THIN LINES
by Bethany-Kris
Donati Bloodlines #2
Publication Date: July 5, 2016
Genres: Adult, Organized Crime, Erotic Romance
Synopsis: Calisto Donati
Calisto had never been a fan of pain, but he found it provided a certain relief.
It was a high that couldn’t compete with anything else he experienced. That was why he fought bare-knuckled, why he drove fast, despite knowing he might crash, and why he still enjoyed looking at Emma Donati—no matter her current status.
Pain felt good.
He might have been a fool for doing so, but as long as he got what he wanted from it, he didn’t really care.
When he fought, he was given release. When he drove, he was given freedom. When he looked at Emma, he was given memories.
All of them brought a certain level of pain. All three might kill him someday.
Calisto glanced at Emma, taking her in again when she didn’t know he was looking.
He realized then that only one might actually be worth dying for.
Emma Donati
Emma kept her gaze on the book in her lap, pretending like there wasn’t an argument going on across the room. She had become terribly good at acting like she didn’t hear.
Calisto watched her out of the corner of his eye while he argued on with Affonso.
She was too focused on Calisto to care about their fight.
His anger. The tightness of his jaw. Searing soul-black eyes.
The two men were not the same. They might have shared blood, but their hearts were entirely different. One man never let her out of his sight when he was nearby. The other acted like she didn’t exist.
This was what it was like, she realized, to be in love with someone she couldn’t have.
Calisto Donati would never be hers.
This wasn’t a fairy tale that would end happily.
They weren’t star-crossed. They were impossible.
WARNING: The first two books in the Donati Bloodlines Trilogy end on a cliffhanger, the third is a HEA.
EXCERPT- WALK THAT LINE
"Of course I care.”“A lot more than you should,” she pressed.
Calisto’s chest constricted with pain. He’d convinced himself long ago that it was only imaginary where Emma was concerned. He couldn’t possibly feel something for someone that didn’t belong to him and that he could never have. He just couldn’t.
“Thank you, Calisto.”
Those three, seemingly innocent words struck him straight in his blackened, worn heart. She’d spoken them so quietly, but surely. Confident, even, like she knew exactly what they would do to him.
It hurt.
God.
But he liked it.
Calisto liked that she acknowledged him and what he did. He had needed it, and while every part of him screamed how wrong it was, it made him feel like a fucking king.
Before Calisto could think better of his actions, he stepped forward and grabbed the door, shutting it without even looking out to see who might be watching. Emma’s enforcer must have been around somewhere, but was he close enough to see?
Calisto was close enough to Emma that the silk of her dress brushed against his arms. He could smell the hauntingly sweet perfume she wore, and he took another breath, wanting to have more of it soaking into his lungs.
“Where is your driver?”
“Carter is at a table,” Emma told him softly. “He’s ordering for us. I told him I would invite you out to eat with us.”
Calisto watched her mouth move, and the way her two front teeth peeked out through her upper lip. It was still a goddamn tease. He still hadn’t gotten this woman on her knees below him like he’d wanted to.
Jesus.
Why was he walking on this tightrope again with her?
“We can’t do this,” Calisto murmured.
Emma’s bottom lip disappeared beneath her teeth. “We’re not doing anything, Cal.”
“We are.”
It didn’t have to be labeled to be something.
It still was.
“Thank you for reminding me that I wasn’t alone,” she said.
“You’re not, Emmy.”
“Not when I have someone who cares watching out for me, right?”
Calisto knew better, but he snagged Emma’s wrist in his palm and held tight. The heat of her smooth skin siphoned straight into his bloodstream, like a shot of adrenaline right to his heart.
It was bad, but it was right.
It was good, but it was wrong.
“Right?” she asked again.
Her green gaze, jaded with pain and seeking something, watched him with an understanding that he didn’t know how she had gotten. He’d been careful with her, not wanting to bring her too close but never keeping her too far away.
Clearly, Calisto hadn’t been careful enough.
“Right,” he finally said.
Emma took a tiny step closer, her heels clicking on the tile floor. Her warm breath washed over his jaw when she tilted her head upwards so that she could stare at him again.
“We’re not doing anything,” Emma said so quietly that he strained to hear. “Someone has to know we’re doing something for there to be anything, Cal.”
“I’m not sure if I want to walk that line, Emmy.”
“Liar.”
Calisto’s jaw ticked. “I—”
“Liar, you do. Because you care.”
He didn’t even get the chance to blink before Emma lifted up on her tiptoes, and pressed her mouth to his. For a quick second, Calisto was stunned. All he could feel were her silken lips covering his, and her hand fisting into his jacket. He couldn’t think beyond the sweet-smelling perfume that reminded him of candied cherries, or the emerald eyes watching him, demanding he deny her what she was asking for.
How could he deny her?
After everything, how was he supposed to do that?
Calisto was far too selfish to stop Emma or to push her away. He cared too much.
When she grabbed his jacket tighter and pulled, making him stumble into her warm body, Calisto was gone. His one hand landed to her waist while his other tangled into the chignon at the nape of her neck. He pushed her backward until they came to stop against the door.
Emma laughed—breathy and low—against his cheek.
It made him fucking ache.
#STARCROSSED
#THINLINES
CALISTO AND EMMA AREN'T STAR-CROSSED. THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE. READ WHERE IT ALL STARTED IN THIN LIES, BOOK #1 IN THE DONATI BLOODLINES SERIES, #FREE WITH #KINDLEUNLIMITED!
Purchase (#FREE with #KindleUnlimited): Amazon | Amazon CA | Paperback
She was just a woman. That’s what Calisto wanted to tell himself; that’s what he wanted to believe. Emma was nothing more than a woman. There were other women for him to want. To obsess over.
It couldn’t be Emma Sorrento.
Not for Calisto.
She was taken.
She was claimed.
She was not his.
In a few days, Calisto would hand her off, and that would be that. He wondered why it wouldn’t be that easy to let her go.
What good had saving her done?
He had simply taken her from one monster to give her to another.
Emma Sorrento
Emma slid on her mask. All someone would need to do was look close enough to see what was really beneath the sheer falseness of her smile.
At the other end of the table, Emma found her lies staring her right in the face.
He smirked.
And winked.
Calisto Donati was her worst mistake, her greatest shame, and the one thing she still wanted more than anything. Emma could still feel him all over her, long after his touch and kiss was gone. In thirty days, her entire world had changed—he had changed her.
Emma had a feeling that if she played another game with Calisto, she would surely lose.
She had already lost once.
Wasn’t it enough?
WARNING: The first two books in the Donati Bloodlines Trilogy end on a cliffhanger, the third is a HEA.
#CalistoDonati
#EmmaSorrento
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