Rocco touched the center stone. “Our present—the moment we are in.” He touched the stone to the left. “Our past—the first time my eyes found you, and the lion inside of my heart knew he had found his forever mate.” He touched the stone to the right. “Our future—the rest of our lives that will be spent together in love.” He caressed the side of my face. “My Amora.”
The diamonds seemed to transfix me, but it wasn’t the actual ring. It was his words. The sincerity in them.
What he was asking—in his own way—of me.
He was asking for the rest of my life.
Even though we had only known each other for a short time, I didn’t think twice about saying yes to forever with him. But I wasn’t sure ifI’dbe enough for the rest of his life. Yeah, I talked a big game, felt secure enough in myself and this love to know my worth in it, but I had to hear it from his mouth first. He’d just lost Rosaria Caffi, and maybe it hadn’t been a traditional marriage, but…it was going to take time to undo all that she’d done to him, as far as the…relationship he was used to with her. An open marriage.
I’d spend the rest of my life showing him a different way, a way he’d always craved, but he didn’t have to rush, just like he’d said of our physical relationship.
In my silence, Rocco wrapped his arms around me, and setting his arms over mine, hands over mine, he washed them for me.
“Rocco?” I whispered.
His eyes came straight to mine.
I lifted my left hand. “Tell me what this means,” I whispered.
Lifting me off my feet, he carried me into the living room and situated my body over his. I wrapped my hands around his neck, straddling him.
“I cannot claim that I love you. Love is a lie. It does not come close to what I feel for you. You are the life in my veins, Amora,feeding my heart. Therefore, you know what this means. For me—all that my heart has ever desired. You. All of you. Until my life is over.”
“Even beyond?” I whispered.
“Even beyond,” he said, “if it is mine to give.”
His eyes were so guileless, and the truth in them made tears slip down my cheeks. I leaned down, resting my head against his, closing my eyes. He closed his. I breathed out, and he breathed in.
“We don’t have to rush,” I said.
“We are not,” he whispered, but the conviction in his words was loud, clear, and strong. “We have waited our entire lives to repeat sacred vows on sacred ground.”
And what I said next, I meant with my entire soul. And it went for this entire night.
“It couldn’t have been any man but you,” I whispered, taking his face in my hands. “No other man would do. Out of the entire world, you. It’s only ever been you I’ve said yes to. Even when I had no idea such a romantic soul existed for mine.”
He went to turn his face away from me, but I refused to allow it. If we were going to do this, he wouldn’t be vulnerable with the rest of the world, but he would be with me. I’d protect all that he was in danger of losing. Sure, he’d protect my honor, but I would protect his heart and soul. I’d refuse to allow the world to fuck with either. I’d respect his flesh, too, refusing to damage the stunning art God had created. The scars he had were enough—battle wounds caused by the hand that should have been protecting him, not turning on him.
“Yes, Rocco Piero Fausti, for you, it will always be yes from me. Even when you don’t ask. Even when you can’t ask. My answer, forever, will be yes to you. I have no choice but to love you until the day I die—even beyond, because that’s my right to give it to you. I’ll love you so fiercely, so hard, it will become me. It willbecomeme.”
His eyes, like mine, were glistening in the darkness, the truthbetween us overwhelming us. It didn’t come from one area of our beings, but from who we were as one.
Our entire…existences.
He took my hands in his and brought them between our chests. My heart was overreacting as it usually did, and so was his. The pendant he had given me, his heart in material form, dug into my flesh and his.
His next words were spoken in the language of our people, and his face was hardened, like he was a solider making a vow to his army, but his voice was barely above a whisper, as if he were speaking to the woman he would love for eternity. The difference between the sharp light of day and the soft darkness of a romantic night.
“I will live for you. I would die for you. I wouldliefor you.” He cleared his throat, and letting the tears fall on my hand, he kissed it, like he was shedding blood for the vow, like I had shed blood for the vow I’d made to him earlier.
“I just have one question,” I whispered. “I don’t know all there is to know about your…relationship with Rosaria. But I understand that it was an open marriage. Unless you need to tell me, I’m okay not knowing all the details, unless it’s something I want to know. But.” I released a breath that felt heavy. “WillIbe enough foryou, Rocco Fausti?”
He made a pained sound, like the one he’d made earlier after our first time, and he ran his hand through my blood and painted himself with it. He took my arms in his hands, and I felt the trembling in his bones down to mine.
“Tell me,amore, when your heart was created for mine, did God create it to be enough for my body?”
He had me there.
