“Those candy concoctions you make are worse than hard alcohol. Trust me. I know.” Scarlett ran her cool hand underneath my hair.
Mia set a cool cloth from the bathroom against my neck. “We tried to warn you,” she whispered.
They all had, but I’d never had much candy before, and it was fucking addicting. I couldn’t seem to stop while we watched all the old movies Magpie had picked out. The ones we all dressed for and danced and sang to.
Matteo must have called a million times to check on me, and I noticed no one mentioned my not-so-finest-hour to him. It was for the best. Even though I missed him and couldn’t wait to be with him again, secretly, I wanted him to miss me so much that, when he saw me again, he’d vow over and over to never spend so much time apart again. And I was kind of embarrassed to admit that my body was aching for his touch. Every time I would think of him, which seemed to be every second, the pulse between my legs would throb.
I was hooked on Matteo Fausti sex.
Bad.
It seemed to invade my every thought. And I wasn’t even thinking about the times he’d looked at me with those dark bedroom eyes, or how he commanded a room by just stepping inside of it, or when he gave orders to his men, or when he was being sweet to his mamma.
I pressed the cool cloth harder against my neck, wishing I could wrap myself inside of it.
Where was I?
Oh, again, Matteo.
He seemed to chill out after Scarlett told him it was spa hour, and all the women were going to relax. She’d smiled to herself when she’d said something like, “There are no stun guns here, Matteo, only bath salts and steam.” Lourdes, the hairdresser (and Guido’s wife, I had to keep reminding myself), had an entire team set up a room that reminded me of a spa.
We were all treated to a few hours of relaxation, and before I knew it, I’d fallen asleep, and it was the day of our rehearsal dinner.
For a wedding that was thrown together at the last minute, everyone was being chill about it all. We woke up and ate breakfast, which was full of fresh fruit, a welcome change to all the candy from the night before. Afterward, Scarlett, Mia, and I walked the grounds, soldiers standing back but not far, going over all the plans for the next day.
Somehow our New Year’s Eve wedding was brought up, and I was describing the gown I’d described to Pnina, so different from the one I’d be wearing to our Tuscan wedding.
Mia sucked in a breath, setting her hand on her bulging baby belly. “From the way you describe it, that dress would look so gorgeous at the Palais Garnier!”
The name of the place hit me like a ton of bricks. “You mean the opera house in Paris?”
Scarlett and Mia glanced at each other.
“I’ve been there before,” I whispered for some reason. “My mom took me there to see the ballet before she…left me. She said it was something special for us to both remember. You weren’t dancing there by that time,” I said to Scarlett. “But I remember my mom mentioning you. How beautiful and talented you were.” I bit my lip, then blurted, “Is it possible? To get married there?”
Mia squeezed my hand. “Money makes most things possible.”
“I’d love to get married—again—there.”
Scarlett squeezed my hand. “Talk to Matteo about it. I’m sure he can find a way to make it safe.”
I did after we saw each other for the first time since the night before. It felt like we’d been apart for years, and after we kissed until I couldn’t breathe, I brought it up. His eyes were intense on mine, and his face serious.
“You want to go back to Paris.”
“I refuse to let those people ruin something that was special to me and my mom. I refuse to let them steal that time in Paris from me. It’s not the city’s fault that awful people are there—there are awful people everywhere. And I want to…I want to go there. Experience it as a free person.”
Maybe the world couldn’t see past the darkness of his eyes, but I could. It was like I was the brightest thing in them, and my light lit up his mind. It was like I could see his thoughts.
He nodded. “We’ll make it work.”
We started kissing again. We didn’t stop until it was time for the dinner.
We ate outside, where everyone was dressed so beautifully, and Mia had her camera out snapping pictures with Scarlett’s old camera. I’d asked her ahead of time if she would take the pictures for the wedding. She was so good at it. She’d taken what she called our “engagement” pictures aroundCastello Astro. They were the most stunning pictures I’d ever seen.
The night was warm, our time slow melting, but before either of us was ready, it was time for Matteo to go back to our place with his brothers and a lot of his male cousins. Ninety nine percent of them were male.
I opened my mouth to tell him goodnight, but he slipped his hands beneath my hair and pulled my lips to his, giving me a kiss that left me breathless and reaching out for him a secondtoo late. He’d turned and was getting into a fast car Saverio was driving.
