Page 158 of Alessio

“I do not deserve you or her,” he murmured.

But fuck him if he didn’t want them, and he would make damn sure both understood for the rest of his life they came first to him. Always, no exceptions, ever. That would be Corrado’s promise from this day forward, he would make sure.

Once he fixed this …

Alessio glanced at him from the side, letting out a quiet sigh. “You’re not wrong, but … we still want you.”

“Have you figured out why that is?”

“Love,” Alessio said. “It’s because of love.”

Right, because even until this point, Corrado’s own love had still been—in many ways—an extension of his own selfishness. It came back to him, and what would best serve his needs to wants.

No more.

Ginevra gave her sister—Greta?—a nod before turning away. Her gaze skimmed over the crowd. She bypassed him not expecting him to be standing there with Alessio, but she tensed, her stare darting back to him.

She smiled.

Soft, sure, but still …

Corrado smiled back.

He didn’t wait for her to make the first move to cross the distance between them. He figured she and Alessio had been doing enough of that for all of them, and he had to try now. Alessio trailed behind Corrado when he closed the space keeping Ginevra too far away from him, and not as close as he wanted her.

She took only one step forward. Just enough to say she finished the conversation behind her and entered a new one. Not that it mattered because her sisters and his mother watched him and Alessio come closer with curious gazes that also seemed too knowing for his liking.

“Ginny,” he said when he came to a stop in front of her.

Not close enough, though.

A foot away.

He itched to touch her, but he didn’t reach out to do it. That would be her choice, always.

Ginevra’s gaze darted from Alessio a foot behind him and then back to Corrado in a flash. “No costume?”

“Where’s yours?”

“Big wings—they wouldn’t let me bring them on the plane.”

Corrado smirked. “Really?”

“No.”

“Damn, that might have been nice to see.”

Ginevra shrugged the delicate line of her shoulders, saying, “I didn’t have time to grab something for me and the girls. Alessio didn’t give me much notice about this. He told me when to be at the airport, and that’s it.”

He swallowed hard.

And she just came.

She didn’t question it.

“Thank you for coming,” he said.

Ginevra smiled in that way again. “I love you, Corrado. Why wouldn’t I want to be with you … wherever you are?”