Chapter 35 #2
“One day, I sat there and watched,” he explains. “At least fifty other people walked past that stray cat and didn’t think twice about it. You were the only one who paid it any attention. I knew then that your soul was too pure for mine, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted you.”
I reach up to touch his face. “I’ve never wanted you to be anything other than who you are.”
He turns and kisses my fingers before he nips at them, making me laugh.
I glance at the drawing again and let out a sigh. “I always wondered what happened to that cat. It just disappeared one day.”
“It became a fat, lazy housecat and lived a long, happy life.”
“How do you know?”
Amusement sparks in his eyes. “I pawned it off on my cousin Pepe.”
“What else have you done that I don’t know about?”
He arches a brow at me, and I can tell he’s not going to answer that.
“I understand April fifteenth now, but what about Eros?”
He buries his face in my neck and breathes me in, murmuring the words against me. “He loved Psyche from the shadows.”
I blink away the sting in my eyes as I’m overcome by the depth of my love for this man. I’m too choked up to say it, but he knows.
He always knows.
He holds me through the overwhelm, pressing soft kisses along my neck until I come back to myself.
We stay like that for a while, and admittedly, I could soak up his warmth all day. But I want to finish looking at his art.
I return my attention to the sketchbook, watching my life unfold in pictures. Memories unfurl, and they don’t feel so bittersweet anymore.
When I reach the day he won me that raggedy old teddy bear, I know I’m approaching the time that everything changed. As I trace over the lines, I’m in awe of how vividly he captured it, and how clearly he could tell I was in love with him even then.
After that, there’s a time jump, and I swallow as I realize there are four whole years missing. The drawings resume after he came back, but there’s a noticeable difference in perspective between the artist and the subject.
He captured me in various settings over the years—family dinners, lunches with the girls, reading, or sometimes just sitting alone with my thoughts. But the light seems to have disappeared from my eyes, and every smile looks forced.
It wasn’t just his assessment. My life had never felt as grim as it was without him in it. I thought I did a decent job of hiding it, but Romeo saw through my mask. He saw everything.
It explains why, when I turn the page, I find a drawing of the day I came to the island to meet Beppe. There’s nothing but pure happiness on my face as I cradle him in my arms, falling in love with him at first sight.
Romeo did that for me.
I squeeze my eyes shut and let out a shuddering breath. I don’t want to cry, but he really hit me in the solar plexus with that one.
“Hey.” He sets the book aside, then shifts me around so I’m straddling him, and we’re face to face.
“I’m okay.” I laugh because I’m embarrassed I keep getting emotional.
I can’t stop thinking about all the things he’s done for me that I didn’t realize, and I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface.
But as I’m contemplating it, there’s one thing that’s always bothered me.
The sudden appearance of a college fund from my deceased grandfather never felt quite right.
My mother didn’t even know that account existed, and even she said it was strange, considering I barely knew the man.
There are some secrets I can let Romeo keep, like the fact that Beppe was his idea. But this isn’t one of them.
“Did you pay for my college?”
He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t have to. I can see it in his eyes.
“Why?” I rasp.
He hesitates for a moment before he replies.
“Because it was your dream.”
This time, there’s no stopping the tears. They spill freely as I wrap my arms around him and squeeze him tight. My heart feels like it’s about to burst, and I don’t know how to thank him for everything he’s done. So I just blurt out the only thing that makes sense.
“I love you.”
“I know, baby.” He rubs my back, trying to ground me.
“No, you don’t know,” I argue. “This feeling inside me…I can’t even put it into words.”
“Trust me.” He grabs my face and tips my gaze to his. “I know.”
The agony in his voice feels like a reflection of my own, and all I can do is nod.
He wipes away my tears, and a beat of silence passes as he searches my face. I don’t know what he’s looking for, but he seems to find it.
A quiet certainty settles over him, the amber in his eyes melting into burnished gold.
“I can’t promise I’ll ever be anything close to normal,” he says softly.
“I wouldn’t dare accuse you of that.”
At this, he smiles, and the featherlight touch of his hand reaching for mine makes me shiver. He brushes his thumb over my knuckles, then lifts my fingers, ghosting over them with a kiss.
“As much as I’ve enjoyed stalking you, I’d prefer to move on to the captive stage of our relationship.”
“Captive stage?” My brows knit together as a soft laugh catches in my throat.
“The one where I make you my wife.”
Those words settle between us, and I wait for the punchline. But he’s not laughing. Instead, the pulse in his neck beats a faster cadence, and there’s a noticeable tension in his body that wasn’t there a moment ago.
“You want me to marry you?”
“Yes.” His voice comes out rough.
When I don’t answer right away, because I’m in shock, he continues.
“I know you have dreams, and I still want you to do those things. I just want you to do them as my wife.”
His wife.
Those words brand themselves on my heart, and when I notice the pink velvet box in his other hand, I suck in a sharp breath. He must have had it in his pocket, and he already planned this. Before he can even open the box, I blurt out my answer.
“Yes.”
A hint of amusement flickers in his eyes as the tension in his body dissolves. “You haven’t even seen the ring yet.”
“I don’t care what the ring looks like. I just want you.”
His lips graze mine, teasing me with a kiss that ends far too soon.
“Humor me anyway.”
He opens the box, revealing an oval-cut blush pink gemstone surrounded by a halo of diamonds.
It’s more beautiful than anything I ever could have imagined, and I’m slightly terrified to think about what it cost. I have no idea how he managed to get it so quickly, but the Vitales can move mountains with their name.
I reach out to touch it, and he meets me halfway, slipping it onto my finger. Somehow, it fits perfectly, but I’m not surprised. This is Romeo we’re talking about.
I hold up my hand to examine it, fascinated by the way it shimmers in the light. I’m almost afraid to ask, because I’ve heard how rare and expensive they are, but I have to know.
“Is that an actual…pink diamond?” The words catch in my throat.
“Do you think I’d give you anything less?”
He holds my gaze, the intensity in his eyes burning through me and flooding my body with heat. If he could claim me with a look, this would be it.
I take his face between my palms, giving him a slow, languid kiss. His hands roam over my body, stirring a familiar hunger inside me. That spark turns into a flame as I rock against him, the ache growing more desperate.
“I can’t believe you’re mine.” The words tumble out of me on a breathless whisper.
“I’ve always been yours, Gabi.” He lifts me up and carries me to the bed. “And I always will be.”