“So this”—Alessio’s voice dropped lower as the rain began to fall harder, soaking through his shirt and making it close to impossible not to touch him—“is my hail Mary.”
My heart slammed painfully against my ribs.
“I want you,” he said. No hesitation, no apology. “And I think you want me too.”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
“If this is about fear,” he went on, “about judgment, then let me take it. All of it. I’d die for your sins any day. I’ve been carrying my silence for years. I can carry this. I can carry yours.”
“Alessio.” I hated the way my voice cracked. “I?—”
“One night,” he rushed out, taking a step closer, and God help me, I didn’t move away. “One night. That’s all I ask. Let me—letus—have tonight.”
My eyes roved over a face I’d dreamed about, lips I’d imagined against mine, and what little resolve I had left vanished.
“Invite me in, Rafael.”
I knew I should send him away.Send him away, shut the door, and end this madness.
I could do it. I’d broken him before. He’d said as much himself.
But as the rain fell softly between us, washing away the years we’d been apart, washing away all of the hate and hurt that’d tainted what we’d had, I didn’t do any of those things.
Instead, I took a step back and gave in to the madness.
“Come in.”
23
ALESSIO
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
The thunderous beat of my heart made it almost impossible to be sure that I’d heard Rafael’s words right. But as he stepped aside and gestured for me to enter the rectory, I knew I hadn’t.
Come in,he’d said.
Two words.A direct order.
A signal my body immediately understood, and as I walked past him and inhaled his familiar scent, every nerve ending in my body went on high alert.
It’d been a huge risk coming here tonight. Rafael had made it very clear that I was a problem for him, a temptation he was finding difficult to resist. But now he’d invited me inside.
I shoved aside the voice of reason, not willing to give in to fear tonight. Tonight, there was no room forHim. This was about me and Rafael.
“Turn around, Alessio. Look at me.”
The low, rough timbre of his voice made my dick jerk to attention, my entire being wired to respond to Rafael.
That hadn’t changed. Not that I’d expected it to. But it had been so long since I’d seen this side of him, I’d often wondered if I’d imagined it.
I took in a deep breath, bracing myself for what I’d see when I turned, but nothing prepared me for the man standing in front of me.
Gone was the priest, the soft, kind, gentle, smiling man who took confession and gave Sunday mass, and in his place was a man I’d only ever dreamed of.
The boy I’d loved, the boy I’d given myself to, had morphed into the most beautiful man in the world, and he knew every secret I possessed. Every single desire. He had the power to wreck me, and I wanted him to.
