Oh fuck.God really did have it out for me, didn’t he?
Lachlan waved a hand in front of my face. “Hello? Where’d you go?”
But I was still staring at Rafael, who had stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth parted in surprise. Only a week since the last time I’d seen him and he looked so different already. His usually clean-shaven face sported several days’ worth of growth, and he wore a dark turtleneck and jeans—no collar in sight.
I couldn’t fucking breathe.
“Alessio? What’s—” Lachlan followed my gaze and his brows shot up. “Oh. Shit.”
I was over him. I’d made that promise to myself. I’d stopped watching him, turned off the camera outside his place. Installed curtains in my apartment and kept them shut. Hell, I’d been looking for a new place, something that would give me the space I needed to get over him. Because Iwouldget over him. I had to. Moving on was the only way to survive this.
But then Rafael began to walk in our direction, bypassing the counter, and my heart stopped, completely stopped beating until I sucked in a gasping breath to kick-start it.
“No, no, no,” I whispered under my breath, but it must’ve been loud enough for Lachlan to hear, because he knocked my foot with his under the table, either telling me to get it together or giving a silent show of support.
Either way, I was so fucked. If I’d thought it was hard to differentiate Rafael between man and priest in a collar, this version of him—this sexy, scruffy, fine-as-fuck version—immediately made me lose my resolve.
“Father Vitale,” Lachlan said, immediately getting to his feet, and if I thought for one second my legs would keep me upright, I would’ve joined him. I was smart enough to know better, though, and stayed right where I was. “What an unexpected surprise.”
Rafael smiled down at Lachlan, but the usually easy gesture didn’t quite meet his eyes as he greeted my best friend. “Hopefully not an unpleasant one, though.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. Just strange seeing you outside your, you know, church.”
Rafael chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the sides. “Occasionally they let us out.” Then his eyes shifted to where I was still gawking up at him like some kind of moron trying to find his tongue. “Alessio. It’s good to see you.”
I blinked several times, still trying to work out who this man,thisRafael, was. I’d never met him before, and something about him felt different. Not only was the scruff new, so was his overall demeanor.
Less holy.
More…human.
Lachlan cleared his throat and, when it was obvious I wasn’t about to speak, said, “Would you like to join us?”
My head whipped in his direction, and his shit-eating smirk made me want to launch myself over the table and punch him right in the nose.
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to intrude?—”
“You’re not,” Lachlan,the traitor, said, and gestured to his chair. “Why don’t you take a seat and catch up with Alessio why I go and order you a coffee? What do you like?”
“A caramel latte. Thank you,” Rafael said, and just as I was about to tell Lachlan he better not fucking leave me here, he turned and headed off to the counter.
Rafael moved over to Lachlan’s empty chair and touched the back of it. “Do you mind?”
“Do you care?”
Rafael swallowed but said nothing in response as he slid into the vacant seat and crossed one leg over the other, his foot knocking into mine and making me jerk back.
“Sorry,” he said, and I couldn’t help my snort.
“Yeah, ’cause that’s what I want an apology for.”
Rafael nodded slowly, his eyes roving over my face in a way that felt much more intimate than it should. “You’re right. I owe you an apology for a lot more than that.”
“Don’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want anything from you.”
“Yes, you’ve made that very clear.”
The slight bite to Rafael’s words had my eyes narrowing. “Excuse me?”
