When She Loves (The Fallen, #4)

by Gabrielle Sands

Cleo’s erratic behavior is a product of her father’s incompetence. Stefano Garzolo is a fool. Cleo must have sensed his weakness and exploited it. But there’s no weakness to sense in me. I’ll give it a week before she falls in line.

Ha

“I’m good at a few things too.” I move even closer. “Do tell.” This time, she shuffles back. “Coming up with creative insults, cooking inedible food, spending absurd amounts of money—” I take another step toward her. Her eyes narrow. “Making grown men suffer—” “Don’t stop, you’re turning me on.”

I couldn’t remember a woman ever speaking that way to me. I became very, very aware of her in that moment. And that awareness has stayed with me ever since.

Why is he trying to act nice to me? This place is my new prison. It doesn’t matter how pretty it is. A cage is still a cage, and he will always be my jailer.

Cleo is different. She’s going to hold out on me for as long as she can. But I am a patient man, and there’s nothing more I love than a good challenge. Especially when the reward is her.

You’re lucky you’ve never touched Cleo, because if you had, I would have put you ten feet under as a wedding gift to her.”

“Your father is a weak man. When you acted out, he had to hide you away from the world. I don’t need to hide anything, Cleo. I can simply bend the world to my will.”

my chest got really fucking tight when I thought her life was in danger, and I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that at all.

“Sir, I was hired by your grandmother.” “My grandmother is dead, and you’ll be too if you don’t remove yourself from my sight this very second. You have fifteen minutes to pack your belongings and get the hell out of my house.”

Good riddance!

“That. Ends. Now.” My voice is a low rasp. She sucks in a shaky breath, tears filling her eyes. “I don’t care how people talk to me. Their words don’t affect me.” “They affect me.”

“You lean into people’s lowest opinions of you because you think it gives you power. It doesn’t. You know what gives you real power? Proving them wrong.”

This game is done. You’re mine, Cleo. Do you understand? You’re. Fucking. Mine.”

I will never be Rafaele’s possession. I will never belong to him. But I think I belong with him.

Even now, with my knife pressed to her throat, she doesn’t seem scared. Upset, yes, but not scared. Like she knows I’d never harm her, even after what she just confessed. And she thinks I have no weaknesses?

This is meant to be degrading, but I guess I’m into that, because my panties are drenched.

“Where are you going?” To shoot myself in the head, because that’s apparently the only way I’m going to be able to get her out of it.

Rafaele and Nero are chatting in the corner while holding piña-colada-filled coconuts in their hands. They accepted the drinks from me without too much grumbling, but apparently, I took it a step too far with the matching tropical-patterned button-up shirts, because they categorically refused to put them on.

🤣🤣🤣

“Cleo, when I look at you, I see the entire universe. It took losing you for me to understand that you are everything to me. There might have been a ‘before’ you, but there is no ‘after’. I can’t function without you. I can’t sleep, I can’t think, I can barely fucking breathe. Without you, I exist in a horrible dark place that’s devoid of everything that makes life worth living.

I can’t believe the nonsense I told myself about getting bored with her. That’s never going to happen. I’m obsessed and I’m always going to be fucking obsessed.