“It’s the truth, malyshka. You make me believe I can have something more than the life I was leading. Stuck in the shadows with no name or face. No one saw me until you came along. I felt dead inside.”
Her breath stilled in her lungs. Burned. Casimir always seemed easy. Relaxed. Even when he smoldered with passion, there was a relaxed quality about him. Now she could see past the contacts to the focus in his eyes. His entire focus was on her. It had been almost since the moment he’d laid eyes on her, when he’d been playing the role of the obnoxious man on her flight to Italy. He’d escorted her the entire way. Looking out for her. Taking care of her even when she didn’t know it.
She might have seen him, but he saw her first. He recognized they belonged before she did. More, when her world was falling apart, he had her back. Tears burned behind her eyes. He gave her more than she thought possible from any man. He laid himself out there for her, made himself vulnerable to tell her what she meant to him.
Casimir pressed her palm into his chest. “You made my heart beat again, Giacinta. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s the truth. I had nothing left. I was going to find the Sorbacovs, but I didn’t expect to come back. On some level I didn’t even want to come back. I had nothing at all to come back to. I don’t know my brothers. I love them and am loyal to them because I had to have something, some code, something to hold on to, but I haven’t seen them or really talked to them since I was a very little boy. I didn’t mind going out in a blaze of glory for them, but I didn’t have it in me to live for them.” He brought her hand back to his mouth, teeth teasing her fingers until she thought her heart would explode with such emotion there was nowhere for it to go.
“Then I saw you. The way you moved, like music on the wind. The way your face lit up when you laughed. No matter how annoying I was to you, you were kind to me on the plane. That touched me, Lissa. Your kindness. In my world, there isn’t much of that. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and, although you’re that on the outside, I think it’s what you are inside that makes you so beautiful to me.”
“You’re making me cry,” she whispered.
Her voice wouldn’t go above a whisper. In that moment, she knew she had fallen all the way. Love. It was strange to her that love would come to her now, when she was committed to making a life for the five women so entrenched in her heart, but there it was. Love. The real thing. The emotion overwhelmed her. He overwhelmed her with his declaration. Every word out of his mouth was honest. Raw. She might not have anything else, but she had him. Casimir Prakenskii would always be hers. How could she want anything else?
“There will never be another woman for me, Lissa. You’re it. My shot at a life. If you give me that, I swear to you, I’ll never let you down.” He pressed a kiss into the center of her palm, his eyes on her face. “Will you do that, malyshka? Will you take me as I am and give me the one shot I’ve got? Will you take a chance on me?”
Her heart thudded in her chest. She stared up at his handsome face. This was more than a declaration. “What are you asking me, Casimir?” Because there was no way he was talking abstract, not when the air itself stilled.
13
“Marry me. Before we do the rest of this. Marry me now, Giacinta. Be my wife.”
Everything in her stilled. She could hear the sound of the sea below them. The birds in the trees and insects buzzing in the gardens. She was aware of everything about Casimir. His height, so much taller than she was. His chest, all defined muscle. His strong arms and tapered waist. His narrow hips and long, muscular legs. His hands were a man’s hands. Beautiful.
Most of all she was acutely aware of Casimir beneath Tomasso’s gorgeous Italian image. She would always see him. The real man, not the one everyone else saw. It would never matter what role he was playing, he would always be hers. She would always see the real man.
“Honey.” She kept her tone gentle. “You know we can’t do that. Lissa Piner is an American. You’re whatever role you’re playing. We can’t possibly get permission to marry here in Italy.”
“Giacinta and Casimir can get married. That’s your legal name. That’s mine. We can get married right away. The documents have been taken care of.”
She shook her head. “That’s impossible. A Russian citizen would have to appear in person at the Russian Embassy in order to get the necessary papers. I’d have to go with you and prove I’m an Italian citizen. You need a stamp of…”