Serena:
The silence that followed Luca's departure was worse than the interruption had been.
It echoed in the house's bones, humming against the walls like the aftermath of a scream no one dared finish. My skin still buzzed where Nico had touched me, as if his hands had left behind static instead of fingerprints. Each place he'd claimed felt lit from beneath, a map of everything we weren't supposed to be.
My breath was uneven.
My heart? A riot in my chest.
I stayed in his lap a second longer than I should have.
His arms didn't move.
But his jaw was clenched. Hard. That muscle ticked in his cheek like it was trying to hold back a hundred words he wouldn't say. I could see it—the war behind his eyes. Between the part of him that wanted me, and the part that believed he shouldn't.
And
