Something Permanent

Vittoria

The words had slipped out before I could grab them.

I think I love you.

The moment they were on my lips, I felt like the world had stopped, like I'd jumped off a cliff without knowing where I was going. I hadn't meant to say it, hadn't even known if I was ready to admit it—not to Dante, but to myself.

But the instant I noticed how his eyes closed, the manner in which his hold on my hand b