Chapter 47

Chiara

“What did you say?” Alessio asks with a small confused smile. “Date?”

“Well . . . yeah,” I lie. “Tomorrow. Would you want to go on a date?”

He grins even wider, his eyes shining with so much joy that I start to feel myself withering inside. Still, I keep up the awkward smile on my face to let him know that hey, everything is fine and it’s just little old me asking him on a date.

But in reality, it’s me being utterly puzzled at the word that popped into my head out of nowhere.

Mate. What does that even mean?

“Of course I want to go,” Alessio says to me and pulls me out of my reverie. “I have to say, it is a bit strange that we haven’t gone on a date yet.”

“I mean, we’ve been hunted and almost killed many times,” I say shakily. “And I got trafficked.”

I let out a loud awkward laugh and he starts to stare at me with narrowed eyes as if wondering if I’m okay, but then his expression softens as he reaches out and tucks a lock of my wet hair behind my ear. “You’re beautiful.”

My face