“That’s what I’m trying to accept.” She held his gaze, and he understood exactly what she was trying to tell him. “I know that I need to accept this as if our difference of opinion were something that could happen with every single property, because there will always be something that we don’t feel the same about.”
“I’m not sure we don’t feel the same way about this, Em. I’m struggling with my next step. On the one hand...” He paused, wishing like hell they were in the same room so he could touch her, feel her energy, and know they were going to be okay no matter what. When they were together she wore her emotions as if they were etched in her skin. This video call wasn’t all that different, but they were one degree further removed. And he hated that. “And on the other hand, it’s my job, and I stand up to my commitments. Always.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
EARLY SATURDAY MORNING Emily was wrapped in Adelina’s thick, capable arms. By the time Adelina finally released her from her warm embrace, Emily had tears in her eyes.
“You came to Italy in search of something. Did you find it?” Adelina looked just as she had the first time Emily had seen her, wearing a solid gray skirt and top with a pair of leather flats, her gray hair bundled on the top of her head in a loose bun. But where Adelina had greeted her with the excitement of a new guest the first time they’d met, now she regarded her with a thoughtful, serious gaze, similar to the one she’d seen her give Serafina over the past few days.
“Adelina, you are a very wise woman. When I came to Italy, maybe inside I did hope I’d find love, but it wasn’t a conscious thought, and I definitely never imagined how much I might learn about myself in the process.”
Adelina and Marcello exchanged a warm glance that spoke of a quiet understanding between them. Something secret and real. Something Emily knew came from years of marriage, and it made her want that with Dae. Inside jokes and the ability to finish each other’s sentences without ever uttering a word.
Adelina held out her palm. In the center was a necklace with a silver charm in the shape of an olive tree.
“Marcello and I want you to have this.” She placed it in Emily’s hand and folded her fingers over the top. “No matter what happens to the Casa Dei Desideri, or the tree we love, you’ve born witness to the legacy. It will always be in your heart.”
“Adelina.” Emily’s words stuck in her throat. She blinked away fresh tears. “Thank you. I don’t know what will happen, but thank you for letting me join that part of your life and your community.”
Serafina stepped between Adelina and Emily with Luca on her hip. “Emily, you’re going to make me cry so much Luca will need a change of clothes.” She laughed as she wrapped her free arm around Emily and hugged her.
“I hope Dante comes home.” Emily leaned down and touched Luca’s cheek. He smiled and reached for her. Emily hugged him, hoping her doubts about Dante being found were wrong. “I’m going to miss all of you.” She handed Luca back to Serafina and embraced Marcello.
“We look forward to you and Dae returning,” Marcello said.
He was already giving her and Dae a future, too.
By the time she finally drove away, they were all in tears.
As the plane descended toward the Denver Airport, it seemed like only an hour ago that they were saying goodbye instead of more than twelve hours. She fingered the charm necklace Adelina had given her and thought about how it had felt like she was leaving part of her family behind. Even the villa she’d stayed in now felt like a home away from home. She could still hardly believe that she and Dae had met in the villa that she’d dreamed of visiting for so many years.
Her mind had spun with a combination of Dae’s words—It’s my job, and I stand up to my commitments. Always—and with her mother’s—If it’s true love, he won’t need to change a thing about himself or what he believes in. And neither will you—for the entire flight. Both statements were true. What did it say about her that she had even hoped that he would forgo his commitment because she’d fallen in love with what the property meant to the community and the myth attached to it?
She didn’t like the taste of self-loathing as it slid down her throat.
No, she wouldn’t beat herself up. She did have a big heart, and she shouldn’t be ashamed of that. Emily had always believed she was mature beyond her years, but during the last forty-eight hours she realized that she still had growing up to do. She needed to learn to put that big heart of hers into perspective.
As she followed the other passengers off the plane, she wrestled with her uncomfortable thoughts, which were battling her racing heart for her attention. She was about to see Dae in person for the first time since he’d left Italy. It might have been only a couple of days, but it felt like a lifetime to Emily. Her palms were beginning to sweat, and her stomach felt like she’d swallowed a nest of bees.
She wished the people ahead of her would walk faster. Didn’t they know Dae was waiting for her? After days of trying to understand her thoughts, she’d finally realized that her issue wasn’t with what Dae did for a living at all. There would always be another house, another property. And if they stayed together forever, as she hoped they would, then there would most likely, at some point, be some other intangible thing attached to a structure that they wouldn’t see eye to eye on.
I can’t control what anyone else does.
Things aren’t black-and-white.
There would always be outcomes she couldn’t change, and as she fingered the olive tree charm, she knew that myths didn’t become powerful because of what they were attached to. They were powerful because people believed in them.
She didn’t really want Dae to change. She just wanted to know that he’d be thoughtful about his decisions and maybe take into consideration how it might affect the community. She needed to know that he’d think things through on every level, not just the physical, but the emotional. And he didn’t need to make the same decisions she might make. She just needed to know that he cared enough to make his final decisions, whatever they were, after careful consideration of all aspects. And last night when he’d said he was clearly struggling, too, she’d known that he was doing just that.
