‘My job here has only just started,tesoro.’
Her eyes widened at the endearment which had slipped out unchecked, and his gentle words slid under her ribs like a knife, stabbing at her with a hope she shouldn’t have.
‘Don’t think too hard, Stefano. Let’s just agree that I was rebound girl, and you were rebound guy. A palate cleanser—even though I did get left with a nasty taste in my mouth at the end.’
He shook his head. ‘If you’re deliberately trying to hurt me, you’re succeeding. But take comfort that nothing you say can hurt me more than I have hurt myself. I was a fool to realise too late that you’d stolen a piece of my heart. And now I’m offering all of it. Because whilst I don’t deserve you, I cannot help having fallen in love with you.’
Her breath caught. There might not be enough oxygen in the room to fill her lungs after such a declaration.
‘But wasn’t what happened between us all a lie?’
She’d tried not to believe his cruel words‘What we did had nothing to do with love.’On those dark nights alone she’d thought of their time together. The things he’d done for her. His kindness. She desperately wanted to believe that it had come from somewhere deeper, a true caring, but it hurt too much to allow that fantasy in the unforgiving light of day.
‘I told myself lies about many things. About how without my role as Alessio’s private secretary I was nothing. How I could never be forgiven for what I’d done. How there was no one I could trust. But the worst lies I told myself were about us. I ignored that what I felt for you was the one truth—the one thing I should have trusted. Instead, fear won. My decisions had been so poor. Talking to the press about Alessio... Even my engagement... Because it’s clear Celine never genuinely loved me. How could I trust my feelings for you when I couldn’t trust myself?’
She wrapped her arms around her waist. A trembling had started through her body and it wouldn’t stop. Not cold. Not fear. Just a well of emotion she didn’t know what to do with. So she tried to hold it in. If she let it out—if shehoped—she didn’t know how to survive rejection again.
‘But how canItrust what you’re saying is true?’
‘There is one reason I haven’t accepted any role from Alessio. I can’t contemplate a life without you in it. I don’t know what shape it can take. This is not meant as pressure, but to explain. You’re not responsible for me, Lucy. You’re not responsible for my happiness. But I can only decide what I’m going to do when I know what you want too—because I love you with all that I have.’
This was everything she’d craved, and yet she was terrified to reach out and take what she thought he might be offering. ‘I don’t know if I trustmyself. My choices haven’t been great either.’
‘You were betrayed. It leaves scars. But a wise friend said to me,“Many things matter. Love, friendship. The rest is ephemeral.”Trust in the way I feel for you. Trust in my love for you. That’s what I know. That’s what I’m sure of. But I’ll wait until you feel those things yourself. I’ll follow wherever you wish to lead me to make that happen. I want you to be my future...if that’s what you want too.’
He stood under the lights as if spot-lit on a stage. Delivering a soliloquy that spoke to her alone, filling her with light and warmth and something that felt a lot like the hope she’d thought she might never find again.
‘What are you asking?’
‘I’m asking you to be with me.’
He dropped to his knees as if in slow motion. This magnificent, proud man was on the floor over at the other side of the room. His focus only on her.
‘To marry me, if you’ll have me. To be the Countess of my heart and my home. All I have to give you is the man. I hope he can be enough. Because I am only half a man without you, Lucy. You are my missing pieces.’
She couldn’t stand still. She rounded the armchair, walked towards Stefano, trying not to run. When she reached him he looked up at her, and she saw the love she felt for him mirrored in the dark heat of his gaze. She cupped his cheeks in her hands. The weeks-long stubble there teased her fingertips.
‘You were enough before, and you’re even more so now with that declaration.’
He shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. They glinted in the lights of the room, brimming and full. One overflowed, a tear tracking from its corner.
She wiped it away with her thumb. ‘You said you don’t cry.’
‘Only for you. You break me, Lucy. The day you left, the music in my heart died.’
He could break her too. Her own vision began to blur, but these weren’t tears of sadness. ‘Oh, Stefano.’
‘May I touch you now?’
His voice was raw with emotion, quiet and cracked. As cracked as she felt. But she hoped that in each other’s arms they could put themselves back together again.
‘Please.’
He stood, wrapped her tight as she nestled against his hot, hard chest. It was as if everything was right once more. Whole and perfect. She breathed in the scent of him, cool and crisp with a hint of spice. He would remind her of winter for ever. It might become her favourite season...
‘I have something for you.’ He murmured the words into her hair. ‘It’s in my jacket, but I need to let you go to reach it.’
She looked up at him. Traced her fingers against his beautiful mouth. His lips parted. ‘I’ve only just got back into your arms.’