POV: Aria's
"You're sleeping with him? Aria, that wasn't the plan!"
Her words cut through me like glass. My chest tensed, the sheets tangled around my legs as if I were actually caught in silk.
Aria (whispering, her throat dry): "It wasn't supposed to feel like this, Bianca."
The quiet after that statement felt heavier than the gun Luca had pressed into my hand the night before.
"Don't tell me you've fallen for him. You promised me you said you were in control."
Aria: "I was. I thought I was. But Bianca… he's not just the monster we painted him to be. "He's"
Bianca, angry, stepped in and said, "He killed men in front of you, Aria." "Don't make blood seem romantic."
Aria's voice breaks as she says, "But he saved me anyway." Last night, he could have left me to die, but he didn't.
I ran my hand across the sheets, which were wet from sweat and still warm from his touch. It hurt all over to remember Luca's mouth and hands, and how they had broken down every wall I had built.
Bianca says to Aria in a lower voice and almost begs, "You were supposed to trap him, not get trapped yourself."
Aria: "I understand."
It hurt my throat. My heart was heavy with desire and guilt that I couldn't put a name on.
Outside, the wind shook the window, but in Luca's room, the silence was like a blanket that pulled me in. He was taking a shower. It wasn't long before he came out and looked into my eyes, making me forget how to breathe.
I held on to the phone tighter.
"Bianca, he asked me last night what my name was."
"What did you say?"
"I am the woman who is still here."
Bianca said bad words under her breath.
"Listen up, Aria. It's not a fairy tale. This is living. You're dead if Luca even has the slightest doubt about who you really are. Do you get it? "Dead."
With my eyes closed, I sucked down the pain that was building in my throat.
Aria asked, "Then why do I feel like I'm alive again after years?"
The door to the bathroom squeaked open. As Luca walked out of the room with a towel around his waist, I dropped the phone under the pillow. My heart was racing. Steam wrapped around him like a cape.
He saw my eyes right away; they were sharp and couldn't be read.
Luca asked with a small smile, "Talking to someone important?"
Aria smiles and says, "Just Bianca." She frets too much.
He took slow, determined steps toward her. As the water ran down the ridges of his chest, the towel stuck to him. He got on his knees and kissed my temple.
Luca (low and dangerous): "She needs to be worried." It looks like you're caught in silk, Selene. You can't get away once you're caught.
His words made my heart race. Did he understand?
In a calm voice, Aria says, "Maybe I don't want a way out."
He stopped moving, and his eyes locked on mine. He looked uneasy for the first time, like I had touched something raw inside him.
"Be careful what you wish for," Luca said in a whisper.
Once he finally left the room to take a call, I moved my laptop closer to me. I couldn't decide whether to type the report Bianca wanted or write the truth that I was too scared to say out loud: I don't know where the mission stops and my heart begins.
The screen flashed with a message. An unknown entry was found.
I made a face and clicked it. The mouse moved by itself. My secret notes, which I had kept even from Bianca, were among the files that were opened.
In a weak voice, Aria says, "No... no, no."
As the files copied themselves into a new folder, my heart beat very fast. Someone got into my system. Everything was being stolen.
The screen went dark. There was only one line:
"WHO ARE YOU REALLY, SELFISH?"
It made my stomach hurt. The same things Luca asked me the night before.
The door opened up. Luca came back with a darker face and the phone still in his hand.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," Luca said as he carefully watched me.
My hands were shaking as I snapped the laptop shut.
"Just tired."
He crouched down and moved closer until we were face to face. He touched my jaw with his fingers, but his eyes were sharp and cutting.
"Elene, don't lie to me. "Not you."
The words were more painful than any charge.
"But what if I've done it already?"
His eyes got narrow and his jaw got tight.
A low voice, almost a growl, came from Luca. "Then I'd have to choose whether to forgive you... or destroy you."
It rang again on the laptop. We both turned.
Another message showed up on the screen in big white letters:
"I KNOW WHAT SHE IS."
Luca turned his head toward me, and his eyes lit up with suspicion.
Deadly calm, Luca said, "Aria... "What the hell are you keeping from me?"
I couldn't breathe for the first time.
Now the silk sheets felt like chains. Everything was coming apart: my lies, my wants, my fears.
Aria thought to herself, shaking, "God, what if the monster isn't Luca? It could be me."