Marco pulled the Mercedes to a stop in front of the guesthouse and shifted into park, illuminating the dark cottage.

For a moment, I sat still in the passenger seat and stared at the stone structure, searching for any sign Natalie had changed her mind and come back, but no lights flipped on inside the house. No curtains moved indicating anyone was inside. The place was as cold and silent and empty as I felt. A realization that sent my mood spiraling even darker.

“You sure you don’t want to stay up at the main house?” Marco asked, turning off the ignition. “Plenty of guest rooms.”

“You worried about me being alone?”

“Maybe.”

I huffed. Not maybe. Definitely. “I’m fine here. I’ll probably just fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow,” I lied.

“Luc—”

I pushed my door open and climbed out, not wanting advice or a pep talk or any kind of heart-to-heart that would only make me feel worse. Marco followed, closing his door with a frown as he tossed me the keys. “Offer’s still open if you change your mind at any time.”

I wouldn’t.

I caught the keys and pushed them into my pocket. Marco turned to walk up to the main house but stopped several steps up the hill and looked back. “You did the right thing. I know it sucks, but it’s better in the long run.”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t know how to answer.

“Get some sleep, Luc.” Marco turned back for the main house. “You look like shit.”

As his footsteps faded in the distance, I drew a deep breath and climbed the porch steps. Inside, the house was just as quiet as it had looked from the car, and as I moved through the dark living room into the bedroom, all I could think about was Natalie—sitting on the couch reading one of the magazines I’d brought her, eating at the table in the kitchen, standing at the window gazing out at the view, sound asleep and looking like an angel in that big bed...

I stopped in the doorway to the bedroom and stared at the empty bed, which she’d made sometime during the day. The comforter was smooth and perfect, the pillows stacked decoratively against the headboard. My mind skipped back to the way it had looked last night when I’d carried her in here from the couch—messy sheets, pillows askew, my body pinning her to the mattress as I held her hands above her head and kissed her. As I forced her to kiss me back.

“Say you can’t live without me the way I can’t live without you.”

“Dammit. I do need you. I only need you.”

My eyes burned, and I blinked quickly, looking away from the bed. A sparkle caught my attention from across the room. Still blinking to keep the tears at bay, I narrowed my gaze on the shimmering object only to realize it was her ring. Sitting on the top of my dresser.

A hole opened up inside me. One that was so wide and dark and empty, I was afraid it would suck me in and completely consume me. Unable to breathe, I turned quickly out of the room, crossed the dark living space, and didn’t draw a full gulp of air until I was standing on the porch with the front door closed tightly at my back.

I couldn’t stay in this cottage without Natalie. I wouldn’t risk going up to the main house and Marco seeing my pathetic breakdown. The only place I could think to go was somewhere I didn’t really want to be. But I didn’t have any other options, and if I stayed here—

Thoughts of Natalie climbing over me on the couch last night filled my mind again, making that burn reignite behind my eyes.

Shit, if I stayed here, I was going to completely fucking lose it, which I couldn’t let happen because Dante still needed me.

Before I could change my mind, I tugged Marco’s keys from my pocket and jogged down the porch steps.

Then I climbed into the vehicle and told myself Marco was right. I’d done the right thing by letting Natalie go. In the long run, it was better for her, better for my House, better for everyone that I was unattached.

Even if I knew it would never be better for me.

I spent at least an hour with Dante in the Tomb—probably longer, though I had no concept of time.

My brother was no longer feverish, but he was still under the influence of whatever drugs they were giving him. I’d brought him food, which he didn’t eat, and fresh water, which he barely drank. His bruises looked better, not quite so purple and the edges fading to yellow in some spots, but I feared for what lay ahead of him. I still hadn’t figure out how the hell I was going to get him to defend himself before the Thirteen on Saturday, not in his current state. And unless I spent every single moment with him between now and then, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t shoot him up with something to keep him comatose.

The fact I had nothing to leave him for trickled through my mind, but I tried not to think about that too much. If they wanted him drugged, they’d find a way to drug him whether I was here or not. My best course of action would be to spend my time searching for Maricella. Once I found her, I could convince him to pull himself together—for her sake. Marco’s men still hadn’t had any luck tracking her down, but I had nothing but time now. Time to find her and set at least one part of this nightmare right.

