“Perfect. Nice and slow to keep our baby safe.”
“You’re really obsessed with me being pregnant aren’t you?”
“I’m obsessed with everything about you,” he says, his big body leaning over his handlebars to give me a kiss.
Life cannot get any better, as Lorenzo truly delivered on his promise. He’s given me the sea and the mountains.
Okay, technically it’s the South Pacific Ocean, but it’s close enough to being a sea for me.
Chile has the eleventh biggest difference between its high point, Ojos del Salado at over twenty-two thousand feet, and low point, sea level. And we may not be in Ojos del Salado, but we’re pretty high up. Dare I say our heads are literally in the clouds? Yes…always.
“Here, let me help you,” he says as he takes my mountain bike by the handlebars and I look up at him.
“What’s happening?”
“Time for our picnic of course.”
There are very, very few trees on the mountain, but he seems to have found one, and we’re going to take advantage of it.
We get settled underneath the tree on a blanket and I can smell the pink flowers just next to us. I have no idea what they are but they add a certain perfection to the ambiance of one of the undisputed most beautiful countries in the world.
Lorenzo is just sitting there looking at me and I cock my head to the side and look at him.
“You didn’t want to eat…food, right now?” I say, interpreting his lusty look…or am I mistaken.
“I just want to admire you in this amazing place for a second. The backdrop has nothing on you, and at this altitude all the oxygen rushing to my brain isn’t what has me feeling intoxicated…it’s you...it’s always you.” He’s leaning back on the blanket, with his hands down as he just drinks in the sight of me, making me feel so darn loved.
“Awww,” I say, leaning in for a hug and a kiss as his eyes stay locked on mine, ignoring the amazing backdrop behind us where you can see blue skies for miles and miles.
When I release from his lips and lean back, his hands have somehow slid off the blanket without my notice and now he’s holding a small, black, velvet box.
“What?”
“I managed to sneak in a little shopping while we were in Zurich.”
I practically tackle him as we fall back onto the blanket, kissing passionately for minutes and minutes and minutes.
Finally we stop to catch our breath and he looks over his shoulder and we both break out laughing.
We pat the blanket and move around looking for the box.
“There it is,” I say.
He grabs it and without saying a word, opens it up and slides the ring on my finger.
“You’re not going to ask me?”
“I couldn’t wait another second. You have to be mine now.”
“I always was,” I say, looking down at the gigantic rock on my hand as I try not to cry…to no avail.
I fall back into his arms, feeling our perfect love.
I love that he didn’t ask me. Why should he?
He’s a man who knows exactly what he wants, and what he wanted all along was me.
And that’s exactly what I wanted him to have…me.
Because that means I get exactly what I always wanted to…him.
“I love you, gorgeous,” he says.
“I love you.”
“Just like we’ll both love the beautiful little thing that’s growing and developing inside you,” he says, putting his hand on my belly as we lay side by side.
“Us,” I say, and our lips find each other’s again.
Looks like that picnic of ours is going to be delayed for a bit…or more.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
Lorenzo
Twenty years later
“What in the world?” Lucia says, looking at the contraption in my hand.
“It’s a tandem sandboard?”
“I didn’t know those even existed.”
“They don’t…until now. I made us one.”
“You’re too much,” she says, and I give her a kiss, pulling her down to the ground as we laugh like little kids.
“Dad! We’re ready.”
“Go ahead bud. We’ll see you at the bottom of the hill.”
Our oldest boy, Leonardo, takes off down the hill in Concón, Chile. It’s an incredible little town where you can see the ocean from the peak where locals sandboard.
What might be considered equally as incredible to some is that Lucia was pregnant with Leonardo from our first time together, although it’s not surprising to me one bit. I knew. I always knew. And it’s just nature’s way of reaffirming we were meant to be for each other.
And we’re out here enjoying this incredible “nature” of Chile on a bit of a family holiday.
“Wait for me!” Luca, our fourteen-year-old cries out, taking off down the hill after Leonardo.
Right behind Luca are Lara, Letizia, Luisa, and Luciano.
As much as I wanted to keep the kids coming, Lucia drew the line at six. She said the old show was called Eight is Enough for a reason.
I’m more than happy. Hell, I still feel like I won the lottery just making her mine in the first place. The kids were a huge bonus.
“Looks like it’s just me and you again,” she says as we watch the kids storm down the hill.
“How much time do you think we have?” I ask.
“Lorenzo!” She slaps me on the arm. “I’m not about to get sand in places I don’t want to get sand in.”
“We can use the sandboard to keep you off the sand.”
“You’re incredible, you know that?”
“You’re incredible.” I kiss her hard and she leans into me. I can see she’s thinking about it, but as her eyes trail off down the hill watching the kids I know it’s not going to happen…until tonight when the kids are asleep.
“God, they’re so beautiful.”
“I love each and every one of them so damn much,” I say watching my kids scoot down the hillside. “What do you think about some more?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me?”
