“A true wildflower.”
He grinned at me. “You are not as blunt as you would like me to believe.” He winked.
“I’m about to be.” I pushed my glasses up on my nose. I had totally forgot to take them off before I left Rome, and just realized it. “What can I do to stop the…war between my husband and his cousin?”
“This is no war,” he said. “This is a challenge for love.Romantico, ah?”
“Maybe before I would have thought so, but now…it seems the opposite.”
“Ruthless.”
“Yes.”
“This is because your man’s flesh is on the line.”
“Yes.”
“He feels this is a great honor to do this for you—for your love. He will show our entire family how much your love means to him. Also, you will never be able to question it.”
Even though I never doubted Nazzareno outwardly, he knew I had doubts. There was always a fear beneath the surface that he would walk away like my mom had.
He had been right.
When I’d spilled my guts to him the night at the museum in Copenhagen, it was for a few reasons, but the one that stuck in my heart the worst was the fear of not being good enough and having someone who felt too good leave me behind again.
I knew he was stepping up to the challenge because Renato had made that scene at the opera, but like me and my reasons, Nazzareno had more than one.
He was doing this so I could never question his love for me or worry that he’d leave me.
Not after he was putting his life on the line for our love.
And if he lost?
I would be his last love.
I whimpered at the thought of a last…anything with my husband.
One life would never be good enough. We still had so much of this one left to live together.
Luca patted my hand. “Your husband was trained by my father, his grandfather. He is a formidable opponent, and if his feelings are true, he has more to lose than hiscugino, ah? This will give him the strength he needs to win.”
I nodded in a respectful way, ran my palms against my dress, turned the wedding band on my finger. “Can I put a stop to this challenge?”
He looked off in the distance. “If you are not here, it takes the honor out of it. Even if Nazzareno requests to continue, Renato will not be required to. They will both have lost.” He stood and held out his hand to me.
It took me a second to take it. Once we were up, he offered me his arm, and being a gentleman, made it seem like I took it, when he was the one who positioned me that way.
I was too stunned to react; too weak to speak.
“I will get word back to your husband that you are staying the night here as my guest. You will decide tomorrow. Stay and give your husband the honor he deserves, or tap into your power and leave, calling a forfeit.”
“If I ever come back?”
“We pick up where we left off, as though no time has passed.”
Forever, then.
I had to stay out of his life until our lives were over, and then we’d be reunited as ghosts together.