She realized that the real question she should have been asking herself wasn’t if she could live with a man who might tear down something she’d come to love. The real question was, could she accept—forever and with her whole heart—that Dae was a confident, successful man who had more important and more viable things to base his career decisions on than her hopes and dreams?
The people ahead of her slowed as they entered the terminal and greeted their loved ones. She went up on her toes, scanning the sea of faces in search of Dae. Her heart hammered against her chest as her eyes bounced from one dark-headed male to the next. It was the flip of his chin that caught her attention. Tears sprang to her eyes as their gazes locked, and she drank in his easy smile, which contradicted his purposeful gait as he strode through the crowd, parting people like the Red Sea. She felt her pulse quicken at the sight of his tight black T-shirt and jeans, which clung to his thick thighs as he blazed a path toward her. Her heart was spinning out of control in an effort to reach him. Dae was what her heart desired. He was what she wanted, needed, and craved. Before Dae, she’d only been existing. Once he’d held her, kissed her, and opened himself to her, he’d opened her heart and she’d finally experienced what it was like to love and be loved. She’d finally begun to live.
THE MINUTE HE saw her, nothing else existed. The people who separated them, the noise of the crowd, the announcements of other flights boarding all fell away. There was only Emily, standing at the edge of the terminal, her deep brown eyes sailing over the people between them. His legs moved before he had time to process anything other than Emily. He was consumed with her, had been since the moment he first set eyes on her in Italy. Her eyes caught on his as he closed in on her, and for a beat, he felt himself smile, almost forgot to breathe. And then she was folded in his arms. The pillow
s of her breasts pressed against his chest, her lips on his, her legs—oh, those gloriously supple legs—wrapped around his waist as their bodies and mouths found each other. He didn’t need to think; he only needed to be when he was with Emily. Finally, after an interminable two days, she was in his arms again, her hands fisting in his hair and her loving mouth on his. Exactly where she belonged.
“Excuse me?”
The deep male voice brought Dae back to reality. The people behind Emily were trying to move past them. And there they were, making out like teenagers in the middle of the airport terminal. He didn’t give a fuck what anyone else thought, but he worried Emily might after she realized they were on display and she was clinging to him like…well, like a woman in love.
“Sorry.” Dae smiled against her lips. She was breathing hard, staring into his eyes and smiling like she was never going to stop.
“Don’t say anything,” she said, and pressed her lips to his again, then replaced her lips with her finger, keeping him mum.
“Not a word until I get this out, okay?”
He opened his mouth, took her finger between his lips and nodded.
She visibly swallowed hard as he twirled his tongue around her slender finger. If she was going to put it that close to his mouth, who was he not to act on what he wanted? Besides, he loved the way her body reacted to him, as it was now, her thighs tightening around his waist, her nipples hardening against his chest. He couldn’t have put her down if he wanted to. He didn’t care who was watching or what they heard. He needed Emily in his life, and at that moment, he wanted her in his arms.
“I don’t want you to change your plans with the house.” Her words fell fast and urgent from her lips.
Plans…house…What are you talking about?
His mind was still processing how good she felt in his arms. He blinked through the desires coursing through his body and forced himself to focus. The house. The House of Wishes. Okay, got it.
“I don’t want you to change one thing about yourself or how you do business or anything. I love you for who you are, and I trust your decisions.”
“Emily.” Her name rolled off his tongue with familiarity. She’d consumed his thoughts since he’d been home, and now it was all coming together with an overwhelming surge of emotions.
“No, let me finish,” she pleaded.
She licked her lips, and he felt himself get hard.
“Em…” He loosened his grip and she clung tighter to him.
“I’m not letting go. You can carry me like this to the luggage area. You can carry me like this to the car. I’m not getting off of you until you hear what I have to say, and I don’t want to talk about it. I just wanted you to know.”
She was saying exactly what he’d hoped had been true the whole time. “So you climbed me like a tree and wrapped your little baboon arms around my neck, clinging to me so I can’t leave you.”
She smiled, looking so damn beautiful and confident that he never wanted to put her down. “Not that I ever would leave you.” He touched his forehead to hers. “I know, babe.”
“Of course you do. I just told you. That was the point.”
“No, baby. I knew you weren’t asking me to change before I even left Italy.”
She narrowed her eyes. “How could you? I didn’t even know.”
“I saw the truth of who you were the first day we met, Emily Braden. You’re guided by that generous heart of yours, and everything else follows. Sometimes your head tries to take over, but…” He kissed her again. “But it’s your heart that drives you. I knew you loved me for who I was and who I am, and I knew that wouldn’t change. Now I’m going to put you down so we don’t get arrested, because another few seconds of feeling you against me and I’m going to have to take you. Right here. In the middle of the airport. With all the gawking eyes and everything.”
