Page 82 of When She Falls (The Fallen)
Tap tap.
I glance sideways to see Gemma standing on the other side of the car, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. When I unlock the door, she hops in. She’s wearing the puffiest winter coat I’ve ever seen over a pair of leggings and a sports bra. My gaze drops to her toned stomach and heat rushes straight down to my groin.
Cazzo.
I rack my brain for where we’re going as I try to ignore the heady feminine scent that fills the car.
Oh, right. Pilates.
“Ready?”
“Yep.”
I flex my hands around the wheel and pull out of the driveway.
Why did I tell her about Nunzio yesterday? It’s not a story I’ve shared with many people, but when she asked me about my name, something compelled me to tell her the truth.
“Tell me you killed him.”
My gut tightens. She said it with an undercurrent of fury, like she cared.
Or maybe that’s just my mind imagining things. Seeing things it wants to see.
Does she feel this connection between us? It’s always been there. Yes, from that very first fucking day when she bit me, and I don’t care if she insists otherwise.
In Ibiza, that connection is what allowed her to be so fucking unhinged around me.
You said it yourself. She was just taking her anger out on you.
Maybe at first, but not afterwards. Not in my apartment. Definitely not at that department store.
And not now, when she’s looking at me with those beautiful gray eyes like she’s trying to figure me out.
I’m trying to figure her out too.
There’s a fire that burns inside of her, but I suspect her family has spent her entire life trying to stomp it out.
To make her compliant.
To make her obey.
It’s clear they have her under their control. She cowers around her parents in a way she’s never cowered around me.
What is she afraid of?
Perhaps it’s not fear that motivates her. Perhaps it’s a sense of obligation that her parents have spent a lifetime instilling.
“What would happen if you don’t marry Messero?” I ask, trying to test out my theory.
Her gaze flickers with apprehension. “Why?”
“Back in Ibiza, you said to Vale it’s critical to the survival of your family.”
She shifts in her seat. “We already talked about this, didn’t we? It’s what Papà told me. He said the union with the Messeros will strengthen our reputation after the mess with the Riccis. When everything was going down with them, things got bad for a while.”
“How bad?”
“They killed a bunch of our men.” She looks out the window before she says the next thing. “Our uncles. Our cousins.”
