STRIP NIGHTS WITH THE DON

**SERA**His thumb brushed across my lower lip, and I felt that single touch everywhere."I pay you two hundred thousand tonight," he continued, his voice dropping lower, "and another three hundred when your year is up. You walk away rich, and I get exactly what I want."The room spun. This wasn't a job offer. This was ownership."Why?" The question came out breathless. "Why me?"His grip on my chin tightened just slightly. "Because I can. Because watching you dance like the world is ending made me want to see what else you'd do to survive. Because I'm a selfish bastard who takes what he wants, and right now, I want you.""What happens if I say yes?"He released my chin and pulled out his phone, typed something with quick movements. Thirty seconds later, my phone buzzed from my purse offstage.He nodded toward it.I walked back to the stage on numb legs and pulled out my phone.A notification from my bank.Deposit: $200,000.The numbers blurred. I blinked hard, but they stayed the sam

**SERA**I woke up to my phone ringing at seven AM, three hours after I'd finally fallen asleep. The number was unknown.My heart stopped. Gianna."Hello?""Your sister is at Chicago Mercy Hospital. Emergency room. She's alive."The line went dead.I was out of bed and dressed in under two minutes, grabbing my keys with shaking hands. Isabella was still asleep. I didn't wake her. Just ran.The hospital was twenty minutes away. I made it in twelve.I pushed through to the reception desk where a tired-looking nurse barely glanced up."Gianna Moretti. She was just brought in. Where is she?"The nurse typed slowly. "Are you family?""I'm her sister. Her only family. Please."She nodded and pointed down a hallway. "Room 17. The police are with her."Police. My stomach dropped. The kidnappers had said no police.I ran down the hallway and burst through the door.Gianna sat on a hospital bed, wrapped in a blanket, looking small and broken. A female officer stood beside her, notebook in hand.

*LUCA**“FUCK!”The roar ripped out of my throat, vibrating the heavy crystal tumblers on my bar cart. I didn’t just say it; I spat it into the empty, suffocating silence of the penthouse. The sound was raw, ugly, and entirely uncharacteristic of a man who prided himself on being the coldest person in any room.I was alone, and I was losing my goddamn mind, i never knew she has the much effect on me.My hand didn’t shake—I wouldn’t allow it—but my grip on the glass almost shattered. I was hard, i was aching, my cock straining against the expensive silk of my suit pants until the pressure was a dull, throbbing torture almost dripping pre cum, Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her. Scarlett. Or Sera. Whatever the fuck her name really was.********I saw the way the purple light had caught the curve of her hip. I saw the way her nipples was poking , begging for a touch I’d denied both of us. The air in the room still smelled like her—something soft, like vanilla and cheap soap, clashi

***SERA****The car door shut with a heavy, final sound that echoed straight through my chest.I didn’t move, i was dang surprised.I just sat there, hands clenched in my lap, staring at nothing while the world outside looked so empty. My heart was still racing from Rodriguez, from the photo, from the way my entire reality had just… tilted.And then—The driver’s door opened.I didn’t have to look.I felt him, he carried a heavy presence that made one shiver.Luca Vitale slid into the seat beside me, the scent of him following—dark, expensive, dangerous. It wrapped around me instantly, like it had been waiting.The engine started, and everywhere went very quiet, i couldn’t talk i just clenched the hem of my dress.I kept my gaze forward, my fingers digging into the fabric of my hoodie. If I looked at him, I knew I’d break. And right now, breaking wasn’t an option.Not with everything unravelling, not with him sitting this close, all i could think about was his lips, how i just wanted