke across her face as she leaned over and kissed him, "thank you." 

"You're welcome," he grinned, "and now that that's out of the way, what would you like to do today?"

Her joyful eyes slid to the patio, "I want to do some gardening."

"And bring some plants in here too, huh?" 

"You're learning, Mr. Underworld," she laughed, "I feel like you must've been waiting for me to put some green in here."

"Maybe...maybe I took them all out so you could re-decorate it," he shrugged.

"Well, either way, I'm going to play in the dirt," she said as she popped up from the table to put her plate in the skin and started for the door. "You coming?" 

"Yeah, of course," he stood from his chair and followed her out to the patio, "maybe I can teach you a thing or two about planting."

"Ooo, Mr. Underworld the farmer is going to teach me a lesson, huh?"

"Yep, I know a couple things about grapevines."

"So, we can have a mini vineyard inside your massive one?"

"Or I can teach you how to distill some botanicals so you can make your own gin," He said and wrapped his arms around her waist as they walked down the path to the greenhouse, "and we can call it Petite Fleur's spirits."

She looked up at him and laughed, "I feel like you've thought about this."

He kissed her forehead, "just a little bit."

"I like it," she nodded and her spring green eyes filled with mischief, "is it possible to distill weed? There better be some cannabis plants in my greenhouse from your dispensary too."

He burst out laughing, "we can try to distill it and of course I put some plants in there for you. There's a case of samples in there from my growers too."

Nadia leaned up on her tip toes and kissed him, "I love you," she grinned, "and I'm going to roll a nice fatty before we get our hands dirty," she said and pushed out of his arms to open the door to the greenhouse.

A bright smile spread across Luca's lips at the sound of her excited gasp. She looked back at him with joy and love radiating in her bright green eyes. "There's so many plants!" she squealed and disappeared into the glass enclosure.

That look on her face and the joy in her eyes was the only thing that would ever matter to him. She deserved the best of him and the best he could provide for her. He stepped inside and his heart swelled at the sight of her examining the colorful flowers and foliage.

We deserve this. I want life to be like this with her all the time and it's time I make that possible.

A/N: Another cutesy chapter 🥰 Figured I'd leave you on a happy chapter because....well Nadia and Luca have some baggage they still need to deal with 😬😅