Page 154 of When She Tempts (The Fallen)
She bites down on her lip, then nods.
My feet carry me upstairs, all the way to Giorgio’s room.
His bed is messy and unmade, just like it was back at the castello. I sit on the edge and press my face into his pillow, searching for his familiar scent.
It’s there.
And it fills me with longing so profound that in that moment, I secretly forgive all the ways he’s hurt me.
“Please live,” I beg against the pillow, my tears staining the fabric wet. “Come back to me so that I can give you grief. So that I can tell you all the ways you need to make it up to me. So that I can tease you and tempt you until you can do nothing but give in.”
I cry for a long time, my chest vibrating with anguished sobs. At some point, Sophia comes in and climbs onto the bed beside me, pressing her warm body against mine. She licks my face as if she knows I need to be comforted. I scratch her behind the ear and sit up against the pillows on Giorgio’s bed.
My gaze catches on the book lying on the nightstand.
I reach for it even though I already know what it is from that raggedy cover.
My copy ofJane Eyre.
It’s more worn than the last time I saw it, and when I imagine him reading it while lying here alone in bed, my eyes prickle. Did he think about me as he read the passages?
I flip through the pages and then press the book against my chest.
* * *
It’s past three am when I hear cars pulling into the driveway. I rush over to the open window and look out at the three black SUVs.
My brother steps out first.
I make a little sigh of relief, but I already knew from Vale that he was fine.
It’s Giorgio I need to see.
He doesn’t keep me waiting long. Another door opens, and Ras helps him out of the car.
My breath catches at the sight of him. He’s limping, and his arm and leg are bandaged up, but he’s okay. Despite his injuries, he looks formidable. I catch a glimpse of his profile illuminated by the moonlight, and something clicks into place inside my chest.
His face is fixed into a stiff expression as he says something to Ras. Is he in pain?
I want to run down there, but I hold myself back. He just killed a man—his half-brother—he’s injured, and he needs to rest. This isn’t the time to have our confrontation. For hours, I’ve been telling myself that all I need is for him to get back safely. He’s here.
The rest can wait.
I wait until I see him enter the house before I reluctantly return to bed, but sleep won’t come, and eventually, I decide to read.
I pick up my copy ofJane Eyre—I took it back from his room—and open to somewhere near the middle of the book.
“I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.”
A shiver runs through me.
Can it really be a coincidence that the first words I read match what’s in my heart? Or is it a sign?
A sign to move forward and step into a new chapter of my life?
I nearly lost Giorgio tonight. During moments like that, forgiveness comes more easily, but it’s not just that that’s made me soften. It’s his letters. His words and thoughts spoken openly and honestly.
He wants to be with me.
