Lahat ng Kabanata ng HIS FORBIDDEN TEMPTATION : Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

The ride was quiet—but not awkward. Not tense. Just… quiet in the way soft music plays in the background of a memory you already know you’ll come back to.I sat in the passenger seat of Alessandro Salvatore’s car, legs crossed at the ankles, hands folded neatly in my lap like a schoolgirl on her best behavior. But inside?Inside I was vibrating with a thousand thoughts and none at all.Where were we going? What the hell was I doing? Who even was this man?But then I’d glance sideways—just briefly—and see him there. One hand on the wheel, the other resting on the gearshift like he owned the damn road. His expression was relaxed, even a little amused, as if we were on some kind of secret mission. As if he liked the way the night was unfolding.Maybe I did, too.After a while, I couldn’t take the silence anymore. “So… is this the part where you take me to a dark alley and tell me you’re actually a hitman?”He laughed—full and warm and real. “You caught me,” he said, glancing at me with a

He didn’t kiss me.His mouth brushed the corner of mine—not quite a kiss, not quite a tease. A whisper of a maybe. It lingered there like a secret passed between us, unsaid but not unnoticed.Then he chuckled. Low. Rough. Almost like he’d caught himself.“Relax,” he murmured, still hovering above me. “I’m not the kind of guy who kisses a girl on the beach. Not without a drink first.”My breath came out in a shaky little laugh I didn’t quite trust. His weight eased off me, and he stood, brushing sand off his pants like nothing had happened—like we hadn’t just come a half-second away from something we both might’ve regretted or remembered for the rest of our lives.He offered me a hand.I stared at it for a beat too long.Then I took it.His fingers curled around mine, warm and steady, and he pulled me to my feet like it was the easiest thing in the world. We stood there, barefoot and breathless, not saying anything for a long moment as the waves crashed quietly behind us.“You okay?” h

I should have known ordering that second round was a bad idea. Hell—I should’ve known ordering the third shot of tequila was just begging for trouble. But when Emily’s glass slid empty again, and she looked up at me with those bold, half-lidded eyes, laughing like she was daring the sea itself to try and crash us out, how could I say no?So yes, I did this to myself.Now here we were, on the walk back to my car, and she was leaning too heavily on me, giggling in disjointed bursts.“I’m fine,” she slurred, her voice melting around the syllables like syrup. “I walk in heels all the time. These aren’t even—wait. I’m barefoot, aren’t I?”“Very barefoot,” I said, trying to keep my tone even, though her carefree abandon in the moonlight was undeniably cute.She paused to register that, then grinned wildly. “That’s rebellious of me. Emily the Rebel!”I chuckled softly and angled my upper body to catch her if she stumbled again. She was so warm, so… human in that moment—her wild hair flying l

The lights of the city blinked beneath me like a sea of fireflies, restless and chaotic. I stood at the window of my penthouse, hands tucked into the pockets of my slacks, staring down at the skyline that never slept. My reflection looked back at me in the glass—tired, tense, controlled only by a thin thread of restraint. I had spent my life mastering the art of calm calculation, making decisions under pressure with the precision of a scalpel.But tonight, something was off.Tonight, Emily was at Alessandro Salvatore's house.My jaw clenched as I watched the dark outlines of the buildings. I couldn’t stop replaying that call in my head, the way his voice sounded so casual, like it wasn’t a goddamn crisis that she was passed out drunk in his home. Like it wasn’t a problem that she had disappeared without a word and turned up in the company of a man like him.How the hell did she end up with him of all people?How the hell did she get herself tangled up with Salvatore? The man was oil

“Where the fuck were you last night?”His voice cracked through the silence like a gunshot, sharp and cold, making me flinch as the door slid shut behind me.Mr De Vito didn’t move from where he stood—tall, immovable, and dangerous as hell. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides. His jaw ticked once, and his gaze—normally unreadable—was blazing.I froze a few feet inside the penthouse, my fingers tightening around my purse. I tried to speak, but nothing came out. My throat had dried up the moment the elevator chimed on this floor. I’d known this was coming. I’d known it the second Alessandro said his name.Still, being here—face to face with him in the cold aftermath—was a different kind of terrifying.“I—” I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”“That’s not an answer.” He took a step closer. “Where were you?”Lie. Just lie. Tell him anything but the truth.Because I couldn’t tell him I’d left the charity ball because I saw a ghost from the past. A ghost with a name. A ghost with a re