“Achille,” she croaked, her throat raw with emotion. “My Achille. My heart,” she whispered over and over again as her tears fell on my neck and her warm breath ghosted over my skin.
“Mi amore,” I whispered back, and let her exorcise her sadness. I held her for minute after long minute, eyes closed, as the dawn brightened around us. It was only when I felt the sun’s heat warming my back, that Caresa pulled back her head. She pressed our foreheads together, keeping her lips just a hairsbreadth from mine and asked in her sweet, soft voice, “Are you really back? I’m not dreaming?”
I moved forward and took her mouth with my own. I tasted her tears on my tongue, but then it was just her. All her as she invaded my every cell, her touch and taste igniting my senses. I slid my tongue against hers, craving her more and more as she moaned into my mouth.
But I slowed the kiss down. This was not the time for wild and desperate. This was me showing her I had come back for her.
This was me declaring my intentions.
I broke from the kiss, breathless, searching for air. I pulled us slightly apart and met her red, swollen eyes. “I’m sorry, mi amore. I am so sorry.”
She shook her head and cupped my face. “No, baby,” she whispered. “I am sorry. Everything is a mess. You must have been so hurt. I just . . . I just missed you so much I felt like I was dying.” She laid a hand on her chest. “I couldn’t breathe, Achille. I couldn’t breathe without you by my side.”
“Me neither,” I said, feeling my every synapse sparking with happiness. “I love you, mi amore. I love you forever.” I pressed a kiss on her cheek. “And ever.” Another kiss on the corner of her mouth. “And ever.” And finally to her lips. “For eternity.”
“I love you too, Achille. Forever.”
I held her close again . . . and I smiled though my tears when I felt it. When I felt our hearts falling into step, beating in their mutual beat.
And when I pulled back and saw a small smile grace her lips, I leaned forward and captured it with mine.
“You are back?” she asked against my mouth. Her hands slid into my hair, clutching the strands tightly.
“Yes.”
I ran my nose down her neck until I heard her breath hitch. “Achille,” she murmured. I reached down and picked up the white rose I had placed on the ground. Her eyes fell on the flower, and she laughed with pure joy, taking the flower from my hand.
She brought the petals to her nose and inhaled, her eyelids fluttering to a close, and I reached into my pocket. My hands were shaking.
I took out the velvet box. I held it out between us and waited for her to reopen her eyes. When she did, her gaze immediately fixed on the box. She sucked in a quick breath, then her chocolate doe eyes collided with mine.
I swallowed, trying to find the perfect words to do justice to the way I felt.
I took a deep breath and decided to just say what was in my heart. “I know I am not what you thought you would marry. I know I am not quite from your world. But I promise you, Caresa, no one will ever love you like I do. I will live every day to make you happy and, if you let me, will never be without you from this day on.” As tears fell down Caresa’s face, I whispered, “Marry me, mi amore. Make us both whole.”
Caresa launched forward and pressed her lips to my mouth. “Yes,” she said softly against my lips. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”
I smiled against her lips and kissed her with everything that I had—deeply, reverently, passionately. When we broke away, I opened the box, revealing an old gold ring with a single small diamond in the center.
I felt my cheeks flame. “I know it is not large and expensive, but” —I took a deep breath— “It was my mother’s. My father . . . it was the ring my father gave to my mother.”
“Achille,” Caresa whispered and ran her hand over the small, worn diamond.
“I know their life, their love story, didn’t turn out as it should, as they deserved. But ours will. I want this ring to see soul mates living out a happy life.” My voice broke. “I want to give my parents the happily-ever-after they should have had through us. I want it all . . . with you.”
“It’s perfect.” Caresa took the ring from the box. I would struggle with that. And she knew it. I took the ring from her hand, and for once not caring about my clumsy fingers, pushed it onto her ring finger on her left hand.
“It’s the perfect fit,” she said as she stared lovingly at the simple ring.
A simple ring for a simple man who loved this woman with his simple heart.
She blinked, then blinked again. “I want what you said. I want this ring to see us, happy. I want your mother and fathers, wherever they are, to see their devastating story turn out right.” She looked into my eyes and pressed her palm against my cheek. “I want everything with you. Achille, my winemaker. My heart.”
“And prince,” I said and watched her eyes widen.
“What?”
I rested my back against the tree and brought her against me, her back to my front. I wrapped my arms around her, and cast my gaze over the hill and on the rising sun. As the valley danced with oranges, yellows and pinks, I said, “I have spoken to Zeno. I . . . I have spoken to your father.”
Caresa’s head whipped around to face me, shock on her every feature. I kissed the end of her nose and smiled. “I . . .” I couldn’t believe what I was about to say, but I said it anyway. “I am going to embrace my title. I . . . I am going to be a brother to Zeno.” I stroked back a strand of hair from her face. I smiled wider when I saw her cheeks filling again with color. My presence was healing her broken heart. “I am going to be the man you need. I am going to be a prince. And I am marrying my duchessa.”
Caresa studied my face, then turned her body to face me. “I will marry you regardless. I will renounce my title, Achille. I will live each day with you in the vineyard, by your side, and I will be the happiest woman there ever was. You need not take on this title for me. I will want you anyway. Rich or poor.”
I couldn’t resist it, so I kissed her. But when I broke away, I said, “I love you more than you will ever know for saying that. But I am going to do it. I have lived in the shadows for too long. I have hidden myself from the world, and now it’s time to break free.” I shook my head at how strange it all sounded to my own ears. “Zeno . . . Zeno needs me. Your father, he needs me too. And I need this. When I was away, I did nothing but think.” I moved Caresa to sit back against my chest and brushed a kiss against her hair. “My aunt told me more of what happened. And I understood them more. I understood that they all . . .” I tried to fight back the lump in my throat, but I was unsuccessful. “They all loved me,” I croaked. “And . . . and I just want to make them proud.” A single tear fell down my face. “I want to make you proud.”
“Baby,” Caresa murmured, turning her head up to me. “That isn’t possible. I am already as proud of you as I could ever possibly be.”
I let her words drift over me. “Mi amore?”
“Yes?”
“I want to take you home.” I bent down and let my mouth graze over the skin on her neck. “And I want to make love to you.”
“I want that too,” Caresa replied on a breathy sigh.
I stood and helped her to her feet. I held her hand as we walked down the hill. Caresa rode Rosa home, and I walked beside her, never letting go of her hand.
Then, when we had put Rosa in the paddock, I led my fiancée home and shut us in the cottage, the only place I knew would ever be home to us. The warmth from the fire filled the room. Caresa turned in my arms and shed my coat from my shoulders. She moved to my shirt, and then to my jeans, and with every move she made, I watched the ring shining on her finger, the flames catching the diamond in their light.
I had never felt so complete.
When my clothes had been shed, it was my turn to undress Caresa. And with every item of clothing dropped to the floor, I kissed a freshly bared part of her body—her shoulder, her hip, her lower neck. Caresa’s skin shivered with my every touch, and when she was naked, vulnerable before me, I lifted her into my arms, and walked to the rug before the fire.