Not just a wife, but a partner.
“Just hearing you say that makes me feel so much stronger already, Mina.”
“We’ll get through this together,” she says fiercely. “Leon and I are on your side.”
“Just so we’re clear, I regret none of the sacrifices I’ve made for you and Leon. None of them. Do you understand?”
She nods, stroking my chest. “I understand.”
“And you’re going to marry me,” I say, matter-of-factly. “We already planned our wedding, remember?”
Her lips curve in a smile. “I could never forget.”
“Then it’s settled.” I pull her closer. “You’re going to marry me, and we’re going to raise Leon together and this baby, if there is one. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you never regret choosing me.”
Mina presses a kiss to my lips, and whispers, “I could never regret choosing you, Cristiano. You’re the love of my life. You always have been.”
I kiss her again, soft and slow and full of promise.
Outside, the rain continues to fall.
Here, in this bed in the Vici mansion, wrapped in each other’s arms, we’re finally nearly home.
23
Mina
Cristiano sits on the edge of the tub, leaning forward so he can clench my thighs with both his large hands.
“Does it say anything yet?Mina, does it say anything?”
I’m propped against the vanity holding a developing pregnancy test while Cristiano gazes up at me with so much intensity he could burn through concrete.
I smile at him. “Cristiano, you have to be patient. These things take time.”
His knee bounces up and down as his heel jogs on the floor. “How long did it take last time? Were you by yourself? Were you thinking about me?”
“The last time I took a pregnancy test, I was eighteen and scared out of my mind.” I caress his face. “All I thought about was you, and how much I missed you.”
“Mina.” He fixes me with a stern look. “You did not miss me. I was the one missing you. I felt like the living dead.”
“I was scared of you,” I admit. “But my heart still ached for the boy I cared so much about.”
As I thread my fingers through his curls, he groans and leans into my touch with his eyes closed. “I was miserable in Italy. The sun was never hot. The wine was vinegar. The food tasted like ashes. Without my Mina, there’s no color in the world.” His eyes open, and they flick to the pregnancy test. “God, Mina. I’m going out of my mind. Does it say anything yet?”
“I told you, Cristiano, you have to be…” I trail off as I look at the test.
My eyes widen, and my heart starts to pound.
Cristiano’s hands clench even tighter on my thighs. “Mina, what does it say? Mina, you’re killing me.”
I can’t speak. My body flames with delight as I turn the test around to face him.
He stares at it for five long seconds, and then shoots to his feet with a shout. “You’re pregnant?”
Before I can answer, he drops the test and kisses me. A fierce, hungry kiss. His mouth trails over my throat and then down between my breasts to my stomach as he drops to his knees.
“Mina, Mina, Mina.” He kisses my belly again and again. “That’s it. I’m not letting you out of my sight for the next nine months.”
