“Fine,” I said. “Yes, I’m avoiding you. But we can do this somewhere else.”
“We tried, didn’t we? And what did you do?”
“Rodion—”
“Alessia.”
His voice cut clean, refusing to let me wriggle free. But I knew the faster I spoke, the sooner this storm might pass.
“Talk to me.” His voice dropped.
“We’ll be moving to Italy,” I whispered. “And I didn’t realize that this was a mistake.”
He didn’t flinch or say a word.
“I don’t belong in your life,” I breathed. “I have a life, and not this one.” Rodion still kept quiet. His stare pinned me in place. Still, I forced the words out, despite how painful they sounded. “I don’t fit in your life.”
At last, he spoke. “And who said I want you in my life?”
The words sliced deeper than I was ready for. Tears slipped free before I could stop them. I dropped my gaze, struggling to swallow the ache clawing up my chest.
He placed the glass down with a quiet click. “I don’twantyou in my life,” he said. “Youaremy life.”
I looked up, blurry-eyed, stunned. God. This man could stab and heal in one breath. And right now, I was bleeding and breathless and somehow feeling safe all at once.
He leaned closer. “Do you really think I’d let you go?”
I swallowed. “You don’t understand—”
“Neither do you,” he cut in. “You don’t even know what you do to me.” My breath hitched. “You drive me mad, Alessia, completely mad. I can’t control myself.”
Teas slipped, and I didn’t even wipe them. God, he was wrecking me.
I needed a reason to stay, and then he gave it to me.
“You fucking control me.” He paused, his brow twitching, the mafia pride bleeding into vulnerability. “You are my life, Alessia.”
The world stopped spinning. Or maybe it spun faster, I couldn’t tell. My breathing came faster.
He looked at me, and it wasn’t like before. This was real.
“When you looked at me holding that fucking mask to my face so I could breathe,” he said slowly. “I saw the world differently.” We stared. “I wanted to breathe, just for you.”
Something inside me stilled. I didn’t know what to say. This wasn’t the man who’d pulled the trigger and killed his relative. This was a new version. He made me realize he wasn’t only a mafia boss; he could be almost ordinary, like me.
“I... I don’t know what to say.”
“Then don’t. I’ll let you avoid this one.” He said, and I let out a shaky chuckle, which turned into a sob. He gave me a smile that didn’t disappear before I could catch it; it stayed. “Come here, Alessia.” He got up.
I blinked, startled to find the jet already on the ground. When had we even landed?
I unbuckled, got up, and stepped toward him. His arm slid around my waist, pulling me against the solid line of his body. His mouth claimed mine in a deep kiss. The world outside didn’t exist. He tasted like whiskey and home, drawing me under the tide I couldn’t fight.
After the chaos in the sky, Rodion took me to a restaurant tucked at the end of an alley. The kind of place you wouldn’t notice unless you knew where to look. Shadows pressed against the windows, and candlelight flickered low. The silence inside felt bought, like even the air obeyed him.
He didn’t ask whether I was hungry. He chose the table, and I followed.
I couldn’t stop the smile on my lips. My body was still buzzing from the flight. But talking to him stripped away some of theweight I’d carried since yesterday. Dangerous or not, Rodion made me feel lighter in ways I didn’t understand.