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Contents ( 27)
  1. CHAPTER ONE
  2. CHAPTER TWO
  3. Two years later
  4. CHAPTER THREE
  5. CHAPTER FOUR
  6. CHAPTER FIVE
  7. CHAPTER SIX
  8. CHAPTER SEVEN
  9. CHAPTER EIGHT
  10. CHAPTER NINE
  11. CHAPTER TEN
  12. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  13. CHAPTER TWELVE
  14. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  15. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  17. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  19. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  20. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  21. CHAPTER TWENTY
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  25. Can’t Help Falling
  26. by Cara Bastone
  27. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Seb rolled off of her and breathed hard, scraping his hands over his face. Via let her eyes wander down his gorgeous body, long and wide. She could practically see the heat squigglies rising up off of him like in the cartoons. Her eyes stuttered to a stop when she saw the ridge in his jeans.

The view was impeded by the jeans and the shadowy lighting. But Lord. She forgot about breathing. Who cared about it? It was a waste of time anyway. She watched her own hand creep across the bedspread. She marveled at her own boldness, and at how tiny she felt next to his big body.

Seb, his hands still pressing into his eyes, had no idea she was coming for him. She passed her hand over the ridge in his pants, and he hissed, like he was in pain, immediately leaning up onto his elbows. His eyes were on her, bright and wide. She didn’t look up from what she was doing.

She outlined him through his pants. Up one side, pausing at the head and making him curse again, and then back down the other side. She laid the heat of her palm flat against him and then, finally, met his gaze.

“Violetta,” he said, and she wasn’t sure if it was a warning or a plea.

She let her hand drift to his hip as she lifted herself, crawling over him.

It was an hour before they tore themselves away from one another. They were both unbuttoned and hot. Messy and breathing very hard. Via felt like a high schooler, all fired up and nowhere to go. Touching and kissing Seb was pretty much the hottest thing to ever happen to her, but they both seemed to tacitly agree that it wasn’t the time to get naked together yet. Their sweaty makeout on top of Seb’s covers was enough.

“I have to put you in a cab,” Seb growled into the palm of his hand, his eyes, lionlike, on hers.

“Okay,” Via agreed shakily. Matty was down the hall. This was getting out of hand. “I have Uber on my phone.”

Seb shook his head, pulled out his own phone and dialed a number. “Hi, Rico, it’s Sebastian Dorner. I need a cab at my house. All right. Just around the corner—she’s in Bensonhurst, too.” Seb’s eyes shot up to Via’s. “Yes, she’s a she. Five minutes? Great. Just charge it to the card I have on file.”

He was paying for her cab home. And he knew his car service dispatcher by name. Ugh. She really did have to get out of here before she did something insane like take a nap in his dirty laundry like the lunatic she was beginning to suspect she was.

Seb dragged her up from the bed and bustled her down the hall, like having her in the bedroom was too dang dangerous. When he got her to the front door, he sat her down on the stairs that led to the second floor of his house. He grabbed one boot and then the other, shoved her feet inside them. Next came her coat. He paused halfway through zipping it and pressed a kiss, over her shirt, to the plumpest part of her breast. He’d never done that before, and it had her jumping, her legs spreading at the knee. He pushed her knees back together and zipped her the rest of the way. Next, he found her hat and mittens in the pockets of her coat and put those on, too. Her messenger bag from school was slung across one of her shoulders before he brought her to standing and dragged her forward.