Page 109 of Phantom Mine

“Masochism?” he asks.

I look up at him from beneath my lashes, nodding once, slowly. “Masochism.”

He murmurs happily and the tension ratchets up slowly between us until the air feels thick and the oxygen dangerously thin. I’m standing close enough to feel the warmth of his breath, to see his pupils dilate, to watch as his tongue peeks out and he wets his lips.

My heart beats loudly, almost too loudly in the silence. It tries to give me away.

“I’ve never understood it, the hold you’ve had on me from that very first moment,” he rasps, voice low and rough. “You’ve held me clutched tightly in your fist, yours to wield, yours to command, yours to do with as you wish, and I’ve had absolutely no hope of getting out.” His hand slides to the back of my neck, his fingers digging demandingly into my hair. There’s a spark of something in his eyes when I look up into them. Something scorching and destructive. “Do you intend to ever free me from this torment?”

No.

“I plan to,” I say instead.

“When?” he murmurs hoarsely. “When will you free me from your thrall?”

I turn heavy, loaded eyes towards him. “As soon as you free me from yours, Phantom.”

A slow, arrogant smile spreads across Matteo’s mouth. He bends and I’m sighing before our mouths connect, like my body releases ten tonnes of pressure just knowing he’s about to kiss me.

I expect aggression or the frenzied passion that’s usually present whenever we kiss. Instead, his mouth closes softly over mine and stays there. He sucks on my lower lip languidly, slowly, taking his time like we have all of it in the world, like this moment can last forever.

His fingers thread through my hair and pull me closer. His tongue parts my lips and slips in lazily. Everything about the kiss is unhurried and smooth, somehow driving me crazier than when he’s pushing me against a wall and shoving his tongue into my mouth. He kisses me like he owns me, like he’s trying to stamp a part of himself into every single one of my cells so he can rewrite my DNA to say his name.

I don’t know how long we stay like that for. All I know is that when Matteo finally pulls his face away, the only thing keeping my towel up is the press of his chest against mine. That my hair is a mess of tangles from where his hands buried themselves in it. That he’s breathing roughly, nearly panting with rampant lust.

And that I’m forever changed by a kiss I know I’ll never forget and a man who can never be mine.

Matteo drops his forehead against mine. “Earlier, you said that I couldn’t understand your dedication to finding out what happened to Adriana because I don’t have a weakness,” he rasps huskily. “Which is laughable, really, because it seems obvious to everyone but you exactly where my weakness lies, and just how far I would go to protect it,cara.”

My pulse skips. Emotion whips inside me, leaving behind an ache that echoes longingly through my chest. With just a few words, Matteo gives me my first good memory in this apartment since Adriana died.

“How far?”

“To the very ends of the Earth. Until my feet were raw and bloodied, until the last ounce of strength left my body, until Idied,” he vows, clasping my face like I might fly away. “And still I’d find a way to come back from the afterlife if you needed me.”

How many times am I going to need to tell him before he understands? Before he listens?

“I don’t need anything from you.” Matteo’s gaze falters slightly, the green losing its color like leaves wilting at the turn of fall. My hands slide up his abdomen, moving searchingly over his chest, until I feel the comforting beat of his heart beneath my palms. “Nothing except for you not to die, Phantom.”

The green slips back into his gaze until it’s shining as brightly as emeralds. A cocky smirk tugs at the corner of his lips, his gaze turning languidly possessive on me. Based on the way my heart soars in my chest, I know that the inevitable pain I’m going to feel when we walk away from each other is going to be crippling.

It’s another thing I’m going to need to learn to survive.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Valentina

Iexpect to see Matteo at Firenze the following day, but he isn’t there. I check my phone to see if he’s texted, but aside from a missed call from Thiago, I have no other notifications.

I look for him the following day, and the next, but he remains conspicuously absent. I’m not surprised that he’s busy—the club rumbles with fear and rumors in the wake of Rocco’s murder. Turns out, you can’t kill aDon’s heir without the ground shaking in the aftermath.

What I am surprised by is how much I miss him. How lonely and alone I suddenly feel in his absence, especially as it stretches to over a week.

With stubborn, painstaking tenacity, Matteo worked his way into every aspect of my life, from my work to the hours I spend away fromFirenze. Unexpectedly, there’s such an obviousMatteo-shaped hole overnight that I find I’m not sure what to do with myself.

What did I do with all my time before I met him?

Were there this many empty hours in the day back then? Because I could swear the days feel far longer now.

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