Page 56 of The Virgin's Dance with the Devil
A hand clamped on his shoulder. Through the roar in his ears, he heard Mattia say, “What are you waiting for, idiot? Go to her.”
He staggered across the cemetery without seeing or hearing anyone else. His gaze was fixed on the angel that became less of a sun-drenched shimmer with every step he took toward it; the slender figure with the glorious chestnut hair and mesmerising dark brown eyes slowly emerging.
When he was only feet away, he stopped. For the beat of a moment, the sun’s rays formed a halo above her head, and then he blinked, and it was her.Hisangel. Marisa.
For the longest time they did nothing but stare at each other before her throat moved and she stepped closer to him.
“I’m so sorry about your father,” she whispered. “I know what he meant to you.”
Unable to speak, the beats of his heart violent enough to hurt, he could only hold her gaze, terrified to blink again in case he blinked her away.
Tired eyes brimming with compassion, she took another step closer.
Taking a long breath, she tilted her head a little and in a stronger voice said, “I don’t think Clare ever did remarry. I think the love she and Henry shared was so strong that she knew she couldn’t hope to find anything like it with anyone else. I don’t think she’d have even wanted to try and find it.” Her final step closed the distance between them. She placed a gentle hand on his cheek. “But that could be me projecting because of how I react to their story…” Her voice broke as a tear rolled down her cheek. “… and because of how I feel about you.”
“Am I dreaming this?” he asked hoarsely, unable to believethe words soaking in his ears were real or that the marks of her fingers and palm on his skin and the delicate fragrance of her skin and perfume he was breathing in were real.
“I hope not.” She swallowed. “Because if I close my eyes and find you’re gone, I think I might lose my mind.”
He lifted a trembling hand and slowly speared it through the cloud of silky hair, bringing a lock of it to his nose; closing his eyes as his airwaves filled with the familiar scent of her shampoo.
Suddenly, he could bear it no longer, and he cradled her head to peer intently into her damp eyes. Fighting his own tears, he said, “Please tell me you’re here to come back to me. Please, Marisa, forgive me. Please. I am nothing without you. Let me back in your life, and I swear I’ll never hurt you again. I swear I’ll prove myself worthy of you. I swear it.”
Another tear spilt down her cheek, but she smiled shakily and dug her fingers tighter into his cheek. “You already have.”
“I was stupid and cruel and –”
She pressed her thumb to his mouth and shook her head. “Rico, I forgive you.”
Despite his desperation for her forgiveness, he knew he would never deserve it. “How?”
“Because I believe in you and because I love you.”
“How can you believe in me after everything I’ve done?”
“How can I not?” She brought her mouth to his and kissed him gently. “I know your penance is real. Your remorse is real. You wouldn’t feel those things if your soul was as black as you believe it to be. You kept your promise to me, and I know if you promise to always love and be faithful to me, that you will keep it, because I have faith in you.”
“I don’t deserve your faith,” he choked.
“But you will.” Her mouth curved into the most beautiful smile. “I have faith in that.”
“I only havefaith in you.”
“Then let that be enough.” It felt like the light of her smile penetrated his heart. “You protect my heart, and I’ll protect your conscience.”
“I’ll guard it with my life for all my life.”
“I know you will.”
“My love for you is the only good and pure thing in the whole of my life, and I swear I will love and be faithful to you forever.”
This time, her smile penetrated his soul, the soul she’d saved when she’d burrowed into his heart and claimed it for her own, and now Rico found himself breaking into a smile too as it finally sank into him that this was real, that the love of his life was willing to forgive and take a second chance on him, and as their mouths fused and Marisa’s arms enveloped him, the light she carried inside her saturated him and the despair he’d carried like a weight lifted and the future opened itself up to him.
A future with Marisa. A whole life with his angel.
Epilogue
The visionin white stepped through the cathedral door, holding her father’s arm. The light pouring through cast a shimmering halo around her.
Together, they shuffled to him, his angel from heaven and her father, and when Pietra gave Marisa to him, it was with a surprisingly strong, approving pat of his hand to Rico’s.
The sun poured over them both as they exchanged their vows, both of them barely able to contain the beaming smiles on their faces that, before God and everyone they loved, they were pledging their lives together.
Only Rico and Marisa knew they would be returning to this cathedral in six months or so to christen the little life growing in Marisa’s belly. Okay, only Rico, Marisa’s mum and Marisa’s sister, but that was only because they’d been suspicious that the perfectly fitting wedding dress had to be taken out a tiny bit at the waist and had asked her. Incapable of lying, they’d guessed the answer when her face had turned bright red. And if they’d guessed then that meant Pietra and Gennaro knew, and probably the grandparents too. But otherthan that, only Rico and Marisa knew they were going to be parents.
Later, swaying with his beautiful wife on the dance floor, Rico remembered how he’d prayed to God for one more dance with her. His prayer had been answered.
The devil would dance with his virgin for the rest of their lives.
THE END
