I’d never realized how much I wanted what I had now until I had it. I felt complete in a way I’d never even known was possible.
Marco looked away from Amelie suddenly, grinning when he caught my eye. He tipped his head forward to indicate our daughter, and I saw she’d fallen asleep in her daddy’s arms. I didn’t blame her. I knew how magically comforting those strong arms could be.
“You okay with her?” he whispered when he laid Amelie down in her crib.
I glanced down at Gracie. Her little hand rubbed her eye, and her mouth opened on a yawn. Another overwhelming rush of love traveled through me. “I’m fine. She’s going to follow her sister to dreamland soon.”
The expression in his eyes told me his heart was just as full as mine. I reached out for his hand, squeezing it tight as I smiled at him. “You never told me about that superstition your mom keeps mentioning. What is it that your family says about twin girls?”
A soft grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. He kept his voice as low as mine was, taking a seat on the bed with me. The mattress dipped at my feet where he made himself comfortable, his legs draped over the edge.
“Have you ever heard of Romulus and Remus?”
Recognition flickered at the edges of my mind, but my mental faculties weren’t quite as sharp as usual. For obvious reasons.
“Weren’t they twins in Ancient Roman times? Something like that.”
“Exactly like that.” He looped his arms around my legs, his fingers trailing up and down my calf while he spoke. “They were twins who were supposedly suckled by a gentle she-wolf before being rescued from a cave in the hills that would later form part of their Eternal City. The wolf protected the twins, which is why Italians say good luck with words that honor her.”
“In bocca al lupo,” I repeated the words I had heard from Elena too many times to count. They were burned into my brain.
“That’s the phrase, yes.” He paused when Gracie let out the most adorable snore I’d ever heard, opening his arms for me to hand her over.
Since my body felt like it had been hit by a battering ram, I didn’t try to do it myself. I watched as he laid her down next to her sister, then took his place by my feet again. Brilliant fucking man that he was, he decided to busy his hands by massaging them.
I stifled a moan, too curious to hear his story and too sore to even think about getting turned on by his touch. “So, in bocca al lupo?”
“Yep. Literally translated, it means ‘into the wolf’s mouth’ or ‘death to the wolf,’ which doesn’t make much sense when used as a good luck saying. But it comes down to wishing for someone to be protected like she protected the abandoned twins.”
“Okay, but those twins were boys. What’s the significance with girls?”
He sighed, but his mouth quirked upward. “I’m pretty sure one of my great grandmothers made this next part up. There’s a lot of mythology surrounding the wolf and her protection, but nothing about the rest of it.”
“Got you,” I said, tapping the side of my nose.
He chuckled under his breath before growing serious again. “My family believes that twin girls not only carry that extra layer of protection with them but also that they have the purest hearts. They are said to bring the kind of gentility, selflessness, and bravery without which the urge to protect wouldn’t mean a thing.”
“That’s pretty special.” My eyes drifted over to our dark-haired, hazel-eyed angels. “They’re pretty special.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, emotion swirling in the depths of his eyes. “They are, but so are you. It’s also said that only the purest heart will be able to gift those souls to the world.”
Marco slid off the bed then. I frowned at him until I saw he had landed down on one knee. My heart kicked into overdrive. The expression on his face wasn’t one I remembered seeing on him before.
The love shining from his eyes nearly floored me. My mouth dried up, and even though I was sitting down, my legs trembled.
My heart soared as I drank in his love, beating like it wanted to fly out of me and into his. Like there was a magnet in his chest pulling my heart to his.
Marco turned his face up to mine and gathered my hands in his. Unfamiliar flickers of nerves played in his eyes, but he took a deep breath, and they were gone. Everything in my world narrowed to those eyes and the babies that lay in their cribs behind him.
We’d talked about getting married, of course. Both of us knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, but we’d decided to wait until after the babies were born to discuss details. I just hadn’t realized he had meant this soon after their birth, but I was ready.
“I had this whole speech planned, but now I can’t remember a single word of it.” The emotion in his eyes made his voice hoarse. “All I can think about is how much I love you. All three of you.”
Like he had plucked my thoughts right out of my brain, he said, “You complete me. You make me happier than I’ve ever been. I don’t even mind that our bedroom looks like a baby depot.”
So he had noticed. “Or that my man cave was converted into a nursery. All I care about is you and our family. I’ve never known a woman like you. I don’t know how I got so lucky that you needed to take a breather right next to me when I was doing my best not to be seen.”
He squeezed my hands. My breath was caught in my lungs, but I squeezed him back. “This year has been filled with unbelievable highs and that one very bad low, but I don’t
