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“Fuck,” he breathed out against my nipple.

He moved to my mouth. “You’re going to fucking kill me.

Stop my heart.” He kissed me again. “This. What exists between us. This is living. This is my life. You. You’ll also be the death of me.

When you snap at me. When you curse in Italian—so fast, my fucking head spins.

The way you look at me when you think I’m not watching.

The way you take care of me. The way just sharing the same air as you heals me.

The way you make my heart fucking balloon to triple its size.

“The way when I’m fucking you, making love to you, it feels like I’m emptying more than just my balls when I spill myself inside of you.

All of you. You’re the life in me. You’ll be the death of me.

Tell me you fucking hear me, Sistine Fausti.

” He moved the hair away from my face. “The life and the death of me. The cure and the poison. The woman who heals my heart and breaks it. No other woman. No other woman could ever come close to you.”

All I could do was kiss him back with almost manic fervor, allowing my feelings to take the lead and assure him my heart had given him a hard yes the moment his eyes had met mine, even if I had been spewing spicy Italian at him.

He kissed me back as manically as I was kissing him.

It was insanity.

The way it felt as if we could not stop touching.

Kissing.

Lightning lit us both up.

Thunder rolled in the distance.

I was caught up in a major storm with him, and I did not care.

He was the storm of my life.

He was also the shelter.

He was all things to me.

He moved us away from the tin, turning back toward the house.

My hair whipped in the wind, and my dress clung to me harder.

The boots were filled with collected rainwater.

When he set me down by the front door, we stared at each other.

My fingers tingled to touch him again. My entire body ached to be close to his.

My heart and soul craved the connection.

“Not even a gaggle of women?” I whispered.

“Not even a fucking herd of them.”

I smiled, but he did not.

“You fucking kept a dangerous secret from me.”

“I know,” I whispered.

“A secret that could have destroyed you—meaning me, therefore us.”

My eyes turned away, then rose to meet his.

Tiny droplets of water collected on my lashes and then swam in my eyes.

“I did not want this…” I whispered, motioning between us.

“I did not want a choice I made, to stay for the test of Fate, to come between us because of something someone else decided to do. To take advantage of. If the test would have been called off…” My husband could have possibly gone another route.

Perhaps his family would have presented him with a challenge my father would have appreciated.

One that would have required my husband to sacrifice blood, or worse.

I shook my head. “This is all I can say. I cannot go back in time and change it.”

“Moving forward.”

It was not a question, although it was posed as one.

I stared into his eyes. “If it means keeping you safe…” I did not know what else to say.

If I mentioned Fausti challenges, or how wily Iggy seemed, my husband would get offended, as if he could not take care of himself.

I believed my husband could defeat him, but if Iggy meant us no harm…

what use was it to kill him and have his blood on my husband’s hands?

“My soul,” he said.

He was looking for clarification. I would give him that much.

“Yes,” I whispered. “As a woman, your wife, it is mine to shelter and keep safe. If Iggy means us no harm, I do not see it as protecting what is yours. I see it as plain murder.”

“I should allow him to get the jump on me. Hit first after he’s taken more than one swipe at me.

The close to deadly blow…the moment he decided to cross a boundary, one that tripped the strings of my heart and soul.

He crossed the threshold of my wife’s fucking door while she was alone, without her husband. ”

“No.” I shook my head. “This is not what I am asking of you. I am asking you to have the meeting with Nonno and Lev before you go after him.”

We stared at each other.

His hand jingled.

A crack of silver light lit the night as the flash of a camera would.

The look on his face was seared into my memories, a picture of it to forever save inside of my mind.

The monster who controlled the man in that moment.

I almost took a step back.

Held my hands up.

Surrendered to the Fausti monster inside of him that craved blood.

Not mine, but the blood of an enemy who had disrespected him by crossing a line with me.

This , I was being honest with myself, this was why I had not told him right away.

His reaction, quite frankly, scared me to death.

I had never seen or felt a man turn this way when he felt a wrong had been done to him.

I felt guilty, as if it was my fault my husband was denying himself a blood spree in my honor, although I was not the one who crossed a line.

He became very still, and a breath trembled out of my mouth.

He said nothing to me as he opened the door to the house.

The comical boots slapped against the floor as I stepped inside.

My hands went automatically to my arms. I was soaked, and the cold air from inside instantly clung to me.

Mariano removed his shirt and slid it over my head.

Although his was as soaked as mine, the residual heat from his body gave me a flash of heat.

He hurriedly removed my boots and set them to the side. He picked me up and carried me up the stairs, bringing me straight to the ensuite bathroom in our bedroom. He started the shower, and I almost gulped in the steam as it warmed the room. He took my hand and led me to the hot water of the spray.

He leaned against the counter and watched me.

Once I turned the water off, he dried me off, pulled one of his long t-shirts over my head, and walked me to the bed.

“Make sure you’re dressed when you leave the room next time,” he said. “There’s a house full of men.”

I nodded.

He kissed me on the forehead, going for the door.

“You are leaving me.” My voice trembled out as if it were cold, although the rest of me was warmed through.

“I’m going for a run.”

“This is leaving me,” I whispered.

“Don’t you know by now, Annie.” His touch was a whisper along my skin. “I run in circles.” He lifted his left hand, the moon glinting off his wedding band. “I’ll always race back to you. I know no other way. No other fucking way.”

With that, he left me alone in the room.