The question of her father’s incarceration and death.
None of it matters in this moment.
Only the taste of her skin, the sound of her quickening breath, the way her thighs part for me.
"I never stopped wanting you," I tell her, the words raw with honesty as I position myself between her legs. "Never stopped thinking about us."
When I push inside her again, the sensation is overwhelming, not just physically, but emotionally. I've found my way back to her body but still feel locked out of her heart.
Elena wraps her legs around my waist, pulling me deeper, her eyes locked with mine.
For a moment, I see a flash of the woman who loved me before everything fell apart.
Before Aldo Vitale stole my life and sent me into exile. Before another man gave her the children I should have fathered.
I set a slow, deliberate pace, determined to make this last, to brand myself on her memory so deeply that she can't forget me again.
Tomorrow will bring complications, but tonight she's mine again, and I intend to make the most of every second.
ELENA
I wake to a quiet home. The kids are with Roman and Isabella, so I can sleep in if I want to.
As I snuggle into my sheets, the scent of Luca envelops me and the events of last night return.
I shouldn’t have slept with him, and yet, how could I have refused him? Refused myself?
My hand reaches across the empty space beside me, finding nothing but wrinkled bedding where Luca should be.
Did I dream it all?
I sit up, drawing the sheet to my chest. It couldn’t have been a dream.
The dinner, his confession about planning to propose, the questions he asked about the triplets’ father, no way did I conjure that up.
"Did you love him?" he'd asked of the kids’ father. And I'd said yes, because how could I not love the man who fathered my children? But I didn’t tell him I was talking about him.
I rise from bed, my body pleasantly sore in places that haven't felt anything in years.
Every muscle remembers Luca's touch, insistent yet gentle, demanding yet giving.
In the bathroom, I brush my teeth and gather my hair in a scrunchie. Then I head to the kitchen.
Maybe it’s best that Luca left.
Our situation is complicated, just as it was seven years ago when the Vitale family accused Luca of betraying my father.
What would Aldo have done if he'd known I carried Luca's children?
The Vitale bloodline mixed with Monti blood without his blessing?
I'd made my choice to protect my children, to keep them safe from the world that killed my father.
And now Luca's back, determined to uncover truths that might still get us all killed.
And I've let him back into my bed, back into my heart, while still denying him knowledge of his own children.
I've spent years convincing myself I made the right choice.
