LOGINAdriano was sitting by the pool with a glass of wine in his hand, waiting for Anny. He swirled the deep red wine in lazy circles. The morning sun climbed higher in the cloudless sky, casting diamonds across the water's surface and warming the stone tiles beneath his bare feet. He should have been reviewing the architectural plans his firm had sent over that morning. Instead, he was waiting for her.
He
“What the hell are you doing? Your mother just died! You're mourning her death! You should be crying, not kissing her husband this needily out of the blue!” The voice screamed inside Anny's head.But she ignored that voice, feeling something more stir deep within her. Adriano was kissing her like she had never been kissed before. She had been kissed a few times in her life, but none of them had ever felt like this. Those were brief, fumbling encounters with boys who didn't know what they were doing.His hands on her waist moved up her back and she found herself moaning again into the kiss. She was already breathless, but she couldn't break the kiss, couldn't even attempt to break it because she had no idea if either of them would be bold enough to continue if they stopped for even a single second. The momentum was f
One month.Thirty days since Anny had watched her mother's chest fall still. Thirty days since the flatline had echoed through the ICU like a death knell. Thirty days since she had screamed until her throat bled raw and her voice gave out completely.And now she stood in the bedroom that had once been hers, staring at a photograph she couldn't bring herself to touch.The house was quiet. The silence had pressed against her eardrums and made her hyperaware of every creak and groan of the old structure settling around her. Funeral arrangements had been made, condolences had been offered and the world had moved on.But Anny hadn't.The photograph on her bedsid
Dr. Simmons stood in the doorway, her face a careful mask of professional composure. "Mr. Carter," she said, her voice soft, almost gentle. "I need to speak with you privately."The words hung in the air like a death sentence waiting to be pronounced. "Is she…""Please. Let's step into the hallway."Morgan stirred, her eyes fluttering open as she registered the tension in the room. "What's happening?" she murmured, her arm instinctively tightening around Anny's sleeping form.Anny woke with a start, her grey eyes snapping open, wild and disoriented. The expression on Dr. Simmons's face sent ice shooting through her veins. She was on her feet before she understood she was moving.
The crash echoed through the pool area like a gunshot, splintering the charged silence between them. Anny's heart lurched into her throat as she spun toward the sound, water sloshing around her waist. Adriano's hand shot out instinctively, grasping her arm as if to shield her.Through the floor-to-ceiling glass doors, a figure stood frozen in the doorway. But it wasn't Rosie.It was a man. Tall, broad-shouldered, with the same dark hair and chiseled features that made Adriano so devastatingly handsome. But where Adriano's eyes were sky blue, sharp and calculating, this man's eyes were ocean blue, deeper, more turbulent, like a storm brewing beneath calm waters.Michele.He stood in the doorway, his gaze sweeping over the scene before him with an intensity that made Anny's skin prickle despite the warm water. His eyes lingered on her, on the white bikini that clung to her curves, on the water droplets tracing paths down her skin, on Adriano's hand wrapped possessively around her arm."
“Now what? Have you changed for my mother?” The words escaped her lips unconsciously. She didn’t know what she exactly expected to hear. Maybe she wished to hear her name.Adriano could see the vulnerability in her eyes, the desperate hope that he would say no, that he would admit that what he felt for Rosie was nothing compared to whatever dark, twisted thing was developing between them.Instead of replying to her, he took another sip of his drink and smirked, “What do you think?” He let the silence stretch between them. Anny ignored his question, looking away and asked again, "So you're not in love with her?"“As far as I remember we were playing a game and it’s my turn to ask you a question," he said, his voice deceptively casual."You can ask me a question only when I allow you to," Anny shot back, her eyes flashing with frustration. "Those are my rules.""That doesn't seem very fair, babygirl." "I don't care about fair and why are you avoiding my question?" She gritted her tee
Adriano was sitting by the pool with a glass of wine in his hand, waiting for Anny. He swirled the deep red wine in lazy circles. The morning sun climbed higher in the cloudless sky, casting diamonds across the water's surface and warming the stone tiles beneath his bare feet. He should have been reviewing the architectural plans his firm had sent over that morning. Instead, he was waiting for her.He knew exactly how dangerous this was to ask Anny to join him in the pool in the broad daylight when the world was wide awake. It was nowhere similar to the gamble played behind locked doors last night and no one got a hint.Rosie had slept soundly in her wing of the mansion, blissfully unaware that her husband's fingers had been buried deep inside her daughter, that her daughter had begged for him with breathless desperation, calling him
Anny groaned as her peaceful slumber shattered under the shrill ringtone of her phone. Her hand flailed across the sheets until her fingers closed around the device.Morgan. Calling at eight in the goddamn
"Welcome home, Anny," Adriano murmured, his voice dripping with quiet arrogance as he brushed past her, the heat of his body lingering in the doorway like a taunt. His composure was infuriatingly intact, not a single hair out of place, not even a flicker of guilt in those dark, knowing eyes. Anny
"Thank you, Adriano, you mean."A seductive husky voice tore the silent air of the kitchen and the bowl slipped from her fingers before her brain registered the fear. Strawberries scattered across the dark marble floor like drops of blood, crushing beneath her bare heel as she spun toward the doorw
The call with her mother had barely ended before Anny hurled her phone onto the dorm bed as if the device had burned her. Her mother's voice still echoed in her ears, every syllable coiling low in her belly like something sick and twisting."Let me guess," Morgan said from her desk, spinning lazily







