Page 49 of One Filthy Kiss

At the mention of him, Meggie snatches her hand away and stares at the sky. “How did you find…” The question hangs between us. “You’ve been looking for him.”

I shuffle closer on the couch and hold her chin, tilting her face towards me. “I won’t let him hurt you or Amber. You believe me, don’t you?”

She squeezes her eyes shut, and tears spill over her bottom lashes. “I believe you, but I don’t want you to find him.”

“Why? What are you afraid of?”

“That he’ll hurt you and take Amber away from me.”

I catch her tears on my fingertip. I came up to the rooftop with the intention of telling her the truth, but I can’t. This is my problem because I have made it so, and Meggie has lived with fear for too long.

I pull her into my arms and kiss her on the lips.

Her eyes are sparkling again when I finallyrelease her.

“I told Elisabetta’s father about you.”

Her eyes widen. “What did you say?”

“That you had come into my life rather unexpectedly, and that I’ve promised to keep you and Amber safe.”

She smiles, but I’m not sure if she understands what I’m trying to say.

“He gave me his blessing to move on, fiore.”

“His blessing?”

“Si. To move onwith you. If you’ll have me.”

Her entire face lights up. “If I’ll have you?” She shakes her head. “I-I don’t understand.”

“Ti amo, Meggie. I don’t know what you’ve done to me since I met you, but he asked me a question yesterday. He asked me if I could imagine life without you, and the answer is no. I can’t imagine life without you.”

“Ti amo? Does that mean what I think it means?”

“What do you think it means?”

“I love you?”

“I love you too, Meggie.”

11

MEGAN

The following day,the day after Gio told me that he loves me, we visit a canine rescue center just outside the city. No warning. I have no idea where we are going until we arrive, and I follow him and Amber around in a fog of pinch-me-now-disbelief.

As a teenager, I would play the silly game of ‘He loves me, he loves not’ with my friends, picking petals from daisies and tossing them aside while thinking about Harry Styles or Peeta Mellark fromThe Hunger Games. It was foolish, a bit of fun, and we never regarded the outcome as final. We would simply pick another daisy and try again until we discovered that the boy really did love us.

But that’s how I feel now whenever I look at Gio.

Ti amo, Meggie.

A shiver runs down my spine every time I replay those words in my head in Gio’s sexy accent.

He said those three words. I heard them with my own ears. And yet this doesn’t feel real. Nothing about this situation feels real.

I’ve known him less than a week, I was only supposed to be in America on vacation, and here we are playing happy families while we look for a dog for Amber. I know I’m probably self-sabotaging right now, but I can’t shake the feeling that one day, Gio will wake up, take one look at the mess inside his perfect pristine penthouse, and realize what a mistake he made.