WMIS 08 Forever With Me (32 page)

“It’s all for you.”

He kisses me deeply, and I can taste myself, and him, and it’s the best kiss we’ve ever had. It starts slow and lazy, but my hips won’t stay still. I start to pulse under him, clenching, rolling, until he tears his lips from mine on a long groan and begins to fuck me in earnest, moving fast and sure, staring into my eyes.

He braces one arm on the headboard, and the sight of his toned, sexy body takes my breath away.

“You’re unbelievably hot,” I tell him honestly. “Seriously, your body is incredible.”

He smiles arrogantly, but when I tip my hips up and clench down on him, he closes his eyes and swears under his breath in Italian, turning me on even more.

“Fuck,” I agree. I reach down and press on my clit, and that’s it, I tip over, coming loudly, violently.

His eyes open and he watches me raptly, and when I’m done, he pulls out, turns me over, pulls my ass in the air and slams back inside me. He smacks my ass and rides me hard and fast.

“You’re mine, Alecia.” He presses his lips to my shoulder, then bites me gently and groans as he comes.

“Mine.”

Chapter Twenty Three

Three months later…

I can hear him whistling in the bathroom, the shower running. I can picture his tight, naked body, soapy and tanned under the water.
 

I’m tempted to get my lazy ass up and join him, but the bed feels nice, and I’m not anxious to get this day started.

I’m nervous.
 

I roll over and see the photo on Dom’s side of the bed of the two of us in Italy and smile. I think it’s the cheesiest selfie we’ve ever taken, but it’s his favorite of us, so he framed it and stuck it there, next to his bed.
 

I rest my head in my hands, and as he continues to whistle away in the bathroom, daydream happily about the day he surprised me with that trip…

“Close your eyes, amore,” he whispers against my cheek. Summer is just beginning to give way to fall, and the air is lighter, almost crisp, here near the water. He’s brought me back to the pier near my condo, with the locks of love that he still sneers at, and we are enjoying our wine in the grass.

I follow his instructions, expecting him to tell me a sexy story, but instead I feel him place something in my lap.

“If that’s a puppy, you can just take it back where you got it. I don’t do pets.” My lips turn up in a grin as he laughs.
 

“Not a pet, puppy or otherwise,
cara
,” he assures me. “Open your eyes.”

In my lap is a plain white envelope, with nothing written on the outside.

“A Dear John letter?” I ask dryly.

“You’re funny today,” he says with a smile and tucks my hair behind my ear. I love that he is forever touching me. I’ll never get tired of it. “Open it.”

Inside is an itinerary, for two, to Italy.

“Holy shit,” I whisper.

“I want to show you Italy. I want you to meet Gianna.”

“I want to meet both,” I reply, and then throw my arms around him. “We’re going to Italy!”

“We are.”

“When?”

“Whenever you like. The tickets are open-ended, so we can go whenever it’s convenient for you to get away.”

“You might be the best Italian boyfriend ever.”

He laughs, lays me back in the grass, and kisses me silly, sending tingles all through me.

Charming Italian.

“You have to get out of bed,” Dominic calls from the bathroom.

“I will,” I reply. “This picture is cheesy.”

He sticks his head out of the doorway and scowls at me. “I love that picture. You’re beautiful in it.”

Then he’s gone again, bustling around in the bathroom. The water is running. I hear him snatch his toothbrush out of its holder.

Honestly, I love that damn picture, it’s just fun to tease him about it. That was my favorite day in Italy.

“I get to crush the grapes with my feet?” I ask excitedly. “Like in ‘I Love Lucy’?”

“Something like that,” Dom replies and leads me into a barn with a big tub that looks like a water trough. A man dumps a bucket of grapes in it and grins at Dom.

“
Tutti pronti,
” the man says and walks away.

“What did he say?” I ask.

“All ready,” Dom replies. “Are you ready?”

“I’m going to stomp around in the grapes?”

“Yes.” His eyes are full of mischief as he leads me to a bucket of warm water, and helps me rinse off my feet, then holds my hand as I climb in the large tub and step into the grapes.

“This feels…weird.” I stand still, facing the open doors of the barn, where I can see the rolling hills of Tuscany and lines and lines of vines. It’s the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen.

Aside from the one in Washington, at Dominic’s vineyard.

“You have to stomp on them,
tesoro
,” he says.

“Why aren’t you doing this with me?” I ask suspiciously as he aims his phone at me and snaps a picture.

“It’s more fun this way.”

“Uh huh.” I begin to walk, scrunching up my nose at the way the grapes squish between my toes. It smells earthy and good, but feels so weird. “This is kind of gross.”

“You’re so funny,” he says with a smile.

“I can’t believe you do it this way for all of your wine,” I say, as I trudge through the grapes.

“We don’t,” Gianna says from the doorway. “I can’t believe you’re making her do that.”

“I knew it!”

Dominic is doubled over, laughing.
 

“You’re such a shit,” I say with a laugh. “My feet are going to be purple forever.”

“Just for a few days,” he says, and wipes his eyes. “You look like you’re having fun.”

“Please get me out of here.”

He lifts me out of the tub, sets me on my feet, and holds his phone up, getting a selfie of us with Tuscany in the background, laughing, delighted with each other.

“You know,” Gianna comments as she watches us. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy, Dominic.”

“I haven’t been,” he replies, and rests his forehead on mine. “Until I found her.”

“Get your ass out of bed!” Dom calls from the bathroom.

