Page 28 of Gilded Princess

He takes a step toward me and slides his hands along my neck and into my hair. With gentle pressure, he tilts my head back and brushes his lips across mine with excruciatingly soft and slow kisses. I swear it feels like my soul sighs with the contact.

My lashes flutter closed without conscious thought.

“I can’t go another moment without telling you something,” he murmurs against my lips.

My eyes pop open as a whooshing sound fills my ears as my heart speeds up. Oh no, this is it. He’s going to end things, now, isn’t he? I try to step back, pull away from him, but he doesn’t let me get very far.

“I love you, Maddie. I love you, and I want to tell the whole world, but I thought I should tell you first before I start shouting it at random strangers.”

His lips twist to the side and he flashes me that smirk that gets him in trouble. My fingers dig into his arm at his admission, and my heart hitches for another reason.

“I thought you were going to break up with me,” I say around a smile. We’re too close, so I can’t see his entire expression, but I like the feeling of his lips on mine with each syllable too much to move.

He tilts his head to the side. “Did you not hear me tell you I love you?”

“I did. And I love you too.”

And it’s true. I do love him, more than I realized I could love someone. I push onto my toes and press our lips together. It’s all the encouragement he needs, and he quickly takes control of the kiss.

We get lost in one another in the middle of the sidewalk, expressing our newly declared love for one another with each swipe of our tongues and brush of our lips. My heart soars with happiness, and we don’t break for air until someone bumps into me.

“I have to go.” I step back, and this time, he lets me go without a word. In three steps, I’m on the sidewalk, a healthy distance between us.

The fates must be smiling down on me today, because in the next second, my Uber pulls up. I open the rear passenger door, but before I slide inside, I look over my shoulder at the first man I ever loved. He radiates power from ten feet away, and if I’m not careful, he’ll pull me into his orbit before I can blink. I don’t have the guise of too much champagne like I did at the masquerade, either.

“Take care, Matteo.”

He slides his hands in his pockets, his biceps bulging against the tight confines of his suit jacket, and nods at me with a small wrinkle in his brow.

Chapter Eleven

MATTEO

I don’t have to turn around to know Dante’s standing next to me, watching her move further away. The man’s a fucking ninja. I swear he could sneak into the most heavily guarded places undetected. He was a thief in another life, I’d bet my savings on it.

I’m not a fucking idiot, so I know he’s staring at her with the same longing in his gaze. But he doesn’t have the same amount of drive and determination as me, not when it comes to her.

And he’s too fucking loyal ever to go for her. I’d bet my life on it.

He’s hellbent on me letting her go—really letting her go. But no matter how many times I tell him no, he doesn’t understand. I know he thinks I’m a selfish prick for still having her followed and looked after, and it’s true, I am.

I make no apologies for that.

But more importantly, I fucking can’t let her go. I’m aware of the driving force behind my actions.

See, Dante? He’d let her go under the guise of keeping her safe from our enemies—to put a smile on her face and quietly suffer while she goes out with these entitled rich dicks who have more money than sense.

But me? I’ll douse every enemy in gasoline, light the match with a spring in my fucking step, and watch ‘em burn with a smile on my face. Until the enemy is wiped off the face of the Earth.

Then she can come back to me. Where she fucking belongs.

I see him open his mouth out of the corner of my eye. Before he utters a single syllable, I slice a glare at him. “Don’t even fucking say it.”

His jaw hardens and he stares forward. “If I don’t even have to say it for you to know what I’m talking about, then don’t you think that’s the right thing to do?”

I shake my head a few times. “You don’t get it, man. But one day, one day you’re going to find the woman who changes everything.”

I used to think it was an advantage to have tasted her, but now I realize I was a fool. Dante’s in a much better position because he doesn’t know what he’s missing. He doesn’t realize that no matter how exquisite he thinks she is, she’s a hundred times more—a million times more.

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