“And with a temper,” Jamie cut in.
“When people insult someone I care about,” he shot back.
Sofia stared at him. Why did his voice sound so sincere? Why did his hazel eyes seem so fucking honest?
“Can I think about it?” she asked.
Both of them nodded.
“I’ll email you the contract with all the details and you can take your time to read it,” Jamie said.
Ilias stood. “We’ll leave you be. Hopefully, we’ll work together.”
“If it’s not me… Do you have any other options?” she asked, guiding them toward the door. Jamie was already halfway out, heading for the stairs.
“No,” Ilias said immediately.
Before she could step away, he was there. Pinning her against the corridor wall, caging her between his strong arms.
Too close.
Too hot.
Every inch of him radiated heat, tall and solid. Every muscle taut even under the sweater. Because she still remembered him in the Athlete Zone when he had lowered his wetsuit and showed muscles that only people who trained daily could have. He leaned in, his mouth brushing the shell of her ear, voice low and rough. “You’re my only choice, habiba.”
Her breath hitched. A spark ignited, shooting straight down her spine.
Salt, sun. His scent wrapped around her, stirring a tension deep in her stomach she refused to name.
She swallowed hard, blinked rapidly, and somehow managed to not melt completely.
“Buenas noches, Sofia.”
“Bye,” she said, voice breathy, betraying every ounce of her cool as she waved them off.
Only after the door clicked shut did she exhale, sharp and shaky.
What the hell was wrong with her? Her body was betraying her, responding to the raw pull of a very good-looking man.
But he wasn’t her type. Too confident. Too cocky. Too athletic. Too everything. She was used to the Hamptons,polished men, controlled, predictable. Not rough ones like Ilias, who flirted like it was his mission to see her crumble.
And this fake relationship? With a man who was slowly dismantling her carefully constructed “I hate men” era?
Absolutely, catastrophically, a terrible idea.
10
SOFIA
Il Regalo Piú Grande – Tiziano Ferro
Slumped on her couch,Sofia already regretted calling her family and Alejandra’s for advice. She’d spent the entire night reading over the contract, listing pros and cons, trying to decide if selling her soul for money was worth it. Every time money entered the equation, though, panic clawed up her chest. It dragged her straight back to Thomas, his smug smile when he’d joked about how she “owed” him for her success. How he’d bought her spot at Neptune when she’d believed she’d earned it.
That discovery had ruined something fundamental in her. It had turned her achievement into something filthy, transactional. And now, signing a deal tied to money again felt like stepping back into that same corruption.
“For Sofia to call aMoGoLoRoreunion, it must be a tragedy,” Carlos joked from behind Alejandra’s face on her iPhone. By the background, they must have been all together in the car.
“Gosh, I haven’t heard that name since we were eleven,” her sister Gabriella chimed in from the other half of the screen, their parents visible behind her.
