Third Person's POV.

"What are you making, honey?" His hoarse voice instantly made her feel things she should not, this early in the morning. Even though they were together the whole night till a few minutes ago, she turned red like a jar of ketchup. His sweetest smile and the morning hair made him look at least a decade younger than he was. "Hm? What is this little red riding hood of mine making?" He rasped as he leaned forward and put his chin on her shoulder.

"Bread.." She breathed out and he smirked at his effect on her. She was making banana bread that Maria loved. "Mm? But I just had bread." He whispered and she turned her head in confusion towards her shoulder to meet his eyes there. "In the shower." Ava gasped at that and jerked back hitting him lightly on his arm as she whispered and screamed. "Salvi!" He chuckled and held her again this time from the front as he descended his lips on her.

She flinched but relaxed immediately, getting used to his sudden touches now. Their wedding was in that very month and they had been shopping together for every big to little thing. Salvatore chose every small thing for her. Telling how he'd love to see her have this, wear this, eat this. Their kiss was lazy with tongues dancing slowly. After a while, Salvatore pulled back and rested his cheek on top of her head. "I love it when you call me that." She smiled and gave him a peck on his chin because she could only reach there when he was not leaning down.

She slipped out of his grip and started beating the eggs again. He leaned over the shelf behind her with his arms folded over his chest with his eyes fixed on her. She was beating the eggs with a fork instead of the beater and as Salvatore observed how her body moved with every jerk of her arm he was tempted to hide the beater for good. Ava felt his eyes on her and realized what he would be looking at. "Salvi!" She gasped when she felt warm skin over her bottom. The direct skin contact made her realize that Salvatore had slid through the barriers of her clothes.

She gasped and looked around making sure Maria was still in her class with her teacher. Salvatore pushed her shirt up, to her neck and froze. He froze just like every other time his eyes lay on her tattoo. Likewise, we fell apart. This was the tattoo she changed after her divorce. Previously it just said Likewise. Salvatore looked sorrowful as every other time he looked at it. "Bad times are over, my love." She reassured him, he loved it when she called him, her love.

He kissed her over the tattoo and dragged his tongue over it. When Salvatore was sure where Maria was, there was no longer cooking or baking happening in the kitchen. What they did was entirely forbidden for the kitchens but Salvatore was surprisingly stubborn to follow rules made for common men.

"You're always making what Maria loves! What about your soon-to-be husband? I want a pancake." Salvatore whined sitting on a chair by the counter, after an hour of having what he loved the most. "Pancake for you then." She smiled as she looked back at him over her shoulder. What she saw in his eyes made her eyes widen and she whipped her head forward. Monster. She thought but her smile didn't waver for even a moment.

Suddenly a wave of weakness hit her. She had been feeling dizzy for 2 days now. She knew Salvatore would be mad if he knew she hid it from him, but she thought it was nothing serious so she didn't tell him, now she was afraid to tell him of the scolding she'd get for telling him late. She cut an onion for her omelette when suddenly she was hit by its aroma and she felt as though she would throw up everything she had in her stomach.

Salvatore shot up and was on her side in an instant, when he heard her gag and with one arm around her waist he pulled her towards the bin, which he pulled out with his other hand. Once she was secure on his lap on the ground with the bin in front of her she threw up. Salvatore held her hair back in a pony he pulled from her wrist. Once her hair was secure he held his palms flat on both of her ears. She threw up again and after a while, she sagged back at his chest.

He stroked her arm as he wiped the sweat from her forehead. "You okay?" He kissed her cheek as he asked. "Mm." She moaned lightly. "I'm an awful man to be happy in this moment." She had her head on his chest when she slowly looked up at him confused. "My sweet little dove is pregnant with my child, how can I not be?" He smiled down at her.

"What?!" She shouted and he chuckled lifting her in his arms. "How do you know?" She asked. "Well, aside from being a licensed doctor, I'm also a very observant husband." He told her with amusement dripping from his voice. "I don't know who would give you that license." She teased and chuckled with him.

Then he took her straight to his very own hospital, in his very own office to prove to her that he was indeed a legit doctor. And when Ava saw him in his white coat with his black high neck and dark pants underneath, throwing up was the last thing she thought about. After all the tests were done she laid on the examination couch as Salvatore hugged her waist with his cheek on her stomach.

"l'avevo detto io!" He exclaimed, still smiling at her just as he was smiling during the whole process. "I told you so." He translated when he saw her confused face. "How do you feel about this, Ava?" She looked down at him and smirked. "Well, I'm just surprised you can make a baby at this age." He laughed at that, a booming sound it was. "I'm not that old!" He exclaimed and snuggled with her tummy. "Sure, doctor." She said and felt over her leg, how calling her doctor affected his body.

He coughed, getting his mind off of the things he wanted to do to her. "Now you have two options, my love. We either postpone the wedding till after our baby is born.." She frowned at that, which seemed more like a pout to him.

"Or we can get married within this week so that you can rest as soon as possible. Now which one would my dove choose?" He asked as he put his forehead on hers and intertwined their fingers together. "We better get the hall booked for this week then." They smiled at each other and Salvatore tilted his head up and captured her mouth, in an open kiss, which told Ava exactly what he intended to do with this particular patient of his.

*** A few days later.

When she stepped into the church hall she saw everything she did not have the first time she got married. There were flowers and colours everywhere, and the laughter of kids, and relatives from both sides filled almost every seat in the hall. And she saw Avery too standing beside her fiance smiling at her with joy and pride.

