“That is where I live—mostly.”
“Oh, I thought you said Tuscany?” We’d touched on where to go after we left the island, and he’d told me that his place in Tuscany was his alone—Rosaria hated it and refused to step foot in the place. Sounded great to me for a starting point. Scarlett and Brando, along with a lot of family, were not far.
He stared at me so hard, I wasn’t sure what to do.
“What is it, Rocco?” I whispered.
The trembling outside of me seemed like it was coming from the trembling inside of him.
“You are the answer,” he whispered. “You are all my prayers heard and created. You are the desire of my heart, my Amora. I live in Maranello—it is my home base.”
“Oh.” Oh. Oh.Oh!
Creek. Creek. Creek.
All the pieces suddenlyclicked!
His reaction, the meaning behind his words, finally reached me.
Deep inside of me.
Where it all madesense.
“I was c-c-created in your h-h-home,” I said, the trembling even worse.
It was like the rough road it took us to get here, the conversation while we climbed, all lead to this highest point.
“While I was dreaming of you,” he barely got out, “and meant for me even before.”
Probably while he was gazing at the same stars that hadseducedmy mom to give in to my dad.
One time.
Her first time.
Lots of times after, but she told me she knew I was conceived that first night. Exactly nine months after, like I couldn’t stand to be late, I arrived in the world.
Created and born for this man.
To love him.
To live with him.
To walk beside him in good times and in bad.
To die while he held me in his arms and I held onto him, both of our souls refusing to leave without the other.
As if our hearts sighed at the same time, that big secret broken between us, we seemed to move at the same time, our arms reaching out, our hands exploring, our lips coming home…he sat me back on the sill, his hands roaming up my legs, pushing the soft, thin material of my flowy dress to the side, his eyes intense on mine. My arms locked around his neck, my legs around his waist, and not because I was afraid to fall.
If I was going to fall, we were going to fall together.
The look in his eyes vowed it to me.
Wherever we went, we went together.
I used my feet to push his pants down, and he entered me to the hilt on a thrust that felt like it would send me over, but he kept me rooted to him, the center of my world only shaken by the extreme pleasure flooding my system. He spoke to the pulse in my neck as he made love to me with the intensity of our first time, like the intensity of what would be our last time, remindingme of his vows, how ancient they were—created before the ticking clock of time had even started moving between us, but how present they were in this moment with us.
However presentthose sacred oaths would always be.
