I toldhim not to touch me. And he didn’t?—
not until I begged for it, craving the hands of a man who still dreams of her.
But I’ve seenhis hands shake when I cry. I’ve heard his breath hitch when I whisper his name.
His body is fire, seeping into my skin, branding me, making me crave more.
And God help me, I do.
But this worlddoesn’t allow happy endings.
And I hold a flash drive hiding the one secret he’d do anything to keep me from.
I need to run…Witheverything I couldn’t say...
Because the night I finally gave him my body…
he gave me something I can never take back.
MATTEO
In another life,I would’ve watched her marry my son.
But in this one, I claimed her at the altar as my bride.
Barely twenty-four.Untouched. Trembling in white. My best friend’s daughter.
She thinks I forced her.Maybe I did.
But it was the only way to keep her alive.
I am a man of control.Of duty. Of chains I locked around myself long ago.
Chased by ghosts and love long buried, I shouldn’t care.
But she ignites something in me no one else could—mercy.
I did something unforgivable.And now I need redemption.
I should stay away. But when she looks at me with those wide, tear-soaked eyes?—
begging for answers, begging for love I was never meant to give?—
I can’t. I won’t.
I know wantingher is dangerous. But God help me... I want her more than my next breath.
She was the one thing I should’ve resisted. In the end, I never even tried.
But if sheknew what I’ve done. She wouldn’t just hate me. She’d run.
Some oaths are writtenin blood. Others… in betrayal.
And I killed the only man she ever loved.
But now
I’d bleed to have her heart.
