After I walk up the stairs and into the private room of a restaurant with a secret I have promised not to reveal, I wait for her nervously.
When she steps onto the top step and looks around, the fact that she hasn’t aged again floors me. In fact, she appears even more stunning than she ever has.
When she sees me, she lets out a slow breath.
“You look beautiful, Valentina,” I say loud enough for her to hear me from across the room.
Her lower lip quivers.
“I’m sorry for what I have done to you. If you give me the chance—”
Her eyes light up, and she takes a few steps toward me.
“No, fuck that. There is no if. You will give me a chance. You will because you love me, goddammit, and I love you.”
She covers her face with both hands as her shoulders shake.
I hurry toward her, telling her, “I’m so sorry, but I’m not going to fuck this up.” I grab her hands and pull them away from her face. “We can take it slow if you need to, but I’m done running from a dead man. I am ready to be yours, to love and protect you. To love our beautiful fucking daughters.” I pull her closer. “I’m sorry, but I will not let go of you again.”
She nods against my chest.
“I missed you every fucking day for all those years. I just didn’t want to be the reason you weren’t safe. Now I know you are. And I am so fucking proud of you. So proud.”
She wraps her arms around me.
“I’m also so fucking hard that …” I stop when she runs her hand over my erection then begins to kneel. “No,” I tell her, cupping her ass in my hands and lifting her. “I don’t want you on your knees. I want inside you.”
“Do you have a condom?” she asks, reaching between us.
“No, and I don’t need one.” I reach beneath her dress and snap the string of her panties.
“I can’t do it alone again. I can’t!” she cries.
“You won’t have to, not ever again.” Holding her up, I walk to the dark corner of the room and lay her on the table.
I spread her legs and unbutton my pants. Gripping my cock, I rub it against her pussy.
“Already wet for me.”
“Always,” she pants.
“Do you want me to fuck you, Valentina?”
“More than I want my next breath,” she whispers.
I crash fully into her, stilling as I bend down and take her mouth with mine. Then I start thrusting in and out of her wet and needy cunt. It doesn’t take long before I am coming with her.
Leaning over her body, I kiss her tits, her neck, her face, her fucking lips.
“My cock is hard again,” I pant out.
“Good,” she pants back. “Now fuck me again.”
Epilogue
Love changes in time, and so do people. Sometimes, love fades. Sometimes, love cracks. And sometimes, love falls apart. When it’s true, however, it is unbreakable.
When you truly love someone, you cannot imagine being with another for as long as they breathe.
Valentina, my love, stayed true to me, even when I couldn’t stay true to myself. And I stayed true to her, because no one would have ever felt the same.
I would have stayed away forever to keep her safe while my heart hurt, broke, and died. I would have because I couldn’t imagine her not breathing. I would rather take a million years of punishments to give her a hundred years of peace.
It has been a year, and all four of us haven’t spent a night apart since the night I was able to feel like I didn’t fail her. She has told me, that if someone hurt our children, she would do the same. She told me that if she felt she was putting them in danger, she would run too.
In fact, I failed myself.
My three, not two, ladies look at me like I am a slayer of dragons and demons. And I look at them and realize they are heaven. I thank the saints and the Virgin Mother every day for allowing me out of purgatory and into heaven.
I was always the strong one in the relationship. However, she finally became my equal in strength the day she showed me her heart. Some days, I think she has surpassed me; that she is stronger and more enlightened than I will ever be.
I have come to realize that, in love and in bed, a woman needs a reason, and a man just needs a place.
This doesn’t make us weak. It makes us men who are strong enough to love a strong woman.
Together, we are raising two strong women who will no doubt surpass our strengths.
Many do not acknowledge a woman’s complexity and many dimensions. But the one who stands beside her should. If not, he doesn’t deserve her.
I will make damn sure I deserve Valentina.
### The End ###