“I’m sorry you were hurt,tesoro.”
“That’s not the point.”
“What is?”
“I wanted to look after her. Not the other way around.”
“But this is just an unfortunate accident, and you saved a kid from getting hurt worse. It’s got nothing to do with your abilities.” He lifted her knuckles to his mouth and kissed them. “As for looking after you…why do you automatically assume that it’s a burden? It’s abundantly clear how much she loves you.” He gentled his tone. “You didn’t tell me she’s a lawyer. She grilled me for hours today. It’s natural that she…worries about you. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t think you capable, Sameera.” With a bracing breath, he added, “Some people have a hard time dealing with boundaries when they love someone. You say you understand her need to protect you a little now? Then, give her some grace,no?”
Sam stared at him. She’d been at odds with her parents ever since she’d returned, even though they’d finally gotten their act together. But one look at her face and Alessandro seemed to understand exactly what she needed to hear. It was why he’d helped with dinner too. Because he understood it was important to her.
“Why didn’t you at least call me?” he said.
There was something in his words that tugged at her, but she was too exhausted to figure it out. Neither could she manage flippancy. “You know I hate confrontations.”
He tensed. “Good-bye would have been a confrontation?”
“Yes, because I couldn’t have stopped blurting out that I’m in love with you. And you’d have given me a hundred reasons for why we don’t suit, super politely and then—”
Sam squealed as in a blink he’d flipped her onto the bed and covered her body with his. The delicious weight of him pressing down made her eyes roll back. His mouth hovered over hers, his gray eyes roiling with such emotion that it made her chest ache. “I wish you’d stayed and confronted me. Then I’d have told you I’m in love with you too, and then it wouldn’t have felt like my heart had been trampled when I found you gone.”
Sam wondered if her heart might jump out of her chest. Tears gathered in her throat and trickled down her eyes onto the bed. “I…”
Shifting to his side, he pressed his face into her neck, one hand palming her all over. “I rushed here after Angelina told me,sì. But I’d have been here anyway in a couple of weeks,bella. Some of the arrangements were taking time. Especially with Matteo still in recovery and my father grumbling about coming out of retirement.”
“What arrangements?” Sam finally whispered.
Her chest still felt too full of wonder and disbelief. Too vulnerable about this sudden happiness. She couldn’t believe he was saying these words to her. That he was here, touching her, kissing her and looking at her as if she meant everything to him. It was the stuff of her wildest dreams.
“Moving headquarters from Milan to California is quite an upheaval.”
“You’re moving to Cali? Why?”
“I want to be near you.”
A vast ocean of happiness opened up in her, sucking her in. “Why?”
Gray eyes held hers, but this time Sam needed words. And he seemed to know that. He kissed the corner of her mouth, rubbed the tip of his nose against hers, as if he needed to brace himself to say them. “Because my life is colorless without you,tesoro. It is unbearable. Every morning, every evening, every moment in between…it’s empty. And because I’m an arrogant asshole, it took me too long to realize that my happiness is a choice I have to make. That it lies with you.”
Sam tried to smile but more tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I’m not going anywhere, Sam,” Alessandro said, kissing her with such reverent tenderness that she wanted to burrow into him. His hands traced the seam of her top, careful to not touch the bruise on her hip. “I know that you have all these plans for your new colorful life, like college and raves and… I just ask that you let me be a part of your life. Even if all you can give me are weekends and—”
“So you want to be my weekend boyfriend? Am I allowed to date other men during weekdays?”
“I was hoping you’d agree to the exclusive thing again,” he said oh so politely, as if his gray eyes weren’t full of a stormy bleakness. “All I want is to love you, Sameera. To show you how much you mean to me.”
“I…but you love Violetta. I can’t—won’t share you with anyone, Alessandro. Not even the past.”
He didn’t mock her or talk down to her. A harsh sigh left him. “I understand the feeling. Every time you mention Matteo with that affection, I want to break his pretty face.” He shook his head. “A part of me will always love Violetta,sì. But that’s a tiny part, Sam. Until you made me talk about her, it wasn’t even her I remembered. It was the pain, the loss and the powerlessness of losing her. She became nothing but a reason I used to shut myself off. You…”
His breath rattled and his voice broke, and it was long moments before he spoke again. “You are laughter and joy and pleasure and fragility and innocence and stubbornness and fear and… I want to spend the rest of my life loving you, kissing you, laughing with you, playing chess with you, fighting with you…” He rubbed at her top where the scar lay, and Sam knew he wasn’t even aware of it. That it had taken him everything to fight the fear of losing her. “That I feel this much for you, it scares me. Thewhat-ifs that go around in my head… But I won’t be a coward anymore. I won’t deny myself this chance with you. Not a day, not a moment. This happiness…it’s a choice I’m making, even though it terrifies me, Sam.”
“You do know that I can’t have children, right? And that my life will—”
His hand covered her mouth. “I was a shadow, living a half life until you blazed into it, filled it with colors and emotions again. All I want is a future with you, whatever its shape,tesoro. Please, don’t doubt my faith in this, in us.”
Sam grabbed his hand and pressed a kiss to the center of his palm. “I’ve been hurting all over,” she said, wanting to bask in their closeness, “so make me feel better, Alessandro. Give me all of you,” she demanded, pushing up on elbows to press her mouth to his.
