Page 99 of Modern Romance March 2025 (5-8)

An image of the gym flashes in my mind; Tessa bare from the waist up, her nipples swollen, her breathing erratic.

“Why is it any of your concern?”

“Because she’s my friend.”

“A friend? Or something more?”

Gavriil’s eyes narrow to slits. “You do realize my wife, the woman I love, is just inside that ballroom?”

“A woman you could barely stand a month ago.”

“A woman who drove me crazy, yes, but who I respected and now love. I can be in love with my wife and still love Tessa for the friend she is.” He stabs a finger at my chest. “You may not remember when I first arrived at the villa. God knows you barely acknowledged my existence.”

Regret surges up, ensnares me and pulls me down. I remember all too vividly walking in those doors, seeing my eyes looking back at me from the face of an eight-year-old boy with his chin thrust in the air and his lips pressed together as he tried not to cry. I wanted to go to him, to protect him from the hell I knew Lucifer had waiting for him inside his gilded villa.

Had I done that, Lucifer would have made good on his threats. Any chance Gavriil would have had at a decent life would have been ripped away from him.

“I had no one in that house. No one,” Gavriil repeats, his voice vibrating with years of suppressed anger. “When Tessa and her family moved to Santorini, she was the only person who would talk to me. We spent hours outside, playing, talking. She was my lifeline. So yes, I will protect her, even from my own brother. I don’t even understand why she’s here if you two are going to be divorcing.”

“That’s…” My voice trails off as coldness sweeps through me. “You know?”

Gavriil has the good sense to look somewhat embarrassed. “Tessa told me.”

“When?” My voice comes out as a snarl, more animalistic than human.

He hesitates, then runs a hand through his hair as his breath comes out in a rush. “The week before she sent the petition.”

Betrayal cuts through me. This is the price to pay for opening myself up, for letting myself feel something for my wife.

“You care for her.”

My head jerks up. “I’ve always cared for Tessa.”

“No, this is something different.” His eyes widen. “Do you—”

“No.” My smile is cold, humorless. “How can a man like me even come close to being capable of loving someone?”

“Tell yourself what you want, but I know what I saw back there.”

I lean in. “It doesn’t matter what I do or don’t feel. You saw her back there. Saw her smile. Her happiness.”

Gavriil nods. “That’s what I’m saying. I—”

“Now look at me. Who do you see?” Gavriil falls silent. “You see it.” His eyes dart to the side. I lean in closer until he has no choice but to look at me. “I see it, too, every time I look in the mirror. He stripped me of the ability to be anything more than a man with a heart of ice.”

Gavriil flinches as I toss the words I’ve heard him say multiple times over the years back in his face.

“You and I may be forever at odds, little brother, but the one thing we can both agree on is that even if I were capable of loving someone, Tessa deserves better than me.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tessa

ITAP MYfingers nervously against the armrest of my wheelchair as I sit outside the door to Rafe’s room. What started out as an incredible night turned bad so quickly I barely had time to catch my breath.

I lingered on the atrium bridge for quite a while, trying to get myself back into a place of neutrality after our heated dance. That Rafe had even noticed me watching Gavriil and Juliette dance and picked up on my quiet yearning had meant something to me. So, too, had me being his first dance partner.

And then there was the matter of the dance itself. Something so simple yet so sensual it had stoked a slow flame that crept through my veins and continued to smolder long after Gavriil had come to fetch him.

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