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It was Nico who answered as he pushed the ring on her finger. ‘I have always loved you.’
First he had loved her like a sister, and for a while they had failed as friends. But they were friends now. And they were lovers and partners and parents too.
‘And I always shall,’ Nico said, looking right into those dark velvet eyes. There was nothing more beautiful than this beautiful Sicilian woman.
And now it was Aurora’s turn to speak, and to push her ring onto his finger. ‘I tried so hard not to love you,’ she told him, and the world. ‘I can stop fighting with myself now. I love you, Nico Caruso.’
‘And I love you, Aurora Eloise Caruso.’
‘Finally!’ She smiled as her groom kissed his bride.
Nico was not a sociable person, and Aurora was not expecting a wild party. But back at the hotel the champagne flowed, and he accepted the many congratulations and danced with his bride.
Nico danced!
He pulled her in, he twirled her—and he even, to Aurora’s delight, dipped her.
She laughed. ‘Where did you learn that?’ she asked. And even before the burn of jealousy could take her over, that he might have learned it in the arms of another woman, Nico halted her.
‘Vincenzo taught me.’
‘No!’
‘Sì!’
The Silibri contingent saw the smiles and the near-kiss and started clinking their spoons on their glasses, demanding that Nico and Aurora proceed.
Oh, his kiss was heaven.
Just heavenly.
Deep and slow and loving.
And Aurora was starting to let go of that tiny little percentage of worry that Nico might not be as on board with this as she.
She could never be an actress, she knew, for she let her emotions carry her away. While Nico, on the other hand…
But this kiss was both silk and velvet, and it was at her own wedding party, which she had dreamed of.
It was Aurora who wanted to leave and go to bed…
But then it started.
A huge circle was forming, and she and Nico were being pushed into the middle.
‘The tarantella,’ Aurora informed him, still sure that weddings were not his thing.
‘I know what it is, Aurora.’
He spun her as the circle moved in and out, with laughter and dancing, friends and family. The music pushed them to dance faster, and Nico never missed a beat.
Nico pulled her into him, and even in the midst of a circle full of joy and laughter he read in the woman he loved a sense of duty.
No glass would go unfilled tonight.
And no smile would be unreturned.
In a few moments he would take her upstairs and make love to her, as expected, but there was no sense of duty there.
