She lifted her head, her green eyes searching mine, her expression unreadable. "We’ve begun," she said simply, her hand resting over my heart.
And in that moment, I knew there was no going back.
The lines between duty and desire had blurred, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to sharpen them again.
Paola wasn’t just a piece on my board anymore. She was a force, a presence that had awakened something in me I didn’t fully understand.
I tightened my arms around her, feeling the weight of her words settle in my chest. We’d begun something dangerous, something that threatened to upend everything I thought I knew. But as her heartbeat synced with mine, I couldn’t bring myself to regret it. For the first time in years, I felt alive—and that was both terrifying and irresistible.
As the morning light continued to fill the room, I held her close, the warmth of her body against mine a reminder of the intimacy we’d shared. The city outside was waking up, the sounds of traffic and distant horns filtering through the windows. But in this room, in this moment, it was just us—two people who had started something neither of us could have predicted.
Paola stirred against me, her eyes fluttering open to meet mine. I pressed a tender kiss to her temple, feeling a sense of protectiveness I hadn’t known I was capable of.
"What happens now?" she asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
I took a deep breath, my mind racing with the implications of what we’d done. "Now we figure out what this marriage actually means," I said, my voice steady despite the turmoil inside me.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand, the outside world intruding on our moment. I ignored it, not wanting to break the spell that had been cast between us. But it buzzed again, insistent and demanding.
Reluctantly, I reached for it, my eyes scanning the message from Piero:We found Bianca. She’s with Viktor. It’s worse than we thought.
My entire body went rigid, the warmth and intimacy of the moment shattered by the cold reality of our world. Paola felt the change, her eyes searching mine with concern.
"What’s wrong?" she asked, her voice laced with worry.
I looked down at her, my wife, who had just given herself to me, who had chosen me, and knew that everything had just become infinitely more complicated.
"Your sister," I said quietly, "We found her. And it looks like she’s made a deal with my enemy."
The room seemed to darken, the morning light suddenly feeling too bright, too harsh.
The city outside continued its relentless pace, oblivious to the storm that was brewing in our lives. I held Paola close, feeling the weight of the world pressing down on us, knowing that we were on the precipice of something that would change everything.
CHAPTER 7
Paola
The afternoon sun sliced through the bedroom windows, painting golden stripes across rumpled sheets. I woke alone, my hand reaching for warmth that wasn't there. The space beside me was cool—Cesare had left hours ago, but later than he usually did. And there’d been a moment where he lingered… where it almost seemed like…
No. He had responsibilities. An empire to run. A man like Cesare Monti wasn’t hesitating to leave his penthouse to stay with a girl like me.
My body catalogued the changes. Soreness between my thighs. Tenderness in my hips. The phantom weight of hands that had gripped, claimed, marked. There were sure to be bruisessomewhere, and the thought should have bothered me, but it only made me blush.
I wasn't a virgin anymore.
I stared at the ceiling, remembering. His mouth on my neck. The intensity in those gray eyes. The moment of sharp pain followed by something else entirely—something that had made me arch into him, wanting more.
I'd chosen it. Not in four days, like his deadline demanded. This morning.
Why?
Because waking in his arms had felt safe? Because the attraction was too strong to fight? Because some desperate part of me had wanted control over the one thing I could control—the timing?
All of the above. None of the above.
I forced myself up, wincing at the unfamiliar ache. In the bathroom mirror, the evidence stared back: faint bruises on my hips shaped like fingerprints, marks on my neck, my lips slightly swollen.
I looked different.Wasdifferent.
