Then—her voice slides under the crack of the door, soft and devastating.
“Come inside.”
My lungs stop functioning.
“Pia—”
“Even if you can’t open it,” she whispers.“Come inside.”
Emotionally.
Mentally.
Spiritually.
Completely. Let me feel you again. Maybe for the last time.
I know exactly what she means.And God help me, I want to.More than I’ve wanted anything in my fucked-up life.
I lower my head until my forehead scrapes the metal. My jaw aches from holding back a sound that wants to tear out of me.
“Pia…”My voice sinks into something rough, guttural. “If I touch you again, I won’t stop.”
“Good.”
One word.Soft.Certain.Fatal.
Our breathing syncs — fast, uneven, wrecked — two sinners pressed against opposite sides of a door built for torture, not longing.
The air thickens.Charges.Shakes with everything we’ve been fighting since the night she walked into my church dripping secrets.
She moves closer — I hear the faint whisper brushing the metal — I feel her heat bleeding through the steel like her body is reaching for mine without permission.
Then she says it.
The sentence that ends whatever restraint I had left:
“I need you.”
Something breaks loose inside me.A sound escapes—low, raw, nothing close to holy.
And suddenly nothing matters — Not the church.Not Giovanni.Not the blood in my veins or the sins in hers.
All that matters is her.On the other side of this door.Wanting me back with a desperation that matches my own.
I spread my fingers against the steel, leaning my entire weight into it, breath shaking as I imagine her doing the same.
Two bodies.Two hearts.One impossible barrier.
And a need so strong it feels like it could burn through the metal itself.
When Need Turns Dangerous
Her last words hit me harder than any blade ever has.
I need you.
Not want.Not crave.Need.
