When She Tempts (The Fallen, #2)

by Gabrielle Sands

Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m thirty-three. It feels odd, like I’m living on borrowed time. I always thought I’d die young.

The girl nearly got killed in her own home, and De Rossi thought a party would make it all better? Cazzo, despite what he thinks of himself, he’s definitely not winning brother of the year.

Even now, there’s nothing. Not a pang of anxiety. Not a whisper of sadness. Not even a small hint of apprehension. I’m leaving my home to go to an unknown place with a stranger while my brother wages a war against the most powerful man in the clan, and I feel… Nothing.

“Every object under my protection is of immense value, Martina.” Having his attention on me is like being under a spotlight. Suddenly, the car feels too small. It shrinks even further when he leans over and adjusts his jacket, tugging on the lapel to make it engulf me even more. “And you might just be the most valuable of them all.”

“Do. Not. Say. That,” he grinds out, his words underscored with exasperated warning. “It was a mistake.” “So you keep saying, but I don’t believe you.”

“I’ve lived for a long time, piccolina,” he rasps. “Nearly twice as long as you. Never in my life have I met anyone who hides so much wickedness behind an innocent face like yours. Your mind seduces me. Your body tempts me. A single glimpse of you, and I lose my train of thought. I become completely absorbed in your presence. You shouldn’t have let me touch you like I just did, because now that I know how wet and warm you’d feel around me, I won’t think about anything else for hours. Days. Weeks.” That confession reverberates through me like a clap of thunder, and then, everything stills.