A small smile tugged at my lips despite everything. “Only the sophisticated ones.”
“So let me guess, we’re talking about Nina and Mila, right?” Her eyebrow arched slightly.
“You have no idea—compared to Anton and Roman? I’m sophistication personified.” The light moment felt incongruous with everything that had happened but necessary somehow.
The tub filled quickly. I turned off the taps and stood, suddenly uncertain. This was the second time I was running a bath for her. The second time she was in my care. Nothing in my life had prepared me for the simple intimacy of feeling so damn much for someone.
But Isabella was mine now. My top priority. Not Grey. Not the mission. Not the Paraskia.
Just her.
My teenage years had been about survival, and everything after that had been about loyalty, about putting the mission first. Yet choosing her over everything else felt like the first right decision I’d made in my life.
“You’re thinking very loudly,” she said softly.
I met her gaze. “Just processing.”
“Any regrets?”
The question carried weight beyond the simple words: Regrets about choosing her over Grey? About resigning from the Paraskia? About everything that had happened between us?
Hell no.
“None,” I answered honestly. The bath was ready, steam curling invitingly from the surface. “Can you manage, or do you need help?”
Isabella slid down from the counter, wincing slightly.
She met my eyes, something vulnerable flickering in her gaze. “Maybe.”
I approached slowly, giving her time to change her mind. When she didn’t pull away, I gently helped her remove the wet clothes. Bruises on her upper arms stood out starkly against her pale skin. Something dark and violent stirred in my chest at the sight, but I pushed it down. Later. I would deal with Moretti later. My fingers brushed against her skin, and I felt her shiver slightly. Whether from cold or my touch, I couldn’t tell.
The intimacy of the moment wasn’t lost on me. This wasn’t about sex—it was far more. This was about care. Trust. Vulnerability. Things I’d systematically avoided in my life until Isabella Salvini had crashed into it.
When she stood before me, completely bare, I kept my eyes on hers. Not because her body didn’t affect me—it did, painfully so—but because this moment demanded something more than desire. It demanded respect.
I offered my hand, helped her step into the steaming water. She sank down with a soft gasp, the water rising around her.
“Too hot?” I asked.
“Perfect,” she murmured, then leaned back against the tub’s edge and closed her eyes. “Though it would be more perfect if you stopped hovering like a bodyguard and joined me.”
I hesitated, torn between my desire to hold her close and self-discipline.
As if reading my thoughts, Isabella sighed. “I’m not proposing we have sex in the bathtub, Ivan. I just…” She paused, vulnerability flickering across her face. “I want to be as close to you as humanly possible.”
That simple admission broke something loose inside me. I nodded once and began removing my own clothes, methodically. When I finally stepped into the tub across from her, the heat of the water was a welcome shock against my tense muscles.
For several long moments, we simply sat in silence, the steam rising between us. I studied her face, noting the exhaustion in her eyes, the tension she still carried in her shoulders despite the hot water. The bruise along her jaw was darkening already. My fingers curled into fists beneath the water, imagining what I would do to the men who had hurt her. “I’m sorry,” I said finally, the words feeling strange on my tongue.
Her eyebrows rose slightly. “For what exactly?”
“For after…” I hesitated, searching for the right words. “After our night together. I was cold. Distant.” I rarely apologized. Even more rarely explained myself. But Isabella deserved both.
Understanding dawned in her eyes. “When you wouldn’t look at me the next day?”
I nodded. “I didn’t know how best to handle the situation. I’m not used to…”
“Bathing with beautiful women?” A flash of her usual sarcasm though the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I remember you telling me that’s what you usually do with your women.”
