Page 103 of The Ache That Stayed

Forgot the nightmare. The gallery. Him.

Everything that should have made this wrong.

And that was the true gamble—forgetting the rules I’d built to keep myself intact.

A firm, heavy hand tightened at my waist, pulling me closer. Another rested loosely at my neck. For a devastating moment, I didn’t move. Didn’t think nor question it.

My breath caught.

Everything came crashing back.

The kiss.

Julian.

The gallery.

Him.

The bar.

The blonde.

The nightmare.

My eyes flew open. And… Santino.

I was half on top of him, just in my t-shirt. My bare leg tangled between his, trapped there as if this wasn’t new. My face was close to his. Close enough to feel his breath on my lips.

And my body hadn’t tried to move away. Instead, it had settled comfortably deeper into him in its sleep.

He was still asleep, lips parted, breathing slow. Too calm. Too… unbothered.

How could someone look like that? Like sin wrapped in skin—and still manage to be the most infuriating man I’d ever met?

For a second—just a second—I wanted to touch him. Trace his jaw. Feel if he was real. But instead, I jerked back fast, losing my balance, nearly falling off the bed.

He caught me by my wrist instinctively, as though he hadn’t been asleep.

“Careful,” he murmured.

The rough, sleep-thick rasp of his voice dragged over my skin… down my spine… settling somewhere lower than it had any right to. And my body, traitor that it was, reacted.

I jerked like I’d been touched by fire. My heart was racing like I’d run a god damn marathon. And I guess he noticed because he rubbed the inside of my wrist in slow circles. Once. Twice.

“What are you doing?” I snapped defensively.

As if he had committed a crime, and hadn’t just caught me.

His brows pulled together slightly.

“You were about to fall.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

The silence sat between us, charged with everything we weren’t saying. I pushed off the bed completely this time, putting distance between us. Needing it.

A lot had happened in one night. The weight of it was piling up faster than I could sort through it.