~ Stephano The next morning, she was already at the little table when I came out of the bathroom, quiet, legs crossed, that fucking silk nightgown clinging to her like a second skin. The same one she wore the first night we got here. I knew the damn thing by heart now. I could trace every inch of her thighs with my eyes closed. Knew exactly where the fabric ended and the curve of her ass began.And she wore it again. This morning. Just like that. Like it was laundry day and she didn’t know she was driving me out of my fucking mind.I had a towel slung low on my hips, barely tied, still damp from the shower. I wasn’t even fully dry. I didn't have the patience. I paused in the doorway and watched her take a bite of mango. Mango. A messy one too. Juicy, golden and sliced thick. She was licking her fingers, soft, slow, innocent as hell, and I swear to God, my cock twitched under the towel.I gritted my teeth.She wasn’t even trying to be sexy. That was the problem. If she was trying, I c
~ Camilla’s POV.Alex!My heart dropped the moment I saw Alex's name light up on the screen.I shouldn’t have answered. I wasn’t ready. Not for this conversation. Not while still in the hotel room with Stephano, who was standing a few feet away.“Alex?” My voice cracked a whisper. I moved closer to the edge of the bed, away from Stephano, though there was no real distance to put between the mess I was in.“Are you with him right now?” His voice was sharp and cold.I froze. “Alex, I. I can explain. Please just…”“Oh my God,” he breathed, a bitter laugh breaking through his words. “You’re actually with him right now, aren’t you?”“Nothing’s going on. He’s just here, that’s all. We’re on a business trip. It’s not…” My words were tangled. God, why did I sound so guilty?Alex went quiet for a beat.Then he spoke, lower now, but even more dangerous. “I should have known. The day I kissed you in your office and he walked in like he’d been betrayed? I thought he was just being overprotective.
~ CamillaI woke up to a soft buzzing.At first, I thought it was in my dream or a faint vibration behind the walls of a room that didn't exist. But then it came again, harsher, more persistent. I squinted at the nightstand. My phone had a bright screen glowing like a bomb in the dark.I groaned and reached for it lazily, expecting maybe one or two messages from Alex. But as soon as my fingers touched it, it started again, one notification after the other, flying across the screen like machine gun fire.Twitter.Instagram.WhatsApp.iMessage.I blinked, sat up a little. My heart began to skitter like a stone over water. I had dozens of unread messages. And not just messages. Calls. Missed calls. From people I hadn’t spoken to in months. Names I didn’t even recognize at first glance. My palms began to sweat.Why was everyone suddenly trying to reach me?Then I saw it. The first headline.“BREAKING: Billionaire Stephano Maddens Seen with Mystery Woman – Sources Say She's Not From an Eli
~ Stephano I didn’t look at her. Not directly. But I saw her.I saw her the moment I walked into the ballroom. The moment I adjusted my cufflinks, gave that rehearsed, lazy smirk to the sponsors by the entrance, and turned my head just in time for the fucking lights to hit her like a goddamn spotlight.Camilla.Her back was to me at first. And I swear to God, my fists clenched before I even knew why. That dress, the obsidan one with the slit that flirted with her thigh every time she turned too fast, it was cut to make men fall to their fucking knees. Thin straps, bare shoulders, backless, and a diamond pendant that rested in the valley of her breasts like it belonged there.She hadn’t worn that one for Alex.He wasn’t even here.And yet.She was smiling at someone else. Some boring, overly polite man in a bow tie who’d clearly been standing there for too damn long. I clocked his face immediately. Over-eager. Laughing too hard. Probably called her “ma’am” once and she corrected him
CamillaI didn’t even hear him come back in.I had been fixing my earrings, doing one last check in the floor-length mirror, smoothing my dress, the obsidian silk clinging to every damn place it shouldn’t. I’d been trying to steady my breathing. And then I felt it. His stare.It landed like a hand pressed between my shoulder blades. Heat pouring down my spine in response. My heart stalled, then thundered so loud I could feel it in my throat.I didn’t turn around right away. Because I knew. I knew it was him.I could smell his cologne. That dark, arrogant blend of cedar and spice and money.I could feel him. When I did finally turn, just a slow pivot, eyes meeting his through the mirror, I didn’t get to breathe again.Stephano Maddens was looking at me like I was the goddamn sun and he hadn’t seen daylight in months.But no. No, scratch that.It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t poetic.It was ravenous.His eyes slid down my body with zero subtlety. No shame, no decency. Just this long, slow rake
~ StephanoI had to leave the room. Her words. Not mine.“Give me space,” she’d said. “Stephano, I need to change. Can you just go for a walk or something?”Space. Boundaries. Respect.Bullshit.She’d been wrapped in my shirt an hour ago, her bare thighs flashing like an invitation every time she shifted on the bed, eyeing the outline of my cock like it was her goddamn enemy. She didn’t say it, but I saw her stare. Felt her squirm.She wanted it.She could talk all she liked about propriety, about boyfriends and professionalism and how this couldn’t happen again, but she’d ridden me before. Tasted me with those pretty lips and let me spread her open and worship her like the fucking altar she was. And every second since then I’d been on the edge of madness, itching, aching, to bury myself inside her again.To take what already fucking belonged to me.But I left. Like a gentleman. Or whatever the hell she needed me to be in that moment. And now, standing outside the hotel room door, I’d