A/N: Okay, dear readers, I know I've left you in the lurch for far too long. I'm sure you thought this was never going to be finished! I hope you'll allow this little peace offering and a note of gratitude for your patience, as I've had to put all writing aside to deal with some heavy family stuff and continued health issues. Plus, I admit it took me all this time to come up with a satisfactory continuation, as all the chaos on the homefront left me with a bad bout of writer's block. My other projects also had to take a backseat, and I'm actually getting back in the saddle with this one if that is any consolation! I have the next chapter finished, and promise not to leave you hanging. Many thanks for your patience, the hallmark of a true WTB fan ;).


Angela's lashes fluttered open, stirred from slumber by a soft kiss to her forehead. Her sleepy eyes landed on Tony's warm dark ones as he stroked her hair tenderly.

"I had planned this differently," he lamented, taking her hand. "I'm sorry, Angela."

She gave him a sleepy smile. "Sorry for the most romantic night of my life? Tony, you gotta lower the bar a little," she teased.

He spoke softly, "No, that's not what I meant, I –"

"I know what you meant," she smiled, reaching up to play with a lock of hair on his forehead. "You don't have anything to apologize for. You can't help that your family is excited to see you."

Marveling at her endless reserve of patience and understanding, he looked down at her hand, now folded in his, recalling their parting earlier in the night. Hand in hand, they had made their way from the wine cellar, hoping the celebration would be winding down enough to make their excuses to head up to the room. Apparently the party had just been getting started when they left it, as even Aldo and Antonio still seemed in high spirits upon their return. Sensing it would be easier to escape the droves of eager famiglia if he sent Angela up first, she had gone up after a few minutes of polite conversation, with him promising to join her shortly after.

But here he was, an hour later, deeply regretting his acquiescence of the well-meaning, reliably overbearing famiglia.

"I'm really glad I got to meet Maria," she offered. "Who else grabbed your ear?"

Maria, a bubbly, rotund older woman, had caught them excitedly as they were making their excuses to turn in. It turned out she was Ana's first cousin, and had worked closely with Ana at the hospital during the war.

He exhaled, exasperated. "Rosa has now introduced me to half of Sicily. Nearly all of whom, I can apparently claim as family. One man wanted to talk my ear off about Aldo, he has developed quite the reputation around here, and it seems like that is going to be my first order of business, proving to them that I run things differently. Then Aldo had more details to discuss, big plans for the lemon groves." His exasperated tone turned earnest and soft, "When I sent you up, I thought it would help me wind things up faster with them. But I couldn't get out of there. I was ready to call it a night too. I thought I was going to be right behind you..."

Angela chuckled sleepily. "I've met enough of your family to know that was a losing prospect from the start. But that's why we're here Tony – I'm glad you got to spend more time getting to know your family. They are all so excited you're here. I'm just sorry I didn't stay to meet everyone."

"And I'm just sorry I messed this all up."

She pushed herself up against the headboard into a sitting position. She reached up to gently cup his cheek. "Tony, really, it's okay," she reassured him.

"Should we maybe...have a nightcap?" she ventured, hoping to move him past his guilt over abandoning her again.

He pulled her soft hand from his cheek and brushed his lips across her palm, the fiery warmth in his eyes zipping a tingle down her spine.

"Si, signora, your wish is my command," Tony took the out gratefully, crossing the room to the crystal decanter Aldo had placed on the antique wardrobe the day they arrived.

"So what did you learn about your mother from Maria?" Angela asked, letting the sheet fall to her lap as she propped herself against the pillows.

As Tony poured two glasses, he continued, "She told me she's a legend in the family - on my mom's side of course. She told me that in the hospital, she was continuing her work with the Fantasmas. Word had spread quickly among the American paratroopers about the nurse named Ana working undercover for the resistance. While my father had been heroically training partisan fighters, my mom was an equally important to Allied operations. She said everyone knows about Ana the spy, who was heroic, and courageous, and beautiful."

"Oh Tony, how special. I wish I could have stayed to hear about her."

"I know, me too, but I'm glad I sent you up, we never would have gotten out of there. Then Aldo cut in to talk about the lemon groves, and –"

He turned around, glasses in hand, and stopped in his tracks. "Angela...you're wearing the black one," he croaked.

She nodded, an innocent smile dancing on her lips. "Mmm hmm. Well, my t-shirt was, you know, in the wash," she said with a small shrug.

He took her in a moment – the delicate black lace dancing along her décolletage, her tousled hair framing her flushed face – she was a vision, and he was relishing a long-held fantasy come true.

"Angela...you're...Angela..."

"I am that," she laughed, bemused by her ability to render him speechless.

"You're so beautiful, Angela," he swallowed, as if seeing her for the first time. "You're a dream."

He had so much more to say, but his mind had suddenly tangled into a hot swirl – of anticipation of the future opening up before him, and regret for the years they'd lost. Lust, and gratitude. Desire. And love.

He couldn't explain how she had, in one instant, merged fantasy with reality. How in one instant, every barrier they had carefully erected over the years fell away, and she had become his Angela. The one in his heart; the one from his dreams.

With a coquettish twitch of her mouth and a beckon of her curled finger, he found his legs again, and crossed the room to hand her the glass, perching once more beside her on the edge of the bed.

"I can't remember the last time I had a glass of wine in bed," she smiled, her eyes meeting his over the rim of her glass as she sipped. "Oh Tony – this is – I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it's so different from the other wines we tried. So bold, and sweet. There's something kind of magical about it."

"Like you," he said quietly, still transfixed with her.

"Hmm?" she said, taking another sip. Already in her negligee, she wasn't exactly playing hard to get, but she was content to draw out his anticipation a bit longer.

"Like you," he repeated softly. "Bold, magical, sweet. Unexpected."

"You didn't expect this?" she teased with a sultry smirk.

He shook his head. "Not in a million years did I dream I would end up with a woman like you. And for me, Angela...this, this is the end," he said, his voice betraying his shaky confidence. "I hope that's clear, that if we do this..."

She shushed him with a finger to his lips, quieting his sudden nervousness, steadying him with the warm intensity of her gaze.

"You are...all I've ever wanted, Tony."

Overcome, he looked away briefly at his wallet on the nightstand, then back to her, as if he wanted to say something more in response, but stopped himself.

His breath hitched in his throat, and he was quiet for a moment, taking her in. He cupped her shoulder and fingered the black silky strap of her negligee, stroking it lightly with his thumb as he met her eyes and finally allowed himself to feel everything at once. His desire for her was not new, but allowing himself to feel it, and even more dangerously, to act on it, was something he'd never experienced before.

She smiled – warmly, knowingly – into his gaze; she was feeling everything he was feeling. And in that instant, he thought he might drown in the magnitude of their unspoken connection.

He gathered her in his arms and pulled her in for a slow, sensual, kiss.

And then, he finally showed her how he felt.