He places his glass down on the table. “Stella …”
I swallow. “Yes, Matteo?”
He takes my glass from my hand, and his fingers brush mine, sending delicious shocks up and down my spine. He sets it down on the table right next to his glass and grabs my hand. “I want to apologize to you again. For locking you up in my house, for making you marry me when you didn’twant to, for using you as a revenge tool.” He swallows. “I was too self-absorbed, too consumed by anger that I couldn’t see what I was doing to you, until it was too late.”
My lip tips up into a gentle smile. “Thank you.”
“I’m not done yet,” he adds. “I need to make this right. I stole everything from you, and I’m no better than Lucio.”
“Don’t compare yourself to that lowlife,” I say, but he puts a finger on my lips to silence me.
“I’ve been a terrible husband, and you deserve better. You deserve the world.”
He grabs both my hands, pushes something between them, and squeezes them together softly before whispering into my ear, “You deserve … freedom.”
My breathing stops abruptly.
What did he just say?
My hand slowly opens up as he takes a step back. Inside lies a metallic key, glistening in the light. “Is this …?”
He caresses my cheeks. “A key to my house, so you can leave whenever you’re ready. You can take whatever you need from your room. It’s yours to keep.”
I try to swallow away the lump in my throat, but it’s too hard because the tears are welling up again.
“I won’t keep you a captive any longer.”
“But you married me,” I say.
He nods. “I will collect the papers tomorrow and send them over. For now, you’re free to go back home to your apartment and live your life however you choose.”
I’ve wanted to be free for such a long time that I nearlyforgot what it was like to hold an actual key. It’s powerful. Like I’m holding the world in the palm of my hand, yet … I don’t want to leave.
“You don’t have to be my wife anymore if you don’t want to, and I won’t hold it against you if you don’t,” he says, clearing his throat. “I just want to make things right for once. After all, that’s what both our mothers would want.”
That vow meant everything to him, I know it did.
But he’s still willing to push it all aside and let it all go for me.
I swallow and focus on him, placing the key down next to the glasses. “I want to stay.”
Matteo
My pupils dilate as shock ripples through me. “What?”
Did I hear that correctly?
She wants to stay? Here, in my house?
“You helped me when no one else even dared to look in my direction. You stood up for me, and you always treated me like I was important. You understand me. That … meanseverythingto me.” She rubs her lips together. “I want to be free, but I don’t want to lose you.”
The sweetness of her words gives me a high I’ve never experienced before. It’s like I’m floating on cloud nine. I never imagined she would ever want me the way I’ve wantedher since I first met her in that club, all sassy as fuck as she threw a big middle finger to the man who tried to control her.
But the truth is, no man should try to control a fiery goddess like her, because it’ll burn them in their ass, just like it did with me.
I smile and pull her closer to me. “You won’t ever lose me.”
She smiles back, and I want to bask in her radiance. “Promise?”
