“You’ll stay home with them?”

She laughed softly. “And be a kept woman? Seriously, Stefano.”

“You’ll be my wife. The mother of my children. That means you’ll be the heart in our home. Not kept, Francesca, important. The most important of all. I grew up being both mother and father to my siblings. I saw what I wanted for them and for my own children when I visited my aunts and uncles. There was love in their homes. Our children will have to train as I did, but that should be balanced out with love and acceptance. With the ability to recognize each child as an individual with different needs.”

She fell in love just a little bit more. How could she not? She heard the longing and need in his voice. He was baring his soul to her. Laying himself on the line. Whatever a “rider” was, it was unimportant next to what he was revealing to her. That was work; this was about his heart and soul. He was giving her that. Stripping himself bare so she knew exactly what he wanted and needed in his life.

“I have to know if that appeals to you, Francesca. I don’t want to lose you. I want to give you the world, anything you want. At the same time, you need to know the things most important to me. Our family. You. Me. Our children and my siblings. You’ll be the heart for them as well. Can you do that? Am I asking too much of you?”

She heard uncertainty for the first time in his voice. Her man. Strong. Invincible. Arrogant even. Yet he was uncertain when it came to her. He was asking for a home filled with love for his children. For him. For his sister and brothers. Asking if she would be right at the center of that. She knew that position would also put her in charge of the neighborhood, the people he obviously loved and considered under his protection. He would give her those people as well.

“I love you, Stefano. I want to be the mother of your children. I wouldn’t know any other way of parenting than to show them as much love as possible. I’ll certainly insist on raising them with you. I’ve worked since I was thirteen years old. I’m not certain I would know how to stay home, but I imagine having multiple children is work in itself. So, yes, I love your idea of a home and family and I am certainly on board with it. However”—she turned his face toward hers and looked him in the eye—“there will be no more telling my boss I’m not working, or telling Emilio and Enzo to bring me home.”

He leaned that two inches separating them and brushed kisses from her cheekbone to her chin. “Can’t promise that, amore. You run away from me like that and I lose my mind. I forget everything but the need to get you back.”

She burst out laughing, she couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to encourage him, but he was just too funny. “You’re impossible.”

“But very much in love with you, Francesca,” he said, framing her face with his hands, looking into her eyes. “I’m so in love with you I can’t even breathe without you. I know absolutely, I was born to be your man. Our shadows connected and that truth was there for both of us to see.”

It was a beautiful declaration and her eyes burned with reaction. Stark. Raw. He meant every word. She even knew what he meant by their shadows connecting. She’d felt that jolt of urgent chemistry and the rightness of Stefano Ferraro. She often felt emotion when her shadow connected with someone else’s, but she’d never felt such a physical and emotional connection as she had when her shadow touched his.

Although he was incredibly possessive and always stating in no uncertain terms that she belonged to him, he hadn’t said she was born to be his woman. He had said he was born to be her man. For some reason those words touched her as nothing else could have. She took a breath and let it out. She wanted everything he was offering, no matter how controlling and obsessive he was. No matter how secret their family life would have to be or what a “rider” was.

“I can live with all of it, Stefano, because I suspect I just might have been born for you.”

He dropped his chin to the top of her head and just held her in his arms for a long while. She watched the people moving around the park. A few joggers. A couple strolling hand and hand. It was cold and when she shivered, Stefano put her on her feet.

“Let’s go home, bella. We can spend the day together. Maybe ask the siblings over for dinner tonight. But I just want a restful day. Eloisa always wears me out.” He stood up, locked his arm around her waist and began walking back toward the entrance. Emilio followed them. Enzo was nowhere to be found.

Francesca gave an exaggerated sigh. “I don’t know about that woman as a mother-in-law, Stefano. She doesn’t like me. At. All. In fact, she said she was friends with Barry Anthon’s parents.” She tried to hide the anxiety in her voice, but she was fairly certain he heard it anyway.