Page 41 of Sin & Secrets

Finally, I reach the top of the stairs and can stare down at the defiant young woman before me. “I’m offering you the opportunity to negotiate your own terms,Angioletta.I suggest you take it.”

I allow myself one blissful moment to soak in her closeness. The fresh scent of her still-damp hair almost floors me.

“Or what? One day, you’ll come home with my blood on your shirt?”

At her side, Donatella tuts under her breath but doesn’t intervene.

“I did as you asked, Cassandra. You may not like my methods, but they were effective. Now, you can either spend the next months sulking around this house, resenting me for it, or you can join me for dinner to discuss how you’d like to proceed.”

Though she doesn’t break eye contact, I watch her swallow. “I want my phone back.”

“Then I’ll see you at seven.”

I hold her gaze a moment longer, transfixed by the way her lips part just so.

But I force myself to turn toward my own room and close the door behind me.

I try not to think about her as I strip off my ruined shirt and step into the shower. Try not to imagine what she’s doing, only a few measly walls away, as I don fresh clothing.

After the last few days of fruitless investigations, tensions were beginning to rise again in the Guild. Esther’s departure had been an effective distraction, but it hadn’t prevented the whispers and conspiracies for as long as I would have liked.

Right now, my best lead is Claudio Lazzaro. But in order to get to him, I now need something from Cas.

Which is perhaps the most terrifying part of this entire operation.

I wander down to the dining hall that evening with a clear strategy in mind. Get Cas to agree. Leave her alone. Simple, effective. It’s how I would deal with anyone else.

But as the minutes tick by toward seven p.m. with a brutal disregard for my previous instructions, my confidence falters. Perhaps giving her a choice in all this is the wrong move.

My father wouldn’t have hesitated; he would have locked her in the bedroom as soon as she’d stepped into it.

I pour myself a large measure of whiskey as his voice scolds me for being too soft, for allowing myself to care what she thought of me. For the sake of the Guild, I needed to turn off my emotions and do what needed to be done.

“In my defense, I’m late because Donatella forced me to wear this stupid dress.”

I look up to find Cas standing awkwardly at the door. And my brain seems to short circuit.

It’s just a dress. The one she wears on stage is far shorter. But for some reason, the way the dark green fabric wraps around her body, flowing out at her shoulders and around her shins, makes my mouth water.

It hugs her every curve perfectly, and one pull at the string tied at her waist would have the whole thing unraveling. Unwrapping her.

I need to have a word with Donatella.

“Take a seat.” I gesture to the chair at the far end of the table. A precaution in case my lesser instincts get the better of me.

To my dismay, Cas takes one look at the chair and drags it to my side. “I’m not shouting at you across the table all night,” she insists stubbornly.

I distract myself by waving to the kitchen staff as her knee brushes against mine. Dinner arrives seconds later, giving me a perfect excuse to position myself as far away from her as possible.

It’s a simple carbonara, adorned in truffle and seventy-two-month-aged parmesan. But she barely considers the dish before attacking it with her fork.

I watch her, bemused. “I take it you slept well?”

She glowers back. “Out with it, then.”

“With what?”

“Whatever offer you’re about to make me. Spare me the rhetoric about not being able to refuse.”

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