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“I’m sorry,” he breathed. “So fucking sorry. I was wrong.”
“Matt—” she began.
“No, please. Let me say this. I’ve done nothing but hurt you since this whole thing started, pushing you away, giving you mixed signals.”
“Why did you do that?” she asked, without an ounce of hostility or anger in her tone. Instead, she sounded genuinely curious. God bless her, she was giving him a chance to explain his actions.
“I’ve done too many things in my past that I’m not proud of, things that proved to me that you deserved better.”
She opened her mouth to speak again, but he shook his head, cut her off.
“No, wait. Liza, for so long, I’ve held myself apart, letting my regrets, my mistakes, and my fears rule me, convinced monsters were meant to live in the dark, away from people. Then you came along and suddenly, I hated the cave. I wanted to bask in your sunshine, your warmth, and I knew—all the way to the depths of my soul—that I wanted to be a man worthy of you and your love.”
“You are worthy,” she insisted.
He smiled, pressing his forehead against hers. “Even after all the crap I put you through…you really believe that, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.”
“If you’ll let me, I want to show you who I am—all the parts of me—the good, the bad, the ugly. I thought I could hide the horrible stuff, bury it so deep it wouldn’t hurt us, but I know now that’s not how love works.”
“Love?”
He took her face in his hands, tilting it up so that she could see his eyes, could read the truth in them. “I’ve never been in love before, so I screwed up, offered you only bits and pieces of me, thinking that would be enough to keep you. I was wrong.”
“Can you trust me enough to show me who you are? Because I’m not afraid, Matt. I’m not worried.”
“I don’t have any choice but to show you. I can’t live without you. You’re as essential to my life as the air I breathe. I love you, Liza. So damn much.”
Tears wet her lashes. “My heart recognized yours almost from the start. Every time I looked at you, it felt as if you were the only person in the world who understood me, who truly saw me. Somehow I knew you were meant just for me.”
“I felt the same,” he confessed.
Then because she was Liza, she added, “Even though I didn’t want you to be the one.”
“A Russo and a Moretti,” he said with a grin. “Quite the scandal.”
She drew one hand down the center of his chest suggestively. “I like being scandalous with you.”
Matt growled, her words hitting him below the belt in a way that wasn’t appropriate, considering they were standing in the middle of a room, surrounded by her grandparents, parents, and approximately four hundred other relatives.
“Behave,” he murmured, loving the way her body softened, shifted even closer.
“I missed you,” she whispered.
“I’m so sorry, Liza,” he said again.
“I know. It’s okay.”
“Will you come home with me tonight? Give me a chance to explain, to show you who I am? Deep inside.” Now that Matt held her close, he wasn’t sure he could let her go again. He needed this woman in his life, his home, his bed, but she deserved to know everything. So he was going to put his heart on the line and come clean, and then he was going to pray she stayed.
She nodded. “Of course I will.”
He kissed her gently, a quick one to seal his vow.
“Liza,” he said, releasing her hand, the sounds of talking and forks clattering against plates and laughter that he’d reduced to white noise coming back into focus. A quick glance around the room proved there were quite a few people casting curious glances their way as they danced.
Being here, surrounded by Morettis, felt almost surreal.
