Page 71 of Thin Lines (Donati Bloodlines 2)

Nothing else.

It was enough.

“I came to see you after,” Emma said. “I was hurtingand confused. It’d taken me months to wake up and realize that you care, butsometimes you had to do it from afar. You care about me.”

“Sometimes I think it would be better if I didn’t.”

“I know.”

Calisto leaned down and brushed his lips againstEmma’s quickly. She took his kiss without question, and didn’t push him away.

“We’re so foul,” she mumbled. “Bad, Cal.”

“But doesn’t it feel good, too? Doesn’t that make itright?”

Emma shuddered.

It did.

And it didn’t.

“Don’t feel guilty when you climb into bed tonight,”he told her.

“How am I supposed to manage that?”

She was stepping out on her husband. She might not havecrossed the line entirely, but she was dancing on it with her middle finger up.

Didn’t that make her wrong?

A whore, even?

Shouldn’t she feel something?

“Why shouldn’t I feel guilty after this, Calisto?”

“Because, bella donna, I feel enough guilt forthe both of us.”

Emma jerked awake at a loud thump just a few feet awayfrom her bed. She rubbed at her eyes, willing the sleepiness to go away so shecould focus. The mumbling in the background only woke her up further.

“Jesus Christ,” Affonso slurred. “Who put that there?”

Emma stiffened, trying to stay as still as possible inthe bed. She didn’t even know why Affonso was in the bedroom. Ever since shehad come home from the hospital well over a month and a half ago, Emma slept inthe bedroom across the hall from her husband’s master bedroom.

Affonso claimed it was easier.

He didn’t have to wake up fighting.

Emma sure as hell did mind.

Thankfully, being in a different bed and room from herhusband meant she didn’t have to sleep with him, or even touch him for thatmatter. It had been months since they last had any kind of intimacy.

She didn’t understand why he was in her room.

Two softer thumps landed to the floor before therattle of a belt buckle echoed in the room. Emma’s throat constricted aroundthe bile starting to rise.

She didn’t want to have Affonso in her bed.

She couldn’t be with him.