5

Arabella

I walked into the gala, each step measured, each movement draped in a practiced smile. Outside, I was elegance personified. Inside, I was unraveling.

My palms were clammy, my heartbeat thrumming uncomfortably fast. But no one could know. I kept my posture impeccable, waving at a few familiar faces as I passed.

Still, my thoughts kept spiraling back to that moment at the Capo’s mansion—the moment Marco’s hand landed on my waist, possessive and suffocating.

His touch still lingered, a phantom weight on my skin. “Six,” Marco had declared, his voice carrying across the room like a spotlight. “Come meet my fiancée. She’s a beautiful woman, you’ll see.”

I had glanced up then, the air in my lungs catching as my gaze collided with his. Six. The man I’d worked so hard to forget. The man whose penetrating eyes could strip me bare in a way that no one else ever had.

The memories of that night came flooding back - sharp, vivid, relentless. The feel of his hands, his breath skimming my ear, the way his touch had obliterated the world around us.

My chest tightened, and I exhaled slowly, willing the thoughts to retreat. Focus, Arabella. Tonight wasn’t about him. My eyes scanned the glittering crowd, searching for something, someone, far more critical than the tangled web Six and I were caught in.

But as if fate had a wicked sense of humor, I felt him before I saw him. His heat pressed against my back, the faint, heady scent of his cologne curling into my senses. My muscles locked.

“When I said you could accompany me to a gala,” I murmured, keeping my voice low despite the way my pulse spiked, “I didn’t mean you should breathe down my neck the entire time.”

His voice came, a soft ripple of teasing amusement. “I’ve been closer than this, Arabella,” he said, his words brushing against my defenses. “You didn’t seem to mind then.”

A shiver rolled down my spine before I could stop it. The memories clawed their way back, too vivid and intrusive: his hands tracing my skin, his mouth claiming mine, the inferno we’d created together.

My body betrayed me, recalling sensations I’d rather forget. Heat pooled low in my abdomen, and I bit the inside of my cheek, furious at myself.

I straightened my back, forcing rigidity into my spine. My eyes locked on the ornate chandeliers ahead, desperate to avoid his gaze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, my voice flat, the lie as brittle as glass.

His laugh followed, low and dangerous, curling around me like smoke. It sank into my skin, threatening to undo me. “Is that how you’re going to play this?” he asked, his tone maddeningly amused.

My jaw tightened. “I don’t think you’d want any pictures of us together tonight,” I retorted, my voice sharp, though my hands trembled slightly.

That damned smirk spread across his face, wicked and knowing. “I do recall your husband insisting I stay close,” he said, the mocking emphasis on the word making my stomach churn.

“He’s not my husband,” I snapped, the words a bitter stone in my throat. The very thought of it made my skin crawl.

Six raised an eyebrow, leaning in just slightly, his voice dropping an octave. “Oh, but it’s only a matter of time, isn’t it?”

Before I could snap back at him, Katherine, a friend of mine, appeared beside us, looking from me to Six with curiosity in her eyes.

“Arabella,” she greeted warmly, though her attention lingered on him. “And who’s this?”

I forced a smile, turning toward her, though I could feel the weight of Six’s gaze. “Katherine, this is Six,” I said, my tone clipped and a little too formal. “My bodyguard.”

Her eyebrows arched, and her gaze darted back to him. “Your bodyguard?” she repeated, her tone laced with intrigue.

“Yes,” I confirmed, forcing a tight-lipped smile. “Just my bodyguard.”

Katherine’s eyes swept over him again, and I could almost see the questions forming in her mind.

She smiled at him, her curiosity thinly veiled. “Well, Six, it’s lovely to meet you. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other.”

He inclined his head slightly, but I didn’t dare glance his way. I could feel him watching me, his presence a constant shadow, impossible to ignore.

His laugh echoed faintly in my ears, his eyes gleaming with that maddening mix of amusement and danger.

No matter how hard I tried to escape him, he always managed to pull me back in.