Amore mio 2

79.

Her.

Bora Bora looked like a dream dipped in gold.

The whole island breathed in colour—soft pastels melting into one another like watercolours on silk, like the sky itself had been brushed with love. Peach deepened into rose, rose bled into lavender, and lavender melted into warm coral hues that glowed like embers over the water. The ocean below shimmered like crystal poured from heaven, every ripple catching light like jewels scattered by the sun. The waves kissed the shore with slow, gentle sighs, as if the world exhaled in peace.

Like the earth knew this moment was sacred.

Like time itself paused just to watch.

Leo's arms—strong, warm, inked with stories I knew by heart—caged me against a body built to hold and protect. His chest was hard and solid, rising and falling with the rhythm of the sea. His heartbeat thudded beneath my cheek, slow, sure, familiar—like a lullaby only I was meant to hear. We swayed together on the balcony of our bedroom, barefoot on smooth wood still warm from the sun, bodies pressed close, just like it was meant to be.

He leaned down, minty breath warm against my hair, and pressed a slow kiss to the top of my head—gentle, lingering, reverent. A kiss that felt like a vow. His arms tightened around me as if I could slip away with the breeze, as if he needed me closer than breath. I melted into him, soft and safe, my small frame swallowed whole by his much larger one. I fit beneath his touch like I'd been shaped for him alone.

His voice came low, gravelly with emotion, the kind of sound that always, always unravelled me.

"I don't have the right words to tell you how thankful I am, amore mio."- he murmured, warm breath ghosting my temple. "For giving me a chance to love you, to become a man worthy of eternity with you."

He pulled me closer—impossibly, beautifully close—as though he could merge us, soul to soul.

"Eighteen years."- he breathed, reverent like prayer. "Nothing in the world can compare to what I experienced with you. Being with you, with our bambini...It is heaven. My heaven, and I will never let it go, baby."

My throat tightened, vision blurring as I tilted my head back to look into his beautiful eyes. Sunset light spilt across his handsome face, catching the wet sheen in his eyes, making them shine like molten honey. Every line, every detail of him was more beautiful than the last—and somehow, by sheer fortune or fate, he was mine, and I was his.

"Choosing you was the best decision I ever made."- I whispered, voice trembling with every emotion swelling inside me. 

His forehead lowered until it rested against mine, warm skin to warm skin, breath mingling like shared air. Tears clung to his lashes like diamonds—sun-touched, heartbreakingly soft.

"I am grateful for you."- he murmured, voice small, raw, real. "For our bambini. For the life you gifted me...I am grateful beyond anything, Cami. Beyond words. Beyond time."

I cupped his face with both hands, thumbs brushing away the tears that escaped—each one a jewel made of love.

"You are my heart."- I breathed, my heart singing his name with each fluttering beat. "My home. The man I would choose every day, always. For longer than eternity. Beyond life. Beyond anything this world could measure."

His breath shuddered. His voice cracked open.

"I love you."- he rasped, thick with devotion and awe. "I love you so much, amore mio. I can't live without you."

And before I could speak, before I could even inhale—his lips claimed mine.

Not just a kiss—never just a kiss with him.