“I saw you in that garden and knew I was fucked,” he said quietly.
I blinked.
“You were bleeding all over the grass. Terrified. Beautiful.” His jaw tightened faintly. “And when you touched my hair…” A dark laugh escaped him. “I knew I wouldn’t let anyone else have you.”
My pulse stumbled.
“So you lied?” I whispered.
“I had to,” he said. The honesty hurt worse somehow. “I told your father what I needed to tell him.”
“You destroyed my reputation,” I reminded him.
“I destroyed every other man’s chance at touching you.” His eyes found mine again. “There’s a difference.”
“You’re insane.”
“You love it,” he smirked. The frightening part was how calm he sounded about it.
“I hated you,” I admitted.
“You still do,” he said plainly.
“Sometimes.” That finally made him smirk slightly. I looked down at our hands. “You made me feel trapped. Like my whole life was over.”
Leo’s thumb stilled against my skin. “And now?”
“Now…” My throat tightened. “Now this feels more like home than the Ventura estate ever did.”
Something in his expression cracked open slightly. Tiny. Dangerous. Human.
“I should hate that,” I continued shakily. “I should hate you.”
“But?”
Tears burned unexpectedly behind my eyes.
“But somewhere along the way,” I whispered, “you became the person I wanted when I was scared.”
Leo went completely still. The rain kept falling.
“You almost died,” I said again, voice breaking this time. “And all I could think was that if you left me here alone, I’d never recover from it.”
A strange look crossed his face then. Not arrogance. Not victory. Devastation. Like the confession physically hurt him.
“Chiara…”
“You ruined my life,” I said softly. “But I think you ruined yourself too.”
His fingers tightened around mine. “You’re the only weakness I’ve ever had.”
The words landed hard. Heavy enough to steal the air from my lungs. Leo leaned forward slowly despite the pain clearly pulling at his body. His forehead rested briefly against mine.
“When my father died,” he murmured, “I felt nothing. When Angelo betrayed me, I expected it.”
His voice lowered further.
“But when I thought I might die before seeing you again…” He shut his eyes briefly. “That terrified me.”
