A Hunger for the Forbidden(63)

“We agreed on one night. This is turning into a lot longer than one night,” he said when they stopped spinning.

“It is,” she said. “All things considered, I was thinking we might want to make it forever.”

“Forever sounds about right.”





EPILOGUE


THE CORRETTIS WERE all together. But unlike at the funerals that had been the most common reason for them to come together in the past, unlike Alessia and Alessandro’s wedding-that-wasn’t, there was no veiled animosity here at the celebration of Teresa’s birthday. And not just Teresa’s birthday, but the regeneration of the docklands. The culmination of a joint family effort. Of them coming together.

After the big ceremony down at the docklands, they’d returned to the family estate.

They had all sat down to dinner together. They had all talked, business and personal, and not a single punch had been thrown. And it wasn’t only Correttis. Some of the Battaglias, Alessia’s siblings, were there, as well.

Matteo considered it a resounding success.

After dinner, they all sat in the garden, lights strung overhead, a warm breeze filtering through. And Matteo felt peace.

“Hey there.” Alessia walked away from where she’d been talking to his sister Lia and came to stand beside him, their daughter, Luciana Battaglia-Corretti, on her hip.

“The most beautiful women here have graced me with their presence. I am content,” he said, brushing his knuckles over Alessia’s cheek and dropping a kiss onto Luciana’s soft head.

Matteo looked at his wife and daughter, at his family, all of them, surrounding him. That word meant something new now. The Correttis were no longer at war.

He bent down and extracted Luciana from her mother’s arms, pulling his daughter close, the warm weight of her, her absolute trust in him, something he would never take for granted.

Alessia smiled at him, her eyes shining, her face glowing. “The way you look at me,” he said. “Like I’m your knight in shining armor.”

“You are,” she said. “You saved me, after all.”

Matteo looked around one more time, at all of the people in his life. People that he loved. “No, Alessia. You saved me.”

Read on for an exclusive

interview with Maisey Yates!





BEHIND THE SCENES OF

SICILY’S CORRETTI DYNASTY

with Maisey Yates

It’s such a huge world to create—an entire Sicilian dynasty. Did you discuss parts of it with the other writers?

Yes, we had a loop set up for discussion, and there were a lot of details to work out. And every so often messages would come in with the funniest subject lines I’ve ever seen.

How does being part of a continuity differ from when you are writing your own stories?

I think it takes a little bit to attach to characters you didn’t create from scratch, but in the end, for me, I work so hard to find that attachment that I think continuity characters end up being my favorite.

What was the biggest challenge? And what did you most enjoy about it?

I think getting to the heart of my hero. Just because you’ve been given an outline with characters doesn’t mean you’ve been given all the answers. In Matteo’s case he was hiding something very dark and it was up to me to dig it out of him. I love a tortured hero, so this was right up my alley.

As you wrote your hero and heroine was there anything about them that surprised you?

Hee, hee … This goes with the above. Yes, Matteo surprised me with the depth of the darkness in him. I think Alessia surprised me with her strength. Every time she opened her mouth she had something sassy to say.

What was your favorite part of creating the world of Sicily’s most famous dynasty?

I loved the family villas, the idea of old-world history and beauty. I love a country setting.

If you could have given your heroine one piece of advice before the opening pages of the book, what would it be?

It’s never too late to try to claim your own independence … but next time maybe do it before you’re walking down the aisle.

What was your hero’s biggest secret?

Oh, now, see, I can’t tell you that. I’d have to kill you. He’s a very good dancer, though.

What does your hero love most about your heroine?

Her strength, her ability to love and feel in spite of everything she’d been through. He feels like he’s on the outside, looking in at all that light and beauty, unable to touch it.