ARYA'S POINT OF VIEW

I stood motionless in the kitchen, my hand pressed against the burning cheek where his thumb had been just seconds before.

My heart was beating so hard I could feel it in my throat and at my fingertips.

I had almost kissed Giovanni De Santis.

No… worse than that.

I had wanted to kiss him.

"It's the pasta," I told myself, pacing in small circles around the kitchen island. "You're just hungry. Low blood sugar makes people do stupid, irrational things."

But even as I said it, I knew it was a lie.

The pasta had nothing to do with the way my stomach churned when he touched my face, nor with the heat that had built up deep in my belly when his eyes darkened as he looked at my mouth.

I pressed my palms against my cheeks, wishing the blush would disappear before it returned. I needed to pull myself together and remember why I was there in the first place.

He was the enemy. A monster.

The only person I wasn't supposed to feel anything for at all.

So why couldn't he stop th