Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 142640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 475(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 475(@300wpm)
I open my mouth to speak and he holds his hand up, instantly silencing me.
“I just have to say something.” He inhales deeply as if steeling himself. “I know…that you’re back with Marso.”
“Marcel,” I correct him.
“Whatever the fuck his name is,” he snaps. “And I know you’re happy, and that’s great. I want you to be happy. You deserve the best.”
My eyes hold his.
“But I just wanted you to know something. And I don’t know why I feel like I need you to know this but I just know that I do.”
My brow furrows.
“I’m not going to marry, I’m not going to fall in love with someone. There is no family on my horizon,” he says softly.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want the second prize. I don’t want to pretend to love someone else. I don’t want to look back on my life and have lived my whole life as a lie like my father did.”
My eyes search his.
“I know you’re getting married and I’m happy for you, I really am.”
“Giuliano.”
He throws his hand up as if defeated, “What I’m trying to say, Chesk, is…I love you. I have loved you for every single day since I was nineteen years old. And I will love you until the day I die…which will hopefully be soon, because I don’t want to live a life without you in it.”
13
Francesca
My breath catches as I stare at him. He looks so lost and broken, his eyes are wild.
“I’m not marrying Marcel.”
He frowns.
I step toward him, crossing my moral compass line once more. “I don’t want the second prize either.”
We stare at each other, “But…you’re back with him.”
“No. I’m not.”
“Antonio told me.”
“He got it wrong,” I say, sterner, I take his two hands in mine. “Why did you come to France?”
“I had to see you.”
“To tell me that you loved me?”
His words are pretty and damn it I just want to jump into his arms, but does he know what weight they carry?
“Yes.”
“In a perfect world, Giuliano, where would your declaration of love lead us?”
His brow furrows as he contemplates his answer.
“How could this possibly work?” I prompt him, he’s a womanizer, a heartbreaker. I wouldn’t survive him betraying me.
“If….” He pauses. “If you felt the same, I would ask you to move to Milan and….” His voice trails off.
“And what?”
“And start a relationship with me.”
“In secret?”
“Yes.” His eyes hold mine.
“How would we do that?”
He bites his bottom lip and I get the feeling that he already knows the answer to my question. He’s thought about this.
“I own the apartment underneath yours in Milan. If you moved in there, and I moved into mine. We could move between the two apartments unseen. The guards don’t come up to the top floors. We could be together without anyone knowing.”
I stare at him as an unfamiliar emotion runs through me.
Hope.
“And where would we stand?”
“What do you mean?” He frowns.
“Well, if nobody knows about us.”
“There would be no one else if that’s what you mean. I stopped seeing Amber, I can’t lie anymore and pretend to want someone I don’t.” He cups my face in his hand as he looks down at me. “This isn’t something I am throwing about on a whim, I’ve thought long and hard about it. I want this, you are it for me, Chesk.” He kisses me softly. “I would take you as my wife. Perhaps it wouldn’t be legal…. But, in my eyes….” He shrugs as if lost for words.
My eyes well with tears as I stare up at my beautiful man. What about children?
“Do you want me to beg…because I will, I’ll get down on my hands and knees right here,” he stammers. “I’ll do anything, whatever it takes.”
And this is it, the moment where I choose between my morals and my heart. Both can’t survive this. It’s one or the other.
“What took you so long?” I whisper as I kiss him.
He frowns against me and his hands snake around my waist. “What are you saying?”
“I love you.”
He smiles as his lips take mine, his tongue slowly slides over my lips and someone goes to open the door and he reaches over and slams it shut. “Come back later,” he calls.
My eyes widen, he did not just do that.
“Let’s go,” he says.
“No.”
He pulls back to look at my face. “What?”
“Our guards are outside. If you want this to legitimately work and for us to go undetected, you are going to go home to Milan today. We can’t be seen together, there can be no sign that we are a couple. Move into the apartment and get things ready and in place.”
His eyes search mine.
“I’ll come on Friday.”
“You’ll move on Friday? This Friday,” he confirms.
“Yes.” It’s perfect timing actually, I already have permission to work from home.
He kisses me again, this time with more urgency, he glances over to the door.