LOGINValentina POV
"I am a designer," I said, stepping forward and carefully unwrapping the silk dress from its paper casing. "I hoped to show you some of my work. Perhaps for your consignment racks."
"No," she said instantly, not even turning her head fully toward me.
I stopped, my fingers still holding the edge of the silk. "You have not even looked
Valentina POV"Mamma, watch—watch, I'm going to make it bounce off the wall and into the cup.""I'm watching, tesoro."Matteo lined up his shot with the fierce concentration only a five-year-old could summon for something so entirely inconsequential. His tongue poked out the corner of his mouth, and a ping-pong ball was clutched tightly in one small fist. He threw. It bounced off the kitchen wall, missed the cup by a wide margin, and rolled right under the refrigerator."Almost," I said."I said almost would happen." He said it with such total conviction that I laughed out loud. The sound surprised even me—unguarded, easy, nothing like the careful, measured version of myself that walked into boardrooms."Get down here and help me find it, then, genius."He dropped to his knees, half his small body disappearing under the fridge, narrating the search to himself in a running commentary I only half followed. I watched him from the doorway f
Marco POVMy mother set the table herself that night, which should have been my very first warning."Sit, sit." She waved me toward my usual chair, the one at her right hand, the one I'd sat in since I was old enough to hold a fork properly. "I made the osso buco. Rosa's recipe, not mine—don't tell her I said that.""You never let anyone else cook when you want something.""Can't a mother simply want to feed her son?" She smiled, and it was warm, easy—the same smile she'd worn throughout my childhood. It was the look that had convinced half of Florence's old families that Carmela Ricci was a woman of no particular consequence, soft-spoken and decorative. I knew better. I'd always known better. I just hadn't always remembered to act on it.We ate in near silence for the first ten minutes. She asked about the port contract, about a cousin's upcoming wedding, and about whether I'd finally fired the accountant who kept underestimating the Bardi numbe
Valentina POV Rico Bellandi kept me waiting eleven minutes. I noted it, filed it away, and didn't let it show on my face. When he finally walked into the conference room, he looked like he was doing me a favor. "Valentina," he said. He didn't offer his hand. "I have twenty minutes." "Then we should use them well," I said. I slid the contract across the table without any preamble. "You supply three of Ricci Construction's largest sites," I told him. "You've done it for six years. You are loyal, reliable, and undervalued." "I'm well compensated," he said quickly. "You're well compensated for Marco's risk tolerance, not yours." I tapped the page with my finger. "This offer pays you eighteen percent more per shipment. It also has a clause that lets you walk after one year if you're not satisfied. There is no penalty." He didn't look at the contract. He looked at me instead. It was the way men always looked at me when they were trying to decide whe
Renzo POVDraghi's office smelled like burnt coffee and old carpet. It had smelled the exact same way every Tuesday for the last four months. He didn't look up from the folder when I walked in."Sit," he said.I sat down in the squeaky chair across from him."You went to Cracco last night," he said, still not looking up from his paperwork. "A window table. Very visible. Very public.""It's a restaurant, Sandro. People eat at restaurants.""People eat at restaurants." He finally raised his eyes. They were incredibly tired, the kind of tired that came from doing this job fifteen years too long. "Undercover officers embedding with a money laundering target do not take her to the most photographed restaura
Marco POVLuca found me before I'd even sat down at the table that evening. I knew from his face it wasn't about the Bardi contract."She had dinner at Cracco," he said, keeping his voice low just between us. "Window table. She was with the art dealer."I nodded once. I didn't let my face change. I signed the check and said goodnight to the men at my table like a man who had heard nothing more than a weather report.I made it as far as the elevator before the first crack showed.By the time I got upstairs to my penthouse, I wasn't a calm man anymore. I threw my jacket at the chair and missed. I poured a glass of scotch and didn't drink it. I just stood at the window with it, staring across at the dark hotel building where I already knew, with a ce
Valentina POVUpstairs, the door had barely shut before his jacket hit the floor. The room was dark, lit only by the city lights spilling through the large windows. I didn’t turn on the lamps. I reached for his shirt, my hands shaking as I yanked at his tie and fumbled the buttons. My breath came fast and shallow.Renzo caught my wrists, gentle but firm, pinning them lightly against his chest. “Slow down, Valentina,” he murmured, his voice low and rough against my ear. His cedar cologne mixed with the warm scent of his skin, making my head spin. “I’ve waited too long to rush this.”“I don’t want slow,” I whispered, but my body betrayed me, leaning into him anyway. Heat pooled low in my belly as his thumbs stroked the inside of my wrists.He smiled against my throat, lips brushing my pulse poi
Valentina POV I stopped scrubbing, my breath coming in short, shallow gasps. I looked up, squinting against the bright Sicilian sun. "Where?" He raised a hand, pointing vaguely at the wet stone directly beneath my left knee. "There. Right in the corner by the riser. It's dark." I shifted my weigh
Valentina POVThe man opened the door before my hand could even reach the wood.He stood flat-footed in the frame, blocking the light from the hallway. He didn’t say hello. Instead, his eyes dropped to my boots, tracked slowly up my faded jeans, and lingered on my flat stomach before finally settlin
Marco POV "You did the right thing," Carmela said, setting the cup on my desk. "That girl was trouble the moment she walked in."I didn't answer. I couldn't. My mind was stuck in a loop, replaying the last few hours.I hadn't slept a wink last night. I had spent hours pacing the dark hallways of t
Valentina POVThe rain was coming down hard. I walked right into it without covering my head.I had my coat and my bag, but that was all. I turned left away from the big house. That was the only direction that mattered, getting away. The man at the gate didn't look at me, and I didn't look at him.







