33:

"Friends?" Leonor's heart raced as Lorenzo's words lingered in the air. "Aren't we more than just friends?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. His eyes locked onto hers, filled with an emotion she couldn't quite name.

Yet.

Leonor blinked a few times, taken aback by his sudden advances. "What do you mean?" she managed to say, her voice shaky. She was filled with confusion as she tried to make sense of what Lorenzo was hinting at. They had always been just friends, hadn't they?

Lorenzo pinched her chin to make her look up at him. His gaze drifted down to her slightly parted lips, and she felt her breath catch in her throat. "I mean," he started, his voice growing firmer, "that ever since I first heard of you, from Luca and some other gossipers in Armando's mansion, there's been this... this pull," he explained but she still didn't get it.

"Leonor I've always kept to myself, stayed away from people, even Armando and Luca. But you... you're different."

She remembered the first t