Page 197 of The Art of Ruin

There was a time when those words would’ve terrified me. Now they just feel safe.

I reach up slowly, smoothing my fingers along the edge of his jaw. “I think,” I say quietly, “I spent so long believing love was supposed to cost me something that I didn’t realize it could feel like this instead.”

Something flickers across his face so raw and immediate that it steals my breath for a second.

“Casey…”

“You make me feel…” I laugh softly at myself. “God, this is going to sound ridiculous.”

“I promise I’ll still be unbearably in love with you afterward.”

Heat rushes into my cheeks instantly.

Adriano looks deeply pleased with himself.

“I hate when you say things like that.”

“No, you don’t.”

Annoyingly, he’s right.

I look at him for a moment longer before finally saying the thing sitting heavily in my chest. “You make me feel safe enough to be happy.”

Silence.

Then Adriano closes his eyes briefly like the words physically hit him somewhere vulnerable. When he looks at me again, there’s so much emotion in his expression it almost undoes me completely.

“Baby,” he says softly, “you have no idea what you just did to me.”

Before I can answer, he kisses me.

Slow at first.

Careful.

Then deeper, when my hands slide into his hair and I feel the low sound that leaves his chest more than I hear it.

The chemistry between us still feels slightly catastrophic sometimes.

A knock sounds against the bedroom door.

Neither of us moves.

Another knock.

Then Matteo’s voice. “If you two are having sex instead of coming to dinner, Elena says she’ll disown both of you.”

Adriano sighs heavily against my mouth. “I’m considering murder.”

“I can hear you,” Matteo calls back immediately.

“You were meant to.”

I burst into laughter against Adriano’s chest as he finally pulls back, looking deeply offended by the existence of interruptions.

And standing there in the middle of all that warmth and noise and ridiculousness, with the man I love looking at me like I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to him—

I realize something quietly.