“You’re bossy,” I grumble, as I roll out of bed and tug on panties and a bra, then decide, screw it, and throw his white shirt on from yesterday and join him in the bathroom. He’s standing in front of the mirror, shirtless, and leans his hands on the vanity as he watches me.

“You’re going to wear my dirty shirt to meet your parents?” he asks with a grin as I hop up onto the vanity next to him and swing my feet back and forth.

“You know, you don’t have to go,” I reply reasonably. “They’re nice enough, but you shouldn’t have to endure it. I can go alone.”

“No,” he replies simply, and combs his hair.

“I still can’t believe they called,” I say with a frown, watching Dom. “I mean, I told them to, if they ever wanted to have a relationship with me, but I didn’t expect them to actually do it.”

Big, gigantic butterflies take flight in my belly as I think about meeting up with my parents for lunch. They flew up here just to see
me.

“I can’t believe they even knew what airport to fly into.” Dom snickers and pulls his shaving stuff out of a drawer. “I mean, this is kind of ridiculous.”

“Alecia.”

“Yeah?”

He slides me over in front of him and pins me here, his hands on the granite at my hips, and kisses my nose lightly. “Stop worrying.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.” He kisses my forehead, then hands me his shaving cream. “Lather me up.”

“This could be fun.” I grin and shoot the white foam into my hands, then rub them together and begin rubbing it on his handsome face. I’m all smiles, delighted with him, as he clenches his lips closed so I can get the area between his nose and lips, then laugh when I get it up his nose. “Sorry. I don’t put shaving cream on a face often.”

He laughs with me as I concentrate on my task, making a complete mess of him.

“Spread it down on my neck.”

I follow his directions, then lean back and take in my handiwork.

“I suck at this.”

“It’ll get the job done,” he replies, and hands me his razor.

“I get to put a sharp instrument against your neck?” I ask incredulously.

“Don’t make me regret this.”

Before I can begin, he leans in and plants a kiss right on my cheek, leaving a dollop of cream on my skin, making me giggle. “You’re making a mess!”

“We’re even on that score.”

He watches my face calmly, and holds perfectly still, as I glide the razor down his cheek, doing my best to get all of the whiskers.
 

When I get to his neck, I give up.

“You finish. This part makes me nervous.” He grins and takes the razor, slides me aside, and leans in to the mirror to finish up.

“You did a good job,
amore
.”

“I was worried that I’d cut you, my love.”

He stills at my words. He always does when I call him my love.

He wipes his face off with a towel, and I lean in and kiss him on the cheek, resting against him for just a moment.

He tosses the towel aside, and slides me back in front of him.

“You can’t wear this,” he says and slips his shirt off of me, then to my surprise, simply wraps his arms around me and hugs me close. “Your back is so slender,” he murmurs. “My hands look so big on it.”

“I love the way your hands feel on my back,” I reply softly, and breathe him in. “You smell good.”

“Alecia, you take my breath away.” He buries his face in my neck and, still holding on tightly, takes a deep breath. “You are everything good in my life.”

“Are you okay?” I ask, a bit concerned. He’s holding onto me almost desperately.

“I need you to know,” he begins and kisses my cheek, then pulls back only far enough to look into my eyes. “I don’t want to just spend my life with you. I want to spend my
only
life with you. Every day.”

He swallows hard and drags his fingertips down my back, then up again, caressing me sweetly. “I know that forever is a long time, but if you tell me that I get to wake up to your sweet smile every day, it will never be long enough.” He sweeps my hair back behind my ear. “A smart woman once told me that love is a daily reminder. It’s saying,
I choose you. Today and every day.
Spend forever with me, Alecia.”

My heart stills, then stumbles into double time.
 

“Did you just ask me to marry you?” I whisper.

“I need you to marry me, be my partner, my friend, my love. You’re everything,
amore
. I love you more than you will ever understand.”

“I love you too,” I reply and kiss his lips softly.

“Is that a yes?”

“Hell yes.”

Epilogue

Ten Years Later

~Steven Montgomery~

The day is just waking up as I pad down the stairs in my son, Dominic’s, home toward the kitchen. My bride of fifty years today is still sleeping like an angel upstairs, and rather than make love to her, which was my first thought, as it is every morning, I decided to let the poor woman sleep.

It’s going to be a busy day.

I’m surprised to hear quiet voices in the kitchen, assuming that I’m the first up.

“Good morning, Dad,” Natalie says with a grin. She and Luke are sitting at the breakfast bar, sipping coffee. It never gets old hearing this sweet girl call me Dad. I’m not the man that she comes from, but she’s been mine for more than twenty years now, and I couldn’t love her more. She gives me a big hug, and when I point to my cheek, she plants a kiss there as well.
 

“You two are up early.” I pour myself a cup of coffee and lean against the counter.

“Josie and Maddie got in late, so we stayed up with Brynna and Caleb waiting for them,” Luke says. “And then Haley woke up this morning with bad dreams, so we decided to just stay up. I’m still not used to the twins driving.”

“Neither is Caleb,” I reply. “No parent is ever ready for their kids to grow up.”

“Olivia has decided that she’s in love,” Natalie says with a grimace, and laughs when Luke simply glares at her. “It’s just hormones.”

“I’ll lock her in her room.”

“No, you won’t.”

“She’s twelve,” Luke says adamantly.
 

“It’s all downhill from here, son,” I inform him good-naturedly. “Before you know it, it’ll be
your
fiftieth wedding anniversary and you’ll have seventeen grandchildren.”