The tears come quietly and he kisses each of them away.
When he pulls back he kisses the tip of my nose. “Have you felt the baby kick yet?”
"Not yet." The words come out soft as I watch his hand caress over my baby bump. "Persia says that won't happen until I'm further along."
His gaze lifts to mine, and the surprise that flickers through those brown eyes carries a warmth I haven't seen since the ultrasound. "You've been in contact with the family?"
"Every single day. They are my family too."
The emotion that moves across his face tells me everything. “I feared I ruined everything for you, us and our baby.”
He reaches over the edge of the bed and retrieves his jeans from the floor, his hand searching through the pocket. He brings back a small leather box.
Inside sit two matching white gold bands resting side by side. Solid. Simple. Strong. No diamonds or excess.
"The first ring came with a forced contract." He holds up both bands, one in each palm, the lamplight catching the brushed surface of the metal. "This one is a promise."
He slides one onto his own finger first, the band settling against his knuckle with a quiet certainty that makes my chest ache. "I call this the band of trust. I swear for the rest of my life, I will never take this off. I will never break your trust again."
“A trust ring?”
He nods slowly and the certainty sitting in his gaze feeds my soul.
He holds out the second band, balanced on his open palm, offering it without reaching for my hand for me to accept. Or not.
“Do you accept my promise?”
I take the ring from his palm, feeling the cool weight of it settle against my fingers, the metal is smooth and solid and I hand it back to him.
Fear mingles with hope across his handsome expression.
“I do accept.”
His body visibly relaxes.
“But only if you place it on my finger.”
He takes my hand with a gentleness that contradicts every rough, desperate thing our bodies did to each other twenty minutes ago. He slides the matching band onto my finger.
“I have something else. I found it next to your keyboard that day.” He lifts the cushion the bands sat on and produces my wedding ring.
I hold my hand out for him to slide the ring to join our shared band of trust.
"I choose you, Luca." The words rise from the same place the tears came from, the place where I've been storing every stubborn, reckless, terrifying ounce of hope that refused to die no matter how many reasons he gave me to let it go. "All of you. The sunshine and the devil."
"I choose us."
He pulls me close, his hand returning to my belly, cradling the curve where our daughter grows with a tenderness that makes my throat tight.
He looks at me, serious now, more vulnerable than I've ever seen him, the dark eyes holding mine with an intensity.
"Marry me again. For real this time."
A laugh escapes me, watery and bright and carrying the impossible lightness I did not feel when I woke up this morning.
"I want us to have a real wedding. I want to marry you properly, Ilona. I want to stand in front of everyone we love and vow to be the man you deserve. Will you let me?"
I cup his face in both hands, feeling all the love I have for this man bubble up inside me. This impossible man. My devil. The worst mistake I ever made and the best thing that ever happened to me.
