CHAPTER 18 Rio
I pull Tanzi into my lap on the leather sofa after leading her to our suite. ”I”m sorry you had to endure that.”
”I”m not.” Her lovely grey eyes reflect her bone deep honesty. ”I think Giannetta tipped your dad over to our side.”
”He was coming around anyway.”
She shrugs. ”But this was faster.”
”Are you going to be okay?” I ask, not sure how to articulate my worries.
”With being a princess? With facing people like Giannetta because there”s always someone out there who wants what I have?”
”Yes, that.”
”Tell me something, Rio.”
”No one but you calls me Rio.” And I guard that intimacy jealously.
Adamo called me Rio once after hearing Tanzi say it. After my visceral and somewhat violent reaction, my brother will never make that mistake again.
She sighs happily. ”I know.”
”So?” I ask.
”So, when the doctor said I was measuring small for the due date, did you doubt for even one minute that you are the father of my baby?”
”Not for even a millisecond,” I assure her. ”I love you, Tanzi. It happened crazy fast, but you”re it for me and I”m it for you.”
She laughs. ”No lack of confidence on your part.”
”Not about this, no.”
”Then stop worrying about how I”ll handle being a real live princess. It”s part of the package.”
”It doesn”t have to be. I”ve discussed it with my father and I can abdicate my position in the lineage to the throne without giving up my job taking care of my country by growing the business that supports so many of them.”
”I love that you talked to your dad about it because I know how much being a prince means to you.”
She knows me better than anyone. Even my own family.
”It does, but you mean more.” I kiss her, getting lost in the press of our lips together immediately.
Some time later, we snuggle naked on the bed because a leather sofa and nude bodies is not a great mix.
Tanzi traces patterns on my chest and after a second I realize she”s writing out the word amado. ”I want to be your wife, your other half, whatever that entails.”
I believe her. ”And I want only to be the other half of your soul for eternity.”
Her lips are her only answer. One kiss follows another and we whisper words of love between them.
We”ll still be saying these words when we hit the twilight of life because two hearts that beat as one cannot beat without the other.
Love at first sight is supposed to be a myth, but our story isn”t going to end the way most myths do.
We are going to live and love happily for the rest of their lives, which I promise her before affirming that vow with our bodies.
THE END