First time he knew he was in love
He knew he was in love when he heard an angel’s voice and thought that heaven had opened above him. He knew he was in love when he saw her golden hair and mistook her for Venus. He knew he was in love when she looked up from the flowerbed she was pruning and he lost himself in the sea of her eyes. He knew he was in love when she did not hesitate to give herself to him, as though their souls had been one before time and recognized their halves on instinct. He knew he was in love when, after they finished for the third time by the garden shed, he said he should go and his heart broke at the thought. It was love on a pure, natural level, and he knew it as well as he knew his own home, for that is what it felt like: coming home.
She was a pretty thing, only a year or two younger than him, raven-haired and emerald-eyed with something wicked lurking at the corners of her lips. But it was the kind of wicked that laughed easily and love fiercely, and she did both for him. She was the only one of the string of lovers Antonio saw near-daily who he felt more than a passing attraction for. She was the only one that he saw more frequently than any other, and at twenty-five, she was the only one he thought might have a chance of sticking it out with him, even though later he was happily proved wrong. He wasn’t the easiest man to grow attached to; he was inconstant and untethered, and he liked it that way. Though he valued his friends and the pack he had declared is loyalty to, in love he was not the sort to settle. At least not yet.
Émeraude Desrosiers visited him three times a week for six months under the understanding that they were not “together” and when her fiancé returned from battle, she would marry him and that would be the end of that. Tonio was content with this, as it meant he was free to pursue many other potential bedfellows as often as he liked. When they were alone together, the flame-fueled alphas were locked in a constant sensual battle for dominance which likely made Sophia even more of a relief to his heart. Émeraude did not accept being treated as a subordinate, not when her father was a marquis and a close friend and adviser to the king. Antonio found that while the thrill of fighting for dominance could be entertaining and result in some incredible sex, it was tiresome in the long run and he did not like having to engage her over this every single time they were together. Where he had at first thought that maybe they might change their minds, that they would temper each other and maybe have something more, he came to feel that her fiancé could not return quickly enough and they would both be glad when he did.
At the end of the six months, as promised, her fiancé came home and Émeraude vanished from Tonio’s life. He has seen her a few times since at court, and fought alongside her husband many times, and is more than content with how things turned out. It was the only thing close to another “relationship” that he had before Sophia, but he looks at it as more of a learning experience that paved the way for the greatest love of his life.