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poised for Giana’s next words. “You’re going to pay for that.”

The shaky gulp she dragged in was flooded with the scent of

perfume and desire, dark secrets and darker anguish. It was all

Giana. Sinfully her. Exactly as Coralyn remembered breathing

her in before. She smelled the same, but she wasn’t the same

now. That Giana was probably the excavated one, the soul dug

out from the hard shell and all the debris and rocks and layers

or ruination.

Giana let the words sink in. Her mouth was so sensual, even

if she didn’t smile. Her cruelty, her secrets, the duality of

before and now, only added to her allure. Her eyes were

stormy and beautiful and wrecked. She was too serious. She’d

seen far too much, far too young.

“I need it,” Coralyn admitted, sacrificing herself right there,

slaying her pride. “You’re the only thing that’s made sense to

me since my mom died. The days I spent with you, that made

sense. Not every moment, but some of them. You came for me

when I needed you most. You held me. You didn’t let my feet

touch the earth.”

“And then I remembered, and I sent you crashing down, so

why are you really here?”

“You didn’t leave me all alone!” Was it so wrong to fight for

something that she really didn’t understand why she needed?

Wrong or right, it was the fight of her life. She’d lost so many

of those fights, but not this one. “You knew everything about

where I was. I know you had someone following me. The

same car drove past my apartment every half hour. I hid

behind the blinds and looked out and a guy had a camera

pointed right at my apartment. I wasn’t scared. I knew exactly

who sent him.”