Page 28 of When She Falls (The Fallen)
I would. It’s my job to follow his orders. But I’d ask questions. I’d want an explanation.
And if he refused to give it?
Ice slips inside my veins. Did I criticize Gemma for doing the same thing I would?
She’s waiting for my answer, her fist still clenched against the granite counter.
I force it past my dry throat. “Yes.”
“That’s right,” she snaps. “You’d do anything for him. Well, I’m doing this for my family.” She drops her hand to her side and stares at me, unblinking. “You should thank God that your loyalty will never require you to sell your body to another. That Damiano will never ask you to let a stranger take you home and spend years pumping you full of his children.”
Acid floods my mouth. This is how it is for women born into this life, but for some reason, hearing Gemma say it shocks me.
It’s repulsive. The thought of her being forced into starting a family with someone she doesn’t want. Doesn’t love. Her body not belonging to her, not fully.
The scales were never balanced, but the unfairness of it all has never felt this stark.
“That’s what we’re ultimately here for, you know? To breed. In our world, my crowning achievement will be birthing the next generation of made men. That’s what I have waiting for me. So in my last few weeks of freedom, the last thing I need is you rubbing in my face just how pathetic you think I am.” Her voice breaks. “Let me enjoy my time here, damn it. You don’t need to rob the last few bits of happiness from me.”
My fists clench. I watch a single tear slip out of her eye, and it’s crushing.
I’m an asshole. A real fucking jerk.
I fight against the urge to cross the distance between us and embrace her. She doesn’t want my comfort. The least I can do is respect that.
She must see how thoroughly she’s flattened me. How she’s made me into mud at the bottom of her shoe.
If she was afraid of me before, she isn’t now. She walks around the island and points her finger at my chest.
“You may have fooled my sister, Ras, but you’ve never fooled me. I see you for who you are.”
“Who’s that?”
The tip of her finger presses against my shirt, right between my pecs. “A brute with no honor. You might be loyal to Damiano, but everyone else is fair game. You’re the kind of asshole who’d ruin someone’s life just for a bit of amusement.”
Nunzio’s voice flits through my head.“You think this is funny? Do you know how hard my parents worked for that?”
I shake the memory off.
She backs away. “You won’t touch me again. Do you understand?”
And then, before I can even think about how to answer, she whirls around and stalks out of the kitchen.
CHAPTER7
GEMMA
When I wakeup the next morning, I can still feel the rough press of Ras’s lips, the thrust of his tongue, and the weight of his hips against my own as he slammed me into that counter.
I was so mad just before he did it. So damn annoyed with all the probing questions he was asking that I couldn’t answer.
But something strange happened when he kissed me.
All of my fear and fury morphed into something else. It turned hot and decadent, sliding over my skin and settling between my legs for a brief moment before I came to my senses and kneed him where it hurt.
I pull the bedcover over my head and groan into a pillow.
There is a reasonable explanation.