I pulled Dante’s blanket over his shoulders where he lay on the floor next to me, finally asleep. Cringing at the ache in my legs, I pushed to my feet, then crossed to the cell door and quietly called for the guard. At this point, the guards were used to me coming and going and barely spared me a glance. Outside the old church, I drew a deep breath in the moonlight, cursing my luck it was still night, and climbed into the car.

Forty-five minutes later, I pulled to a stop in front of the guesthouse once more and killed the engine. The place was still dark and silent, and even though I was exhausted and needed sleep, it was the last place I wanted to be. Climbing out, I pocketed the keys and decided maybe in the daylight, I could face the empty cottage, but not now. So I bypassed the front door, walked around to the back of the house, and headed for the long dock that stretched thirty feet out over the dark lake.

Water lapped gently against the wooden posts. Moonlight reflected off the surface of the lake, making it look almost like glass. When I reached the end of the dock, I lowered myself to the boards and let my legs swing over the side, gripping the wood at my sides as I looked down at the dark liquid rippling below my shoes.

For a moment, I considered sliding into that water, letting it bubble above my head, losing myself in that darkness I’d been fighting for so long. Then I thought about the fact the water probably wasn’t very deep here, that giving up wasn’t going to help matters, especially Dante, and that fighting—even if I never seemed to be able to win—was the only damn thing I knew how to do.

“Cazzo,” I whispered, staring at the water, thinking about Natalie and where she might be by now. Giving in sounded pretty fucking tempting. Especially when the thought of facing all the shit alone no longer held any kind of appeal for me.

“Don’t jump,” a familiar voice said softly at my back. “I won’t be able to save you.”

My heart sped up, and I twisted to look over my shoulder, then jerked to my feet when I spotted the woman I’d just been thinking about standing on the far end of the dock.

“What...? How...?”

Natalie was still wearing that insanely tight leather dress and was as barefoot as she’d been when she’d climbed into that car. But she’d thrown a light sweater over her shoulders, and she’d lost the wig so now her soft curls framed her face and hung down past her shoulders, making her look every bit the angel I remembered.

I crossed toward her, unsure what she was doing, why she’d come back, unsure about everything except for the fact…she was here.

“Are you all right? Did something happen?”

“No, I’m not all right.” She stepped up onto the dock. “You let me go.”

My brow dropped as her statement echoed in my head. “Of course I did. It’s what you asked me to do.”

“Yes”—she took another step toward me—“but I asked you to let me go when we were on your island and you didn’t. Why this time? What was different now?”

I wasn’t entirely sure why this mattered. “When we were on the island, I knew you were mad, but I thought some part of you still wanted to be with me. Tonight, I finally realized you don’t.”

“But I do.”

I blinked, sure I’d heard her wrong. She stepped even closer, until that grapefruit and vanilla scent swirled all around me, but I didn’t reach out. Because if she wasn’t real and this was just a dream, I didn’t want to wake.

“Tell me the truth,” she said softly, looking up at me in the moonlight. “You said I was safe with you, as your wife, that your House couldn’t touch me. Is that still true?”

My heart picked up speed until it was a whir in my ears, but I was still too afraid to get my hopes up. “Yes. I have a meeting with the Knights in a couple of days. Once our marriage paperwork is validated—which it will be—you’re completely safe. It’s just the interim period until then when you need to be careful.”

“So when you said they’re afraid of me—”

“I meant it. They’re afraid of you because they know as soon as our marriage is validated, you’re untouchable.”

“But you’re not.”

I wasn’t sure what she was getting at.

She moved even closer, until her body heat washed over mine, making me light-headed, making me itch to reach out and grab her. But I didn’t, because if that wasn’t what she was here for—

“How do I keep you safe?” she asked softly. “How do I make sure they don’t steal you away from me and that you’ll always only be mine?”

My heart contracted. It was the same conversation we’d had in that dungeon room. When she’d told me she couldn’t live with the secrets, with the uncertainty, with the things the men in my house were subjected to. “You love me.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s all you’ve ever had to do. As long as I know you love me, they can’t influence me. They can’t make me one of them. And they’ll never be able to break us. Our love is stronger than them because it comes from a place of light, angioletto. It comes from you.”

Tears filled her eyes. “No, it comes from us.”

For a heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe. And then she reached for my hand with her silky soft fingers, and said, “Okay.”

