Lahat ng Kabanata ng When Forbidden Feels This Good: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

Cade’s POV"Show me to my room," Lee said to Russo, defusing the tension with practised ease. "I need to shower and review the target files before the briefing."They continued up the stairs, and I stood there, fists clenched, trying to figure out how to stop this without revealing exactly why Lee's presence was a problem.Because explaining that would require admitting that Lee wasn't just some casual fling.She'd been everything eighteen months ago. The woman I'd thought I might build a life with. The partner who understood the darkness in me because she had her own.The woman I thought I loved before I found Scarlett again and realised what love actually meant.I heard a door open behind me. Turned to find Scarlett standing in the hallway, wrapped in one of my shirts, hair still tousled from sex, eyes wide with confusion."What's going on? I heard a helicopter.""Nothing. Just an unexpected arrival for the operation." I moved toward her, needing to get her back in our room, needin

Cade’s POV"Look." I forced myself to focus on her face, not her body. "Put on your clothes. We can fight later. I need to find Scarlett. She's out there in the middle of nowhere.”"Oh, quit the act, Cade." Lee pulled on jeans and a black tank top. "Don't act as if you care too much about her.""If I don't, then why would I leave my business to be here in Italy?" Anger made my voice rise. "Why would I risk everything to take revenge on the man who raped her?""Because you have a personal interest in Silvio Romano." She turned to face me fully, and something in her expression shifted. Became sharper. More dangerous. "Does Scarlett even know what you really are?"The question made ice crawl down my spine. "What are you talking about?""Does she know you're a mafia syndicate?" Lee's smile was a blade. "Does she know the real reason you agreed to destroy Silvio isn't just about avenging her precious rape trauma?"My hands clenched into fists. "Lee…""Does she know," Lee continued, relentl

Scarlett's POV"My grandmother", Tomasso continued at full volume, somehow navigating impossibly narrow streets while maintaining eye contact with me in the rearview mirror, "she used to say that Florence streets are like the veins in your body, all connected, all alive, all going somewhere important! Ha! She was a wise woman, God rest her soul, though she did burn the polenta every Sunday without fail for sixty years! Sixty years! How do you burn polenta for sixty years?"Despite everything, despite the shattered heart and the lies and the rage burning through my chest, I felt the corners of my mouth twitch."I have no idea," I said."Neither do I! My grandfather never complained. God bless that man! Now, American lady, you are very beautiful, but you look very sad. Did someone hurt you?"The question was so direct, so unexpectedly kind, that tears pricked my eyes again."Something like that.""Ah." Tomasso nodded sagely, narrowly avoiding a delivery truck with inches to spare. "Men.

Scarlett's POVThe wardrobe smelled like Giovanni. Old books and linseed oil and the particular cedar he used to protect his clothes from moths. I pressed myself into the farthest corner, behind winter coats that still carried the scent of his cologne, making myself as small as possible.My phone screen glowed in the darkness. Cade's name. Again.I couldn't answer. Couldn't risk even the smallest sound.Through the wardrobe's wooden slats, I could see slivers of the bedroom. Empty for now. But the footsteps were getting closer, heavy boots on hardwood, men who didn't care about being quiet because they knew their prey was trapped.Then I heard Bianca.Her voice carried from the sitting room, high and terrified, the way voices get when fear strips away language and leaves only animal sounds."Please, please, I don't know anything, I'm just the housekeeper, please…"The sound of a slap. Sharp and brutal.Bianca's cry cut off into a sob."Is there any other exit aside from the kitchen?"

Scarlett’s POVThe world was a fractured mosaic of shadows and blinding white. Through the heavy, rhythmic throb in my skull, I saw him.Silvio Romano stood at the centre of the garden, bathed in the harsh, artificial glow of flashlight beams. His men directed the light with military precision, pinning him in the spotlight like a demonic lead on a stage. He looked exactly as he did in my nightmares: the tailored suit crisp despite the midnight humidity, every strand of dark hair slicked into place, and a smile that never quite reached his cold, calculating eyes.He looked at me with a sickening sense of ownership, the way a man looks at a prized possession he’d briefly misplaced and finally recovered."Scarlett." He breathed my name like a caress, the syllables dripping with a false tenderness that turned my stomach. To an outsider, we looked like lovers reunited; in reality, we were merely predator and prey. "You've led me on quite the chase tonight."I fought to find my voice. I wan