Cas looks at me with those wide, hazel doe eyes. “Rocco?”
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. If anyone so much aslooksat you the wrong way…I can’t stop it. I would set the world on fire for you and lay the ashes at your feet.”
My heart screams at me to stop. Revealing this much will just scare her out of reach. But for one glorious moment, I swear I see hope in her eyes.
Before she crashes into reality and recoils into herself.
“You think you can just run after me and say all this stuff like you actually care?” she says as she pats away her tears. “I knew you were cruel, but Rocco,this? It’s too far.”
“I’m telling you the truth,” I offer desperately.
“You’re telling me what I want to hear! You’re just saying this stuff because you know I’m the fucking moron who fell for you, and this is the only way to keep me in line.”
Everything within me goes quiet. “What did you just say?”
“You can take me back to the brownstone. I’ll do whatever you want for these last months. I’ll stay true to our agreement. Just, please,” she takes a long haggard breath. “Stop saying these things. It’s not fair.”
I reach for her neck and pull her down to me. “Cas.”
“Stop it!”
I can’t. “Look at me.”
Tears well up in her eyes. “Rocco, you kissed her.”
“She kissedme.She took advantage of a moment of distraction. It shouldn’t have happened. I should have never let it happen.”
“Because you want to protect her, too?”
I brush her hair from her face. “No. You are the only person I care about.”
“I can’t take this,” she whispers back.
“Then believe me.”
I rise to press my lips with hers.
20
CASSANDRA
Ican’t breathe.
Rocco must think he’s kissing a statue.
Because I can’t bring myself to even blink in fear that this might all be a dream, that I might suddenly wake up somewhere far away with nothing but his name to remember him by.
“Cas,” he whispers, drawing back an inch that feels like a mile. “Cas, kiss me.”
It’s not an order; it’s a plea.
“I only want you.”
His words are like honey.
And the way I kiss him back is sickly sweet.
The rational part of my brain is screaming at me to stop. I know that whatever lies down this path with Rocco Moretti will be dangerous, that I might risk more than a broken heart.
