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Matteo cups my hip as I sink into him, into his warmth that’s become my anchor. He is my safe place. He is my happy place, and I don’t know when it happened. “Say that again,” I whisper, not sure I heard right.
“Would it be very hard to believe that the moment you threw my phone across this apartment, I started falling for you so hard, brave and crazy girl?”
“Yes. It’s very hard to believe,” I whisper, somewhat in awe.
“Hmm. She’s not convinced yet.” He is staring into my eyes, worried.
“Nope.” My heart is melting. Matteo’s gaze is open and soft, vulnerable like I’ve never seen it before.
“Okay. Let me try again,” he says as he glides his hand over my thigh, slipping underneath the skirt of my dress. I break out in goosebumps just because he is touching me in that way that sparks lust to the last cell in my body. “Would it be too hard to believe that by the time you jumped that crazy cliff, I basically lost my mind until I found you?”
He tore the world apart like he promised the first day we met. He killed Randazzo. And I can read between the lines. “You killed your dad this morning, didn’t you?” I’m sitting on the lap of the man who avenged my mother and brother. “You killed him for me, didn’t you?”
“For all of us. It was long overdue.”
“Thank you.” I don’t need to know more. Il Consiglio works, after all, on a need-to-know basis. “You said that first day that if I were yours, you wouldn’t be eating dinner if I were kidnapped… you’d be tearing the world down to find me and make sure I’m safe.” I lick my lips, watching as he watches me. I have to tell him my truths too. “Would it be hard to believe that it was the moment when I fell for you? I never felt so seen.”
“Oh kitten, I saw you—all of you—since that moment you were too shy to get out of the pool. You were just so off limits with the job I had to do.”
I slide my hand into his shirt where the top buttons are open, gliding my hand up his neck so my fingers can rake into the hair by his collar. This is the only part of him that’s soft, and to think I wanted to plant a knife in it at one point.
He pulls me in for a kiss that testifies to the truth of every word between us. “Would it be very hard to believe that I’m in love with you?”
“No, not when you’re like this,” I whisper. I love him like this, and in every other way.
“You’re my anchor, Tasha. Without you, I’m afloat, pointless. Aimless. I’ve never felt like this before… I’ve never loved like this. It’s scary. The idea of losing you?—”
“You won’t lose me,” I say between kisses. “Because I love you too.”
He stares at me for a long while, so many emotions flicking through his mind, revealed through his eyes. “To have more than I ever expected in this life that I’m forced to live… to have you… I’m the luckiest man on the planet,” he says. “You’re going to have to be a good girl for me, kitten. This isn’t going to be easy. People come at us all the time and I’ll have to keep you safe.”
“You’ll keep me safe. And I thought I was a good girl.”
He laughs as he presses his forehead against mine. “Mostly, you’re a good girl. And that was your one sass for the day.”
I laugh and move so I can straddle his lap and be higher than him for a change. “I plan to sass you often, now that you’ve told me you love me. I’m not scared of you one bit, you know. Especially now that it would seem you have a heart.”
“Good,” he whispers against my lips. “And you better believe it, kitten, because it’s all true. And it’s all yours.”
EPILOGUE - TASHA
We’re having a housewarming: an actual housewarming with family and friends in our new apartment. It’s not that big of a deal. I mean the apartment is literally one floor down from Matteo’s old one and stood empty for years, but it’s been remodeled and rewired for security and everything we seem to need. Most important thing though: it’s never seen blood.
I’m in the car with Burley and we’re rushing home. I’m late. My day was split between classes and lab work that took longer than expected. I’m so relieved that I get a break over Christmas. It can’t come soon enough.
Six months. It’s been six months of crazy with Matteo by my side, in my life, in my heart. He came in and swept me off my feet. And he keeps on doing that. I smile and sigh a happy sigh, making Burley glance my way.
“You good?” he asks.
“I am, totally. Just glad to have a break for a few weeks.”
“I bet. You’re busy.”
Yes. But so is Matteo. Over the holidays I have to study for some exams, but tonight we celebrate. I have a handful of friends that are coming too. Let’s just say, that I’m married at twenty-four is weird for all my friends. To find out I kind of ‘eloped’ was even weirder for them. When Vee met Matteo for the first time, she gave me a wide-eyed stare and mouthed, “I have sooo many questions.”
She’s still waiting for answers.
Maybe one day.
