She opened herself to him, pledged with body and soul, to never, ever stop.
Much, much later, she was draped over her man, her lover, the most incredible gift in this plane of existence, feeling savagely pleasured and overcharged with satiation.
It was why the thought, when it came, ripped through her like a hot knife through butter.
He felt it at once, gathered her more securely. “Tell me.”
She didn’t hesitate this time. “You still don’t know what really went on with your mother, what her diary meant.”
“I know she was disturbed. From the thankfully little I saw of my grandfather, I can see why, now that I’ve opened my mind to other possibilities rather than the obvious ones pointing to my father.”
“So you don’t believe your father drove her to suicide?”
He shook his head. “Or your mother. It was a tragedy, but I believe my father now, that there was no villain.”
“Do you really believe that, or are you just—”
“Manipulating history to get closure in a way that would exonerate both our parents for obvious self-serving purposes?”
“Will you quit finishing my thoughts and questions?” She scraped her teeth against the abrasion of his stubble.
He groaned his pleasure before he pulled back, his eyes solemn. “And no, I’m not deluding myself here. I punished myself and my father long enough for the failures I believed we were both guilty of. But finding you gave me the clarity to see that neither of us could have done anything to help her, just like neither you nor your mother could help your father. I also faced it that neither of us could have suspected Clarissa’s ordeal, that we did intervene immediately when we found out. I was never able to forgive either of us for this. But loving you opened up my ability to forgive, to let only positive emotions thrive.”
The serenity he exuded enveloped her, the freedom from darkness that blazed in his eyes lighting up the universe. Searing joy spilled from her eyes, as for the first time she knew the real meaning of security, of stability. This was unshakable.
He suddenly frowned. “Dio mio, what a fool I am!”
She jerked up. “What?”
“I dared presume you’ll walk down the aisle on the strength of a proposal I effectively rescinded.”
“It’s okay. It’s reusable. Like a ‘get out of jail free’ card.”
He guffawed as he jumped up, scooped her up in his arms. “If you ran a jail, I’d never want to get out. Now, will you lend me your yacht? I want to reenact a certain proposal scene.”
“Oh, God! You still haven’t taken all your stuff back.”
“You make it sound like some old clothes and a guitar.”
“Just tell me how to get everything back in your name or I’ll hold my breath until I pass out!”
He sighed, let her down on her feet. “I trust this won’t be the way you operate with me from now on?”
She gulped a breath and he shook his head, grudgingly walked away, reached down to his strewn clothes for his cell phone.
He’d hit two numbers when she cried out. “Wait!” He cocked a daunting eyebrow at her. “You’re penniless right now, right? Comparatively speaking?”
“Sì.” His eyes flared and subsided like blue pulsars as he prowled back to her, running his hands suggestively down his chiseled body. “Why? Do you have a…position for me?”
She glowed up at him. “Many, permanent ones. In my bed. And everywhere else.”
“Hmm. Do I get to be…on top sometimes still?”
“On top, under, behind, around. All positions are…wide open.”
“I can say I’m interested.” He licked his lips. “Rabidly so.”
She hauled him to her in a ribs-cracking hug. “You just want me for my money.” She giggled and sobbed and deluged him with kisses. “So, Your Scrumptiousness—now that I’ve proven, from my exalted upper-hand position, that I want you for you, will want only you, will love, cherish and defend you, be there for you with all that I am, for the rest of my days, sposami, Durante. Marry me, amore mio. Make me complete.”
He hugged her off the ground, the elation and adoration radiating from him enough to power the whole city with years of love and wonder. “On one condition. If I say yes now, I still get to do my reenactment.”
“Say yes now and you can do whatever you like, always. In fact, you’d better.”
“You’ll let me give you all that I am?”
“Oh, yes, please.”
He let her down, kneeled, still hugging her, his eyes pledging more than his all. “Then, yes, amore mio. Love me and let me love you…forever.”
She hugged him into her, body and being, bliss shaking her, gushing from her eyes. And she knew.
There’d never be doubt again.
This was unshakable. This was forever.