تسجيل الدخولAmara didn’t move for a full minute. Riccardo’s words still hung in the air like something heavy and irreversible. *I know exactly who you are.* Her expression remained controlled, but inside— everything tightened. Because it wasn’t the fact that he knew. It was the fact that he had known all along. “You’ve been playing with me,” she said quietly. Riccardo studied her calmly, leaning against the balcony railing as the ocean wind moved through his dark shirt. “I’ve been observing you,” he corrected. “There’s a difference.” Amara’s jaw tightened. “Observing is just a prettier word for stalking.” A faint smile touched his lips. “And yet you’re still standing here.” That silence that followed was heavier than words. Amara refused to give him the satisfaction of breaking. Instead, she exhaled slowly and looked away toward the sea. “If you know about the agency,” she said carefully, “then you already know I won’t betray them.” “I never asked you to.” That made her pause.
Amara barely slept. Even wrapped in silk sheets inside a room bigger than most apartments, her mind refused to rest. Riccardo’s words from the night before replayed endlessly in her head. *Dante’s father and I were once very close friends.* Friends. Not enemies. Not rivals. Friends. The thought unsettled her more than it should have. Because if Riccardo had once been close to Dante’s family… then this wasn’t just revenge. It was personal. Deeply personal. Amara sat up slowly, pressing a hand against her temple as morning sunlight spilled through the tall windows overlooking the Sicilian cliffs. Somewhere beyond those waters— Dante was probably tearing the city apart looking for her. The thought tightened something painfully in her chest. Which was ridiculous. Because Dante Moretti was never supposed to matter this much. Their relationship had started as an assignment. A fake relationship designed to get her close enough to study him, investigate h
Amara woke up to silence.Not the uncomfortable kind.The dangerous kind.The kind that made her instantly aware that she was somewhere far away from the world she knew.For a moment, she stayed still beneath the silk sheets, her eyes scanning the unfamiliar bedroom.Large windows overlooked the Sicilian coast, moonlight spilling across marble floors and dark furniture polished to perfection. The room itself looked more like something stolen from royalty than a place meant to hold a kidnapped woman.Which somehow made it worse.Amara slowly pushed herself upright, tension tightening her shoulders.No guards.No locked chains.No visible threat.And yet—she knew she wasn’t free.A soft knock interrupted her thoughts.The door opened before she could answer.A woman dressed in black stepped inside carefully, offering a polite smile.“Mr. Riccardo asked me to prepare you for dinner.”Amara frowned slightly. “Dinner?”The woman nodded.“As his guest.”Guest.Right.Because apparently kid
Amara refused to let him see fear.Even as every instinct in her body screamed at her to run.The man watched her quietly from across the room, one hand resting lazily against the arm of the chair as though kidnapping women was part of his nightly routine.Maybe it was.“You’re staring,” he murmured.Amara crossed her arms slowly. “I’m trying to decide if you’re insane.”A low chuckle escaped him.“Careful,” he said. “That mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble.”“It already has.”His eyes darkened slightly at that.Interesting.He stood, and Amara immediately stiffened.Not because he moved fast—But because he moved too calmly.Like a man completely in control of everything around him.“I know Dante likes dangerous things,” he said, pouring himself a drink. “But bringing an undercover agent into his life?”His gaze flicked toward her.“That was careless.”Amara’s heartbeat faltered for half a second.Only half.But he noticed.Of course he did.“You’re bluffing,” she said c
The car door slammed shut.Amara didn’t even get the chance to scream before a hand covered her mouth, dragging her back against a hard chest as the vehicle sped off.Her heart pounded violently.This wasn’t random.This was targeted.“Stay still,” a low voice murmured against her ear.Not Dante.Her body reacted instantly—she twisted, elbow driving back hard. A grunt followed, but the grip on her only tightened.“Careful,” another voice said lazily from the front seat. “He’s been waiting a long time for her.”Her stomach dropped.*He.*Amara forced herself to breathe, forcing the panic down. Think. Count. Observe.Three men. Maybe four. Dark interior. Tinted windows.No escape.Yet.---Miles away, Dante ran out of the jeweler and froze.The air felt wrong.Too quiet.Too empty.“Where is she?” he asked, voice low, controlled.No one answered.His gaze swept the ground——and landed on the necklace.The one he had just given her.Lying abandoned like it meant nothing.Something inside
The stranger’s fingers were still wrapped around Amara’s hand.For a moment the world seemed to narrow to the space between them.His lips had barely brushed her knuckles, yet the sting of it lingered like a brand.Slowly, he lifted his head.Their eyes met.Dark. Calculating. Amused.Amara felt the weight of Dante’s stare like a blade pressing between her shoulder blades.Behind her, chairs scraped against the marble floor.She didn’t have to turn around to know what had happened.Dante’s men had stood up.All of them.The stranger noticed too.A slow smirk curved his lips, the expression of a man who feared absolutely nothing.His thumb brushed lightly across the back of her hand before he released it.“Until we meet again, Amara.”Her breath caught.How did he know her name?He turned and walked away without another word.Several men dressed in black rose from a nearby table and silently fell in behind him.The message was clear.He had his own army.And they followed him with the
AMARA I felt it the second his breath stalled against my skin. Not fear. Not instinct. Recognition. Dante’s fingers paused at my throat, the intimacy of the moment collapsing into something razor-sharp and lethal. His thumb brushed the pendant once, too deliberately. The pulse of green
The morning after she said yes didn’t feel real.Amara woke to sunlight bleeding through the tall glass windows, wrapping around Dante’s penthouse like a spotlight. For a moment, she forgot where she was , the soft sheets, the faint scent of cedar and whiskey, the quiet hum of the city below.Then
The city didn’t sleep, but it did whisper. From the window of the safehouse, Amara watched the streets fade into the amber haze of midnight. The rain had stopped, but its scent still clung to the air—wet concrete, smoke, and danger. Nina sat across from her, hunched over a monitor, eyes scanning e
Amara woke with the taste of last night still on her lips. That kiss. That man. That danger wrapped in silk and smoke. She dragged her fingers across her mouth as if she could erase the memory, but Dante Vitale had burned himself into her skin, her mind, her blood. And the rose lying on her pil







