That was news to me. “At least that’s better than loathe, right?”
She narrowed her eyes at me.
I lifted my hands. “Okay. No joking.”
She nodded. “He’s marrying my cousin,” she blurted.
Shit. I sat up. “I’m so sorry, Cilla.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s not even his fault. I can’t marry Joey because I was already promised to another family. If I don’t, there’s another war. His marriage has been arranged to keep us apart—they can’t have us breaking the rules, or everyone will. And it makes peace between the two families, even though the feud didn’t start with us. But you know what the worst part is?” Her voice lowered to a whisper.
“What?” I whispered back.
“My cousin. She always thought he was cute. She thinks the guy they want me to marry is cute. She just wants to be married. So I know she likes Joey. She wants this. And.” She set her head back against the couch, staring at the ceiling. “It’s burning me up inside. It’s like a fucking fire, you know? It won’t go out. I don’t even know how I stomached all this food. I’m starving, but there’s this pain inside of me that’s just eating it all up. It’s eating me from the inside out.”
“What did Joey say?”
She shrugged. “He’ll always love me.”
I scooted closer to her, taking her hand, and then set my head back. “I’m not going to tell you this is going to disappear overnight. Maybe not ever. But you will learn how to live through this, Cilla. You’ll learn how to live with a piece of your heart missing.”
“You think?”
“I hope,” I said.
We turned and looked at each other. She knew I was as lost as she was. I couldn’t tell her there was some magic pill she could take that would erase her feelings. I couldn’t even tell her she’d ever get her heart back. Because the truth was as bright as the crescent moon hanging over the high-rise building we were in.
I was in love with a man who was forbidden. And I was willing to die for it. My perception of things was dark.
Or maybe my perception was clear.
In this life we were born into, there were so many things to die for. Money. Jealousy. Breaking a law created by the powers that be with an iron fist.
None of that mattered to me. Money. Jealously. Breaking their rules.
What mattered to me was what I felt whenever Aniello walked into a room, and what I felt when he walked out of it. He was the greatest breath I’d ever taken, and the suffocating hands around my throat.
Love was what mattered to me. All that mattered to me.
True love was as rare in this life as touching the moon outside of the window.
I held up my free hand, closing one eye, reaching out like I could steal it and stick it in my back pocket. Then, with my eyes on the prize, I blinked a few times and fell asleep. When my eyes opened again, Aniello was carrying me toward the bedroom.
“Hi,” I breathed out, blinking up at him.
“Rosalia.”
I’d never get used to the way he said my name. He said it like he owned it. A small grin touched my lips before I asked, “Cilla?”
“In her room,” he said.
“Did you eat?”
He stopped walking and looked down at me. “I’ll do.”
“That’s not what I asked,” I said, reaching up and touching his face. The dark stubble on his jaw scratched against my palm. It was the first time I’d ever felt it, and I wondered how it would feel against my thighs.
He leaned into my touch and kissed my wrist, right over the pulse point. “You ate,” he said.
