Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100605 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100605 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
In the kitchen, I sat on the counter and watched him work the corkscrew into the bottle. The satisfying pop it gave when he pulled it out made me smile.
“You were really going to go to New York today?” I asked.
“I was lucky you came back from the store, or I’d be in the air right now.”
Matteo passed me a glass and came to stand between my legs. “What are we going to do? Where do you want to live?”
“I want to live here, at least most of the time.”
“Are you sure? I’ve learned that keeping someone in one place when they’d rather be in another can just prolong the inevitable.”
“Do you know where I was this morning?”
“You said a store, no?”
I nodded. “I drove up to Florence to order office furniture. The main reason I sold everything in the shop was so I’d have a place to work. I made those decisions after you broke my heart. I love it here so much that I was staying despite you, not because of you. I’m going to work remotely as much as possible, but I’ll have to go back once in a while for trials. And…I’m considering learning the law here—and the language—to get licensed eventually. My sister said she’d help me. I spent the night at her house last week.”
Matteo smiled. “Sometimes the world breaks apart, but in the wreckage you find something beautiful.”
I smiled back. “I guess that holds true for a lot of things. My dad cheating led me to a sister. You finding out the truth about Izzy led you to face your fears. And Nonna dying led me to you.”
He kissed my lips and whispered, “I want to make babies with you someday.”
Butterflies flapped their wings in my belly. “I want that, too.”
Matteo’s eyes dropped to my mouth, and he rubbed his thumb along my bottom lip. “We should practice, so we’re ready.”
I grinned. “I’m an overachiever. We’re going to have to practice a lot.”
Matteo carried me to the bedroom. He stripped us out of our clothes, laid me in the center of the mattress, and climbed on top.
“I love you, Allegra.” He trailed his knuckles down my cheek. “In a way that I never knew possible.”
“I love you, too.”
“Spread wide for me, bellissima. I want to show you how you make me feel.”
Matteo never took his eyes from mine as he pushed inside. We stayed connected as he started slow, gliding in and out. His pupils dilated as he stared almost hypnotically into my eyes. Everything in the world faded away except for the two of us, except for this moment. And I realized I’d never truly made love before, giving someone everything—mind, body, and soul.
I locked my legs around his waist, rocking with him as he drew me closer. He filled me so deeply that I almost couldn’t stand it. “Matteo…yes…yes.”
His jaw tightened. I could see that he was on the verge of coming undone, and I made it my personal mission to make it happen. I raked my nails down his back and whispered in his ear, “Come inside me, Matteo. Fill me. I need you.”
That did it. His restraint slipped, and his movements grew more urgent. Matteo started to really move, pulling almost all the way out, then slamming back in—over and over until my body was begging to be put out of the misery of waiting for climax.
“Sei tutto per me.” He closed his eyes. “You are…everything.”
Pleasure crashed through me like a violent storm, my body convulsing around him. Matteo grumbled a bunch of curses in Italian before sinking into me as deep as he could go. His body twitched as it came down from his release.
Later, I rested my head on his chest, thinking about how my life had changed. Matteo must’ve sensed I’d gone somewhere else.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
I tilted my head to look up at him. “Just how much has changed in the last few months—quitting the job that had been my world, moving to a new country, finding a sister I didn’t know existed, and falling in love. It’s…scary.”
He rolled us so I was on my side, facing him, nose to nose. “It is, but we’re both here. That’s what’s important. I know now that real love isn’t about being fearless; it’s about choosing to stay when we’re afraid.”
“I like that.” I smiled and dropped a kiss over his heart. “I’m choosing to stay. For me. For us. Forever, Matteo.”
Epilogue
Allegra
18 months later
“IT LOOKS SO beautiful.” I looked out at the vineyard, and tears threatened at my eyes. The sun had set, slipping behind the Tuscan hills and leaving behind a sky brushed in violet and orange. Next door, graceful rows of vines spread across the field—twice as many as there had been when I first arrived a little less than two years ago. Matteo and I had turned his house into a working winery, installing everything he needed to produce his own bottles. Off to one side, where the garage once stood, was now a beautiful stone-and-wood loggia for wine tastings. But tonight, it had been transformed. Strings of tiny lights crisscrossed overhead, glowing like fireflies, and lanterns hung from the olive trees that bordered the large square. Long wooden tables draped in white linens blew softly in the evening breeze, each one lined with a garland of branches and hundreds of flickering white candles.