My heart nearly stopped. “Okay?”

“Okay, here’s what I want. No more deception—intentional or otherwise. No more secrets. No more keeping me in the dark. I don’t want to know everything—I don’t think I could handle being privy to the illegal things your father’s doing with his businesses—but if something directly impacts you or me or us, then I need to know what that is. And no more protecting me from things you think may hurt me or add stress to my life. We’re partners. If something affects you, it affects me. I can’t keep you safe if I don’t know what’s happening.”

My breath caught. “Are you saying—?”

“I’m saying...” She moved into me, let go of my hand, and trailed her fingertips up my chest until tingles and heat were all I felt. “I realized halfway to Milan that loving you isn’t a choice. It’s my life. And if I don’t have you, I don’t have a life. You swept into my world like a hurricane and completely upended everything, and I can’t go back to the way things were before you. I don’t want to. I want you and me and this crazy marriage for however long it lasts. I’m willing to risk everything for it. Just as long as you feel the same way.”

“Ah, Dio.” The power of her words encircled my fractured heart, gathered all the shattered pieces, and fused them back together. Lifting my hands to her face, I lowered my head toward hers and whispered, “Lo voglio. I love you, Natalie. Only you.”

She pushed to her toes and brushed her lips against mine. And, unable to hold back, I opened at the first touch, tasting her sweetness, drawing her into my heat, kissing her again and again as I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer, frantic to consume her, to climb inside her, to never ever let her go again.

“You’re mine, angioletto,” I whispered between kisses. “All mine, and I’m yours.”

“Prove it.”

I groaned and grew instantly hard, aching with the need to prove just how much I did love her, right this very second.

“Prove it by marrying me.”

I drew back a breath from her lips, sure I’d heard her wrong—again. But when I looked down, the challenging sparkle in her eyes brought everything to a standstill.

Slowly, with her gaze locked on mine in the moonlight, she dropped to her knees in front of me on the dock and tugged something shiny from the pocket of her white sweater. “I know that technically we’re already married, but I don’t remember the ceremony or the vows. And I want to. I want to stand up in front of a priest or a minister or a judge or a rabbi—I don’t care which—and I want to remember saying in front of anyone who will listen, that I choose you. That I choose us.”

She lifted the object in her hand, and when it sparkled, I realized it was a ring. The ring I’d bought for her that she’d left sitting on my dresser.

“Would you marry me again, Luciano Salvatici? I promise this time, I won’t try to run away.”

I could barely breathe. This woman had brought me to my knees once before. In Venice, after I’d been a complete and utter jackass and tried to push her out of my life. Then she’d given me her body. But tonight...tonight she was giving me everything. Not just her body, but her unfailing trust. And the power of that trust—the love that fueled it—buckled my legs and dropped me to my knees in front of her.

“Natalie...” I reached for her, cupping her face again, tugging her gently toward me, pressing my forehead to hers as her love spun around me like a vortex, so pure, so warm, so perfect, exactly like her. “Oh, angioletto.” I kissed her, holding her so close, she became part of me. Part of everything I was and ever would be. “Ti amo di più.” I kissed her again, trembling from the love I felt for her, from the raw certainty that this was meant to last. And that I would prove that to her until my dying breath.

I brushed the hair back from her face with both hands and looked down at her. “I should be asking you that question.”

“Well, you kind of skipped that part last time, so I figured...one of us should ask it.”

The smile I heard in her voice tugged one side of my lips up. “I did, didn’t I?”

When she nodded, I pressed my lips to hers, very gently, then tilted her face up so her eyes met mine. “I didn’t know what love was until you came into my life. I thought it was a fairy tale. Something intangible found only in books. I certainly never learned it from my parents. But you changed all that. You changed everything with your mesmerizing smile and your sweet, unfailing compassion. You taught me how to love, and you saved me. You saved me from something I never wanted to be. Every single day you make me want to be better than I am. I’m nothing without you, Natalie.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “Marry me, angioletto. Be my wife, for real this time. Say yes, and I will spend eternity proving to you that this love—you and me—is all that matters. Say you’ll be only mine forever.”

“Oh, Luc.” She lifted her soft fingers to my face and skimmed them over the stubble on my jaw. “Everything I am, everything inside me, it’s already yours. I gave you my heart long before I ever realized I had. And I don’t want it back. I want you. I want us. It might have taken my head a while to catch up with my heart, but I already know our love is the only thing in this world that matters. And everything I’ve always dreamt of.”

