I kissed her with more fervor than I’d intended, more than I’d prepared for, more than I had any strategic justification for, and for a long moment, there was nothing at all except the warmth of her mouth and the entirely unreasonable feeling that I had just walked through a door I’d spent years bricking shut.
I felt her hand on my lapel. Felt her pull me closer, and…Christ.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. I moved on autopilot, needing to taste her like I’d never fucking needed anything else.
It was only Rom’s loud whistle that pulled me back to the church and all the people here. Watching us. Watchingmelose control.
I tore myself away from her.
She stared at me. Stunned. Lips wet from the kiss, hair mussed from my hands, and just seeing her like that made my body thrum with an energy that felt too potent to be healthy.
She was a lethal threat to my careful, hard-earned self-control.
And she was my wife.
CHAPTER 21
FABIANA
Applause echoedagainst the walls of the cathedral. Camera shutters clicked from somewhere nearby. Children laughed as they threw handfuls of rice at the aisle.
But I barely heard them. All of my attention was glued to the man beside me.
My husband.
Cosimo’s hand was wrapped around mine, his grip tight and commanding as he pulled me down the aisle and out of the church.
Snow was still falling outside, dissolving the moment it touched the dark, wet stone path leading toward the reception hall. The air smelled almost like spring.
I was still fighting to find my breath after that kiss.
I should’ve kissed him the night of the bachelorette. When his hand was on my thigh, and his gaze kept drifting to my lips. Then I could’ve blamed this response on the alcohol in my system.
There was nothing to blame now. Nothing to justify the way that kiss had splintered me into a million tiny pieces that I was still trying to frantically collect.
I shot him a glance. His jaw was tight, his brows drawn. And yet, when he looked back at me, his eyes were as wild and wanting as I imagined mine to be.
A sinking feeling filled my gut. This chemistry between us wasn’t going to lead anywhere good.
The second we stepped inside the banquet hall, I stopped short. “We need to talk.”
He looked past me, toward the glass doors where the wedding planner and photographer were hurrying to catch up. I didn’t care. I was not about to sit through dinner pretending everything was normal while wondering what the hell he’d meant at the altar.
I pulled him around the corner and yanked open the first door we encountered. It was a walk-in storage closet. I shoved him inside and shut the door behind me.
Something rattled. I patted against the wall at my back. “Where’s the light?”
Click.
The light flicked on. Cosimo’s elbow hovered by my face, and his hand was wrapped around a cord suspended from the ceiling.
“Here.”
The room was barely a room at all. Just a narrow storage closet lined with shelves stacked with extra linens, candles, and boxes of serving ware. There was just enough space for the two of us.
He took up the majority of it.
So did the memory of that kiss.
