Page 78 of Passion and Revenge

My breath quickens, and I feel achy and empty in the space where he should be inside me.

“Your father is never going to look at you the same. You may lose his respect,” he whispers. “But if he says a word against you?—”

“What are you talking about?” I cut in, my eyebrows drawn up. “Why would I lose his respect? I didn’t exactly wave a flag above my head with an easy target pointed down at me.”

He chuckles. “You’re something else, Sienna. I’m talking about showing up for lunch on Sunday. Your father’s not going to approve.”

My heart begins to pound so loudly in my chest that it feels like it’s echoing around the vast room. “Are you asking me something, Ale?”

He sighs and then pulls away from me, causing my rising hopes to stutter to a standstill. For a second there, I saw our future rising ahead like the first rays of the morning sun.

“I want you to listen, and I want you to listen well because I’m not going to give you this option again.” He drags a hand through his hair, making the short strands stand on end. “Since I made the stupidest decision of my life and let you go, I’ve counted the hours and minutes all the way down to the seconds.”

Oh God.

“The first time I ever touched you, it was for all the wrong reasons, and when I chose to let you go, I thought I was redeeming myself by finally doing the right thing for you.” His eyes searched mine. “But I’ve come to see that I didn’t let you go for you. I made a decision and forced it on you when I should have asked you what you wanted and actually listened. I let you go because I’m a coward. Because the one person in my life I swore to protect, I let him down, and I cannot bear the thought of letting you down like that.”

“You won’t.” I take a step toward him, but he holds up his palms, stopping me.

“We don’t know that,” he croaks.

“Ale, please.”

He squares his shoulders. “The difference now is that I realize there’s no one who’s going to do half as good a job of keeping you safe. I can let you go and hope I won’t let you down, or I can keep you and do everything in my power to protect you.”

There’s a pause where my heart stops beating. “I choose the latter,” I say confidently. Just like that, it’s racing double time, and tears fill my eyes.

“I love you,” Alessandro finally says, causing the tears to spill down my eyes. I’ve never been a pretty crier, and I know I only have a few minutes before I look like a mess, but I don’t care. He takes a step forward and continues, “I love your stubbornness, your tenacity, and how your smile brings electricity to the dull town of my soul. I love your loyalty, your sense of justice, and the way you keep your head up regardless of what’s being thrown at you. You’re the most beautiful person I know, inside and out, and I want to spend the rest of my life making sure the light inside you never fizzles out. I want to keep you happy, satisfied, and safe. Forever.”

I wipe my face with the back of my hand and sniffle. “I didn’t take you for a poet.”

His mouth quirks up into a strained half-smile. “Before you say anything, there’s something you need to know first.”

“What is it?” I probe.

I watch him hesitate, and trepidation fills me. What can be worse than me watching him reduce a man’s head to tissue? And then I ask myself if there’s really anything that can make me walk away from this man.

“Tell me!” I bark.

His jaw tics. “That night, the blood on my clothes belonged to Tullio D’Addario. I had him hunted down, and then I spent hours slicing him to ribbons, and I had fun doing it. I don’t regret it, baby. And even if it is a deal breaker for you, I still won’t regret it.”

My hand flies to my mouth, not in horror but in shock. “Why?”

“Because he hurt you. And anybody who’s ever hurt you is liable to meet the same fate. I’m not going to apologize for it. You’ve had enough of heroes. You’re long overdue for a villain who’s willing to condemn his soul to hell for you.”

I fly forward, and his hands are right there, open for me. I fall into them with my head pressed to his heart.

“I love you, too,” I sob into his shirt. “I’m so in love with you that it feels like my life has been at a painful standstill since you walked away. I thought I wanted to be free until you set me free, and then I realized that with you, I was the most free to be myself. I’ve been drowning without you.”

“Never again,” he whispers fiercely, pressing kisses into my hair and to my face. “You’ll never be without me. Never again.”

“I know you think I can never fit into your world, but I can,” I tell him. “I’m not my father. I can look past what you have to do and see the man beneath. The good man underneath.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Alessandro says bitterly. “I’m not a good man.”

I cup his face in my hands and feel the delicious roughness of his stubbled jaw. Then, my face twists into a glare. “You are. You’re a good man to me. You saved my life. You’re not chasing me away, Alessandro Mancini. Get that through your thick head.”

He bends his head and presses his forehead to mine, his fingers digging into my waist. I want him to clutch me tighter, so tight that it hurts and leaves marks on my skin.

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