Chapter 18: Nowhere to Hide

Morning came through the shutters, and for the first time nobody had closed them.

We had walked out of Todt Hill after midnight, past the capos on the front steps, with his hand wrapped around mine.

Nobody had said a word.

His mother's old flat over the shoe repair shop in Bay Ridge was one room with a big bed, a stove and a window that faced the street.

I woke to the sound of a bus going by below, and Ettore was already watching me.

"You're staring," I said.

"I'm allowed. There's no one to hide from now."

He lay on his side with the sheet at his hips and the sun across his scars.

I put my hand flat on his chest and felt him go still.

"Say it again," I said.

"Say what?"

"What you said in your office. That you looked at me first."

"I looked at you first," Ettore said. "Six years ago. I've been looking ever since."

I kissed him then, slowly, with no door at our backs and no dark to cover it.

His hand slid into my hair, and the kiss opened.

"Daylight," he murmured against my mouth. "You'll see everything."

"I want to."

I pushed him onto his back and swung my leg over him.

He went very still beneath me, and his eyes went down the length of my body.

"Carina."

"You said you'd ask for nothing."

"I'm not asking."

"Then I am," I said. "Keep your hands on the sheets."

His mouth curved, and he put his hands flat on the mattress above his head.

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