But it feels like we are.
Heat pulses through my palm.Through the door.Through me.
I don’t know who moves first—her when she rests her forehead against the steel opposite mine, or me when I lean forward until I feel the faint echo of her breath warm against the metal.
But it doesn’t matter.
The moment locks in place, impossible and inevitable.
Forbidden contact.Two sinners kneel on opposite sides of a room designed for torture, as they discover something human where there shouldn’t be anything left.
And for the first time in my life, a confession doesn’t feel like sin.
It feels like a beginning.
Love Prevails Through Barriers
Her breathing changes first.
Not the sharp terror from earlier.Not the ragged, frantic gasps clawing at the walls of Giovanni’s chamber.
This is different.Quieter.Shallower.Trembling in a way that makes the heat coil low in my stomach.
“Santino…” she whispers, and the sound sinks into me like a hook. “What if we don’t get out?”
My pulse spikes—fast, brutal.
“Don’t say that.”It comes out harsher than I mean it to. Too raw. Too close to the truth I don’t want to admit.
But she keeps going, voice trembling, drifting through the metal like smoke.
“But if we don’t…”A thin breath.“A-and I mean if… there are things I want you to know.”
Pressure builds behind my ribs—tight, aching.She’s scared.She’s imagining dying in the dark with only steel and secrets between us.And instead of pulling away from me, she’s reaching for me.
“What things?”My voice comes out low. Rough. Prepared to bleed for the answer.
A beat of silence.Then:
“I haven’t stopped thinking about you.”
My fingers curl against the door so hard my knuckles crack.
Her voice dips—soft, trembling, hungry.
“Not since the alley,” she breathes.“Not since the confessional. Not since you—”
She stops long enough for my heart to slam once against my ribs.
Then:
“—touched me.”
My breath breaks.Something hot and lethal surges through me, sparking in every nerve.
“Pia…”It’s not a warning.Not a prayer.More like a sin trying to speak.
Her palm presses harder into the steel, heat finding me through cold metal.