Her lips lifted to mine, and as she wrapped her arms around my neck and drew me into the heat and life of her warm, wet mouth, I lost myself in her. I lost everything in her, never needing to be found again. This woman, this amazing, strong, beautiful woman who had captivated me from the very start, wore her courage like a crown, and tonight—finally—she’d become my queen. My queen, my life, my soul...the very heart of me.

“Is that a yes?” I mumbled against her lips, not wanting to let her go even for a second, even to answer, but suddenly needing—aching—to hear that one little word.

“Sì.” She laughed, the sound tickling my mouth and sending a rush of warmth straight into my chest. “Yes. Forever and ever, yes.”

“Grazie a Dio.” I took the ring from her hand, slid it over her tattoo—right back where it belonged—then pushed to my feet and lifted her in my arms. “Hold on to me, angioletto. I need to get you off this dock and into a bed.”

“I’m on a dock?” Her fingernails dug into my shoulders, and her body tensed as she wrapped her legs around me.

I turned toward the shore with a chuckle. “You love me so much you didn’t even realize you were out over water?”

“I clearly lost my mind.”

Smiling, I stepped off the dock and onto the grass. “Clearly. If you chose me.”

She tightened her arms around my shoulders and slid one hand up into my hair, flexing her body against mine as I walked. “I’ll always choose you, polpetto.”

A laugh erupted from my chest at her word choice, and I pressed my fingers against her ribs as she kissed me. “I’m a meatball now, huh?”

She giggled and squirmed in my arms. “Did I call you a meatball? My Italian needs work. I meant to say patatino.”

“Little potato isn’t an improvement.” I tickled her again.

She shrieked and twisted, shifting her center off balance, causing my hold on her to slip. Realizing she was going down, I quickly twisted and grabbed her so I fell back in the grass and she landed on top of me.

She shifted her weight to her knees. “Are you all right?”

Was I all right? I’d never been better. I lifted one hand to her cheek, then slid my fingers into her hair and tugged her mouth down to mine. “I will be when you kiss me.”

She sighed and pressed her mouth to mine, and I opened, sliding my tongue between her lips to taste her all over again.

Heat and life. I groaned as she invaded my senses and her sweet body stretched out on mine in the moonlight. She was everything I’d never wanted and the only thing I couldn’t live without. And part of me still couldn’t believe she’d come back. That she’d chosen me.

She kissed me deeper. Pressed the heat between her sexy legs right over my aching cock. Groaning, I rocked up against her, desperate to feel all of her against me, to slide inside her, to make her mine all over again.

“Mm, Luc...” Her fingertips clawed at my shirt, tugged it from my waistband, then worked the buttons free as she kissed me again and again. “I need you. Right now.”

God, I needed to her too. Couldn’t wait. I wrapped both arms around her waist and pushed up to sitting while she continued to drive me mad with her lips. “Condoms are inside. Just have to get there.”

“Uh-uh.” She let go of me, wriggled out of her sweater, and tossed it on the grass beside us. Gripping my face in her hands, she kissed me again and said, “I want you naked. Right here. I don’t want to wait.”

This woman had already rocked my world. But here on the grass in the moonlight, she absolutely melted every part of me. “Are you sure?”

Her soft fingertip trailed down my cheek, leaving a line of heat in its wake. “Absolutely. I trust you. Completely.”

We both knew she wasn’t talking about pregnancy or her health or even her safety. She was trusting me with her heart, something part of me hadn’t ever truly thought she’d trust me with after all the ways I’d deceived her.

My vision blurred with all the emotions swirling inside me. “I love you, angioletto. I love you more than you will ever know.”

“Show me.” She shifted her hips back, just enough so she could reach between us, flick the button at my waist free, and slide her hand into my pants.

I groaned as she wrapped her warm fingers around my cock and stroked. Sucked in a breath when she did it again.

My hands rushed to the hem of her short dress and jerked it up her hips. While she continued to kiss me, to taunt me with her tight grip, I reached between her legs, found the scrap of her thong, and ripped it in two.

“Cazzo,” I breathed against her lips. “Stop teasing me and take me already.”

