Chapter Eleven #3
‘In my defence, I was shocked. I was already confused by things, by my feelings for you. And I just felt so awful. That you’d heard those things.
To imagine you hearing what I’d planned to do, realising how that must have sounded to your ears.
I felt unspeakably guilty. And in my guilt, I lashed out,’ he confessed.
‘I didn’t want to admit that I’d got it wrong.
I didn’t want to admit that I could have stopped it at any time, because I didn’t want to stop it.
Because I didn’t... I didn’t want to let you go,’ he said, clenching his jaw against the overwhelming emotions.
‘With you, I’d had more fun, felt more alive, more interested, more myself than I had in years.
And the thought of not having that anymore.
..’ He trailed off with a shake of his head.
‘You brought something new into my life. Fun, ease. Care ,’ he admitted, knowing that he had been careless for far too long now. ‘I’d thought that maybe if I didn’t care, then I wouldn’t get hurt again,’ he tried to explain. ‘But I didn’t realise what I was cutting myself off from.’
Erin looked out at the horizon, as if she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear the answer to the questions on her lips.
‘And what was that?’ she asked.
‘Love.’
She froze.
‘ You ,’ he added, her gaze returning to his in a heartbeat.
And he smiled, a little sadly. ‘I guess I fell into my own trap. Because I fell in love with you, Erin Carter. You are beautiful, yes, smart, funny, sexy , but you are also kind, and affectionate, and considerate. And while you have driven me to complete distraction, I have come to realise that there is nothing else for me. No one else. I love you,’ he said, without gimmicks or untruths or fancy distractions.
‘I have fallen utterly, irrevocably and helplessly in love with you,’ he confessed, searching the stark blue eyes before him for signs of hope, for any hint that might put him out of his misery.
Erin’s heart ached from his words. They were so much more than she could ever have imagined. No, there were no roses, no drones, no music, but there were no lies and no false praise. He meant every word.
‘You forgive me?’ she asked in wonder.
‘Absolutely. Even if you don’t think you could forgive me ,’ he said, his hands stuffed into the long pockets of his coat, holding it against him as the wind played with its tails.
‘Enzo, no, there is nothing to forgive,’ she said, finally giving into temptation and reaching up to cup his jaw.
He leant into her palm, the heat from her body meeting the cool of his skin.
He turned into her hand, and pressed a kiss into the centre, and it meant more than any of the kisses they had shared before.
Because this was the first kiss from Enzo to Erin. And she didn’t want it to be the last.
‘Oh, I fell hard for you,’ she said, tears pressing at the edges of her eyes, and for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, they were happy tears.
‘ Cara , please don’t tell me it’s too late,’ he begged, his hand gently closing around her wrist as if ready to keep her there with him, her hand against his cheek.
‘No, Enzo. It would never have been too late. I would have waited for you, forever,’ Erin vowed, truth zinging through her veins and written in gold on her heart.
‘You gave up Charterhouse,’ Enzo stated. It wasn’t a question, and the only man that he could know that from was Gio Gallo.
She nodded, and looked out to sea, not because she didn’t want him to see her thoughts and feelings, but because she wanted the calm of the horizon. Because while it was stormy, here on the beach, out there it was a single silver line.
‘Yes. After you told me about your parents, I didn’t, I couldn’t , be another person in your life who did that to you,’ she explained.
His eyes flared, gold flecks in deep dark depths. He pressed another kiss to the palm of her hand.
‘Why didn’t you tell me? When we argued?’
‘Because it shouldn’t have mattered. I was still in the wrong.’
He shook his head, understanding and regrets heavy in his gaze.
‘Would you have told me? About it, about Gio?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘Eventually. I think I wanted you for just a little bit longer. I think I wanted the me I was around you for a little bit longer too.’
‘I understand that,’ he confessed gently.
‘Do you really think that we can put all this behind us?’ she asked, hope a desperate twisting thing alive in her chest.
‘I don’t want to put it behind us. I want it to be a funny story that we tell our grandchildren, cara . About how I met a beautiful woman who had forgotten how to laugh.’
‘And how I met a handsome prince who had forgotten how to love,’ she added.
‘Until you.’
‘Until you.’
‘I love you, Enzo Rossetti,’ she said, letting that love fill her up from the inside until it shone from her eyes and her heart like light, radiating golden heat.
‘Say it again, cara ,’ Enzo instructed, the smile on his lips almost heartbreakingly beautiful.
So, she threw her head back and shouted, ‘I love you, Enzo Rossetti!’ and then ruined it by descending into giggles and laughter, so pure and true that they would both remember it for the rest of their lives.