Starling (121 page)

Angelo’s workshop, never would have if it hadn’t been for her.
Luca took her face in his hands, pushing her wet, tangled hair
back over her shoulders. “I can’t bear it, the thought that I left you
and you were imprisoned. The thought that you might have died in
a fire because I was too weak to remain by your side.”
“It’s not your fault, Luca.” After all, he’d left her side only because she’d hurt him.
“It is. I—”
Cass touched a finger to his lips. “Let us not speak of it. We’re
together now. That’s all that matters.”
Luca kissed her hand. “And we shall be together tomorrow too,
and all of this shall be over,” he said. “God willing.”
Cass pulled back slightly. “After everything we have been
through, do you find that your faith ever wavers?”
“What do you mean?”
She looked away, toward the ground. “I mean do you ever wonder
how God could allow such terrible things to befall good people?”
She was thinking of her parents, of Siena, of Falco’s lost love, Ghita.
Of Falco himself.
She raised her eyes back to Luca’s slowly, afraid she would see
judgment in his gaze.
But he looked merely contemplative. Squeezing her fingers he
said, “I suppose I never thought about it like that. My parents always
said God works in mysterious ways. I never saw myself in a position
to question his judgment.”
Cass hung her head again. “Would you think it was horrible of
me, if I did?”
Luca lifted her chin. “Cassandra,” he started. “A person cannot
always control his actions, but he cannot
ever
control his thoughts. I
would never judge you for them. What is inside your head belongs
only to you, unless you choose to share it.” He turned, wrapping his
arms around her waist. “Of course I would love it if you did, but it is
first and foremost your heart I wish to share.”
Cass felt her whole body filling with warmth, her heart expanding
in her chest. It was as if she had been buried under the rubble from
de Gradi’s workshop and Luca had pulled her body from the wreckage. Finally she felt like it was all right to be the person that she was.
“You are so much more than I deserve,” she whispered, staring into
his eyes.
“You deserve so much more than you think,” he answered.
And then his mouth fell on hers, and it was different from the
previous kisses, fierce, full of longing. He tasted her tongue and her
lips, his hands ascending the ladder of her ribs until one cradled the
base of her head and the other buried itself deep in her hair.
He pulled her into his lap and her insides went weak, her body
asking for things she’d never wanted before. His mouth trailed hot
along the hard ridge of muscle in her neck. Cass exhaled sharply, her
fingers crawling beneath his shirt to explore the contours of his chest,
to trace the map of scars he had earned in her name.
Luca’s hand dropped to her hip. As his mouth found her lips
again, his fingers pushed aside the hem of her skirt until they grazed
the bare skin of her leg beneath. She shuddered, her whole body
trembling at his touch.
He pulled his hand away as if her skin had burned him. “I’m
sorry,” he whispered.
“No.” Cass couldn’t think. Her brain refused to make words out