Fuck, Caterina is wreaking havoc on my mind and body. Destroying me from the inside out. Chipping away at the old pieces of me<b>, </b>causing something new to grow in its ce. When I reach my office, the light aroma of vani hits me first.


    I smell her before I see her. She’s seated in my chair, her feet up on the desk. She’s holding a ss of whiskey in one hand, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling. Her dark russet brown hair hangs in thick waves over her shoulders, and her full mouth is pursed in thought.


    Incredible, the number of reactions a person’can have all at once. Joy floods me, followed by relief. She’s here. My arms ache to hold her as my hands stir to reach out and touch her. It’s been days since I’vest touched her skin. Even now, I have to wonder how I’ve lived this long without the feel of her skin, the smell of her hair, and the touch of her soft curves beneath my fingertips. As always, there’s that hunger burning low in my gut, threatening to unleash itself.


    To take, to im, to own everyst bit of her.


    No. Not this time. I cannot let that impulse be the only guide. She’ll shut down instantly and build a wall between us. For once, I have to be stronger than my baser instincts.


    “What are you doing here?” I ask gruffly. “And how did you get in without me knowing?”


    At this rate, I’m going to have to post someone at every fucking window and entrance.


    “I still have a key that I never gave back to Tatiana, because I figured…” She looks down into her ss as if her thoughts Consume her.


    She’s still wearing her work clothes, I see, hours after she would have left for the night. It’ste, which makes me wonder where she’s been. The question disappears as I drink her in, her skirt rides up thanks to her position, and her bare legs make my mouth water. I force myself to look away before I can react with my cock rather than my brain.


    “You figured you would live here?” I prompt.


    “For a little a while, that’s what I thought.” She takes another sip, then exhales. “Anyway, you can have it back if you want.” I can’t get a proper read on her.


    Brushing thement aside, I loosen my tie, then remove my cufflinks before rolling up my sleeves. I feel her pensive gaze on me as I walk over to the bar. “I’m assuming you’re here to talk.” There’s a pause, and I continue since she doesn’t respond right away. “It must be a pretty heavy conversation if you needed a drink beforehand.”


    “This isn’t a game, Gianni.” She sounds tired. It isn’t easy to control my curiosity when all I want to do is take her into my arms. I want her to be mine, but I need her to admit what we have. For her to see that this is real.


    Looking at her, I want to tell her that whatever’s weighing her down<b>, </b>I’ll take it. I’ll carry it. She only needs but ask. “Nobody ever said it was.” After pouring myself a drink, I turn to face her, noting her somber expression in the light from the deskmp and the worry lines between her brows. I expected fear to shine in her blue eyes, yet there’s none.


    Caterina’s worried, yes, but she has resilience right now. A hardness. Looking at her, I see a woman who’s been through more than her fair share and is so fucking tired. That vulnerable edge, that touch of weakness I saw in her weeks ago, is nowhere to be


    found.


    Have I broken her?


    Have I lost the woman I love before I’ve even had the chance to confess it to her?


    Uneasiness coats my insides. I need her softness. I need her vulnerability. It’s my life’s blood, and it’s nowhere to be found. What’s happened to her? I can feel the change even in the days since Ist saw her.


    “I’ve got some questions,” she redirects before guzzling back the <b>rest </b>of her drink and cing the ss on the desk. She doesn’t let go of it, though. Choosing instead to spin it, staring at the prisms of light thrown off by the ornate engravings. “And I think you hold some of the answers I need.”


    “You know me<b>, </b>I’m nothing if not helpful.”


    She pins me with a stony stare. “I told you, this isn’t a game.”


    “Who said it was? You’re the one who found your way into my home<b>, </b>barged into my office, and made yourselffortable. By all rights, I should have you removed.”


    Where did she park? How did she get inside without me noticing? There are so many questions to which I get the feeling I won’t get answers. That’s not what she’s here to discuss.


    “But you won’t, will you?” The coldness seeping from her hits me like a wave of ice. This is all wrong. This isn’t the Caterina I know, the Caterina I desire.


    “Try me. You go from telling me nothing between us is real, that it’s only sex. Fast–forward to you showing up, and suddenly you want to talk.” I watch her as I sip my whiskey, which may as well be water since <b>I </b>can’t taste it. Every fiber of my awareness is trained on her–her reaction, that unnerving sense of calm hanging over her.


    It’s the calm before the storm. A beautiful fucking storm that I will dly let rip me apart.


    The ss goes still, her delicate hand clenched tightly around it. “I didn’te here to talk about any of those things<b>, </b>and certainly not us. I will ask you something, and all I want is the truth. After everything we’ve been through, I deserve that much.”


    “Okay, what do you want to know?”


    She hesitates, then licks her lips before bracing herself. “Did you kill my mother?”


    Goddamn him. Of course, he fucking told her. That sick, pathetic son of a bitch. Bringing his daughter into this, twisting her up in his web of lies. I have to keep my expression neutral, because the other option is to let the mask slip free and show my real feelings, which won’t get me anywhere. The absolute truth hangs on the edge of my tongue. I want to spill the beans about the way he showed up here, drunk and raving, using me of shit.


    How unstable he is and how he can’t be trusted. I want to tell her he has no idea what he’s talking about and that he’s lost his damn mind. As much as I want to shake her out of whatever grasp he has on her, I can’t bring myself to do it. I cannot be the one to bring her that intense pain. It’s better if she hates me and thinks I’m the viin who took her mom away.


    “You’ll have to be more specific,” I mutter, lifting a shoulder. “You know I’ve got plenty of notches on my belt. The faces all tend to blur into each other. You know, you kill one, you’ve killed them all.”


    “You son of a bitch.” I duck in the nick of time as she sends the ss sailing across the room. Itnds somewhere over my head, smashing against the wall at my back. Pieces of ss fly in every direction. “What is wrong with you? Why would you say something like that? I should fucking kill you! Hell, I wish I could!”