63. Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Three
Mariella
A s I ask the question, my voice pitches higher than I intended.
This has completely backfired.
Teo grins wickedly but doesn’t reply. He slides off the bed, utterly unfazed by his nakedness, and picks up my robe that’s still draped across the bed.
He holds it open for me, his eyes twinkling. “Signorina Accardi,” he says, wiggling the robe enticingly.
I arch an eyebrow but comply, slipping off the bed and letting him help me into it. It’s unusual, almost comical, Teo dressing me instead of taking off my clothes.
Still silent, he takes my hand and guides me to the balcony connected to our bedroom. The cool night air is invigorating as he nudges me toward the large wicker swinging chair. It’s the one we’ve cuddled in the previous nights, watching the stars in comfortable silence.
“Close your eyes and wait right here,” Teo instructs, his grin giving away that he’s up to something.
“What?” I ask, my curiosity piqued too much to want to follow orders.
“You heard me. Now be a good girl and do it.”
His mock stern expression makes me laugh, but I relent, letting my eyelids flutter shut.
Perhaps he’s proposing after all?
“Stay here. Don’t move a muscle,” he says, his tone firm but playful.
“Alright, alright. I’ll behave,” I reply with a giggle.
“Good girl,” he murmurs, leaning down to press a kiss to my temple.
The moment his footsteps fade, though, I can’t resist. I crack one eye open, then the other, making sure he’s not here anymore. There’s no way I’m missing this view.
From here, the entire valley stretches out before me, bathed in the silvery glow of the moon. The Mediterranean glimmers in the distance. Puffy clouds drift lazily across the sky, casting faint shadows over the shimmering water.
As beautiful as this view is, my thoughts won’t settle, though. They race wildly, skipping between a thousand questions.
What is Mateo doing inside?
Is he getting us an orange juice or is he rummaging for a ring box?
My stomach flips. No, that’s wishful thinking.
We’ve been inseparable since we got together, what, five days ago? He wouldn’t have had time to buy a ring. Knowing Teo, he’s probably just teasing me, dragging this out to watch me squirm. And it’s working.
Still, nervous energy flutters in my chest, impossible to ignore. I try to push it down, but it’s no use. Every second is unbearably long.
It’s not like there’s any doubt about what my answer would be. Of course I’d marry him. Who wouldn’t?
But five days? How has it only been five days? This is all moving impossibly fast, yet it feels like the most natural thing in the world.
I glance down at my bare ring finger, already imagining what it would look like with the symbol of his possession, his love.
If we were to get married tomorrow, what about wedding bands? I’m not materialistic, but I want a tangible, irrefutable symbol of our commitment.
More than that, I want Mateo to wear one, marking him as mine. Not that it would stop the women who throw themselves at him, but still, it’s the principle.
The thought of him slipping a ring onto my finger, sealing us together, makes my heart pound wildly. The longer I wait, the more I’m swept up in this storm of excitement.
But how would we pull off a wedding in mere hours?
Besides the lack of rings, I have no dress.
And we have no witnesses.
Maybe we could ask a couple of villagers? The idea of strangers witnessing something so deeply personal seems strange, yet oddly fitting. Nothing about us has been conventional.
A small smile tugs at my lips. I think I’d prefer that. Because if we got married in Sicily, it would be a grand affair. A proper wedding. My father walking me down the aisle…
My father.
I shudder. Undoubtedly, he’ll exploit my relationship with Mateo, seeing an opportunity to milk it for everything it’s worth.
How do I stop that?
Argh!
The thought of my father sours my mood and leaves me deflated. He has no place here. I won’t let him.
I take a deep breath, willing myself to let go of his looming shadow and focus on this moment instead.
The chirping of crickets fills the air, mingling with the distant hoot of an owl coming from the olive trees.
I close my eyes and let the sounds of the night wrap around me. It’s soothing, a balm to the turmoil swirling in my chest.
What is taking Teo so long? What is he doing?
The distant toll of a church bell has me sit up straighter, and I count each chime to distract myself.
Eleven.
Is it really that late? When I went to the kitchen to fetch our dessert, it was barely eight.
I hear Teo’s footsteps draw closer again and quickly snap my eyes shut. A grin threatens to break free, but I suppress it.
I sense the air shift as he nears, his familiar scent pleasing my senses.
“Can I open my eyes now?” I ask, burning to see him, to know what he’s doing.
He chuckles. “Always so impatient.”
“So can I?”
“Not yet. I’m enjoying you squirming.”
“I’m not squirming.”
It’s a lie, of course. The longer I sit here, eyes shut tight, the more I can feel his gaze on me. It’s intense.
“It’s cute how you crinkle your nose,” he murmurs, his voice so close that it startles me.
The warmth of his breath brushes against my cheek, and before I can react, his lips are on me, featherlight, like the evening breeze that rustles the leaves around us.
After caressing my lips, he gently kisses the tip of my nose, the soft pressure sending a flutter through me.
His lips trail down the line of my jaw, each kiss sending another wave of warmth through me, making it impossible to think of anything but him. When he finally circles back to my lips, it’s like the air around us has come alive, charged and pulsing in perfect sync with the rhythm of our hearts.
Unable to resist, I open my eyes. His warm brown ones are right there, gazing at me with so much love that it nearly knocks the breath out of me.
It’s so raw, so real, that it makes my heart stutter.
And it’s all for me!
I only register now that Teo is kneeling in front of me. He’s pulled on a pair of sweatpants, his upper body still deliciously on display.
Oh, this man is beautiful!
