Io sono il suo.
I am his.
I practically fall to the ground and into his arms. Taking his head in my hands I kiss him. I kiss his eyes and his nose and his mouth and his chin. I kiss him all over and with each kiss I say the words. “Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.”
Those full, lush lips widen into a gorgeous smile as he takes my mouth into his, sealing the moment. He holds up my left hand and slides the ring onto my finger. I look down at it and can’t believe how stunning it is.
“This is too much. We can’t afford it,” I say, and my heartbeat comes down from its historic elevation.
“Why can’t we afford it?”
“Because you kept your name. You gave up the business,” I say and then stagger back. “Didn’t you?”
He plays with the ring on my finger. “This looks perfect on you—”
“Alex—”
“I did. Are you mad?”
“Mad?” I blink back. “No. I’m relieved. But, you didn’t do this because you thought it’s what I wanted, did you?”
He slowly shakes his head, his hands holding me from behind, the warmth of them enveloping me. “No, I did it for us. Before you, I never believed anyone would want me as the poor kid from Pittsburgh. I never wanted any of it. I just needed someone to believe in me in order to give it up.”
“I do believe in you. I want to be your wife even if that means we have nothing.”
“I wouldn’t say we have nothing—”
I sit back on my knees and rest my hands on my thighs, my head tilting up at him for an explanation. So he gives me one.
“I signed the company over to the board of trustees, claiming my name and seizing everything that was bought under Asher Industries. But, I still got to keep a few things.”
“Huh?” Yeah, that’s all that I can muster.
“There’s Black Dog,” he says pointing to me as if I’m familiar with it, which I am. “I also own a production company, and then there’s stock I purchased with my own money and a trust fund from my great-grandfather that’s untouched.”
“Oh.” My lips purse together in confusion. “Alex, that’s not considered poor.”
“It is when you consider the fact I just signed over a billion-dollar business.”
I laugh and shake my head at my sweet Alexander. He is going to have to give up his three thousand–dollar scotch. The plane is definitely gone too. I hope he likes shaving his own beard.
“How were you able to keep the recording studio? Wasn’t that an Asher property?”
“Actually, It’s an Emma Paige property. I transferred it to your name the day I saw you teaching that boy how to hold a violin. I fell in love with you in that very moment. Something changed in me. All the anger I was holding, all the doubt I had vanished. And when you threw that violin at me in the back of the car? That was when I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life chasing you until you came back to me.”
I feel like the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes because mine is about to explode. I’m not going to lie. I’m scared. I am absolutely petrified that this is too good to be true. Frightened how tomorrow it could all fall apart. I could lose Alexander and I could lose myself.
But I’m not going to let the possible hurt keep me from experiencing happiness. Never again. I am going to live and I am going to love and I am going to burn.
“What about the school? Will the Juliette Academy have to close?” The sudden guilt at what his decision means to the future of the greatest school I’ve ever known his me hard.
“The school is fine. They gave it to me as a parting gift. Looks like no one on the board wants to be bothered with it. What do you say, wanna run a school with me?”
“I’d love nothing more.” And it’s the truth. It’s not the life I chose but it’s the one that I was meant to live. “Thank you for choosing us.”
“Thank you for choosing me.”
EPILOGUE
