I huffed. “I’m going to change and clean up, and then return with something to eat for you. In the meantime, please pull your mind out of the gutter.”
Matteo winked. I stifled a smile and slipped out of the room. Aria and Luca were in the dining area, talking in hushed voices. Of course, I knew exactly what they were discussing.
Aria noticed me first and fell silent. After a couple of seconds of silent scrutiny, she smiled brightly at me. Luca didn’t share her enthusiasm though. I ignored him. “Could you give me some of your clothes? I really need to change and shower.”
Luca raised his eyebrows. “Do you need to make yourself presentable so you can leave?”
I met his gaze. “I’m not leaving. Not ever again.”
Aria was practically bouncing when she stepped up to me and linked our arms.
“We’ll see,” Luca said simply. Aria shot him a glare before she led me upstairs toward their dressing room.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s protective of Matteo,” Aria murmured. She pulled jeans and a long-sleeved shirt from her drawers and handed them to me.
Luca’s protectiveness of Aria and Matteo was one of the few things I liked about him. “I know. I haven’t given him any reason to trust me with his brother.”
Aria watched me curiously as I undressed. “So will you move back into Matteo’s apartment?”
I paused on my way to the bathroom. It wasn’t as if I had already settled somewhere else. I hadn’t even started considering where to live after I’d moved out. “Yes. I will move back in and be his wife. Probably not a good wife, but it’s not like Matteo didn’t know that when he married me.”
“Matteo doesn’t expect you to be a perfect wife. He likes you for who you are, flaws and all.”
It was the truth, even if I’d been blind to it for so long. I stepped into the shower but didn’t immediately turn the water on.
Aria sank down on the edge of the bathtub. “Are you sure you can do the same? Accept all of him, even the bad?”
There was plenty of bad in Matteo, in every Made Man really, but I’d come to realize that there was in me as well. Maybe not as much, but it was there. It was in all of us. I’d tried to become someone else, some kind of ideal I’d thought I needed to be, but that had never been me and never would. Matteo had held up a mirror to my face and showed me who I really was and where I belonged. I’d hated it, had fought it tooth and nail, but it was time to be brave.
“Yes. I love him, the bad and the good,” I said firmly. Aria smiled as if I’d given her some huge present. Smiling back, I turned the water on, and really let the words sink in, their truthfulness.
I’d never be okay with everything Matteo did, would never do even half of the things he had done and was going to do in the future. But I’d realized I didn’t have to be happy about every aspect of his life. As long as Matteo treated me with care and respect, as long as he loved me, and I loved him, things would work out.
I’d stand by him and support him as best as I could, because he was mine and I was his.
EPILOGUE
Gianna
It was late April and today was the first warm day of the year. The temperature had finally climbed over 70°F. The ocean was still too cold to swim in it, but I didn’t care.
I wasn’t sure what it was about the beach and the ocean breeze that made me feel free. I stormed down the vast lawn of the Vitiello mansion toward the bay. Matteo was close behind me, and catching up judging from his steps. I sped up even more, not daring to throw a glance over my shoulder to check.
My feet hit the sand. It wasn’t exactly warm; the water would be worse, but I didn’t slow. I stormed right toward the soft waves. The moment my calves hit the water my breath caught in my throat and I stumbled to a stop. This was definitely still too cold to swim. I almost fell forward because of my momentum. Teeth chattering, I was about to back out again when warm hands gripped my waist and lifted me up.
“No! Don’t you dare!” I screamed.
Matteo chuckled and then I was thrown through the air and landed with a splash in the freezing water. My muscles seized for a moment, then I burst through the surface and panted for breath. I scowled at Matteo who was grinning at me. He was up to his stomach in the water and didn’t seem to mind the cold. “You bastard,” I brought out through my chattering teeth.
My entire body started shaking. I wrapped my arms around my chest to make a show out of my freezing. Matteo’s brows drew together and he came toward me, actually looking worried. The moment he was in arm’s reach, I attacked. I lunged at him, grasping his shoulders and trying to dunk him under the water.
I should have considered how used Matteo was to physical fights. He used my momentum to catapult me up and swing me over his shoulder. “Hey!” I shouted in protest but he only clapped my butt and started carrying me out of the ocean. “Where are you taking me?”
“We need to warm you up,” he said wickedly.
Excitement jolted through me but I made a show out of kicking my legs and hammering my fists against his back. He carried me to the right toward a corner of the lawn that was shielded from the mansion by bushes. A blanket had been set up. He had planned this!
He laid me down on the blanket and hovered over me. My body was covered in goose bumps, and not just from the cold.
“How about I lick every drop
