All Chapters of Forbidden Never Felt This Good: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

0071~Aria~Pierre set the water glass down slowly.He looked at me across the table with that expression of his, an expression of calmness and patience. He had been like that from the supermarket. That particular quality of patience that doesn't do too much."I'm listening," he said.I had thought about how to say this on and off all day. During the vineyard survey, during lunch, during the drive to the restaurant. I had constructed several versions of it and discarded all of them because none of them were direct enough, and Pierre deserved direct."I think you're wonderful," I said. "I mean that without any of the softening that usually comes before something difficult. You are genuinely one of the easiest, warmest people I have spent time with since I came back to France and I don't want to lose that."He was still listening. Still patient."But I have feelings for someone else," I said. "And they're significant. They're not the kind I can talk myself out of or put alongside someth

0073~Luca~My heart did something embarrassing.That was the honest truth of it. Standing in that cottage with the candles doing their work and Aria looking at me with that expression, the one I couldn't fully read, the one that was processing something significant, my heart did something I would not be describing to anyone ever."I don't know what to say," she said.The silence lasted approximately four seconds.They were the longest four seconds I had experienced in recent memory, including several that had involved actual danger, which said something about the specific vulnerability of this particular moment.Then she said, "Yes."Just that. Yes.I exhaled. She saw it and something warm moved across her face."Your heart skipped," she said."It did not.""Luca. I watched it.""You watched nothing."She stepped closer. "You were nervous.""I was….." I stopped. She was looking at me with that expression, the one she deploys when she knows she's right and is waiting for me to catch

0075~Aria~My phone rang at eight thirty.I was somewhere between asleep and awake, the comfortable middle ground that weekend mornings offer when nothing is scheduled before ten, and I reached for it with my eyes still mostly closed.Josie.I frowned at the screen. Josie did not call before noon on weekends unless something had happened. I sat up and answered."What's wrong?" I said."Nothing's wrong." Her voice was bright in the specific way it gets when she is containing something. "Good morning, Aria.""It's eight thirty.""I know what time it is.""Then why are you calling me?”"I need you to do something for me," she said. "I need you to come outside."I looked at my room around me. Curtains, morning light at the edges, the familiar quiet of the estate. "Outside where?""Outside your room." A pause. "Come on."I stared at the phone. "Josie, what….”"Aria. Get up and come outside your room."I put two and two together somewhere between standing up and reaching the door, the spec

0077~Aria~"Familiar how?" I said.Josie was still looking at Isabella across the park, the expression on her face doing that thing it does when she's processing something. "I don't know exactly. She just reminds me of someone.""She's six," I said. "She reminds you of every child you've ever found endearing.""Maybe." She didn't sound convinced. "It's the eyes."Isabella came running back before either of us could follow the thought further, full of news about the ride and a request for the doll back and a declaration that Sofia had missed her. I handed Sofia over and the reunion was treated with appropriate gravity.Adele started gathering their things with the practiced efficiency of someone who had been signaling departure for twenty minutes and was finally making it happen.Isabella looked at me."Are you going?" she said."We should head back soon," I said. "But it was really lovely meeting you, Isabella."She considered something for a moment. "Will I see you again?"I looked

0079~Luca~I looked at my daughter.She was watching me with those eyes, waiting, curious, the natural follow-up question sitting right there on her face because that's how Isabella works. She asks something and then she waits for the actual answer rather than filling the space herself.Fear gripped me."Aria," I said."Mm. With nice hair. She laughed a lot." She paused. "Do you know her?"I kept my expression easy. "It's not an uncommon name, princess.""No but…” "There are probably quite a few Arias in Paris." I kept my voice light. "Did she say where she was from?"Isabella thought about it. "No. We talked about the maze mostly. And Sofia." She looked at the doll. "And her friend was funny.""Sounds like a good afternoon."She studied me for one more second with that particular look she gets when she suspects she's not getting the complete picture but doesn't have enough evidence to press the point. Then she accepted it and moved on in the way that children do when they've made