She’d complained saying he already considered her his wife but he had remained firm.
She deserved a courtship and she would get it.
Their wedding was as big and loud as any Sicilian family could make it. It wasn’t until they boarded his private jet to take off for their real honeymoon that they were alone.
She snuggled into his lap, her over-the-top, gorgeous wedding dress flowing around b0th of them.
‘you belong to me now.”
‘As you belong to me.” And he meant it. The acceptance she had craved her whole life, the legitimate place in the life of another, were hers with Salvatore. He adored her and wanted to be with her all the time. He needed her and had shown her in so many ways how real that need was but nothing more so than the year he spent trying to get her back when she had walked away from the pain of her loss and left him behind.
‘I love you.” She kissed his throat right above the shirt points of his tux.
His arms tightened around her and his lips sought hers for a kiss that left her smiling and loopy with joy. ‘I love you, adore, always and forever. Never doubt it.”
‘How can 1:2 I can feel it with every breath you take every glance every touch. Our love is like a living bond between us.”
‘Si ” He pressed his hand over her womb. ‘very alive.”
EPILOGUE
A YEAR later Elisa led Salvatore across the threshold of a small cottage in the hills of Tuscany.
‘So this is where you hid from me so well I could not find you.”
She smiled and nodded. ‘lsn’t it beautiful?” It was a simple one-room abode with a bathroom but the surrounding country was gorgeous.
‘Si, but not as beautiful as my two best girls.” He looked down with adoration at the tiny baby in his arms. ‘she is so precious cfo/cezza. Perfect.”
‘you’re prejudiced.”
His head came up and chocolate-dark eyes mocked her.
‘And you are not?” She laughed rather than answer. He knew how besotted she was, with b0th her husband and her four-month-old baby daughter.
‘So, who does this place belong to?”
‘Me. Papa’s mother gave it to me the year before she died. She said it was my place in
this world, where I belonged without any stipulations or limitations.”
He came to her then and put his arm around her making a perfect circle of their small family.
‘Now I am that place for you, no?” ‘
‘Oh yes. Now you are that place.”
And would always be. Love had given her a place in his heart and his life that no one could ever. She belonged .