She pushed my pants farther down my hips, freeing my cock completely. Cool air washed over me, then heat was all I felt as she straddled my aching length. Heat and the slick, wet grip of her pussy as she lowered and took me in.

“Ah, sì.” I flexed my hips, driving myself deeper inside her, groaning at how perfect she felt. Bare. Skin to skin. Nothing between us. “Dammelo, angioletto. You are so fucking beautiful.”

“Luc...” She tightened around me, lifted and lowered, driving me mad with every slide and contraction of her slippery core. Her hot breath fanned my lips. “More. I want more.”

I wanted more too. Wrapping one arm around her waist, I held her close, thrusting higher every time she came down on me, striking that spot so far inside I knew made her wild.

She groaned and tossed her head back, riding me faster. I kissed the sexy column of her throat, sank my teeth into her sweet skin, then suckled. Her pussy spasmed around my length, and she groaned long and deep, then gripped both sides of my face and kissed me. Hard. “Oh, yes. That’s the spot. Right there. Love me right there.”

All my focus zeroed in on that one command. On her, so tight and wet and mine.

I flipped her to her back, shoved her knees to her chest, and plunged inside her again and again, getting as deep as I possibly could, wanting to fill her completely—not just her body, but her mind, her heart, even her soul.

“Come for me, angioletto.” I kissed her, driving deep again and again, adding the pressure of my thumb right over her clit. “Come all around me. Take me with you.”

She groaned, wrapped her legs around my hips, and lifted every time I thrust. “I will,” she said, kissing me. “I will with you. Only with you.”

She gripped me so tight, I knew I wasn’t going to last. Tingles rushed down my spine and gathered in my balls. Unable to hold back, I flicked my thumb faster against her swollen clit. “Sto per venire,” I mumbled against her lips. “Come with me, Natalie. Come now...”

Pleasure ignited in my balls and erupted through my cock, sending a shock wave of ecstasy through my entire body. I rode the wave, continuing to thrust hard and deep inside her, and, seconds later, it hit her, causing her entire body to contract around mine and a scream to echo from her throat.

We were both sweaty and breathless when I collapsed against her. Gathering her in my arms, I rolled us to our sides. The cool grass tickled my cheek but the only thing I could feel was her slick channel still twitching around me and her hot, sexy breath rushing over my neck while she sucked in air and blew it out.

“What are you thinking?” she asked softly.

I brushed the hair back from her face and trailed my fingers down her delicate spine. “I was thinking it’s amazing how fast things can change. A few short hours ago everything seemed—”

“Hopeless?”

She’d just done it again. She’d crawled inside my mind and figured me out before I’d even realized what I was thinking.

Easing back, I looked down at her in the moonlight, awed and mesmerized by this woman. And completely fucking humbled that she loved me in spite of every one of my flaws.

“Yeah,” I whispered. “And empty. And now, thanks to you, I’ve been given a second chance.”

“We have a second chance,” she said, brushing her thumb over my bottom lip until it tingled. “You’re not the only one who made mistakes, Luc. I did too. I didn’t trust you when I should have. I won’t make that mistake again. This is our chance to do it right.”

God, I loved her. I didn’t deserve her, but now that she’d come back, I wasn’t about to let her go for anything. “A do over?”

“Yeah.” A mischievous smile curled her lips. “And speaking of do overs...” Sliding her arms around my neck, she drew my close and kissed me, rubbing her nearly naked body against mine all over again. “We definitely need to do that over.”

I chuckled. “Sex?”

“No-condom sex. That was way better than I thought it would be.”

My blood warmed. “No kidding. I’m getting hard again just thinking about how good it was. You’re lucky I didn’t know about that before.”

She pushed a hand against my chest, shoving me to my back in the grass as she braced herself on her elbow and looked down at me. “Are you saying that was your first time?”

I smiled, recognizing the victory in her eyes, loving that I’d been able to give her that. “First time ever, angioletto. I think that officially makes me yours.”

She bit her lip, glanced at my mouth, then looked back up to my eyes with a heat that told me she wasn’t the least bit sated. Not even close. “You are mine, Luc. All mine.” She climbed over me and kissed me. “Take me inside and I’ll prove it to you all night.”

I groaned against her mouth. She didn’t need to prove anything. She’d already given me more than I could have ever expected.

She’d just given me a future. And I would never let anything tear us apart again.