When Rodrigo finally spoke, his voice was rough. "Do you know what it was like? Watching you, wanting you, knowing I had no right to?"
"You watched everyone to make sure they weren't a threat to Gabriella's pet," she pointed out.
"No. I watchedyou." His hand stroked over her dark curls. "Protecting you was never just about doing a job for my mother, Giana. From the first moment I saw you, I knew I would stand between you and any threat, no matter what happened."
The admission hung between them, weighted with years of silence.
"Every smile you gave someone else," he continued, his voice dropping lower, darker. "Every time you laughed at something another man said, I wanted to burn the world down. I wanted to drag you away and keep you somewhere safe where no one else could ever look at you."
His words should have terrified her. Instead, it sent heat pooling low in her belly, a dark answering pull that she had spent years trying to deny.
"That's a bit insane," she whispered.
"I know." His mouth curved in a humorless smile. "I was obsessed. Iamobsessed. I've been obsessed since you were nineteen years old and looked me dead in the eye like I was nothing more than an inconvenience."
She grinned. "Youwerean inconvenience."
"I was your warden."
The truth of it lay between them, ugly and inescapable.
"I tried to stay away," Rodrigo said, his fingers still stroking her hair. "I told myself you deserved better than a man like me. Better than a Colleoni. Better than someone who had helped cage you, even if it was the only way I knew I could keep you alive."
"Rodrigo," she whispered, her chest aching.
"I never would have touched you while you were trapped." His eyes were fierce now, burning with a conviction that left no room for doubt. "Even if it killed me. The wanting was eating me alive, but you had to be free first.Reallyfree. Free to choose and walk away."
"You felt that way, and you let me go?" Giana had always thought he must have been relieved to finally be free of the burden of her.
"Yes, and every day you were gone was its own kind of hell. I would do it again a thousand times over because you deserve the choice."
Tears pricked at Giana's eyes, hot and sudden. Not from sadness but the overwhelming weight of understanding and seeing the full shape of what had existed between them all along.
"When you were gone, it was so hard for me not to track you," Rodrigo continued. "I only wanted to know you were safe and that you were eating and sleeping okay, and that no one was hurting you. And then Dario was the one who finally admitted he left a tail on you. I'm not sure if he did it for you or me, to be honest."
"I knew I wasn't crazy! I thought I was paranoid at first. That I was just imagining eyes on me because I was so used to being watched," Giana said.
"You weren't imagining it. Unfortunately, Dario's men didn't pick up that Vincenzo was also watching you."
She leaned into his touch, turning her head to press a kiss to his chest. "Can I ask what you saw in all those years you were watching over me?"
The question seemed to catch him off guard. He was quiet for a moment, his gaze distant.
"Strength," he said finally. "More strength than anyone gave you credit for. You bent, Giana, but you never broke. Gabriella threw everything she had at you with the manipulation, the control, the subtle cruelties, and you survived all of it."
"I survived because I didn't have a choice," she replied.
"You survived because you're stronger than you know. I saw your defiance and the way you fought back in small, quiet ways. The way you never let her see you cry, never gave her the satisfaction of knowing she had gotten to you."
Giana's throat tightened. She had thought no one noticed those small rebellions, the tiny victories she had claimed in a war she had been losing.
"You were always the most dangerous person in any room," Rodrigo said with a soft laugh. "You just didn't know it yet."
Something cracked inside her, and the tears Giana had been fighting spilled over, tracking hot down her cheeks.
Rodrigo's expression shifted, concern flickering through the intensity. "Giana?"
"I'm not sad," she managed, sniffing the tears back. "I don't know why I'm crying. It's so silly."
