Did I trust him to do this for me on such an important night?
I did. Completely and always.
He was a Fausti and good at everything, it seemed. I wasn’t even sure if the cameras would truly be on me tonight, but the elusive and reclusive Fausti male escorting me like a dark knight in a twisted fairytale.
My husband grinned at me, like he’d read my mind. “No one is going to notice me tonight, baby. It’ll be the star on my arm that’s going to steal their attention. I live in the darkness so you can shine, Estella Fausti.”
“We’ll see about that,” I breathed.
Then I let him have at my lips, which he touched up perfectly, and then he removed the smear from my face, and I fixed his hair.
We left after, arm in arm.
Ready to face the world.
The premiere was held in Rome, and it was a success. Noemi and I received standing ovations, and the man next to me, my husband, wiped tears from his face—he was moved by my performance. I told him a lot of the inspiration behind Valentina’s character came from what I was feeling during thatuncertain time in our lives. The core of the movie was rooted in hard times and overcoming them, waiting for the rainbow after the storms of life.
It was such a beautiful Roman night, surrounded by our family, all except for Brando and Scarlett. They’d both had enough of the spotlight, and even though they both were immensely proud of me, they offered to keep Luca until we got home. We were all staying in the same house in Rome for the night, so it wouldn’t be a big deal to grab him from their room when we got home, or in the morning. I wasn’t ready to send him off to his grandparents’ place just yet for an entire night, even if we were in the same house.
Mama and Magpie loved the spotlight, and they were both beaming at me throughout the entire night, going on and on about how proud they were of me. Nonno had kissed my cheek and told me I’d made him proud. His mamma would have been proud. To him, I was bringing back something that had disappeared from his mamma’s time, and it was something that should be immortalized in poetry, music, film, and books.
Romance.
Nonno wasn’t a man to hand out compliments willy-nilly. So, I took that as a win, and by the time our night out was coming to an end, I was extremely proud of the work Noemi and I had done. I was on cloud nine.
I was ready to go home, though. I missed Luca, and I wanted to be alone with my husband. He had been my biggest fan all night, doing exactly what he said he would do: keep in the shadows, watching me, letting me shine. But it wasourdarkness andourlight, and I wanted to change out of this dress, get naked, and spend the rest of the night, skin on skin, in bed with him.
He sighed as he kept one hand on my lower back, the other in my hand, as he helped me down the Spanish Steps. “You readmy fucking mind,la mia stella. There’s a party in our bedroom that’s way past late to attend—it’s been on my mind and on my calendar for centuries. I get to bury myself in?—”
I thought he might say star, but he touched his heart with our hands, and said instead, “—mywoman.Mywife.Mylife. Entwining our souls together—per sempre.” He made a face. “My old man is right, though. The words sound better in Italian. At least in my head.”
“Romance sounds better in any language. Period. And that long,ah? Centuries?” I quirked an eyebrow up, and he grinned at my use ofah. I had been living with Italians for a while, and they were inspiring me in so many ways.
I loved their passion. Their warm sense of welcome and humor. I loved how loud they could be at the dinner table, or when they were discussing something that took heart, but how quiet and peaceful they were at church. I loved how they cooked with fresh ingredients, and how good it made me feel on the inside and on the outside. I loved how the women I’d learned to cook from listened to Italian music while they sprinkled love into every one of their dishes. I loved how family-oriented they were. How loyal. How romantic.
I loved how they loved—so boldly and so completely.
“Even longer,” he said.
I stopped on the step, and so did he.
“Did I really say that to you when I opened my eyes—I mean, that night. The night you saved me. Did I really say, ‘What took you so long?’”
“Yeah, and it was the perfect thing to fucking say. I was feeling it myself.”
I touched his face gently, and he kissed my palm. “We better hurry then. We don’t want to be late for our bedroom date.”
He exploded with laughter, and I could have sworn the press and whoever was still lingering around, if they had a sigh inthem, gave it. It seemed like the air carried a collective one on the tepid breeze.
The Fausti soldiers who came for personal security—we never left home without them—were not part of the tender breeze. If anything, the puffs of air broke around them, because they were rigid, on guard. I noticed that the men closest to Matteo were not lax when it came to protection, but they were a little more comfortable around him then the soldiers who rotated and could belong to any faction. But when Matteo meant business, even the men closest to him lost all familiarity and became cold and hard, exactly what was expected of them.
Even though Matteo had told Nonno of his plans to give up his birthright, Nonno only listened and nodded, then instructed him to really think about what he was doing without anything hanging over his head. There was the issue of Matteo and I only having one son, but the family didn’t know about that yet. And there was no specific rule about it, though it wasn’t the norm. But no one knew about Matteo’s decision to give up his right to lead.
So, in the family’s eyes, he was still the man who was going to lead them someday. And they all respected him for it. And if he decided to lead, and not give up his position, he would owe his grandfather blood. In Nonno’s eyes, he had spoken the thought out loud, and that meant he had gone back on his word. He’d probably slice him with a sword.
The thought made me shiver, and Matteo squeezed my hand. “Ready for that date, ah?” He brought my hand up to his mouth, breathed me in, then kissed each of my knuckles.
“Yes. No. I mean. I wasn’t thinking about that right then, even though it’s always on mind. It’s like the thought is constantly on repeat, even though things are going on around me. But I was thinking about you not leading your family, Teo.”
