Chapter 8: Telling the Man at the Door

His doctor came, stitched the graze and left, and Cassio told me to go to my room.

It was after midnight when I finally went to find Cassio.

He sat on the edge of the bed in his room with his shirt off and the bandage white across his upper arm.

The housekeeper had left a bowl of water and a clean cloth on the dresser.

"There's blood in your hair," I said.

"It's not mine."

"It is. Hold still."

I wet the cloth and stood between his knees to reach the side of his head.

He held still.

His skin was warm under my fingers, and there was a scar through his left eyebrow that I had been looking at for three days.

There were other scars.

One ran along his ribs, one across his shoulder.

I followed the shoulder one with the cloth, and I felt him breathe in.

"Are you going to say it?" I asked.

"Say what?"

"That you took a bullet for a girl you met a week ago."

"I'd say it was a good investment."

"You're a terrible liar."

"I'm an excellent liar. You're just the one person I don't want to practice on."

That stopped my hand.

His eyes came up, dark and level, and he didn't look away.

He caught my wrist.

It wasn't hard.

He held it against his chest where I could feel his heart going far too fast for a man who had said he was fine.

"Go to bed, Viviana," he said. His voice had dropped. "Go now."

"That's your one rule? That I leave?"

"My one rule was that you tell the man at the door."

I put the cloth down.

I opened the bedroom door, and the guard in the hall stood up straight.

"I'm going into Mr. Rinaldi's room," I said. "I'm not coming out until morning."

The guard's face didn't move.

"Yes, ma'am," he said.

I shut the door and turned the lock.

When I looked back, Cassio was standing.

"Say that again," he said.

"I'm telling you before I do it, so nobody can say I broke your rule." I crossed the room. "I want to be with you tonight."

He didn't touch me.

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