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I move to caress her shoulder with a barely there touch, not to wake her, only to feel the satin smoothness ofmi amate'sskin under my hand.
A thunderous pounding on the villa's front door in the other room aborts the movement, my fingers a centimeter from Tanzi's shoulder.
A furious, deep voice shouts in Spanish.
The windows open to allow the cross breezes also allow the voice to penetrate all the way to the peace of our bedroom.
Tanzi sits straight up in bed, her eyes going comically wide as she turned her head side to side. "What? Who...papa?"
"Constanza Eleanor Menendez, open this doorimmediamenteor I will break it down!"
There's the mumble of a woman's voice, but I cannot make out her words.
"I will not call her Scorsolini. I have not even met this man who dares to steal my daughter away!"
There's no difficulty hearing that.
"He's loud," I observe.
"And he'll only get louder if I don't calm him down." Tanzi leaps out of the bed, rushes around the room grabbing clothes, but gives up on trying to get her wedding dress on and grabs the sheet off the bed instead.
Leaving me with no covering at all.
Wrapping the sheet around herself, she runs for the door. "Papa calm down, you're upsetting mom. You know you are. She hates it when you yell."
Oh, no.Mywife is not tearing through the house to appease another man. Not even her father.
I jump up and grab my chinos, dragging them on as I follow Tanzi at speed.
I reach her just as she goes to open the door.
Grabbing her arm, I shake my head. "Go back and dress. I will let them in."
Pure panic glows in her storm gray eyes. "No. You don't understand. I need—"
Another loud knock sounds on the door accompanied by a demand for it to be opened.
Tanzi's sound of distress convinces me to open the door, not her father's clearly increasing ire.
I gently pushed her backward so I stand between my new wife and the furious man on the other side. Then I unlock and open the door in one movement.
The group of people are so eerily familiar, they could be a contingent of my own family. A tall man who is clearly Tanzi's father vibrates with incandescent fury. Beside him stands an older, stunning version of the woman I married – Tanzi's mother. On either side of them are two men about my age and a full contingent of security.
We are significantly outnumbered and it does not matter. I draw my royalty around me like the suit I'm not wearing and step back. "Come in.Signore e SignoraMenendez, I presume."
I could use their Spanish titles, but that would establish a different power dynamic than the one I want. The one in which they recognizedmeas the primary man in Tanzi's life now.
Tanzi's father glowers, making no move to enter the house after all his demands to be let inside. "And you are?"
His wife slaps his arm. "You know very well who he is, Miguel. He's your daughter's husband and if you don't want to alienate her, I suggest you get your temper under control."
Miguel's gaze slides past me to Tanzi and a slight tightening of his mouth says maybe his wife's warning has been heard and heeded.
Tanzi's brothers stand there with identical looks of disdain on their faces. I return it with interest. They are upsetting my wife and it is their job to protect her.
Full stop.
"Mom," sounds from behind me, the single word expressing happiness, anxiety anddesperation.
