Maria waved at her mom from her spot next to Haven, reminding her they still had a whole ceremony to get through. Valeria stopped wasting time standing at the end of the aisle when where she wanted to be next to Chris far more.
That’s where she belonged.
Forever.
Epilogue
“Whatever it is,” Chris said when he answered the ringing phone while heading up the stairs, lest it wake up his sleeping wife or Maria, “make it good, and fast. I have better things to do this morning than talk on the phone.”
“Is that how you greet your father?”
“Well ... no.”
“Good,” Gian said, “I was worried you forgot your manners in your new married life.”
“I’ve been married almost two months. You don’t think it might take longer?”
Gian made a noise under his breath. “I’ll be honest, I might as well have forgotten the rest of the world existed for the first six months of mine and your mother’s marriage. That was a wonderful time.”
“And that’s enough of that,” Chris muttered.
“Anyway,” Gian said, “I called for a reason. Happy birthday.”
“Who did you tell first this year, me or Corrado?”
“Both of us,” came the new voice on the call.
A three-way call.
Nice.
Chris chuckled. “Ah, Papa got smart this year.”
“Wouldn’t want either of you feeling left out,” Gian returned, his amusement clear.
A long running joke between Chris and his twin on their birthday was whoever got called first by their parents—mother or father—was clearly loved the most. It was only a couple of years ago that their parents caught onto the joke which they didn’t find all that funny. Or rather, their mother didn’t find it as cute as they did.
Their father played along.
They couldn’t say the same for their ma.
“And now can I go back to bed?” Corrado mumbled. “It was way too early for this.”
Chris checked his watch. “It’s nine.”
“Thank you for that information. I will let a very pregnant Ginevra and an extremely anxious Alessio know that their nightly habits of walking the halls and worrying about every little thing isn’t an acceptable excuse to keep me awake until two in the morning. Care to be here while I do that, brother? Or to lend me a couch when they kick my ass out?”
Gian laughed.
Chris was quick to say, “No, you’re on your own there.”
“Thanks for that, really.”
“I do what I can,” Chris replied.
“Go back to sleep, Corrado,” Gian said, “and call your mother later. Alessio isn’t the only anxious one lately.”
“Right, right. Later.”
One call clicked off, and Chris knew he was left with only his father. During his conversation, he had climbed the two levels of stairs in his three-level home and stood in the doorway of their master bedroom. Across the large space, Valeria slept happily under gray and white striped sheets, only a peek of her bare shoulders and a splash of black hair could be seen on her pillow.
God.
He loved this woman.
So much.
More every day.
“Someone asked Ginevra who the father was when she went to the salon the other day with your mother,” Gian said.
Chris frowned. “What?”
“The boys were very angry.”
“I mean ... I understand the curiosity someone might have,” Chris said, “but not the ignorance to outright ask. That’s nobody’s business.”
From the moment his twin had announced Ginevra’s pregnancy to their family, the expectation of how to act and receive it was undoubtedly clear. It was we are pregnant. It was they were expecting a baby. Their daughter. From the start, neither Corrado nor Alessio had differentiated, and Ginevra was the same way.
Everyone fell in line because, sure, while the circumstances of a poly relationship might be strange to some, it was his twin’s everyday normal. What was Corrado’s life didn’t have to fit into everyone else’s box—they didn’t have to live it. They did, however, have to respect it.
“What did Ma do?” Chris asked. “You said she was there, right?”
Gian chuckled. “Had all her future appointments cancelled and found a new salon before lunch.”
“Easy when her last name is Guzzi.”
“Easy when she is who she is, you mean.”
“That, too.”
“Nonetheless, I thought you might want to know for later today when we’re having the birthday dinner at the mansion,” Gian said. “In case they’re sensitive about the baby and the pregnancy, that might be why.”
“Yeah, thanks. I’ll let Val know.”
“And how is she, hmm?”
“Pardon?”
“Valeria. How is she?”
“Perfect. She’s perfect.”
“I bet. I know she’s been busy prepping for the fall semester to start. Has she settled on a major after her bachelor’s?”
“Not yet,” he said, “but she’s got all the time in the world.”
Chris had promised her that.
He intended to keep it.
“Well,” his father drawled, “I will let you get back to your morning. I’m sure you have plans, and I didn’t mean to interrupt them. Living that good life, huh?”
Maria was still sleeping.
Valeria, too.
Still, his father wasn’t wrong.
He wasn’t sure what that good life was his father spoke about, or if this was it, but it was the perfect life for Chris. That’s what mattered most to him.
“I will see you later, Papa.”
“You, too. Happy birthday, son.”
Oh, it was about to be very happy.
• • •
“Oh, my God.”
Chris’s dark chuckles whispered along his wife’s naked skin as he raised from between her thighs, dropping hot kisses to her trembling stomach, up to the valley between her breasts, and finally along the damp column of her throat.
Valeria’s heavy breaths, thick from her orgasm, panted into the bedsheets. There was nothing he liked more than waking this woman up by loving her. Usually, with him between her thighs because fuck ...
That was a win-win for him, too.
Her taste was still tart on his tongue, and she all but sucked the flavor of her arousal off his tongue when he kissed her. Her soft moans were swallowed by his kiss, but he was already lost in the way she had widened her legs for him. The slickness of her pussy grinded against his bare length while her fingernails dragged burning lines down the muscles of his back.
“Fuck,” he breathed.
“Yes, yes.”
He was a lucky fuck.
Every morning, this woman was in his bed.
She arched into his hands that slid down her body, and he leaned up to hover above her while she licked her lips. Sinful and inviting. Begging and ready.
God, he loved it.
His fingers flexed around her waist, loving that he knew this woman never missed a fucking meal. He was fit, and toned, but her curves drove him crazy. From the expanse of her hips, to the roundness of her ass when she was backing into his thrusts. Every part of her was perfect, and he wanted her to know it every morning she woke up, and each night before she fell asleep.