“Everything okay, baby?” I murmur.
She looks up through her lashes, and the world narrows to her blue eyes. “I think he wants to work with me.”
Pride swells in my chest. “Then seal the deal, gorgeous girl.”
Without thinking, I tip her chin up and steal a kiss.
“I’m so fucking proud of you,” I whisper.
We both ignore Marco clearing his throat. I tap her ass without thinking.
“Sorry,” I mutter.
Marco laughs, the first genuine one of the night. “Ah. I see. Not just the bodyguard, huh?”
She slips her hand around my forearm. “No. He’s way more than that.”
My breath stutters. Hearing her say it. Claiming me.
“I knew it,” Marco says. “He’s been looking at you like he wants to taste you all night.”
We all laugh.
“Was I really that obvious?” I ask.
“Yes,” they say in unison.
I shrug. “Can’t help it. My girl is beautiful.”
I wrap my arm around her, and we head into the night, toward the club. I don’t feel like I’m standing guard outside something I’ll never have.
I’m walking straight toward it.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Lily
Song- Can’t Help Falling In Love, Haley Reinhart.
After being escorted through a private entrance, courtesy of Drago, I slip into the booth in the VIP section, closed off by security on all sides.
The room is thick with cigar smoke and low bass. Drago takes his position in the far corner, arms crossed, posture lethal. His eyes scan constantly, methodically, but every time they land on me, my body responds like it’s been touched.
Marco pops the champagne and pours us a glass each.
“Is Monaco somewhere you see for yourself in the future, Lily?” he asks.
I chew on my lip, my gaze drifting to Drago without even thinking about it. Until recently, I’d been dragging myself through life. Always looking over my shoulder. Never really daring to look too far ahead.
But since Drago barreled into my world, the future doesn’t feel terrifying anymore.
It feels… possible.
“It could be,” I say carefully. “Why do you ask?”
He takes a sip, setting the glass down on the table between us. “I’d love to show at your gallery in America,” he says. “But I also think that opening a gallery here would be incredibly beneficial. We could do regular showings—my work, and others. I have friends in the business. Monaco. Paris. Madrid. Milan.”
My chest tightens. That would be the dream. The cities. The art. The life. “I really like the sound of that,” I admit.
