It almost felt right to ask him,what?, to break the intensity between us, but I couldn’t. I forced myself to stay in the moment with him and allow it to consume me in whichever way it needed to. At first, when it would happen, it was awkward. I had never experienced anything like it before, and my first reaction was to shy away from it, but he was in it with me, and we were both learning to surrender to it.
He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “You are altogether beautiful, my darling; my wife; there is no flaw in you.” His voice was close to a whisper and rough.
At his words, my entire body felt light. Light enough that I wondered if the breeze had picked me up and carried me outside of my body for a second.
If he turned out to be a cyborg, I was really going to be mad.
Or if he ever left me, like every other man I’d known…he might just break my heart hard enough to let all the blood escape from it and kill me.
That was how hard I’d fallen for him.
“You are altogether beautiful, my darling; my wife; there is no flaw in you.”
I didn’t know where he’d gotten those words from, but wherever, they did a crazy thing to my heart. Crazy enough to seal my lips until I could find the breath to clear my throat. “What are we doing today?” I whispered.
Big lifted my hand and kissed my fingers. I hadn’t even realized they were trembling some. “Breakfast on our terrace. We’ll check out the wedding places after. We’ll have lunch after that. Then explore Portofino for a bit.”
Big left the planning up to me, and since Kitty was from this area, she helped me. The only request Big had—which had shocked me—was that we get married in the local church. The reception was going to be held at the local castle overlooking the water. It would be the first time I’d see it in person.
“We’ll explore the beach again?” I could feel my eyes widen—like a kid’s—at the thought of going back.
Big chuckled. “Yeah, Aphrodite. The beach. Wherever you want to go.”
“Then after the beach, where to?”
“We get dressed and get on a private plane to Maranello.”
“Maranello, and…Rocco Fausti.”
“He invited us to his home.”
“For the racers, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Since I had to have an expensive dress for it, I figure it’s going to be fancy.”
“Rocco enjoys throwing a good party.”
I blew out a heavy breath. I felt like a new swimmer who was going to be thrown into the deep end for the first time.Sink or swim, baby girl.
Big seemed to feel my tension. “You’ll be walking next to me—with me. It’s me who should be fucking concerned. You’ll probably get me killed.”
“You haven’t even seen my dress yet.”
“The dress doesn’t matter, Aphrodite. Not when you have a goddess on your arm.”
“You do know you’ve already secured this, right?” I lifted my left hand, my ring catching the light and causing a spark. “This, meaningme.”
He bit my finger, but it was only hard enough to make me suck in a breath at how good it felt. “For the rest of my fucking life. And I’ll make sure of it by doing whatever it takes.”
“I’m not a woman who needs all the sweetness.”
“Nah, you don’t.” Standing from the bed, he slipped on a pair of light sleep pants and met me on my side.
I blinked up at him. The morning light pouring in from the window was at his back and haloing him. I closed my eyes, sniffing the air. The warm weather seemed to make his masculine scent stronger, and I wanted to keep breathing him in.
After a few seconds, though, I sighed. “Why does it feel like you were about to add ‘but’ after…nah,you don’t?” I asked.