My heart skips a beat. It happens every time I look at him. I hope it will never change.
“Will you play for me?” he asks, gesturing toward my guitar leaning against the wall.
So that’s why he disappeared, to fetch it from the living room downstairs.
My stomach sinks with disappointment. This isn’t a proposal after all.
Damn .
But I’m being ridiculous. Teo always has a plan, and of course, he’s sticking to it. That’s just who he is.
I let out a quiet breath, forcing the disappointment aside.
Patience, Mari.
After years of waiting for him to notice me, I should be an expert, emphasis on should.
He hands me my guitar with a contented smile.
“I love hearing you play,” he murmurs, his voice like a warm embrace. “It brings me so much peace.”
I’ve played for him every day since we arrived, mostly in the garden. We usually sit on a blanket beneath one of the olive trees, him leaning back against the trunk, me nestled between his legs. It’s become our ritual. Simple, intimate, and entirely ours.
Today, though, he mixes it up. Instead of settling behind me, he sits on the tiles in front of me. Leaning against the balustrade, his dark eyes are fixed on mine, smiling.
“My favorite, please,” he says, his voice laced with unmistakable affection.
I trace the horses engraved on the guitar’s body, my fingers brushing the familiar grooves, before pivoting to the frets and beginning the tune. The classic Rolling Stones song flows naturally, the notes imprinted in my muscle memory.
I close my eyes, letting the pull of the melody take over, but I still sense Mateo’s gaze on me.
When I reach the chorus, wild, wild horses, I open my eyes, locking onto his. The lyrics feel like they’re meant for this moment, for him. Because it’s true. Not even wild horses could drag me away from him.
I don’t dare look away, captivated by the way he’s staring at me.
When the song ends and the last chord drifts into the night air, Teo kneels, gently taking the guitar from me. He sets it aside, then reaches for my hands, his larger ones enveloping mine.
“This song,” he begins, “when I first heard you play it at Carloso, it settled something deep inside me. My soul knew then what my mind took a little longer to figure out.”
His thumb brushes over my knuckles, and the warmth in his gaze is almost too much.
“Those lyrics, they’ve never been truer than they are right now. No matter what life throws at us, no matter how unpredictable things get, there’s nothing that could ever keep me from you. I love you, Mariella, more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone.”
His words are raw and unguarded.
“You’ve been right under my nose for years, and I was a fool not to see you. All this time, I searched everywhere for someone, not realizing the woman I was looking for had been there all along.”
My heart swells, even as the sting of having been invisible to him for so long flares briefly. But I push it back to where it belongs, in the past.
What matters now is this moment, this new beginning where my dreams seem to be finally coming true.
“I’ve waited for you since the day my father told me how he loved my mother. He said when I met my One, I’d know right away, that everything would just click. And he was right.”
The intensity in his gaze sends a shiver through me as he leans closer. “I didn’t just want what my parents had, I craved it. The older I got, the deeper that ache grew. And then I saw you, Mari. You’ve always been my One, even before I realized it.”
He takes a steadying breath. “The moment I looked into your eyes, everything fell into place. My world shifted, and it’s been centered around you since.”
Tears prick my eyes as he brushes his thumb over my knuckles again, his touch achingly gentle.
“You are as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside. You make me feel things I didn’t know I was capable of. The happiness you bring me is more than I ever imagined. All I want is to give you the same, to make you feel as cherished as you’ve made me.”
I open my mouth to speak, but he places a finger over my lips, his expression tender.
“This morning,” he says, his voice dropping, “I woke up and watched you sleep. The way the sunlight danced on your skin, the way your lips curved ever so slightly even as you dreamed, and I thought, how did I survive thirty years without you by my side? But now that I have you, I’ll never let you go.”
His words tumble out like promises etched in stone. My chest tightens with the weight of his love, so vivid it leaves me breathless.
“Undoubtedly, we will argue, we will laugh, we will make mistakes. But I want it all with you. Only you.”
For the first time, his smile falters slightly, a flicker of nervousness crossing his face as he reaches into his pocket. When his hand emerges, it holds a small, navy-blue velvet box. My breath catches as he opens it, revealing a delicate vintage ring.
“This belonged to my grandmother,” he says softly. “She entrusted it to me after my grandfather passed. I kept it here, in Tuscany, because I always knew this was where I’d propose to the love of my life.”
Tears spill over as he continues, his voice weaving the future so vividly, I can almost touch it.
“This place is where I feel most myself, where I’m connected to my mother and her family’s legacy. And it’s where I want to keep returning with you, year after year. In fifty years, I want us to sit on this balcony, watching the stars, surrounded by our children and grandchildren. Though,” he adds with a faint smile, “the nights will always be ours, just you and me.”
His voice trembles a little, but it’s filled with so much hope, love, and devotion, it undoes me completely.
“Mariella, I love you more than I ever thought possible. You are my present, my future, my forever.
“Will you marry me?”
For a moment, the world fades. The sound of the crickets, the gentle breeze, everything. It’s just him and me, locked in this moment that’s both infinite and fleeting.
I look at the ring, at Teo.
This is it.
This is everything I’ve ever wanted.
“Yes,” I whisper, my voice barely audible but certain. “Yes, Teo. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
He doesn’t even wait for me to finish before he’s kissing me. It’s soft at first, as if he’s afraid to break the spell, then deeply, with a passion that makes my head spin.
I pull him closer, pressing myself against him, absorbing the heat of his body, the rhythm of his heart beating in time with mine.
The world spins around us, but in this moment, it’s just us.
And it always will be.