14. Nova
— ? —
Nova
One Week Later
I open the gates at dawn.
It takes me a moment to realize what Luca is doing - why he’s standing at the entrance to his property in the gray morning light, his hands on the iron bars, pushing them wide.
For eight weeks, those gates have been my protection. My barrier against the world. The line that separated safety from danger, sanctuary from chaos.
Now they stand open.
“What are you doing?” I ask, pulling my robe tighter against the morning chill.
He turns. The early light catches his face, illuminating the sharp planes of his cheekbones, the dark circles under his eyes that tell me he hasn’t slept.
He’s been up all night - I know because I woke at three and found his side of the bed empty, heard him pacing in his study, making calls, handling the aftermath.
“I’m giving you a choice,” he says quietly.
“A choice?”
“The gates have been closed since I brought you here. For your protection - and that was real, that was necessary. But Vivienne is in custody now. The case against her is airtight. The threat is…” He pauses. Swallows. “The threat is gone.”
I look at the open gates. At the road beyond, winding through the cypress trees toward the village in the distance. At the world I haven’t been able to enter for two months.
“You’re letting me go,” I say slowly.
“I’m giving you the option.” He steps toward me, and I see something in his face I haven’t seen before, vulnerability.
Fear. The look of a man who’s about to lose everything and knows he can’t stop it.
“You owe me nothing, Nova. You never did. I kept you here to protect you, but that doesn’t mean you’re obligated to stay. ”
“Luca-”
“Listen to me.” He takes my hands in his. His fingers are cold from the morning air, but his grip is steady. “I love you. I’ve loved you since before you ever knew my name, and I’ll love you until I die. But love isn’t supposed to be a cage. It isn’t supposed to trap you.”
“You’ve never trapped me.”
“Haven’t I?” His laugh is hollow. “I pulled you off a street corner and brought you to my fortress. I surrounded you with security. I made decisions about your life - where you’d sleep, what you’d eat, who you’d see - without asking what you wanted.”
“You saved my life.”
“And now I’m giving it back.” He releases my hands. Steps away. “The gates are open. You can walk through them any time you want. You can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone. You’re free, Nova. Truly free, maybe for the first time.”
I stare at him - at this man who’s given me everything and is now offering to let me go.
“And if I want to stay?”
Something flickers in his eyes. Hope, maybe. Or its desperate cousin, longing.
“Then stay. But stay because you want to, not because you feel obligated. Not because you think you owe me. Not because you’re afraid of what’s out there.” He gestures toward the open gates. “Stay because this is where you choose to be. Because I’m who you choose.”
I look at the road again. Think about all the places I could go. All the things I could do. A fresh start, somewhere far away, where no one knows my name or my history or the scars I carry.
I could disappear. Reinvent myself. Become someone new.
But then I look at Luca.
At the man who believed me when no one else would. Who held me through my nightmares. Who gave me paints and time and space to heal. Who loves me - not the idea of me, not the woman I could be, but me. Broken and healing and everything in between.
I step toward him.
His breath catches.
“You’re an idiot,” I say softly.
“What?”
“I’m not staying because the gates were locked.” I take another step. “I was never staying because the gates were locked.”
“Then why-”
“Because somewhere between the antiseptic and the espresso and the six inches of mattress you never crossed-” My voice catches. “I fell in love with you.”
He goes completely still.
“Not the protection,” I continue. “Not the safety. Not the gothic mansion or the Rolls-Royce or any of it. You. The man who believed me when no one else would. The man who tended my wounds and held me through nightmares and looked at me like I was worth something.”
“Nova-”
“I love you.” I close the last distance between us, take his face in my hands, make him look at me. “I’m staying because I love you. And you can open these gates every morning for the rest of our lives, and I will still be here when you close them at night.”
Something breaks in his expression. Something he’s been holding together through sheer force of will.
“Say it again,” he whispers.
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I love you, Luca. I choose you. I-”
He kisses me.
Not gently. Not carefully. He kisses me like a man who’s just been saved from drowning, like I’m air and light and everything he needs to survive. His arms come around me, crushing me against his chest, and I feel the shudder that runs through his whole body.
“I love you,” he says against my lips. “I love you, I love you-”
“I know.” I’m laughing and crying at the same time. “I know, Luca. Take me inside.”
He does.
***
Luca
We don’t make it to the bedroom.
I get her as far as the entrance hall before I can’t wait anymore - I have her pressed against the wall, my mouth on her throat, my hands pushing her robe off her shoulders. She’s wearing almost nothing underneath, just a thin nightgown that might as well not exist for all the barrier it provides.
“Here?” she gasps.
“Here.” I lift her, and her legs wrap around my waist. “I’ve been wanting to take you in every room of this house. Might as well start with this one.”
“The staff-”
“Aren’t awake yet.” I nip at her earlobe. “And even if they were, I don’t care.”
I don’t give her time to argue. I’m inside her in one thrust, and she cries out - surprise, pleasure, that sound she makes that drives me absolutely insane. I watch her face as I start to move, watch her eyes go dark, watch her lips part on a moan.
“You chose this,” I growl against her throat. “Chose me.”
“I chose you-”
“Then keep choosing. Louder.”
“You, Luca - always you-”
I take her hard and fast against the entrance hall wall, with the morning light streaming through the windows and the gates standing open and nothing between us but skin and heat and three years of wanting finally fulfilled.
She comes first - I feel her clench around me, hear her scream my name, watch her throw her head back against the stone. I follow seconds later, burying myself deep, spilling inside her with a groan that echoes through the empty hall.
We stay there a long while. Tangled together, breathing hard, her forehead pressed to mine.
“I love you,” she whispers.
“I love you too.” I kiss her. Soft this time, tender. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving it.”