LOGINThe Romano family’s main house always carried a certain charge. Maybe it was the long history, or maybe it was the way everyone inside seemed born with the ability to turn any room into a crisis meeting and a Latin-Italian family drama at the same time.I stepped out of the car with Ash in my arms. My son was still yawning, his hair sticking up like he’d just been hugged by four cats in a row.Zoe hopped out first and shot toward the front door like a tiny, high-pitched bullet. “SIUUUUU!” she hollered.“Zoe! Slower, cariño!” Mama’s voice drifted from inside.I was just crossing the threshold when I saw them. Mama sat on the main sofa, elegant as ever, hair pinned up neatly, a soft green dress only she could make look expensive.Beside her, Krystal leaned against Zach’s side, her hand gliding over the curve of her growing stomach. She was glowing, and Zach… the man looked like he’d punch anyone who dared tire out his wife. Possessive in a way that would seem ridiculous on someone else,
ZANE POVThe lights in the room dimmed. The wide glass window showed rows of dark pines swaying in the night breeze.The house had finally stopped trembling under the chaos of those two tiny demon children, after a hundred sweet threats, one fake cry from Zoe, and one full Colombian sermon from Krystal over the phone. Now it was just us.Me and Dianna, and her soft breaths between those thin sighs she pretended not to make.She lay on her back, her hair spilling across the pillow like a dangerously beautiful weapon. Her phone was still in her hand, her thumb moving fast… way too fast. Her group chat seemed more important than me kissing her neck.I held myself up on one arm while the other pulled her waist closer. My mouth traced her jaw, then down to her ear, then to that sensitive spot beneath it, the one that could break the focus of any normal human being.But this was Dianna. And she wasn’t normal.She was moral chaos wrapped in the prettiest body on earth.“Mmhm…” she hummed wit
ZANE POVTen a.m. meetings usually made me want to slam my head against the table. But today, even collapsing oil charts and eight-digit numbers weren’t enough to pull my mind away from… something else.The directors lined both sides of the glass table, each buried in files or tapping through tablets. The projector showed Romano Imperium’s quarterly report: a seven-percent rise in oil exports, a coal mine negotiation in Peru, a new partnership offer from a Japanese steel corporation. All of it important. All of it big. All of it boring compared to the single notification lighting up my phone.“Is there anything you want to revise in the Alaska concession report, Mr. Romano?” one of the directors asked.I nodded without actually looking at the paperwork. “Federal land statute. Make sure we don’t get locked into a twenty-year extension. We take eight, nothing more.”He nodded fast. They’d learned a long time ago that I didn’t need to look at charts to know the details.While my mouth ke
Zane POVThe hallway felt too bright, too busy, too… not Dianna.I walked fast, accepting a dozen greetings from employees with a nod, a stiff “good morning, sir,” awkward smiles, all of it passing right through me without landing. My head held on to one thing only: The taste of her mouth.The way she kissed me back like she’d just realized refusing me was a lot harder than destroying my reputation.God.I almost turned the car around and locked us in that room until the world finished exploding. Her mouth said no, her body said yes… and the sound she made, it should have been illegal to sound that good.I caught myself smiling for half a second as I passed my assistant’s desk.“Since when do you have a personal life, Mr. Romano?” that sharp voice cut right through my thoughts.I turned. Mrs. Alberta, the old secretary who’d served since the days my father still wore that messy eighties-mafia hair, stared at me over her thick glasses.“Is there something we need to discuss, Alberta?”
I stepped into the living room and walked toward the kitchen, letting him follow me. “Something happen?”Zane lowered his phone, eyes locked on me for a long moment before he answered. “They’re checking the perimeter. All sides.”His tone was too calm for something that serious.I nodded slowly. “So no one got in?”“Not yet,” he said, exhaling through his nose. “But I’m not waiting for someone to try.”He stepped closer, voice dropping. “I have to go to the office. Emergency meeting. But you..” his gaze met mine, steady. “you stay here.”“Zane—”“Not just about security,” he cut in fast, “it’s also the press. After last week’s rumor, half the city’s waiting for your face to show up again. And this time they won’t settle for a headline.”I looked at him, trying to ignore how his command sounded halfway between military order and genuine concern. “So I’m on house arrest now?”He gave a small smile. “You can think of it that way if it keeps you put.”I sighed. “Can I at least invite Wino
The air smelled like freedom and pine. Sharp, clean, almost calming, like the world beyond the Romanos’ iron gates didn’t exist.I walked barefoot across the back terrace. The morning air was still cold. The kind of cold that cleared your chest instead of biting through it. The cabin, with all its hidden luxury behind stone and wood, felt more like a hideout than a home. Zane might’ve called it a mansion, but to me, it was a forest with glass walls and military-grade security.My steps carried me down the narrow path behind the house toward the lake. The water was clear and still, the surface reflecting a sky veiled by thin clouds. The lake’s floor and walls were lined with black stones, arranged with obsessive precision..so Zane.From here I could see the valley stretching below, a sea of green trees rolling into the horizon. The wind brushed my cheek. For the first time in a while, there were no cars, no reporters, nothing but the forest’s whisper and the sound of my own steps. I th







