AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He didn’t think—he just ran.Fast.
His legs pumped along with the thud of his leather-sheathed feet on the uneven ground.
But the car didn’t stop.
He wanted to roar. Demand her presence. So why didn’t he? He knew her name. She was no longer anonymous. She was his wife. She had given him all of herself. All of her trust. All of her...
Love?
His chest heaving, he stood at the end of the drive and let go. Let go of the fear, of the past, and trusted his instincts. He roared his needs, his wants into the air and called out loud, fierce. He was a man calling for his mate. His love.
‘Flora!’
Just as he was preparing to sprint down the hill the car stopped—and so did his heart. The car door opened. With bated breath he watched her climb out and stand there, looking at him at the top of the hill.
Then they both ran.
He ran so fast he felt as if he was flying. Running free towards the future. Towards love.His destiny.And he wouldn’t look away.
He loved her. Loved her chaotic fierceness. Her innocence. He wanted every word he’d whispered to her about trusting herself to apply to him. He wanted to trust her. To believe that this was love and he deserved it. He wanted to be the man she’d made him. The man he was beneath the suit. The man he’d always been.
Because he wasn’t trapped under a tree.
He wasn’t lost any more.
He wasfound.
Their bodies slammed together. His fingers thrust into her hair and pulled her mouth to hers. And he kissed her with everything he was.
He kissed her for every year he hadn’t felt loved. For every time he’d chosen control instead of his feelings. Put on his suit and written a list, pretending his feelings weren’t involved.
She would make him feel. She would teach him to love openly, without fear. Just the way he was loving her now. In the open. In the gentle light of the late-afternoon sun.
Gripping her arms, he pushed her away from him and panted, ‘Flora—’
‘I know,’ she soothed—and he knew she did. ‘It’s hard to trust it, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘You’ll get better at it,’ she promised.
He swallowed heavily, still holding her tightly in place in front of him.
‘I have never known family. I have never known love. But I want to learn. I want to love you. Be a family. Be in a marriage and be parents to our child. I want you for me—but I want this marriage forus. I want us to be a team. Do things for each other and with each other. I want to turn that house into a home with you. Not in redemption. I see that now. I understand that whatever choices I made, I couldn’t choose for my mother. Her choices were her own, as mine are my own. I want to trust in my own decisions. Because how could I not when they have brought me to you? Will you let me love you, Flora? Will you let me practise my love on you every day?’
He fell to his knees.
‘Will you be my wife?’
‘I already am.’
She fell to her knees beside him and cradled his face, looked into his eyes, claiming his world as her own. Driving the flag in.
‘I love you, Raffaele Russo.’
‘It was always you,’ he said. ‘From the first night you broke open my chest and brought my soul, my heart, back to life. And that was love, wasn’t it? Even then. Because you are my destiny.’
She stroked his face. ‘Destiny,’ she agreed.
