Seeing the rage in his eyes, I knew he was going to lunge. He was halfway towards me when the door flew open and Luca came in with rage and fire in his eyes. Pulling him away from me, Luca grabbed his neck and hurled him out the door before closing it behind him.
I felt the numbness come again as I flopped back on my chair. I knew Luca was going to do something bad now, but I didn’t care what.
Timidly, Belinda and Melinda came through the door and sat down on my desk in front of my chair. They took one hand each, and we just sat there in silence—not one of us saying a word. I felt grateful to them for that. They could have been asking twenty questions and giving their two cents worth, but they knew that wasn’t what I needed right then.
Around twenty minutes later, Luca came in, and the girls quickly ran out the door to leave us in peace.
Pulling me from my chair, Luca took my seat and placed me on his lap. He didn’t say anything; he just held me.
I played with the button on his shirt and just took time out, trying to calm myself after everything that had happened. “You’ve done something, haven’t you?”
Stilling, Luca tightened his grip on me. “Do you trust me?”
Realising in that moment that I did utterly love and trust this man with all my heart, I gripped his shirt in my fists and nodded my head.
Luca didn’t say a word after that, and neither did I. His actions have and would speak louder than words.
Two days later, I woke in my bed with a hunk of an Italian man entwined next to me. I raised my head to look at him, and was greeted with the biggest smile I had ever seen on Luca’s face.
“What’s that smile for? Do you want to play?” I bit his chest and rubbed my leg against his hardness.
“No, not yet.”
Wondering what was wrong with him, I stretched with a big yawn, and it was then I felt it. This alien feeling on my finger. Something was there that wasn’t there before.
I pulled my hand in front of my face and gasped at the beautiful diamond and sapphire ring staring back at me.
“Do you like it?”
I pulled myself up to a seated position and carried on staring. “Oh, Luca, it’s beautiful.”
He kissed my cheek with a smile. “Just like you.”
I beamed and kissed him back. “Thank you. It’s perfect.”
Luca grinned. “Again, just like you. It was my mother’s you know, so look after it.”
“Your mother’s?” I wasn’t sure whether I was going to like this. If this ring was what his father had bought for his mother, then I would feel very uncomfortable wearing it.
“Her mother gave it to her when she died. My grandmother and grandfather were childhood sweethearts who stayed together until the day they died. In her will, my grandmother requested that my mother keep it and give it to her firstborn son—on the condition that he would give it only to the woman he loved wholeheartedly.”
Releasing a breath, I grabbed Luca and pulled him to my lips. “That was beautiful. I promise to cherish this forever.”
He frowned for a moment. “You thought I was giving you a ring from my father, didn’t you?”
Feeling guilty, I looked away. “Yes. Sorry.”
Shaking his head and pulling me into his arms, he kissed the top of my head. “Don’t be. I would never give you anything that belonged to my father. My grandmother was a wonderful woman, and she lived a wonderful life. Now, it’s your turn to live a wonderful life with me.”
“When did she give it to you?” I saw his saddened expression and my heart melted for him.
“It was just before I left—after she made me promise that I would never return. She quickly told me the story of my grandmother and placed this little box in my hand.”
Snuggling my head in his chest, I began to comprehend the enormity of what Luca had done by giving me this ring. If I didn’t know whether Luca loved me before, I definitely knew it after that.
“I will make a promise to you now, Luca. I promise to take care of this ring just as well as you and your grandmother did. I will never take it off. I will treasure it with all my heart.”
Squeezing me tighter to him, he kissed me lightly before pulling away. “I know you will, amore mio. And I promise you that I will never leave you. You are my home now.”
After we consummated our ring appreciation ceremony we headed our separate ways. I went to work in my office while Luca went out to take care of some “business.”
As I sat down in my chair, I noticed my usual morning paper placed neatly on my desk. It was the picture on it that caught my eye. A picture that looked all too familiar. My father.
Pulling it open, the headline read, “Local vicar caught up in prostitute scandal.”