LOGINElena’s Point Of View"What the fuck?!!!"My scream probably echoed halfway to the ballroom. I spun around so fast I nearly tripped over my own feet, my back now firmly to him while my heart hammered a frantic, desperate rhythm against my ribs.Heat flooded my cheeks, a mortifying combination of shock and something I refused to name. Something that felt dangerously like awareness.My palms pressed over my eyes, but the damage was done… the image was already burned into my retinas. The way the steam had clung to the hard, carved lines of his thighs, the sheer, unyielding power of his frame.Every muscle, every angle, every inch of him was impossibly real, impossibly there. And impossibly difficult to forget."Cover up! Cover up right now, you shameless prick!" The words tore from my throat as I yelled at the wall, my voice cracking with a mixture of terror and a heat I didn't want to admit was there.My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out rational thought. I sounded hysterical eve
Elena’s Point Of ViewThe music swelled and dipped, the final notes of the waltz vibrating through the soles of my shoes as Jaxx's grandfather led me back toward where Jaxx stood.The old man moved with a frighteningly steady grace, his hand warm and dry against mine, each step measured and deliberate.I felt like I was being escorted by history itself… by decades of power and legacy condensed into one elegant figure.Jaxx was watching us with an expression I couldn't quite name… intense, proprietary, and maybe a little surprised. His eyes never left me, tracking every movement, every breath. The weight of his gaze made my skin tingle."Let me return you to him before he decides to start a war with his own grandfather," the old man said, his voice a low rumble that held equal parts amusement and affection. I couldn't help it; I laughed. It was a nervous, airy sound, but it felt good, like releasing pressure from a valve I didn't know was building.He stopped in front of Jaxx and gentl
Jaxx's Point Of ViewThe lights in the ballroom dimmed, shifting from the aggressive brilliance of the chandeliers to a soft, amber glow that pooled across the marble like spilled honey. It was time. The first dance of the evening always belonged to the celebrant, and in this house, that meant the world stopped turning until the old man took his place. Every conversation halted mid-sentence. Every glass paused halfway to waiting lips. I stood there, my hand still resting on the small of Elena's back, feeling the way she struggled to breathe through the tension. The subtle tremor running through her body told me everything her composed expression tried to hide. She was terrified, though she'd die before admitting it. Around us, the atmosphere shifted, grew thick and charged. It became heavy with the desperate, suffocating ambition of the women in the room. I could see them… daughters of oil magnates, nieces of senators, socialites with faces pulled so tight they looked like porcel
Elena's Point Of ViewThe old man didn’t say anything for a long, agonizing minute. I could see the questions swirling in the depths of his dark eyes… questions about why she seems familiar, about how I’d found her, and probably about why I looked like I was ready to burn the whole ballroom down if anyone so much as breathed in her direction. But I didn't give him an inch. I just stood there with my hand anchored on her waist, feeling the small, rhythmic trembles of her body against mine, and I smiled. It wasn't my business smile. It was the smile of a man who had finally found the piece of the puzzle he didn't even know was missing.Pops nodded slowly, his gaze finally breaking away from mine to settle on Elena with a look that was surprisingly soft. "She’s very beautiful, Jaxx," he said, his voice carrying that gravelly weight of authority. "You sure have good eyes for good things... just like me."I felt the tension in Elena’s shoulders give way just a fraction, but the moment th
Jaxx's Point Of ViewI felt the tension radiate through her palm before I even heard her breath hitch. Elena's fingers tightened around mine, her nails digging slightly into the meat of my hand, and for a split second, I sensed her take a half-step back, trying to vanish into the shadows of the doorway. Her pulse hammered against my wrist where our skin touched... a frantic, trapped bird desperate for escape. The rhythm was erratic, panicked, and it sent a jolt of something fierce and protective straight through me.I didn't like it. Not one bit. The protective instinct that roared to life in my chest was primal, immediate, and entirely foreign to me. I'd spent years building walls, cultivating distance, making sure no one got close enough to matter. Yet here she was, trembling beside me, and every instinct I possessed screamed at me to shield her from whatever had put that fear in her veins.The air in the ballroom hung thick with the scent of lilies, expensive champagne, and the
Elena's Point Of View A soft, breathless "Oh" escaped my lips as I absorbed the sheer scale of the landing we had reached. The ceiling soared so high it seemed to possess its own weather system, crowned by a chandelier that resembled a frozen explosion of diamonds cascading toward the marble floor below.Jaxx leaned in, his shoulder brushing against mine as he caught the faint sound of my voice. "Yes... oh," he echoed, that signature dark amusement threading through his tone. "Welcome to the family fortress, Bambina. Try not to get lost; I'm not sure I'd find you until the next century."My pulse quickened at his proximity, at the casual way he claimed this palatial space as simply 'home.' "I believe it," I whispered, my eyes darting from one gold-framed portrait to another, each depicting stern-faced ancestors who seemed to judge me from their gilded perches. "Is there a map? Or perhaps a trail of breadcrumbs?"He didn't answer with words, just released a low, vibrating hum of lau
Jaxx’s Point Of ViewThe door clicked shut. A sound so small, so final, it echoed through the suite like a gunshot.I didn’t move.Didn’t breathe.Just stood there, my fingers still curled around the edge of the drawer where I’d kept her car key, my gaze fixed on the space she’d occupied seconds ag
Elena’s Point Of ViewThe room was quiet. Too quiet.The kind of quiet that hummed in your ears, that pressed against your skin like a living thing, heavy with the weight of everything unsaid. I lay there, still as stone, my breath shallow, my fingers curled into the sheets beneath me. The city lig
Elena’s Point Of ViewThe tears came without warning.One second, I was talking… voice steady, hands clenched in my lap, and the next, my chest was heaving, my vision blurring, my entire body shaking with sobs I couldn’t stop. It was like something inside me snapped, like the last thread holding me
He’d paid attention.I ate in silence, hyperaware of his eyes on me, the way his gaze tracked every movement, every bite, every time my lips wrapped around the fork. The air between us was thick, charged, like the moment before a storm breaks."You’re thinking too loud."I glanced up. He was watchi







