“But you... I needed to have a part of you with me. And well, that’s where I decided to put it. It was either there or over my heart. It felt too sacred for me to put it over my heart. I put it the one place I always wanted you to be. And I don’t mean that in a dirty way. It’s just that, every time we made love back then, it meant the world to me.”
I wait while she absorbs what I just told her, wondering if she thinks I’m fucking crazy. Finally she sits up, straddling my lap. Tears stream silently down her face, a look of love and admiration in her eyes. I let out the breath I was holding. Her tiny hands cradle my face.
“That’s the most beautiful thing I have ever heard,” she whispers.
“You think so, huh?”
“I know so,” she affirms, leaning down to brush her lips over mine.
I kiss her longingly.
“One more thing and then I’m done. No more secrets.”
“These lips have never touched another woman. Only yours.”
Her shocked expression leaves me tense.
“You mean to tell me you’ve never kissed anyone? How? I mean—”
I place a finger over her mouth.
“No one. I can’t take back the things I’ve done. Everything I did, I did to protect you. Kissing is an intimate act, and those other women meant nothing to me. I meant nothing to them. But you? I would do anything for you. There isn’t another person on this earth who I want to kiss, or let my lips touch theirs, or let my tongue touch any part of their body. No one.”
“Oh, God, baby. I… I don’t know what to say.”
Tears keep rolling down her face. I hate making her cry.
“Don’t say anything. Except promise me you will never leave me again. No matter what happens. No matter how tough it gets, or what life throws at us. Just don’t fucking leave me, all right?”
“Never. I get it now. All of it. I’m coming to terms with it all. I’ve accepted it all. My family. You. Everything!”
She grins, then smiles. It spreads wide across her face.
“Now kiss me. It seems those lips have been deprived for way too long.”
I have no problem with that at all.
Chapter Eighteen
Calla
“Really, Dad? A toy hauler?”
I laugh at my dad when he, my mom, and Manny climb out of his truck.
“These fuckwads want to bring their bikes. And between you and your mother and all of your clothes, you would think we were moving there, for Christ’s sake,” he grumbles jokingly as he climbs up the steps and swoops me up into his arms.
“You look so happy. I do believe we have our baby girl back, Cecily. Who would have thought that this dickhead over here was the one who would bring my girl happiness?”
“Fuck you too, old man,” Cain retorts from behind us.
“You’re not my type, asshole.”
Dad sets me down, lifts one of the suitcases, and retreats to the back of the hauler.
“This is going to be a long ride. Good thing I brought my computer with all those Nicholas Sparks movies we love to watch,” Mom says, winking at me. We are both suckers for those movies.
The drive seems to take forever, but when I see the New York City skyline all lit up the closer we get, I exclaim in excitement.
“Holy shit!”
Dad catches my attention in the rearview mirror.
“It’s something else, isn’t it?”
“It’s remarkable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Salvatore lives on Long Island, right on the water. I crane my neck when we cross over the bridge only to head east away from the city.
I haven’t been deprived by any means; my parents and I traveled everywhere when I was growing up. Now that I know what my dad truly does, I almost burst out laughing, remembering all those times we went to Disney World.
He never once complained about having to go on any of those rides with me. Always my protector. Always holding my hand, showing me his love until I grew into a teenager. Even then he would always kiss me goodnight whenever he was home, or if I was already in bed before he got home, he always looked in on me.