Page 121 of Casanova LLC

“What are you blaming me for this time?”

“It’s not about blame.”

“Well then, what did I do?”

“It’s not what you did. It’s what you are.”

“Talk about tangled. Do you even know what you’re saying?”

“I know what I want to say.”

“Then say it. What am I?”

“My Forever.”

Her eyes widened until they were entirely moonshine. “No, I’m not. You told me you hadn’t met your Forever.”

“Because I needed that to be true. But it’s not.” I spoke quietly, clearly, measuredly. As if I was in shock. I think I was in shock. I think this was what shock was. “I left you because I wanted to never leave. I left you because I’m in love with you. Deeply, irrevocably, impossibly fucking in love with you and I’ve never been more afraid of anything in my life. Look.” I held up a hand. It was shaking. “You are my Forever, Claire.”

Her eyes, her mouth, her entire face—that face—opened like a new day.

I took a tentative step toward her. “Stay.”

“I can’t.”

Closer. “Stay.”

“I shouldn’t.”

Closer still. “Stay.”

“Stop saying that.”

“Never.” Two feet away now. “Stay.”

“Alessandro…” She took a large step back and her foot left the dock. I grabbed her elbow and hauled her into me, holding her close.

“Stay. Forever.”

Her blown-open eyes searched mine. “W-what are you saying?”

I grabbed her head as if I were going to bite off a chunk of it. “I want you. I want us. I want a real forever. I want…I want…I want…” I was malfunctioning, that’s what it felt like. Looping, waiting for my brain to stop buffering, stuck on the thing I’d never allowed myself to contemplate: what I wanted.

Finally—finally—her eyes softened. “Aless?—”

I kissed her. Ravished her mouth. It was all I wanted to do.

She melted into me, gave as good as she got. She climbed me, there on the dock, until her legs were around my waist.

When she yanked back to drag in air, I inhaled her neck. “But what about the lineage, the tradition, Jaco?—”

“I’ll work it out. We’ll work it out.”

“How?”

I pulled her head into my shoulder and cradled it. “I don’t know. I’ve been so busy worrying about how I was going to let you go that I didn’t get around to worrying about having you stay.” There was something exhilarating about throwing life up in the air, about losing control. I felt electrified. “But I’m good at compartmentalizing. That’ll help.”

She took a breath in, held it for a moment. “What does that mean?”

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