“No.”
He spins back toward me, storming to my bedside. “What do you mean no?”
My throat tightens. “I can’t,” I whisper, hating the crack in my voice.
“Can’t what, baby?”
“I can’t be around you. I can’t keep pretending I don’t love you.” The tears fall fast, stinging. “Not anymore.”
“Izzy.” His hands cup my face, warm and steady despite the storm in his eyes. “I love you.”
A sob punches out of me. “But not the way I love you.”
He brushes the tears from my cheeks, even as more fall. “Yes,Cuore mio. I have loved you since I was a scrawny teenager. You’ve always been the one good thing in my life. I loved you then. I love you now. I’ll love you until I’m buried six feet under—and even then, I’ll find you in every lifetime after.”
I suck in a breath. Words evade me. “I… I don’t… But… You never said.”
Enzo has the gall to laugh. “Neither did you.”
I search his face—looking for the deception. I find none.
“You love me?” I clarify, needing to hear it again.
“I’m so in love with you it hurts,Cuore mio.”
A smile breaks out over my face. “You love me.”
He nods, bringing his face towards me and kissing my cheeks, my forehead, then finally, finally, my lips. “I love you.”
Doc clears his throat, shattering the moment. I’d forgotten he was even here. Enzo pulls his hands from my face, thewarmth of his touch lingering.
“I’ll go grab the discharge paperwork,” Doc says.
I offer him a small smile. “Thank you.”
And then it’s just Enzo and me again.
“So,” I begin, my voice cracking, “what happens now?”
He takes my hand, his thumb gliding over my knuckles in slow, absent strokes. “Now, I take you home and look after you.” He grins, but there’s a warning in it. “Then—when you’re better—I’m going to punish you for running from me.”
I swallow hard.
“Punish me?” The words escape as a whisper.
He leans in, his breath ghosting over the shell of my ear. “And you’re going to love every second.”
Despite the pain, despite everything, a sharp ache pulses between my thighs. My clit throbs at the promise in his voice.
I draw in a shaky breath. “Oh.”
“You’re never leaving me again,Cuore mio.You’re mine—and I’m never letting you go.”
There’s a hard set to his jaw, a determination in his eyes. He means it.
Perhaps it should frighten me.
I twist my neck just slightly, brushing my lips against his. “Good.”
