Page 84 of Thin Lines (Donati Bloodlines 2)

Stupid.

Reckless.

“Something,” Calisto settled on saying.

“Something,” she echoed.

Something wonderful, maybe.

Something doomed, probably.

He knew what it was.

He’d known for a while.

It was the same thing that woke him up night afternight from the same goddamn dreams. It was his constant concern and anxietyover a woman he couldn’t help any more than he already had. It was the hungerhe felt whenever he was near her—the need he felt to have her closer.

Somehow, it infected him.

She was all through him and she didn’t even know it.

Calisto tried denying it; he wanted to push thefeelings away.

He loved her.

But it was hopeless—they were hopeless.

Calisto couldn’t tell Emma how he felt without takingit away at the same time.

How was that fair?

“Were you leaving the party?” Emma asked.

“I was.”

“What if I don’t want you to?”

Calisto tugged her closer. Without a word, she wrappedher arms around his middle and buried her face into his chest. He held hertight because having her closer was far better for his selfishness.

“I wouldn’t go,” he told Emma.

“Even though you have to stay on the other side of theroom?”

“Yes.”

She could wear her mask.

He would watch from the shadows.

“Don’t go,” Emma said. “Stay for a little whilelonger. I like it when you’re around.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Even when you’re pissing me off.”

Calisto chuckled under his breath. “I didn’t mean to, bella.The girl was harmless. She’s my half-sister. I take care of my siblings becauseour father couldn’t care less about them. I’m the only one he ever gave anounce of attention or time to. And unlike them, I came from the violence hehides. That’s how he made me. Violently.”

His father was a man who had held his mother down,ignored her pleas, and took from her without care. Calisto didn’t know how todeal with that. He was a by-product of his mother’s pain, of her fear andshame, but she never loved him any less.