The silence was deafening.
Her answer was clear without a single word.
He let her go. Slowly leaned back, then pushed off the bed. His silhouette dissolved into the shadows near the window, but she could feel the tension in his shoulders, hear the roughness in his breath.
“Right,” he said, voice low and flat. “That’s all I needed to know.”
She stayed quiet. Pain pulsed in her chest.
“Get some sleep, Letta,” he added without turning. “Tomorrow… we’ll keep playing. You’re good at that.”
And he walked out, leaving behind silence and the tangled remnants of her breath.
Nicoletta lay still for a long time, staring at the ceiling as if the answers might be hiding somewhere in the shadows above her. Her heartbeat was still too fast — not from desire, but something else. Something complicat
