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“I know. And I love you.”
His eyes latched to hers and her stomach contracted at the look of uncertainty in them.
“Even after how stupid I’ve been?”
“Um, yes. Even then. For always and forever. That’s how love works.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“That’s obvious.”
“I want to go back to how things were.”
“We can’t do that,” she said quietly. “We’re different now. The last few weeks have been the hardest of my life. There’s no pretending it didn’t happen.”
“No,” he said, still uncertain.
“But we can start again,” she said, standing up and moving around to his side of the booth, sliding in beside him.
“We can?” He cleared his throat.
She put a hand on his knee beneath the table and squeezed. “Yes.”
“As in, right now? We can start again, from this moment?”
“Yes.”
“You’re mine?”
“I always was.”
“And I’m yours.”
“I know that.”
He smiled, a real smile now. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Yes, you do. This is everything we both deserve.” But she sobered a little, blinked up at him. “Please don’t hurt me again.”
He groaned, shaking his head, catching her cheeks, and holding her steady. “Never. Not ever in my entire life. You areeverythingto me,” and when he kissed her, it was with all the passion and need and yearning and most vitally, love, he felt in his heart. It was everything, to both of them.
Epilogue
THE OUTSIDE WORLD CEASED to exist.
For days and nights and days and nights, Marco and Portia disappeared into the solitary bliss of his luxurious apartment, discovering each other all over again, making promises to each other with their bodies and their nearness, promises to never leave one another again.
It was almost by chance that they remembered it was Christmas eve. Portia, idly collecting the newspaper for the first time since arriving at Marco’s, read the date at the top and startled.
“Well,” Marco drawled, when she brought it to his attention, his dark eyes meeting and holding hers. “How would you feel about coming home with me?”
Her heart stammered. “I’d love to go back to the vineyard with you, but I have to see my parents at some point too.”
He stood, drew her into his arms. “I don’t mean the vineyard. I mean to my family’s villa. I want you to meet them,cara.”
“I already know most of them,” she pointed out.
“I want you to meet them as my other half.”
