Someone Exactly Like Me by Debbie Cromack

29

Destiny

I’m in Nicco’s arms. He came here to fight for me. He’s choosing me.

He carries me up to my bedroom and we make the most emotional, passionate love I’ve ever experienced. Our souls connect on an ethereal level. Our bodies ignite in ecstasy.

I wake in the morning to soft kisses on my shoulder, down my arm. He’s tucked in behind me, propped on his elbow. A yawn sneaks out of me as I roll my body toward him.

“Good morning,” his deep voice rumbles through me as he smiles down at me.

“Good morning.”

He kisses my forehead.

“You didn’t have a cigarette after we made love last night.” I hadn’t realized it until we were almost asleep.

“No, I didn’t.” His smile broadens proudly as he tilts his head a bit. “I called your friend, Heidi, and she’s helping me quit.”

“Nicco, that’s wonderful.”

“You once told me that a soul mate doesn’t complete you, but they inspire you to complete yourself. You do that for me.” He traces his finger from the top of my forehead, down the side of my face, and across my jaw, then touches his lips to mine.

My heart swells with happiness that’s quickly overtaken by melancholy. Though our feelings are now out in the open, I don’t know how a relationship could work between us.

“Nicco?”

“Yes?”

“What happens now? With us.”

“What do you want to happen?”

“I don’t know. A lot’s happened in the last few weeks that I haven’t even told you about.”

“Okay. So, tell me.” Shifting his eyes from mine, he watches his fingers trail over my shoulder and down my arm.

“Well, my book’s doing really well, but there’s no guarantee I’m on my way back to stable income. And I’m buying my house so I need stable income.”

“You are?” he asks, returning his gaze to me.

“Yes, Bev and Tom sold me the house. They made me an amazing offer and they don’t even want to make money on it. They’re just downsizing the number of properties they have to manage.”

“So you’re going to own your house now?” Squeezing my hip, he wiggles me.

“Yeah. Well, I hope so.”

“That’s awesome,” he says, leaning down, kissing my décolletage.

“It is and I’m excited, but I’m also a little nervous. I’ve been interviewing at Creative Artists —”

“A desk job?” Lifting from my décolletage, he looks at me with narrowed brows. “You wouldn’t like that at all.”

“I know, but it would be stable income and I can write when I’m not there.”

He leans back down and kisses my neck with tender pecks. My skin warms beneath his lips as I sip an inhale.

“That won’t make you happy.” Sliding the strap of my camisole down over my shoulder, he moves his kisses to the top of my breast.

A tiny gasp escapes me as my eyes close. “I know, but it’s what I need to do.”

“I have another idea,” he says, dropping a kiss on my nose and swirling his finger around my nipple over my silky camisole.

I sharply inhale in response to his touch. “What’s that?”

“I’m going to be doing some traveling for my career,” he says. Lifting the bottom of my camisole to just below my breasts, he kisses a line down my stomach. “And I want you to be with me,” he says, dragging his mouth across my heating skin to the side of my waist above my hip bone and taking a nibble.

I squirm and he digs his teeth in, just a touch, making me whimper. “But how will I do that if I take a job at Creative Artists?” I ask, sinking my hands into his hair.

“Forget the job.” Tugging down one side of my satiny shorts, he places whispery kisses from below my hip to the top of my landing strip.

My back arches slightly. “I can’t just forget the job,” I say on a moan.

Moving back up, he rests against my lower body, leaning his torso so his face is above mine. “I’m serious. I want to be with you. I’m not going to let anything get in the way of that. We have my home in Rome, your home here, and we can travel for my concerts and acting projects, and have incredible adventures together. If we want to stay in a city for an extra day, I’ll arrange it. You can tour the cities we visit for inspiration and research and write your books. Together we’ll have plenty of money.” His eyes sparkle. “What do you think?”

With this sexy, kind, loving man hovering above me, I quickly think back to when we first met. How dull and uncertain my life was. How lonely, empty, and uninspired I was. Now, a man I only ever fantasized about has melded with who I dreamed about as my soul mate and he’s in love with me. And I’m in love with him. I’m living inside one of my books. Goose bumps cover my body.

“Destiny?” His soft, husky voice brings me back to the moment.

“That’s really what you want?”

Without a smile on his face, he nods, his gaze boring intensely into my eyes. “Yes. That’s what I want. I’ve been waiting for you my whole life,” he says, brushing his thumb across my cheek. “Sii mio per sempre, mia dolce ragazza.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, be mine forever, my sweet girl.” Softly kissing my lips, he encases me in his arms, burying his face into the crook of my neck.

Do I believe in soul mates? Yes. Yes, I do.

On my thirtieth birthday, I fell in love. I fell in love with a man who would be mine forever.