Page 88 of Untamed

He grabs my jaw and smirks. “Vai a casa, ragazzina.”Go home, little girl.

Something fractures inside me, a delicate glass shattering from the force of his words. Not because I believe him, but because he intended for it to hurt. My throat burns, but I force my chin higher.

He thinks he’s won. That I’ll crumple. That I’ll fold.

But not this time.

I take a breath, steel in my spine, and meet his gaze head-on. I nod. Just once. I rip his jacket off me and thrust it at his chest.

“Little girl?” I hiss, voice low and shaking with fury. “Mark my words, Ares Russo, I’m going to make you swallow every single one of those words and watch in satisfaction while you choke on it.”

He smirks.

But I don’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me break.

I turn on my heel and walk out the door, spine straight, footsteps steady, even as my heart shatters with every step I take away from him. Because if he can lie with such ease...then I'll learn to wear the same mask.

Behind me, the silence is deafening.

And I hope itkillshim.

She’s gone, and I stand frozen in the living room, staring at the space where she stood like a fucking ghost is going to fill it.

The stale air tastes metallic, thick regret. My legs tremble, but I can’t move, every tick of the old grandfather clock booms in my skull like a death knell.

I can hear her footsteps fade down the corridor, the hollow slam of the door thundering through these walls… and then nothing but silence. A suffocating hush that presses against my eardrums.

I force a quivering breath through clenched teeth, drag one shaking hand down my face. My skin is damp, maybe fromsweat, maybe from tears I refuse to let fall. “Fuck,” I whisper to the emptiness.

What the hell did I just do?

My fists curl at my sides, nails gouging half-moons into my palms as the truth settles like lead in my chest: the venom I spat, the cruel dismissal. I taste salt on my tongue as the weight of my own words pins me to the floor.

“It was just a kiss. The only thing special about it was that it was your first.”

Liar.

The kiss wasn’t boring. It wasn’t meaningless. It lit something inside me I thought had burned out a long time ago. Somethingdangerous. Somethingalive. A flame so fierce it threatened to raze every wall I’ve built around my heart.

I remember tasting her breath, warm, sweet like honey melting on my tongue, and feeling her pulse flutter under my palm, delicate yet insistent. I saw her whole world shift in that breathless moment, every tremor of her fingers, every rapid drum of her heart pressed against mine.

And now?

Now she’s gone. I gave her the moment she’s been waiting and dreaming about, and then I shit all over it. I fucking hurt her. I killed a man for devastating her, and I just did the same thing.

Iforcedher to walk away with her chin high and her eyes blazing like embers, because I couldn’t bear to see the look on her face if she knew the truth.

That I kissed her like she was oxygen in a world where I’ve been choking for years.

Anger roils in my chest. I pivot and stride toward the bar to grab a drink. Blinding rage explodes inside me, and with a guttural roar, I hurl the bottle across the room. It explodes against the wall in a shower of glass and whiskey.

“Cazzo!” I bellow, the word tearing from my throat like it’s carved out of my ribs.

My breathing’s ragged and my vision blurs. But nothing dulls the ache.

Not the blinding rage. Not the deafening silence...fuck, not even the lies I told her.

None of it.

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