Page 72 of Dario

He got to his feet shakily and I glanced at the untouched breakfast on the table and recognized the sweatshirt he was wearing as one of mine.

“Do you want me to leave?” he whispered. “This is your house, and we're no longer married.”

I took a step and opened my mouth to say fuck knew what when a little body barreled right into me, fists flying at my stomach, and harsh cries and “No” spilling from the little whirlwind.

“Tomasso?” Alessandro cried in astonishment because he’d spoken. I reveled in that an instant but then decided despite Tomasso being scrappy, he needed to learn to fight properly. I would take care of that. No one would ever bully him again.

“Tomasso, no," Alessandro said gently. "Dario saved you. He wasn’t going to hurt you.” The boy hesitated, realizing that I had made no attempt to stop his fists. In my heart, I knew I deserved every one of them.

Then Nonna appeared, completely ignored me, and between her encouragement and Alessandro’s promises that he was safe, Tomasso followed Nonna back inside. Lucio closed the door, then positioned himself at a reasonable distance.

I looked back at Alessandro and the tears rolling down his face, and it nearly broke me.“Caro mio,”I choked out andswooped down, picking him up and sitting back down with Alessandro in my lap.

Exactly where he was meant to be. Alessandro curled into me, his face pressed into my neck. “I am so sorry,piccolo mio. I am the fool that Nonna keeps calling me.” Alessandro raised his head, and I solemnly wiped the tears from under each eye. “When I ran into that basement…”

“To save my life,” Alessandro whispered.

I shook my head. “You were there because of me. I put you there. If I had made any attempt to get to know you, to be honest with you, you would have trusted me and told me what was happening.”

I glanced out at the beach and the turbulent waves. I knew just how they felt.

“Then why wouldn’t you come home? Answer my calls?”

I closed my eyes briefly, trying to summon the courage I would need. “Because I’m a bully. All you ever wanted was your freedom. I took that away from you once and I wasn’t going to do it again. But even more than that,” I admitted. “I knew if I saw you, I would never have the strength to let you go.”

“Why?” Alessandro whispered and met my gaze, and I knew what he was asking. If he was still just a possession, and I smiled because it was true that every little piece of Alessandro belonged to me.

“If you are asking if you are mine, then the answer is a hundred percent yes, and you will belong to me for the rest of your life. But—” I stopped him when he would have moved away. “I hope with everything that I am that you will take all the broken pieces of me into your hands and your heart and never, ever let them go.Ti amo, I love you. I’ve loved you nearly from the day we met, and I had to pick egg from your beautiful hair.” I took a breath. “I want to belong to you as well. I want to live in this house and eat Nonna’s food. I am definitely going to teachTomasso to fight.” He nuzzled my cheek. “Amato will be turning in his grave because Tomasso won’t be his heir, because of your mamma, he will be ours.”

"Ours? But we're div—" I silenced him the best way I knew how and after a moment I drew back.

"Apparently Judge Nolan never filed the papers." Alessandro threw his arms around my neck, and I basked for a moment. “Now, tell me that you love me so we can go eat before Nonna comes back out here. I have been punched enough for one morning.”

“Ti amo, ti amo,”Alessandro promised. He might have gone for a third one, but I decided to put his lips to better use.

It was a good thing I was distracted though, or I might have seen Nonna and Alvize high-fiving each other, and a contented little boy helping himself to the love Nonna had just finished making.

She called it Bombolini, but I knew better.

33

Alessandro

Two month's later.

Even though we’d never gotten divorced, exactly eight and a half weeks to the day since our first wedding, both Dario and I stood under a silk canopy on our beach and said the vows we had written ourselves in front of our favorite judge.

“Piccolo mio,” Dario crooned. “You are mine. You were always mine.”

I didn’t react to being called little again, or the outrageous possessive statement of ownership, because as far as Dario was concerned, it was the ultimate declaration of love.

I reached up and cupped his stubbled cheek, and he turned slightly, gently taking my thumb in between his teeth. “I promise to love you until my last breath,” I said simply and watched his eyes darken before he pulled me flush with his body.

I heard the chuckles from the family behind us at our one-line vows. It may have been more romantic had the beach not been surrounded by scary looking men with automatic guns, but I knew my husband protected what was his and the guests present also belonged to him.

Cecil cleared his throat, and Dario reluctantly stepped back. He wouldn’t let go of my hand, though.

Nonna had refused to accept her ring back, so it would be nestled safely next to the ones our very proud ring bearer was carrying. Dario and I solemnly took the matching platinum rings from Tomasso. They were simply engravedper sempre, forever.

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