“Smile,” he murmured.
“I hate you,” I reminded him.
“I know,” he said simply. “Now fucking smile.”
I smiled. The flash went off. The crowds parted to let us into the restaurant, and I felt like a lamb being led off to slaughter.
Dinner felt less like a meal and more like something staged, people coming to the table one after another, their attention lingering on me just a little too long. I could feel it in the way their gazes slid over me, curious, assessing. I realized Leo hadn’t told anyone about me yet.
It was strange that we’d only met for the first time less than a month ago. And now here I was, posing as his date, when it was the last thing I wanted.
“Leo,” one of the men coming to our table said, his eyes settling on me. “You’ve been hiding her.”
“Yes,” Leo replied, like it was obvious. “You can see why.”
“She’s beautiful,” the man said with a shit-eating grin. Something in the air shifted, subtle but immediate. Leo’s hand, resting behind me, went still.
“Careful,” he said. “You don’t want to upset me, do you?”
It wasn’t loud, but it didn’t need to be. The man gave a small laugh, like he didn’t quite believe what he was hearing. “Just a compliment for the lovelysignorina.”
Leo looked at him then, properly this time, and whatever he saw must have been enough, because the man’s smile faltered.
“Keep it to yourself,” Leo said. “She doesn’t want your compliments.”
The moment passed as quickly as it came, the conversation moving on like nothing had happened, but I felt it settle in the space between us anyway. A line had been drawn.
We finished dinner, all seven courses, and I forced myself to be on my best behavior. At the table, I was quiet, replying to Leo with a word or two, but he didn’t seem bothered it.
By the time the cabaret show started, I was sick of it all. The lights dimmed, music low and steady as dancers moved across the stage, but my attention kept pulling elsewhere.
Every time someone looked at me, I felt it. Not their gaze.His.
Watching them. Tracking every person who looked at me like he was compiling a hit list.
“Stop it,” I whispered.
“Stop what?” he asked.
“Looking at them like that,” I murmured.
His attention shifted to me slowly. “Like what, Chiara?”
“Like…” I hesitated, swallowing. “Like you’re going to kill them.”
There was a pause, just long enough to make my chest tighten.
“Only if they forget what’s mine,” he said.
“I’m not yours,” I reminded him.
The words had barely left my mouth before his hand moved, pulling me sideways with enough force to make me lose my balance. I landed on his lap with a sharp breath, my hands instinctively bracing against his shoulders.
“Leo…”
“Sit still,” he said quietly.
“I am sitting-”