She laughed as he set her on her feet.
“Hand or arm?”
“Body.” She slid her arm around his waist and tucked herself against him.
He kissed the top of her head as they walked toward the luggage area. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
“Me too.”
He felt like the luckiest man on earth.
“Dae?”
“Yeah?”
She kept her eyes trained on the floor. “Have you decided what you’re going to do about the property?”
“Yes.”
“So, I guess your meeting went well with your client after all?”
“No. It was shitty. He wouldn’t budge.” They stood by the luggage pickup area waiting for the luggage to be unloaded. He felt Emily tense against him.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. It sucked.”
She moved in front of him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressed her cheek to his chest. “Well, some people don’t have the same emotional connections as others. You probably couldn’t have changed his mind no matter what you said.”
“Yes. You’re absolutely right.”
“So, when will you go back to…do the job?”
“That depends.”
She gazed up at him.
“On when you’re free.”
She wrinkled her brow in confusion. “I’d love to go back with you. Maybe I can squeeze in a long weekend in a few weeks. It would be nice to see Adelina and the others again and to officially say goodbye to the House of Wishes.”
The baggage carousel rumbled to life. When Emily’s bags appeared, Dae lifted them from the rack, tossed one bag over his shoulder, grabbed the handle of her large suitcase, and reached for her hand.
“Do you have a deadline for the project?” she asked. “I’ll have to check my calendar.”
“Deadline?” He nodded, as if thinking it over. “That guy Frank was a real prick.”
“That sucks. Maybe he was having a bad day.”
He kept his eyes trained on the exit as he spoke. “Nah. It’s who he is. Since I couldn’t dissuade him from tearing it down, I bought it.”
She stopped cold, nearly tripping him in the process. “You…” She blinked several times, her lips curved into a nervous smile, then formed a worried frown. “You said you always stand up to your commitments. Always. Dae, I didn’t mean to do this. This is terrible. You’ve let your client down, and it’s my fault.”
Her eyes clouded over and her brows knitted together, as if she were caught between anger and gratitude. He pulled her close so they were thigh to thigh, chest to chest. He needed her to understand. As much as he wished this decision had been made only for her, it hadn’t.
“Baby, I kept my commitments. Plural. My commitment to Frank was to assess the property, not to demolish it. I did that. And I made a commitment to you that I would never do the wrong thing. And I didn’t.”
“I don’t understand. I didn’t mean to force you into this.”
“You didn’t, baby. This was a business decision. I researched the property, and I researched the myth, which as far as I could uncover, spans at least a hundred years. Don’t you see, Em? You opened my eyes to the myth, but you didn’t force my hand. I just made the decision that felt right.”
“But…”
“No buts. The first time I saw the house, two women rode up on bicycles to visit the tree. I remember thinking that they seemed so at home, they must have lived there, until I saw them hugging that tree. And then you told me about what Adelina had said, and after I got home, I started reaching out to people I know who have relatives in that area. When you sent the pictures of the house with all those women there, that’s what really drove the magnitude of what I was contemplating home for me.”
A slow smile spread across her lips. “So, you own it?”
“Not yet, but soon. The deal is signed, but there are still legal steps to take. Quite frankly, I think my client was glad to be done with it. He’s decided to buy his wife something in the States instead.” He took her hand and led her out toward the parking lot. “Now we just have to figure out what to do wit
h it.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
EMILY GAZED OUT the window of her hillside home in Trusty, Colorado, wondering how she could have thought that the view from the vineyard in Chianti had appeared so similar to Colorado. Her view from the window overlooked her plush lawn and beautifully landscaped gardens surrounding the patio in her backyard, much like her view from the balcony of the villa in Tuscany. Sure, there were similarities, but the feel of Colorado was different from the feel of Italy. Of course, with Dae by her side, the feel of Colorado was about a million times better than it had been before she left, but the minute Dae had turned down her street she’d felt the familiar rush of panic from having been away. There would be emails to tend to, clients to placate, mail to handle, and every second that passed pushed her further behind. It was those feelings that made Colorado feel so very different from Italy. Real life versus vacation. Could she find a way to recapture that sense of relaxation and happiness without failing in her business?
She felt the warmth of Dae’s strong arms circle her waist from behind, his stubbly cheek pressed against hers. She closed her eyes and inhaled his sweet masculine scent. The essence of him seeped into her body, embraced her heart, then burned a path southward. She wanted to find a middle ground. Desperately. She didn’t want anything to steal what they had.
“Good to be home?” he asked.
Her thoughts shifted to what he’d said at the airport. Now we just have to figure out what to do with it. We, not I. We. We was a powerful word. So powerful that even thinking about the future it implied made her knees a little weak.
“Good to be with you.” She turned in to his body and pressed her hands to his chest. She loved his body, his strength. His smell. The feel of his arousal against her belly. She tried to push thoughts of work away and allow the desire to be with Dae take over.
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