And maybe we were both transported for a second to the place we met—not the chaos that had surrounded us, but the complete peace we’d found in each other with just one look.
“I have a surprise for you too.” She opened her eyes, a smile on her face. She lifted the hem of the heavy gown and turned her foot some.
Her heels had a bow that tied around her ankles, and her legs looked…I whistled low while my hand roamed up her leg to her garter. She closed her eyes and shivered.
“I wonder if this is how the stars feel when the night caresses them,” she breathed out. Then she opened her eyes and looked at me. “Those are your mom’s wedding shoes. I liked the idea of walking toward you in the same shoes she walked toward your father in. I love their love.”
“Not as much as ours.” My voice was rough, my emotions hard to express.
She used her pointer finger to bop me on top of my head. “Untie that one.”
I did, and when I set it aside, she used my shoulders to keep steady. I turned her foot a little, and on her heel was a matching tattoo to mine—the one with our coordinates. My eyes flew up to hers.
“Where you go, I follow, Matteo Fausti. My life began on that night too.”
I secured her heel, making the bow as perfect as the other one, and then stood, feeling like a bastard who was about to get his queen for the second time. Our parents met us outside of the door, along with Uncle Tito, who took my spot, Stella’s mamma on the other side. My mother-in-law couldn’t resist the old gangster’s charms either. She was happy to share the walk with him.
If Stella noticed that both of our mammas were dressed in black, she didn’t comment on it. I kissed her hand before we separated, me to wait at the top of the stairs in the grand foyer for her.
I’d wait centuries for her. And if my heart couldn’t take another beat without her, I’d fight monsters to get to her.
As my grandfather serenaded the room with his rich, warm voice, a collective gasp seemed to echo, causing the thousands ofcandles to sway. My star had arrived in a sea of darkness to share her brightness with me. When she reached me, I took her from Uncle Tito and her mamma, and she whispered as we walked to the priest who’d married us before, “Why is everyone in black?”
I lifted her hand and kissed her chilled fingers. “Because I requested that of them. This is a representation of who you are to me, Stella. The rest of the world was always in the darkness with me, but the moment my eyes found you, you became my light.La mia stella.”
She started to cry, tears streaking down her cheeks.
We repeated our vows.
I had new ones for her.
She had a few for me.
I slipped a diamond band on her right hand, third finger, because I not only wanted to claim one hand, but both of her hands.
Then we partied, Stella changing into two forms of her main gown. As the night grew thinner, the hems of the gowns became shorter.
It was never about where, or when, or what we wore or didn’t, or whether cameras were present. If we were together, hearts and souls willing to entangle in the vows we spoke to each other, nothing else mattered to me.
“Same Matteo Fausti,” she whispered to me as the clock struck twelve and we welcomed in a new year. Fireworks blasted in the distance above the Eiffel Tower.
I kissed her until she melted in my arms, even in the frigid cold, and she was holding on to me like she might lose herself if she didn’t stick to my bones.
I kissed her like the first time.
I kissed her like it was the last time.
I’d always kiss her this way.
It was her right as my wife to feel everything I did for her. It was my right as her husband to take pleasure in serving her that way.
The honor of my life.
“Estella Valentina Fausti,” I whispered roughly against her lips, “we’ll welcome one hundred more nights like this one, and it still won’t be enough.”
Her eyes slowly opened. “How can you be so sure…you’ll always want me like this? That you’ll always want me this much?”
I hit my heart with our hands, mimicking the beat beneath the surface. “When it comes to you, this rules me, and it tells me so.”
