“Oh…”

“Marcello suggested I talk honestly with you, but I have been doing that for days now and it does no good.”

“Honest communication is necessary to a strong relationship.” But the person you were communicating with had to believe you and not second-guess your motives…like she had been doing with his.

Could it be true? Did he love her? She’d been wrong about so many things and so had he, but he apparently wanted to fix his shortcomings. He wanted her to feel loved.

“That is what Flavia said, but Papa thinks you need proof. Again, I did not find that very useful. I do not know what proof to give you.”

She actually smiled at the disgruntled tone in his voice. “Your brothers had no suggestions for that?”

“As I said, nothing I could use.”

“Bed is not the only place to express love.” But she saw now that it had been the place he had been most comfortable doing so.

“I know this. I reserved all my affection and the release of my emotions for the bedroom, but that only convinced you your primary use to me was as a bedmate. And it isn’t, amore. Please believe that you have always mattered to me on every level a woman can impact a man. I could slice out my own tongue for some of the things I said after you told me you thought we needed a divorce. You believed every one of them too easily, but then you could not believe me when I told you they were prompted by temper and hurt, not truth. I had been too negligent as a husband and had convinced you too strongly of my lack of feelings for you to easily believe I have them for you now. I did not realize any of this until it was too late.”

“Too late?”

“I woke up to many things too late.” The sadness in his voice was too real, too deep to ignore.

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He really did love her. He hadn’t realized it and in typical Claudio fashion, had been intent on not being controlled by his emotions. But he realized it now and he was hurting.

Just as she had been hurting.

She felt like his agony was inside her own heart. And conversely, she thought that if she asked…he would say he could also feel the pain that had been causing more internal hemorrhaging inside her than the endometriosis. Because he loved her and her pain was his pain.

The evidence had been there all along, but she’d attributed every motive under the sun except the true one…that he loved her.

She turned on her side to face him fully and reached up to press the button above their bed that turned on dim lights. They cast a golden glow over his features, revealing glittery dark orbs and telltale wetness on his temple.

She reached out and touched it, unable to believe that he was crying for her. Men like Claudio did not cry. Not ever.

“It isn’t too late,” she whispered.

The big body curled so protectively around hers went rigid, his gorgeous face contorted with a hope it was painful for her to see. “It is not?”

“No.”

“Wha…” He swallowed and took a deep breath and then let it out. “What exactly are you trying to say here?”

“I wondered what made Danette so special…why she could be loved by her parents, by Marcello, but I was destined not to be loved by the people that mattered most to me.”

“Danette is special, but, Therese…to me you are infinitely more precious. I do love you and I will spend the rest of my life proving it. Your parents are two rather stupid people.”

“They aren’t. They’re both very smart.”

“Not when it comes to love. You are incredible and to have you in my life is my greatest blessing. That they could not recognize that very thing makes them idiots.”

“You didn’t recognize it as first…”

“I did, but I did not label the feelings you evoked in me love because to my mind that made me dangerously vulnerable.”

“Like your father.”

“Sì.”

“We all learn things from our parents.”

“But we can unlearn them, too. I have. I love you, Therese, and that does not make me a fool or weak. It gives me strength and it fills me with pleasure when I think of one day sharing that love with you. And we will, Therese. Because even if you won’t tell me what it is my brothers do, I will figure it out and I will do it and you will know you are loved.”

“You want to stay married to me even if it means not having your own son inherit the throne of Isole dei Re.”

“Sì. This is true. You finally believe me?”

“Oh, I believe you…” And the belief was making her giddy. “I love you, Claudio. Yesterday, today and forever.”

The hand curled around her hip convulsed, grabbing her in an almost painful grip. “You can’t.”




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