CHAPTER 134

Andrea's POVI settled onto my bed with my laptop and opened up my novel, picking up right where I'd left off. The words had been coming so much more easily lately, ever since things with Luca had stabilized and the constant crushing weight of fear had finally lifted off all of us. My characters were finally getting somewhere good now—working through the misunderstandings that had kept them apart, finding their way back to each other. There was something deeply satisfying about writing toward a happy ending, even when my own real-life situation still felt so uncertain and complicated.I wrote for about an hour, completely losing myself in the story, before my phone pinged on the nightstand beside me.I picked it up. It was Dante.You okay?I felt myself smile at the screen before I'd even started typing.I'm fine. Mum and Dahlia are downstairs becoming best friends. I think my mum has officially adopted her.His reply came quickly.Good. Dahlia could use that.I noticed he didn't elab

CHAPTER 135

Andrea's POVI blushed before I could stop it. The heat rushed up my neck and flooded into my cheeks instantly, completely traitorously, giving me away before I'd said a single word."What? No, of course not," I said quickly. "He just works for Luca, that's all. He drove us from the airport, that's the only reason you saw us together."But my mum had been reading me my entire life, and she just looked at me with the patient, unhurried certainty of someone who already knew the answer and was simply waiting for me to stop pretending and admit it."Andrea," she said again. Just my name. Gentle but immovable.I deflated. There was no point. There had never been any point in trying to hide things from her—she'd always seen straight through me, even when I was small and certain I was being clever."How long?" she asked softly.I sighed and pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. "It started a long time ago. The first time I came to visit Luca. Four years ago." I picked

CHAPTER 136

Andrea's POV"Love is a beautiful thing, sweetheart," she said quietly. "It's one of the most beautiful things in the whole world. There's nothing like it. But the people we give our hearts to don't always feel the same way back. And that's one of the hardest truths there is to live with." She squeezed my hands gently. "I just don't want to see your heart get broken, Andrea. That's all. That's the only thing a mother ever really worries about, no matter how old her children get. We just want to keep you from hurting.""I know," I said softly. "I know, Mum.""It's not that I don't believe he cares for you. From the little I saw, the way he looked at you in that mirror—" She gave a small knowing smile. "A man doesn't look at a woman like that over nothing. But caring and being able to say it, to give it freely—those aren't always the same thing. And you deserve all of it. The caring and the words and everything in between."She leaned over and kissed my forehead, soft and warm, the way

CHAPTER 137

Andrea's POVI was happy that my mum was giving her that. Happy that Dahlia was getting, even temporarily, the kind of warmth she deserved and maybe had never had.I lay back on my lounger and watched the two of them together—my mum laughing at something Dahlia said, Dahlia laughing back, her hand resting protectively over the gentle swell of her stomach—and without meaning to at all, I found my mind wandering somewhere I hadn't quite expected it to go.I imagined myself in Dahlia's place.Pregnant. Glowing. My own hand resting over my own growing belly. And Dante beside me—not hidden, not a secret, but mine, openly and completely. Looking at me the way Luca looked at Dahlia, with that quiet fierce pride and devotion. A future where we didn't have to hide. Where my mum could fuss over me the way she was fussing over Dahlia now, asking about names and nursery colors and whether I was feeling alright. Where Dante could rest his hand on my belly and feel his child kick and there would be

CHAPTER 138

Andrea's POVI pushed myself up on my elbows so I could see him better. “I missed you too,” I said. My voice came out quieter than I meant it to. “All day. Every time I looked up at the house I hoped I’d see you at one of the windows.”He leaned down, one knee on the mattress, and kissed me. It wasn’t soft. It was hard and hungry, his mouth opening over mine like he needed to taste me to breathe. His tongue slid against mine, deep and insistent. I kissed him back the same way, reaching up to fist the front of his shirt and pull him closer. One of his hands braced beside my head; the other came down to rest on my waist, fingers spreading wide over the damp bikini fabric. The kiss went on until my lips felt swollen and I was making small, needy sounds into his mouth.When he finally pulled back, his forehead stayed close to mine. “You look so hot in this swimsuit,” he said. His thumb stroked slowly along the edge of the bikini top, just above my breast. “I saw you from the mansion. From

CHAPTER 139

Andrea's POVHe groaned softly and curled his fingers inside me, hitting that spot that made everything go bright. His thumb worked my clit faster. “You’re doing so good,” he whispered. “So wet and tight around my fingers. I can feel you trying not to moan. Keep trying, baby. Come for me quiet. Let me feel it.”The orgasm hit fast and hard. My back arched off the bed, my pussy clenching around his fingers as pleasure rushed through me in hot waves. I cried out into my own hand, the sound muffled and broken, thighs shaking hard. He kept moving his hand through all of it, drawing it out, whispering the whole time.“Shh… that’s it. Come quiet for me. Good girl. So fucking good, staying quiet while I make you come all over my fingers.”Only when I started to come down did he slowly pull his fingers out. He brought them to his mouth and licked them clean while I watched, still trying to catch my breath with my hand over my mouth. Then he stood up long enough to shove his pants and underwea