“What don’t you like, my husband?” I asked.
“Not knowing what’s going on inside of your head.” He touched my temple.
“Even after all this time?” I smiled, not able to stop it. I felt like a girl again.
He studied my face even harder. “I’m fucking terrified to even answer truthfully.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that, yeah, I do want to know. I always want to know. Which makes me a glutton for punishment.”
I narrowed my eyes at him before we both started to laugh. No one else was around. It was dark out with a full moon. The world felt like ours alone, a replica of how it had been back then, except we were different people—that first hit of love invading our veins. It was even stronger. Neither of us had a drop to drink, but somehow, we were still drunk.
“If you must know, Brando Piero Fausti, I’m thinking back on our life together. Where it all started. Where we went. Where we are today.”
“All those beautiful years,” he said, his voice dipping lower. “It still doesn’t feel like enough.”
“Forever isn’t long enough with you,” I whispered.
He lifted my hand and kissed my ring. I sniffed, holding back the tears, and he shook his head before he brought me to his chest, holding me close. I could hear the thumping of his heart, the most beautiful sound in the world, because it beat for me, for our children, for our life.
“Put your hand in my pocket,” he said.
The words shocked me out of my sweet moment, and I yanked away, glaring at him.
He grinned, enjoying the look on my face…effing masochist.
“Put your hand in my pocket, Scarlett.”
I huffed out a breath but did as I was told. Not going to lie. Curiosity was still one of my downfalls. If my husband wouldn’t have stood between me and death so many times, this cat would’ve used up her nine lives long ago.
Going from irked to elated in a moment, I lifted two suckers. “Patience!” I said in triumph. “That’s what you used these for—to help you have patience.”
“Yeah,” he said, taking the strawberry one, leaving me with the chocolate. “At the time, it seemed like a good idea. Nothing could’ve prepared me for the amount I would need, though. Not even a million licks—no, over a million. I should’ve bought fucking stock in that company.”
“Oh,” I pretended to swoon. “You really know how to make a girl melt after all these years, Fausti. Tell me more about how I test your patience beyond bearing. That makes me go all soft inside.”
I was being sarcastic—kind of—but he heard the truth. Taking me by the collar of our leather jacket, he yanked me to him, making me gasp. I looked up at him, blinking, smelling the strawberry candy on his breath. He didn’t do well with my sarcasm. Perhaps because he could clearly feel the bitter truth underneath it.
We stared at each other for a minute or two. Finally having enough of the eye war, I bit down on the sucker, crushing the candy into small, hard shards inside of my mouth, the softer middle what I was after.
Before I could swallow down the last bite, he kissed me, his tongue searching my mouth, taking some of the sweetness for his own. I melted into his embrace, almost damning myself for it. He had to hold me up.
He kissed my nose. “Forever isn’t long enough, my wife, ah?”
“Yeah.” I smiled up at him. “I want longer than forever.”
“You’ll have it.”
He acted like it was his to give. In his eyes, he’d see to it. I knew he would. I had no choice but to believe his words.My word is my blood.
Still was—and would forever be.
His eyes searched mine, and then he put his finger underneath my chin and brought my face up. “Is your heart better, my baby?”
“Oh.” I sighed. I had said that to him that night out in the snow, when he didn’t leave with my brother, refusing to leave me because I had been too upset.My heart is better, I had told him after he had asked me if I was going to be all right. He had made it that way when he decided to stay with me. “Yes. It’s so much better. Do you want to know why?”
He nodded, face serious.
