Page 69 of Seduced By the Enemy

She closed her eyes a little and swayed. Despite his leg cast, he moved so fast, standing and putting a hand around her waist. It jolted her back to the present. “I’m fine,” she said, but instead of stepping away, she put her hands on his hips, as though to steady him. “You went to Leandro?”

“They were both there—Max and Leandro. At the time, I thought it would mean I could win them both over at once. But they very quickly convinced me that there was no way you’d ever be happy without your family in your life. The thing is, at the time, I really did think I was doing the right thing. I thought about coming home and being honest, but I knew you’d just insist you wanted me, above anyone else. I didn’t think I should let that happen. So I told you I was leaving.”

She shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe it.”

“Can’t you?”

“You’re right. I can believe it. I’m just so angry. This was my choice. It’s my life.”

“But could you really bear living it without them?”

“If I had you? Yes. If I had you, I could bear anything.”

He dropped his head a moment, so their foreheads were impossibly close, but Emilia bristled, pulling back. She was naturally, understandably wary.

“I wanted you to be happy,” he said. “I didn’t trust that I was enough for you.”

“How can you say that?” she demanded. Not softly, either. She was angry. Furious. “At any point, did I give you a reason to doubt how I felt?”

“No.”

“You were my everything, Salvatore. My absolute all. And then, you were just…gone.”

“When my car was hit, and I was out of control, skidding across the road, presuming I was about to die, all I could think of was you. I made every deal with God I could think of, if he would give me one last chance to see you. To tell you that I love you. That I’d lied to you, when I said I didn’t want to be with you. My God, Emilia, if you had any idea how much I love you…you think I destroyed you, by leaving? I destroyed myself. I haven’t known how to function, without you. And still, I stayed away, because Leo said you were fine, and I thought I had done the right thing.”

“I wasn’t fine,” she said, but now, the anger was gone, and the words simply throbbed with feeling. The hands that been holding him steady slipped, moving around behind his back and holding him there. “I wasn’t fine.” They stared at each other a long time, and then, she blinked away, her eyes moist. “You need to sit down.”

This time, when he sat on the bed, he pulled his broken leg up, and laid back down. But when his eyes held hers, he said, “Come here.”

He lifted his good arm, to create a space for her. It was more than an olive branch: it was everything. In that simple request, he was asking her to forgive him, to be with him, to move forward with him, no matter what.

“You are my everything,” he said, and then, she was moving, climbing up on the bed gently, careful not to hurt his broken leg, and curling herself against his side.

“What’s happened to you?” she asked, running her hand over his chest, where the bumps of each ridge were tangible.

“Well, let’s see,” he drawled, feeling more like himself than he had in months. “I don’t think I’ve eaten more than a handful of chips in about a month, so…”

She laughed, but it was a devastatingly sad sound. “Salvatore…”

“I was so stupid. So incredibly stupid and weak. What I should have said, that day, is this: our families will always be that—our families. They are a part of us, a part of our past, and they made us who we are. But the only person I need in my life, the only person I want to spend my life with, is you. If you feel that, then we need to accept this reality. And one day, if we are blessed with children of our own, it would be the sum total of my life’s wishes—to create tiny little baby Emilias for us to dote upon and adore. You are my family, and if you agree to let me be yours, then I will be the happiest man on earth. What I should have said, that afternoon, is that I want us to marry, just as soon as we can arrange the paperwork.”

He felt her body shudder on a deep sob.

“I should have said that.”

She shifted so he could see her face. “You just did.”

Something tripped in his chest, as though his heart had just short circuited. “Yes.”

“Did you mean it?”

“What do you think?”

She bit into her lower lip.

“Emilia, I want to marry you and never let go. I want you, with all of my heart and soul. I cannot care, any longer, about the families that would not care enough about us.”

And then, she was smiling, and it was the most beautiful, incredible sight he’d ever seen.

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