"Marchetti."
And there it is.
The confirmation I didn't need but somehow still hits like a fist to the solar plexus. My Ilona Marchetti is in trouble and I am about to become her knight in shining armor. A bunch of poetic shit runs through my head, but it all boils down to either Fate trying to help me out or Karma playing games with my heart. It doesn’t matter. I could say no, sure, but I don’t have the will power to let her get away from me twice.
"Excuse me, Katriana." I lean in and kiss the top of her head, needing a moment to process, to breathe, to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do now. "Give her my number and—" I pause. "You know what? Go ahead and set the interview for Monday. Nine sharp."
Monday. Two days from now. Long enough to not seem desperate. Short enough that I won't lose my goddamn mind waiting.
“Don’t be surprised if she reaches out fast. She’s pretty desperate and wants to get something locked in.”
I force casualness into my tone. “Sure.”
With that, I cross to the windows, my heart pounding against my ribs like a caged animal. The Chicago skyline glitters beyond theglass, all steel and ambition and secrets. Somewhere out there, she's living her life. Running from her father. Unaware that the stranger who took her virginity is about to become her boss.
She's trying to escape Enzo's control. Interesting. Daughter and daddy problems. And Fate has delivered her directly to me. Maybe she’s not a bitch after all.
The irony isn't lost on me. I spent eight weeks building a file on her father, planning to use her as leverage against him. Now she's fleeing that same man, and the universe has dropped her into my lap like some kind of cosmic joke.
Or a second chance I have no intention of wasting.
I stare at my reflection in the glass. What do I do with this? Do I tell her the truth? Confess what I intended that night at Scarlet Thorn? Watch the trust in her eyes die?
Or do I give her the job, protect her from her father, and figure out how to be worthy of her before she ever learns what kind of man I really am? Maybe she’ll never find out.
The second option is selfish. Manipulative. Exactly the kind of move the old Luca would make.
But the thought of her looking at me with hatred, of losing her before I've even had a chance to earn her...
I can't. Not yet. Not until I understand what this is. What we could be. Like I said. She never has to find out.
My phone chimes with an incoming message, the vibration traveling up my arm. I glance at the notification absently, still processing the magnitude of what fate has just dropped in my lap.
Then I see the preview.
My entire body goes still.
What the fuck?
The party fades to white noise. The champagne in my stomach turns to ice.
Katriana was right. Ilona didn’t wait.
I open the message, and the world narrows to the image filling my screen.
Ilona, naked, her black hair with its blue tips tumbling over her shoulders like a midnight waterfall. Her light brown eyes look directly at the camera with an intimacy that stops my heart. Her body is exactly as I remember, soft curves and olive skin and the kind of beauty that makes men do stupid things. She's beautifully naked and my hands tingle to touch her again.
But it's the caption that destroys me.
2 months pregnant.
I don't know how long I stand there, staring at my phone, unable to process what I'm seeing. The party continues around me, laughter and clinking glasses and conversations I can't hear over the roaring in my ears. Two months. Two months pregnant. Which means...
Which means it's mine.
The woman I was going to use as leverage against her own father is pregnant with my child.
"I don't know whether I love you, Fate, or fucking hate you, but thank you." The whispered words leave my lips before I can stopthem. "And you too, Karma. You sadistic bitch with impeccable timing." The two sisters are working overtime to either punish me or help me. I don’t care as long as Ilona is back in my life. I’ll figure everything else out as I go.
