Chapter 59

Isabella

The hallway was quiet again, but my body still felt the weight of everything left unsaid. The silence stretched like fabric behind Alessandro’s retreating steps, and believe me when I said it wasn’t comforting.

Alessandro’s words had long settled into the silence, but they clung to my skin as if he’d branded them there.

“You’re mine. Don’t lie to me. You don’t get to disappear anymore. I’ll find out whatever it is.”

I could hardly breathe, not like I could whenever he was close, but this—all of this—was getting out of hand. It was beyond just pleasure and passion. It was something more. It felt like I could smell danger in his voice, some subtle threat he was giving. I could feel the wheels in my mind go on a wild rampage and lose control.

I despised the way my pulse responded to his words, or how much my body longed to go after him even after he turned away. I needed space, and this wasn’t just distance from him, but from whateve