[BLURB]
Calisto Donati
Calisto had never been a fan of pain, but he found it provided a certain relief.
It was a high that couldn’t compete with anything else he experienced. That was why he fought bare-knuckled, why he drove fast, despite knowing he might crash, and why he still enjoyed looking at Emma Donati—no matter her current status.
Pain felt good.
He might have been a fool for doing so, but as long as he got what he wanted from it, he didn’t really care.
When he fought, he was given release. When he drove, he was given freedom. When he looked at Emma, he was given memories.
All of them brought a certain level of pain. All three might kill him someday.
Calisto glanced at Emma, taking her in again when she didn’t know he was looking.
He realized then that only one might actually be worth dying for.
Emma Donati
Emma kept her gaze on the book in her lap, pretending like there wasn’t an argument going on across the room. She had become terribly good at acting like she didn’t hear.
Calisto watched her out of the corner of his eye while he argued on with Affonso.
She was too focused on Calisto to care about their fight.
His anger. The tightness of his jaw. Searing soul-black eyes.
The two men were not the same. They might have shared blood, but their hearts were entirely different. One man never let her out of his sight when he was nearby. The other acted like she didn’t exist.
This was what it was like, she realized, to be in love with someone she couldn’t have.
Calisto Donati would never be hers.
This wasn’t a fairy tale that would end happily.
They weren’t star-crossed. They were impossible.
[MY THOUGHTS]
Cannot be read as a standalone.
"They weren't star-crossed. They were impossible."
Oh man... the angst. More pain and anguish. To want something you can't have.
I can't stop thinking about Calisto. He's stuck in a position where he's forced to take on more responsibility in la famiglia. But all he wants is one thing. Emma.
Emma fakes her smiles and tries to be Affonso's ornament. Affonso is a horrible husband that doesn't hide the fact he has women everywhere. As Emma and Cal try to avoid each other, she is completely alone. All she craves is Cal.
The spark between them never dies, and they can't be friends. When they get together, the chemistry is explosive.
Get ready for many surprises. There are secrets everywhere. Bethany-Kris shocked me to the core with Thin Lines.
Where is the next book?!?! I NEED IT NOW!
[EXCERPT]
Emma fidgeted, twisting her fingers together as she watched her husband go. Her restless
actions screamed of her nervousness, even if her expression was a blank slate. It bothered him in
a way he couldn’t explain that Emma didn’t want to be near him, no matter her reasons.
“Well, I should—”
“Wait,” Calisto said, stopping her before she could make an excuse to leave him.
“Sì?”
Her jade gaze met his, unashamed. She stared at him like it didn’t bother her a bit that he
was here, like maybe it didn’t hurt her. She didn’t seem like she was embarrassed at his presence
or knowing that he had spent hours learning what her body looked like when she was wearing
nothing but her skin. He wondered how well she remembered what it felt like to be wrapped up
in him.
For the first time in months, Calisto felt better. Like maybe he could breathe again. He
wondered all over again why he had been avoiding this woman when his only reasons for doing
so were purely selfish.
Doing what you did with her the first time was selfish, too, his mind taunted.
Calisto pushed his inner thoughts away. “How are you doing?”
Emma lifted a single manicured brow high. “Fine, Cal.”
“Just fine?”
“Affonso treats me well, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It was.”
Emma smiled. “And it wasn’t at the same time, right?”
“Something like that.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she told him.
The words slipped from Calisto’s lips before he could stop them. “I don’t seem to have
much of a choice on the matter. I tried not to, but it didn’t do me much good.”
Emma didn’t bat a lash. “That’s a problem you’ll have to deal with, isn’t it?”
Damn.
Her words had sliced right through his tough-as- steel exterior, and cut him deep. Calisto
supposed, after everything that happened and all that he did, he didn’t deserve much else from
Emma. She owed him nothing.
“I guess it is,” Calisto finally said.
“Have a good evening, Cal. Thanks for coming.”
Emma hadn’t even smiled when she said it. She just walked away, in the same direction that
Affonso had gone earlier, without even looking over her shoulder.
Strangely, Calisto was grateful.
Emma’s resentment and rejection were easier to swallow than her kindness. He could take
the girl’s anger and her distance. He’d earned those things when he forced her from her life, let
her get too close, and then handed her off like she meant nothing to him. Her attention and
kindness was a different matter altogether. They didn’t belong to him now that Emma was
married.
They hadn’t belonged to him before.
She was just making it clear.
