Page 117 of When She Falls (The Fallen)

---

My forehead falls against his shoulder. I’m not sure where he ends and I begin.

“Fuck,” he pants. “It’s a miracle I’m still standing.”

I thread my fingers through his hair and press a kiss to his shoulder. There are no words.

Eventually, he pulls back and kisses me.

Takes me into the shower.

Cleans me.

Puts me in bed.

It all blurs in a tender, languid haze.

The last thing I remember before I pass out is him scooping me against his chest and his heart goingba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dumagainst my cheek.

CHAPTER25

GEMMA

The bed isempty when I wake up the next morning.

There are voices coming from the living room. It’s Ras and Cleo, but I can’t make out what they’re saying.

I sit up in bed, noticing the slight ache between my legs, and that’s all it takes for last night to come flooding back to me.

Ras and I had sex.

And God, if it wasn’t everything I wanted.

I drag my palm over my cheek and wrap it around my throat, remembering how he held me.

I don’t regret it. Not a second of it.

Whatever happens now, it was worth it.

Gingerly, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, and my gaze lands on the bedside table.

There’s a box on it.Plan B.Ras must have gotten up early to buy it this morning.

For a second, I allow myself to wonder what would happen if I didn’t take it. If I got pregnant with Ras’s baby. There’s a perverse kind of pleasure at allowing my mind to wander in that destructive direction, like when you’re driving down the highway and you imagine what would happen if you swerve into the incoming lane.

That would be one way to call off the wedding.

What would Rafaele and Papà do then?

They’d probably try to kill Ras.

And they’d probably kill the baby.

I pop the pill out of its packet and swallow it dry.

I pull on the party dress from last night, leave the bedroom, and find Ras and Cleo having espressos in the kitchen.

His hazel eyes lift to mine.

There, I see all the same emotions that are currently tormenting me. Longing, despair, and a stubborn kind of joy at what we did last night.

---