“I’m dead serious.”
“This body has carried six children over the course of twenty years.”
“So four more should be nothing.”
“I have to ask you an honest question,” she says turning to me giving me her very rare, “I’m extremely serious” face.
“Shoot.”
“Do you still find me attractive?”
“Just as much as that first day I saw you in your house twenty years ago.”
“Now I know you’re lying.”
“Have I ever lied to you? Ever? Even one single time?”
She looks off into the distance, squinting. “Actually…no. Not even as a joke.”
“My point exactly.”
“But how?”
“How come I’ve never lied to you? How could you ever lie to the person you love more than life itself?”
“I mean, how can you find me just as attractive now as you did then. I mean, aren’t men visual and genetically dispositioned towards beauty?”
“Genetically programmed? Dispositioned? Are you a scientist now, or am I a robot?” I tickle her ribs.
“I’m serious!”
“I’m serious too. You know how sexy it is to know that those six little munchkins started their life inside you. Inside your stomach! You gave them life. You gave them food. You gave them a heartbeat. Without you there is no them. And without you there is no us.”
“But that’s emotional. What about the physical?”
“Woman, you’re way overthinking this. You know I’m a damn caveman when it comes to you. You know the second you denied me my first thought was to club you over the head with this sandboard and drag you over to the other side of the hill by your hair and take you just how I damn please.”
“Gross!” she says, tickling me back and I can’t help but laugh. “Does the thought of that actually turn you on?”
“Okay, maybe not that, but you know damn well everything about you turns me on. See for yourself,” I say taking her hand and putting it on my groin.
“Oh my god, you’re hard right now!”
“Of course I am, because you’re by my side.”
“That’s all it takes?”
“That’s all it’s ever took, and that’s all it ever will.”
“Good, because that’s exactly where I plan on being for the rest of our lives.”
“Amen to that,” I say giving her a kiss.
“Mom…dad,” we can just barely make out from the bottom of the hill as our kids, which are no not much bigger than the size of ants, yell up to us.
“Your favorite words in the world?” I ask her.
“Nothing is better than hearing my children call me mom.”
“I bet I know what’s a close second,” I say.
“What’s that.”
“I love you,” I say tackling her into the sand as we roll around laughing like two little kids.
We may be a bit older. I may have a bit of gray forming around my temples, but when we’re together I always feel like a kid again. That joy. That exuberance. That excitement for what tomorrow brings.
It’s all there.
Because they’re all there.
My family.
And that’s what life’s all about.
A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS
Book 1: Baby Lust
Book 2: Veteran
Book 3: Built
Book 4: Bambino
Book 5: Rescued
Book 6: Leader
Book 7: Professor
Book 8: Burned
Book 9: Worldly
Book 10: Pistol
Book 11: Policed
Book 12: Driven
Book 13: Lucky 13
Book 14: Lumberjacked
Book 15: Protector
Book 16: Carpenter
Book 17: Italian Stallion
Book 18: Gardener
Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin
Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 21: Cocky CFO
Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th
Book 23: Mechanic
Book 24: SEAL’s Secret
Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch
Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée
Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina
Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy
Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol
Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess
Book 32: Statham
Book 33: Bodyguard
Book 34: Greek God
Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter
Book 36: Mountain Man
Book 37: SEAL’s Justice
Book 38: Royal Romance
Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery
Book 40: Crocodile Dan D
Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby
Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby
Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter
Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door
Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace
Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée
Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny
Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter
Book 49: Steamy
Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend
Book 51: Possessive Professor
Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter
Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby
Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day
Book 55: Doctor Next Door
Book 56: Possessive Policeman
Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter
Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter
Book 59: Virgin in New York
Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby
Book 61: Possessive Protector
Book 62: Possessive Australian
Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother
Book 64: Possessive Cowboy
Book 65: Summer Romanced
Book 66: Possessive Prince
Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy
Book 68: Cop’s Best Friend
Book 69: Possessive Firefighter
Book 70: Football Next Door
Book 71: Doctor December
Book 72: Possessive Canadian
Book 73: Blue Collar Billionaire
Book 74: Possessive K-9 Cop
Book 75: Possessive Brazilian
Book 76: Hockey Obsession
Book 77: Possessive Boston Irish American MMA Fighter
Book 78: Halloween Next Door
Book 79: Possessive Russian
Book 80: Baseball Mine
Book 81: Cop’s Caribbean Captive
Book 82: Instalove Island
Book 83: Dad’s Best Friend
Book 84: Thanksgiving with Dad’s Boss
Book 85: Possessive Italian Neighbor
Book 86: Possessive Portuguese
Book 87: Possessive Christmas Cop
Book 88: Russian’s Obsession
Book 89: Possessive Doctor’s Christmas
Book 90: Possessive Parisian Pilot
Book 91: U.K. Boxing Day
Book 92: Jealous Russian Stalker
Book 93: Italian Mountain Man
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Italian Mountain Man (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 93) Page 6