“Yes.” My eyes blurred as Rafael swiped a gentle thumb over my cheek, and I nodded, trying to swallow around the huge lump in the back of my throat.
“Yes?”
“A thousand times, yes. This.” I reached up to put my hands over his. “You. I would’ve waited my whole life for you. I love you, Rafael. I never stopped,couldn’tstop, not even when I wanted to. You’re the other half of my heart, the other half of my soul, and I haven’t felt complete until this moment right here.”
He smiled against my lips before taking them in a kiss that made my stomach flip. I wrapped my arms around him and felt like I was coming home.
“You’re mine,” he whispered against my lips.
“Always.”
“I’m never letting you go again.”
“Might be a little difficult to talk to De Vecchi like this?”
Rafael chuckled and fell back onto the bed, taking me with him. “You’re right. Don’t want to make him jealous.”
“Why, Father Vitale. I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
He grinned, and the sexy curve to his lips made my cock throb as he tumbled me to my back. “Then you’rereallygoing to have a problem with what I do next.”
I wound my legs around the backs of his thighs as he settled in above me. “Eh, I have confession next week. Give me something worth confessing.”
“I love you,” Rafael said as he kissed along my jaw to my ear. “So much my heart feels like it’s going to fly out of my chest.”
“Don’t worry.” I stroked my hands up his spine and arched up into him. “I’ve got you.”
“Forever?”
“Forever.”
30
RAFAEL
ARCHBISHOP DE VECCHI didn’t knock. He never did on his occasional visits back to St. Andrews. After peering around the door and seeing I was alone, he stepped inside my office like it still belonged to him.
The holy man looked the same after all these years, though his hair had thinned on top and gone silver on the sides. His brown eyes were as warm and all-seeing as ever behind thin wire frames, and a soft smile curved his normally serious mouth when he saw me.
“Father Vitale,” he said, and I stood and rounded my desk to greet him.
I bowed and kissed his ring. “Your Grace.”
By now, we could greet each other more informally, but no matter how many years had passed, I could never bring myself to call him by name. He was the man who’d baptized me and half the congregation. He’d heard my first confession…all of my confessions. He’d watched me grow up, and somehow, he always knew when something was wrong before I said a word.
Like he did now.
He placed his hand on my shoulder, studying me with that stare that had made so many of us cower when we were younger, and I felt that same urge now.
“You look tired,” he said.
“I’ve been busy.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
My insides were already twisted up in knots about what I’d called him here for today. He wouldn’t be expecting it, and I had no idea how I was going to manage to tell him about Alessio, even though I’d thought about how to say it for the last week.
I took a deep breath, pictured Alessio standing there beside me, giving me some of his strength. He was fearless, and I needed some of that to rub off on me now. Even when we were young, I knew if he was with me, everything would be okay. I could hear the words he’d spoken, etched into my heart forever:“You’re the other half of my heart, the other half of my soul, and I haven’t felt complete until this moment right here.”
