Greater Than Temptation

chapter thirty four

ALESSANDRO

She didn't say much when she got in the car.

Just closed the door softly, adjusted her coat, and settled into the seat beside me like silence didn't make her uncomfortable. I respected that. Most people rush to fill it. She let it exist.

Drake played low through the speakers; something older, familiar and I let it sit there between us, steady, unintrusive. Not that I knew the song but she seemed to and that made me feel as if I did too.

I glanced at her once. Then again.

She wasn't looking at me.

Her pretty head rested lightly against the window, fingers tapping against her thigh in time with the music, plump and glossed lips moving just enough to follow the words. The lights from the street passed over her face in intervals—gold, then shadow, then gold again—like something I wasn't supposed to study for too long.
But I did.

My hand moved to the console, adjusting the volume slightly.

Not enough to interrupt. Just enough.

Amira noticed.
I saw it in the way she stilled, in the quick shift of her eyes toward me, like she was trying to understand if it was deliberate.

It was.
I didn't look back at her.

Some things don't need acknowledgement to be understood.

I've seen her in many ways. Sharp when she wants control, calculated when she feels it slipping, difficult on purpose like she needs to prove something every time she walks into a room.

This—
this quiet version of her, unguarded, unaware—

Mi piace di più.

I exhaled slowly, my grip tightening slightly against the wheel.

That realization sat heavier than it should have.