Quiet Surrender

Vittoria

I needed him to stay.

The words had slipped out before I could think them through, before I could weigh the consequences. But now that they hung in the air, unspoken but heavy, I couldn't take them back.

And more surprising than me asking—was that Dante hadn't turned me down.

He just sat there, looking at me, his sharp eyes unreadable. He wasn't the type of man to hesitate, not when it ca