A ghost of a smile touched Altun's lips. "Try not to sound so excited, love."
"I can't help it. I like to live dangerously," he said, sending her a smoldering look. "It's why every day with you is an adventure."
"Careful, charm like that will get you everywhere," she replied, her smile now reaching her eyes.
The meeting broke up, and Julian escorted Altun back toward the main hall, leaving Rodrigo and Giana alone in the candlelit anteroom.
Altun's warning of magic pressed down on them, a new layer of dread added to the already suffocating anticipation of the siege. The familiar scent of old books and beeswax felt cloying now, the shadows deeper, more menacing.
Rodrigo's fierce, unwavering eyes held hers. "Whatever comes next, I want you to know that you're not alone anymore, Giana. You stand with me. Withus. We won't let anything happen to you, magic or otherwise."
Giana closed the distance between them, her body fitting against his. She wound her arms around his neck and rose up on her tiptoes.
"You're not alone either, Rodrigo, and there is no one I'd rather have at my side in a siege," she whispered against his lips before she kissed him. She loved this complex, dangerous man, and she wanted him to know it, especially when a fight was coming.
Rodrigo's arms locked around her, crushing her to him, his mouth moving against hers with equal parts desperation and devotion.
Bullets or magic, Vincenzo could throw whatever he liked at them. Somehow, Giana knew that if she had Rodrigo with her, there wasn't anything she couldn't survive.
40
It was close to midnight when Giana lay in Rodrigo's bed, cocooned in the warmth of his body, the cotton sheets tangled around their legs.
Through the tall windows, the moon cast silver light across the floor, illuminating the shadows where guards moved in silent rotation along the perimeter. She could hear the faint crackle of radios, the occasional murmur of voices carried on the night air. Everyone was sleeping in shifts. The compound was still awake and waiting for Vincenzo's assault.
Wrapped in Rodrigo's arms with his heartbeat steady beneath her ear, she was comfortable but couldn't sleep. Neither could Rodrigo.
His fingers traced lazy patterns on her bare shoulder, the touch soothing.
"You're thinking too loud," he murmured against her hair, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through her.
Giana huffed a soft laugh. "Old habit."
"Tell me what's on your mind so we can both sleep afterward." It wasn't a command. It was an invitation, offered in the darkness where confessions came easier.
Giana was quiet for a long moment, her fingers tracing the ridges of his abdomen, feeling the muscle twitch beneath her touch.
"I never…" She stopped, her throat tightening. It felt silly to admit it, but it was something she wanted him to know. "I've never let anyone else touch me but you. You know that, right?"
Rodrigo went still beneath her. The hand on her shoulder paused.
"I don't mean I didn't have the opportunity," she continued, the words tumbling out. "When I was at university, there were men. Interested men. Good-looking, normal men who didn't know what I was or where I came from. Men who smiled at me in coffee shops and asked for my number."
She felt him tense, a coiled energy radiating out of him.
"But every time one of them got close, I never went through with it…" A bitter laugh escaped her. "I told myself I was being careful. Smart. That it was dangerous to let anyone in because Gabriella was watching."
"Giana…" Rodrigo whispered.
"That wasn't the whole truth." She pushed up on her elbow, needing to see his face in the moonlight. "I told myself I hated you. I let you be the monster in my head that everyone said you were, because it was easier than admitting the truth to myself."
She trailed off, the words catching in her chest like broken glass.
Rodrigo waited, calmly watching her with those dark, patient eyes that had always seen her when no one else did.
"I hated you, but you were also the only one I ever wanted," she finished, the confession ripping something loose inside her. "Even when I was supposed to be free, even when I was thousands of miles away, some part of me was always expecting you to turn up. It's why I left ways back into your security system, so I always had a connection to you if I needed to use it.I told myself it was so that if you ever did come for me, I could use it to destroy you. I was so sure I hated you, but when I was grabbed in Bodrum, my mind cried out for you, and then you came for me as if you had somehow heard."
The silence stretched between them, thick and heavy.
