“Why didn’t you tell me?” He kept his voice pitched low, conveying his disappointment in her. “Your health is paramount, Grace. You know that.”
“Yes, I know, I’m sorry. I was very confused about what your mother meant when she said I met some criteria that you needed for a partner. I was hurt,” she admitted.
“I’m sorry that hurt you, but you should have told me you needed me in your room to sleep.” He collected her plates and put them in a small bin Merry had given him for the dishes. She had eaten little of the salad, but half of the tostada. “Just so you know, the criteria my mother referred to don’t hold a candle to all the requirements I just laid out for you. As for being faithful, I’ve told you, that is something that is part of my code I live by. I would never take a vow with a woman and break it. Tell me what else you need to make you happy.”
“I want the kind of relationship where my man is my best friend. He’s the first person I want to share anything with, tell anything to, be with above anyone else.”
He flashed an encouraging smile. “I’m on board with that entirely.”
“I want children and I want my man to really be a father to those children, really participate in parenting. It’s imperative to me, since I never had it, to know my children will feel loved and important to us all the time.”
Vittorio nodded solemnly. “I agree one hundred percent. I didn’t have stellar parenting. Neither my mother nor father was interested in any of us.”
She looked a little shocked. “Vittorio. You’re so close with your siblings. I knew there was a problem with your mother, but your father as well?”
He shrugged. “We had Stefano.”
“But he’s only a few years older than the rest of you.”
“He took his role seriously. Keep going, gattina. What else do you need? You need to be able to tell me anything.”
She took a deep breath. The action lifted her breasts, drawing his attention. He’d been studiously avoiding looking too much at her sitting there, appearing vulnerable and sexy. He already wanted her with every cell in his body, but she kept wreaking havoc with his brain.
“I want to work. I love what I do, and I’m good at it.”
She had already indicated as much to him, so he stayed silent.
“I’m good with the routine you already have in the household because it’s important to you, and anything you need of course would be important to me,” she added.
“Why?” He pushed her. He knew he was asking a great deal of her to reveal more of herself to him, but he’d put himself on the line for her. Few women would have been happy with what he’d asked of her. “I know it takes courage to look at yourself and ask for what you need, but this is us. Our relationship, which is no one else’s business. I will always take care of you, Grace. Always. Any secret you have is mine. Anything I tell you I trust stays with you. We’re in this together. I’m already so proud of you for going this far with me.”
He knew stripping oneself of armor and baring one’s darkest secrets was uncomfortable and scary. Even terrifying. Her chin went up and his heart jerked hard in his chest. His cock matched the action against the material of his drawstring pants. It was a good thing they were loose because he was full and hard, his erection pulsing with urgent demands.
“I like pleasing you and really, really don’t like disappointing you. It’s the worst possible feeling,” she confessed in a low voice.
His heart jumped. If nothing else had gone before, he would have known she was the right woman for him just from that admission alone.
“When I’m with you, I find I want to make you happy. When I’m away from you, I’m thinking about making you happy and what that would take. I try to see all the details, how you like your home to be, your clothes, your coffee. Small things. Just so I know and can make certain you have them. Right now, you’ve been doing everything for me, but I want the chance to do things for you.”
His smile broke free before he had a chance to check it. High wattage. The real thing. He couldn’t help it. She was magnificent and too good to be true.
“I like doing things for you, Grace. I’ll continue to do those things and more. Does that make you uncomfortable?”
She shook her head and turned her attention to the raspberry-lemon creation Merry had made for them.
“I like verbal answers, bella,” he reminded. “It doesn’t seem important now, but it will be later when we’re having sex and I need to hear that you’re okay with whatever we’re doing.”