Taken by the Mafia King의 모든 챕터: 챕터 321 - 챕터 330

TommasoI glanced at Paige out of the corner of my eye as we stepped into the elevator. Her shoulders were hunched, and her hand in mine was tense. She kept glancing around the matte black walls like something was going to jump out, but she wouldn’t look at me. Something had happened when we walked into the hotel, and I had no idea what.“Are you okay?” I asked.She nodded absently.I tapped my foot and wished I could pace. But I’d have to let go of her hand for that and there wasn’t much room. Did she want me to let go of her hand? She hadn’t released mine, but more often than not when she got tense like this, she wanted me to disappear.The elevator dinged, and a few other guests stepped on. Paige froze up. They hit a button for a few floors above and chatted amongst themselves until they departed. I expected her to melt once we were alone again, but nothing changed.“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.She nodded again, still not looking at me. My heart sank. When we finally reache

TommasoI woke to my phone softly blaring a bombastic classical piece I used as an alarm most mornings. I groaned in the back of my throat and started to reach to shut it off, but a weight on my chest stopped me in my tracks. I opened my eyes, and my breath caught.In the night, Paige had draped herself across me. Her fiery hair spilled across the plain white of my pajama shirt, and the early morning sunlight illuminated the angles of her face. Though she’d started filling out, regaining some roundness in her cheeks and lips, her cheekbones still cut a sharp angle, and her Roman nose cast a shadow on the lower half of her face. In this light, I could even see a few faint freckles dusted across the middle of her face. My heart pounded unevenly, and I shut my alarm off as subtly as I could. She looked peaceful, an expression I saw so rarely, but it suited her just as well as her furrowed-brow determination. I ached to brush the hair out of her face, to press a kiss to her forehead, to f

TommasoI climbed into the driver’s seat and glanced at the robotic Paige next to me. I needed to get her out of here, but I worried that if she spent the whole ride back to the hotel in this state, I’d lose her completely. On the other side of the ocean, away from her therapist, I couldn’t take that risk. On the drive, I’d spotted a park that reminded me of the little one near our place. I threw the car into drive and headed there.I pulled into a spot near a lush green lawn and shut the car off. The radio fell silent. Paige buried her face in her hands, and I immediately worried that she was crying. But her shoulders didn’t move. She wasn’t even breathing particularly fast. She was just covering her face.“I’m sorry,” I murmured, though I had no idea what I was sorry for this time.“None of this is your fault,” she said through her hands.“I drove the car.” I tried a smile even though she couldn’t see me.She pulled her face out of her hands and dropped her head back against the sea

TommasoI stretched out on the big red couch Paige seemed to hate and glanced at her over my phone. She had her arm over her eyes, resting for a bit after our whirlwind day. After the morning she’d had, I was just pleased I’d gotten her to smile. I’d have stayed in London for a week if it meant seeing that.My phone vibrated in my hand, and I glanced at the notification. The restaurant Killian suggested had an opening at seven-thirty. I accepted it quickly.“I made a reservation for dinner,” I said casually.Paige uncovered her face. “Where?”“A place that came personally recommended from a friend.” I grimaced. “It is a little upscale. A lot upscale. Do you have clothes for that? I can always cancel, or we can buy something.”Paige exhaled sharply. “I actually do. I was just fiddling around online, and I found this dress with basically everything I’ve ever wanted in a dress and I just…bought it.” Her face colored. “With your credit card.”“Hey, I gave it to you to use it,” I said befo

TommasoI stared down at Paige, the freezing wind this high up on the tower rushing in my ears. My heart thundered. Did I hear her wrong? She loathed me, or owed me? She couldn’t have possibly said that she loved me. Not after she called me a good dude. Not after everything. I smiled and barely resisted the urge to ask her to repeat herself.Her eyes widened. “Um, aren’t you going to say something?”I chuckled a little awkwardly. “Would you believe that I don’t know what to say?”“I just told you I loved you.” She swallowed. “You can’t think of anything to do but stare at me?”This time, I knew I’d heard her correctly. The crowd on the platform, the wind, the cold, everything dropped away. She loved me. My chest lightened until I was certain I could’ve walked right off the edge of the tower and continued walking—dancing over Paris itself until the words stopped ringing in my ears. She loved me!I laughed with sheer, overwhelmed delight, and when she frowned up at me, I cleared my thro