There would be a difference—one big enough that I’d regret ever meeting him. The guilt of sleeping with a man I knew wanted to kill my uncle would beenough to bury me alive.
Chapter 21
Salvario
I’ve yet to decide which is more difficult: staying away from her, or staying close.When I can’t see her, the need to see her suffocates me. But the moment she appears, the need to feel her consumes me.
She’s eating breakfast beside me now, and all I want is to pull her into me—to feed on her instead of the seven dishes spread before us.
Antonio enters the dining room, some of the tension eases. He takes his seat.
“Good morning,Antonio,” she chirps.
“Good morning, signorina.”
“I haven’t seen you the past few days. Were you away?”
He nods. “I was away on business.”
He was in Miami, handling a press conference for my company, Texan.
I eat in silence, listening to her discuss world affairs with Antonio. My eyes never leave her.
In these past days, I’ve memorized every small thing about her.Even if I forget myself one day, I won’t forget her.
After breakfast, I retreat to my study with Antonio. We discuss event details until Robin calls. Antonio excuses himself as I answer.
“Boss, Alessio has sent men to search for you in Greenland.” He exhales. “And we recovered a degraded copy of that deleted video. I’ve sent it to you.”
“I’ll look.”
I end the call, open the file, and play the video. The quality is poor, and there’s no audio, but it’s enough for me to see everything.
She stands there with her cousin Matleon and a young woman. Men in race suits enter the hallway. One of them hugs her.
I know who he is. The man she was meant to marry. Roxion Marco.
I narrow my eyes. The hug lasts thirty-six seconds. Longer than I’d like.
But what comes next makes my brows draw together. He leads her into a room and closes the door behind them.
My breath snags in my chest.
The hallway empties. I fast-forward five minutes—to the moment Zloban leaves his room and storms into the one where that motherfucker took Avira. I watch something happen between them, but the room itself stays hidden from this angle.
I need to know what the fuck she was doing in there with him for five minutes.
I’ll ask her.
She comes out. The door clicks shut behind her. And the next second, Zloban fucking Bennett pulls her into a kiss.
My brain whites out.
They kiss like they’ve been starving for each other. I watch for an entire minute—her kissing her adopted brother—as if the universe staged this moment purely to torment me.
A violent rush of heat and cold floods my veins at once. My chest locks up like it’s being crushed. My heart slams so hard it hurts. A deafening ring fills my ears. My hands tremble. Nausea churns in my stomach. A scream lodges in my throat, unable to escape.
It would’ve hurt less if she’d just ripped my heart out and torn it to fucking pieces.
