Page 80 of The Temptation

Her brow furrows as her eyes search mine. “That’s not true.”

I shake my head, trying to steady my breathing. “You don’t know me, Lucia. Not all of me. You’ve only seenfragments, the parts I’ve allowed, but if you saw everything ...”

“I’d still love you,” she says, without hesitation.

Her words hit somewhere deep and unexpected. Why does my chest ache in the best possible way? And why is my head, against all logic, begging me to believe her?

She reaches out, her fingers threading gently through mine. “It’s okay, Romeo. You don’t have to love me back. Not now. But maybe one day, you will.”

I think I already do.

Her hand is soft around mine, grounding me. I should pull away and tell her not to wait, not to hope, but I don’t.

Instead, I stare at our hands, at the way hers fits so easily in mine, like it’s always belonged there.

“You deserve more than that,” I whisper. “More than someone who’s still figuring out how to feel.”

She smiles softly this time, without all the shine. “Maybe that’s true, but I’d still choose you anyway.”

And damn it, that hurts more than anything else ever has, because everything in me wants to choose her right back.

I’m dead on my feet by the time I head to bed. My head is so fucked up right now that I doubt I’ll get much sleep, despite being bone tired.

I pause for a second outside Lucia’s bedroom door. It’s her wedding night, and I sent her off to bed alone. She didn’t even fight me on it, which was a surprise.

She just pushed up onto the tips of her toes, placed a soft kiss on my cheek, and said,“Goodnight, Romeo,”before padding out of the kitchen without another word.

It left me feeling a little eerie. It’s unlike her not to bustmy balls every chance she gets, but the way I was feeling in that moment, I’m kind of glad she didn’t. I feel emotionally spent.

I force my feet to keep moving before I do something stupid, like go into her room, climb in beside her, and say to hell with it all. Let’s give this a red-hot fucking crack and see where it leads us.

But I can’t do that.

I can’t knowingly give her false hope.

I’m in a daze when I enter my room and flick on the light. I reach for the buttons on my dress shirt, popping them one by one. Before shrugging it off, I slip off my watch and place it on the dresser. My hand dives into the pocket of my trousers, fishing out the cufflinks I shoved in there earlier while washing the dishes.

The tie and jacket I wore to the ceremony are long gone. I hate ties. They always bring back school memories, where uniforms were mandatory and ties felt like a noose around my neck. I was constantly in detention for forgetting mine, or pretending to.

I drop my shirt into the dirty clothes basket in the corner of my room and grasp my belt buckle. Once my pants are off, I bury the heels of my palms into my eye sockets and blow out a long breath. This whole ordeal has given me a damn headache.

As I turn to switch off the light, I notice the small lump under the covers on my bed, and I do a double take.

My eyes move towards the headboard, and the long, dark hair that fans out against the white pillow is unmissable.

Fucking Lucia.

I stalk towards the bed, and without thinking, I yank back the covers, startling her out of a deep sleep.

“What the fuck,” I growl as her head snaps up and her squinting eyes meet mine. “Why are you in my bed?”

She takes a moment to adjust to the light before saying, “We had a deal, remember? It was one of my stipulations.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I groan, tilting my head towards the ceiling in frustration. Any sleep I hoped to get tonight just flew out the window.

“If I remember correctly, we agreed on occasionally.”

“Humour me, Romeo,” she deadpans, tugging the covers back over her body.