تسجيل الدخولHeat rushed through Sharon's face all at once. She meant to push Thomas away, but the instant her palm pressed against his chest, she thought of his wounds and hesitated.Thomas caught the hesitation, and the amusement in his eyes only deepened. Sharon opened her mouth to say something, but he was already kissing her — with a restraint that had clearly been holding back for far too long, tangling with her, stealing every breath and every trace of reason she had left.Her body felt like it had caught fire, heat spreading from every place his hands touched until her mind went hazy, and her arms wound around his neck without her meaning them to. As the buttons of her nightgown came undone one by one, the cool air against her skin snapped her back to awareness for a heartbeat — before the warmth of him covered her again.His lips traced a line down her jaw, her throat, her collarbone, marking every inch of skin as his. Her breath caught sharply, and her nails dragged a faint red line
Every gram of that ointment was worth more than gold. These days, Uriah and Dr. Galen had grown so fond of the Ferrero estate they had no intention of leaving. The moment they laid eyes on the family's stockpile of rare ingredients, their eyes practically lit up. Thomas had already promised they could take and use anything they wanted. He knew perfectly well the two doctors had only agreed to help him out of respect for Sharon, but he wasn't about to be stingy about it — if the Ferreros had one thing in abundance, it was rare treasures."My injuries are about healed," Thomas said. "I should be able to head back to Marcentine in a couple of days.""No rush," Sharon said. "Take a bit more time to recover first.""Harley's cunning and dangerous," Thomas said. "Better to deal with him sooner rather than later, before he causes more trouble."Noticing she'd gone quiet, her eyes fixed on him instead of answering, Thomas asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?""The day Chris and
Giancarlo adjusted the glasses on his nose. "I know what you're thinking, Mrs. Ferrero, but you really don't need to carry all this guilt. Staying by his side back then wouldn't have made much difference to the treatment anyway. Now that he's made it past this hurdle, he shouldn't relapse easily again. As long as he doesn't spend the rest of his life bottling up his emotions, things should be fine."Giancarlo chatted with Sharon a while longer before excusing himself. Stepping out of the main building, he found Marina waiting for him in the garden gazebo."All done talking?" Marina asked."All done," Giancarlo said."How's Sharon holding up? Any better?""A little better, yeah."Marina propped her chin on her hand, gazing out over the garden with something like envy in her eyes. "So that's what it looks like when Thomas is deeply in love with a woman."She'd always known Sharon meant everything to Thomas, known that he'd loved her all along — but she'd never actually witnessed t
"That way, he might still have had a chance at survival," Giancarlo said.For Giancarlo, curing Thomas had always been the top priority. Whether Thomas, once he genuinely hated Sharon, might have actually killed her — that fell outside the scope of what he'd been willing to consider. After all, he had no particular loyalty to Sharon.Hearing this, Sharon caught Giancarlo's meaning easily enough. She didn't blame him for it. Instead, she asked, "Did it work?"Giancarlo looked at her. "Do you think he hates you?"Sharon shook her head. "No.""Exactly," Giancarlo said with a laugh. "That plan never had a chance. He wouldn't let anyone so much as speak ill of you. My medical team nearly got beaten to death, and I nearly got strangled myself."Even now, just remembering that scene made Giancarlo's blood run cold. Back then, Thomas had barely been responding to the outside world at all. Once he cut off contact completely and sank into his own head, there would have been almost no hop
Sharon nodded quietly. She still didn't know much about the details of Thomas's condition. They'd already had that conversation a few days ago, but whenever she asked him about the specifics of his treatment, he always claimed his head had been foggy and confused back then, and that he couldn't remember most of it.She knew he wasn't forgetting — he just didn't want to talk about it. Whatever he'd gone through must have been brutal. He was holding back because he didn't want her carrying more grief and guilt than she already was.Even if Giancarlo hadn't come to find her today, she would have gone looking for him herself eventually. When Marina had traveled with her to Leistre, Sharon had asked her the same questions, but Marina hadn't known much either."Giancarlo's my mentor's senior apprentice," Marina had told her, "but the man has serious professional ethics. Even as close as we are, he won't casually give up a patient's details. So I don't actually know the specifics either. T
Whether Uriah had actually said that, Sharon had no way of checking. She wasn't some naive girl anymore — she'd long since grown familiar with every inch of Thomas's body, and there was nothing left to be shy about. And yet here she was, face burning, fingers trailing over his skin.Rubbing it in, fine. But why did he have to breathe like that? And why did his eyes have to go so hazy?What used to take ten minutes now stretched past half an hour. By the time she finished each session, her face was flushed, her heart was racing, and she was sweating from head to toe. She should have just let him do it himself from the start.Between the ointment and the "massage," it dragged on for over forty minutes before Sharon finally finished for the day. She was about to head to the shower when Thomas suddenly caught her hand."Sharon." His voice was rough. "I'm in so much pain."The word alone was enough to snap her to attention. "Thomas, where does it hurt? Should we go see Uriah and Dr. Ga
Miles lay there half-naked, shorts clinging to his hips. The room wasn't the chaotic mess one might expect—only a desk lamp lay shattered on the floor. Nearby, a small camcorder still sat on a tripod.Sharon was not in the room.Rick exhaled, but it was no real relief. He wasn't as oblivious as Si
Sharon relayed the phone calls she'd just received from the shareholders to Thomas. By the time she finished, she'd already pieced the truth together."I'm afraid… my brothers are behind this."As for Richard, he would never take direct action that left a trace, but he also wouldn't lift a finger
Miles's eyes lit up. Since Jamie was willing to help, what did he have to worry about?Rubbing his hands eagerly, he asked, "Mr. Walton, then… when do you think would be the best time?"Jamie flicked open a lighter and lit a cigarette. White smoke curled around his face, shrouding his expression i
"If Kelly hadn't shown her true colors, the Biggs family would still be walking all over you. Frankly, that kind of treatment would be hard for anyone to stomach." Thomas's words stung the Kalen family, but not one of them could muster a rebuttal.Richard let out a heavy breath. "Sharon, you have m