Everything was shocking, but the most shocking thing was that Salvatore had invited her father to their wedding and he was there. Ava didn't dare ask Salvatore to invite her father, he did it himself which was shocking in itself.

She clasped the arm of her father and he walked her towards the groom waiting on the alter. He stiffened when she first came in his view, as though scared. He looked at her from where he stood, and his gaze softened instantly. When he saw that damn dress on her, he did everything in his power to hold his ground and not cause a scene by lifting that fairy over his shoulder and kidnapping her to his kingdom right then.

Her beauty, the brown hair, the flawless blush-kissed skin, a perfect heavenly body bearing his very child, those brown soft eyes... oh those eyes he could die for, and would be honoured to do so. A fear clasped his heart when he thought about it all being a dream, that he would wake up any moment and find himself alone in his office with blood on his hand or with a gun down someone's throat, a side of him he carefully sealed hidden from Ava.

Though she was aware of what he did, what he would or could do, she would never see blood on his hands. He won't let her. She was not made to see all that. She was made for healing, for peace, for love, and he would make sure she gets all that back too. When Abramov handed his daughter to him, he was seeping off discomfort and nerves.

"Make sure to witness the happiness of your daughter. That'll be last you'll see of us." Salvatore has whispered it, just an hour ago, in his father-in-law's ear, with his hand on his shoulder. The time was already up for the bastard and he knew it damn well too. He was only out there or alive because Salvatore wanted it so. Just for this, just for Ava.

Salvatore's hands held hers like it was made out of glass as he put a ring on her finger, a ring that belonged to his mother, her wedding ring. When she held his hand and put a ring on his ringer her breath hitched and she held back her tears. Because she saw black ink on his ring finger, identical to her own. 07:12:04, the time of the exact moment their eyes met.

"With everything that came to be my very being, I will cherish you. Everything that comes out of your mouth ought to be written down in gold for history, so the world could know someone as wonderful as you existed. And for man, there is no greater accompaniment than having you as his wife. I won in that matter and will live and die a proud man. I love you." He barely spoke, for most people, he was still a man of few words.

But he poured his heart out there, for Ava and she found nothing greater than those words and his affection for her. "I blamed and hated you, for every loss of mine..." Everyone went silent at Ava's words. "I convinced myself I did not love you. And when you asked for my trust again I held back. You have proven me wrong times and times again in every ill opinion I had on you and I can never be happier for being proven wrong. Time and time again you proved to be the best father to Maria, the best partner to me and the best man to exist for me." He smiled down at her and matched her teary eyes. "I can never love you enough for what you deserve. But know that I love you, with every breath of mine, till every breath of mine." He could not hold back.

"I pronounce you husband and wife. Now you may ki.." he was already at her. His arm snaked around her waist as he pulled her up with her tummy against his chest, she gasped and his mouth was on her in an instant, devouring it.

Maria fell asleep on their way to their home and was tucked in by a maid. Salvatore did not let Ava's feet touch the ground as he picked her up bridal style from the car seat and took her to their room. A room that Ava noticed had been changed, it had more colour to it now, like a blend of Ava and Salvatore. Just like their life. Ava filled out what Salvatore lacked in his life, like love and laughter. And Salvatore filled out what she lacked in her life, someone hard and strong yet warm, to keep her cosy, loved and safe.

Salvatore handed her some documents as his wedding gift. Which turned out to be a working organization, recently made for children in need. Rehabilitation, schools, hospitals and whole societies for them. Everything in a whole working community was made by him, for them, in her name. She would be in charge of it all. What kind of man does that? He was one of a kind and she was lucky she got him to herself before anyone else could. Because a man like that, makes the world out of plain earth for their loved ones and she couldn't love him more for that.

He kissed her from her tow to her very head. Their wedding night was bliss. He jolted when his lips reached the tattoo on her back. It was changed now, it read, likewise we fell apart, but there a red line over apart and there was something written instead of it, in red, as in correction. In love.

Likewise, we fell in love. That was written there, which made him grin from ear to ear. He kissed her over it and she kissed him on the tattoo on his finger. "I hope you're not tired." Though she knew what he meant she still teased, "Not at all, why would you ask?" He smirked back at her, "Because I intend to make you tired." Which made her gasp and he chuckled.

"I could never be tired, of this, of you, of us." She whispered and she nuzzled behind his ear. Though she said that, the very next morning, she was too tired and soar to even get to the washroom without his help. And she glared daggers at him when she was tired enough to regretfully refuse to play with Maria that whole day.

"You look pure evil when you're in bed." She complained which made him chuckle. "You just lack stamina for your age." He was being cocky now, "No you just have it too much, for your age." She clapped back. "You just make me feel young." He admitted, gingerly. She was still teasing, "Yeah, like a teenager in a rut." He stated in all seriousness, "You have yet to see me in a rut woman. And you should be thankful that I'm keeping it for after the baby." What? He is holding back right now? Holy...

She shrugged and said, "Um.. thanks..?" He looked a little annoyed by the teasing but he gave it away with a cheek ticking to suppress a smile. "Mm, now get over here so I can kiss you nice and warm." She chuckled but complied. He always kept her nice and warm, almost to an annoyingly obsessive level and she was all for it.

*** Note: I hope you guys are enjoying this book! Please point out my mistakes for me. XoXo!♡