Sera stared at her reflection in the gold mirror, unmoving.The silver collar glittered at her throat, complex and remorseless, a constant reminder of what had just occurred.Of whom she now belonged to.Valerio lounged in an armchair across the room, legs splayed wide, watching her with a look that made her tremble.Not with fear.With something far more dangerous.Possession.He held a glass of whiskey in one hand, the ice clinking as he tilted it lazily, but his gaze never left her. Heavy. Hungry. "You’re trembling," he observed, voice low and dark.She was. Barefoot, in nothing but her silk nightgown and his collar, she felt stripped down to the bone. Exposed in ways she had never been before."I want it off," she whispered, reaching for the edge of the vanity to balance herself.Valerio merely sipped his drink, unconcerned."You put it on yourself, Sera.""It doesn't matter that I accepted it."He snarled. "Doesn't it?"The heat of his gaze skated over her flesh like a br
Sera woke to the heaviness of Valerio's arm draped across her waist, his body wrapped around hers like a living shackle.For an instant, she lay there, breathing him in.Leather. Smoke. Male heat.His smell was burned into her skin, her hair, into her bones.As if no matter where she went, she'd always carry him with her.She gritted her eyes shut, pushing the panic gnawing the back of her throat down. *Last night was a mistake.**Another mistake.*But her body betrayed her, aching lazily between her legs, a deep, burning pulse that wasn't remorse—but everything about him.Valerio moved beside her, his chest rumbling with a noise that wasn't quite a sound.His fingers traced slow, lazy patterns along the curve of her hip, brushing the sensitive skin just above the silver collar he’d locked around her throat."You’re awake," he murmured, voice thick with sleep.Sera swallowed hard. "Let me go."The hand on her hip tightened, not enough to hurt—but enough to warn."Careful, little lamb
Sera sat at the edge of the enormous bed, the silk sheet wrapped around her nakedness like a strand of tenuous protection in an oncoming tsunami that sought to engulf her in an avalanche of inescapable reality.Light streamed into the floor-to-ceiling windows of the suite, bathing the room in amber. Luxurious. Beautiful. Like gold-cherished bars glinting.The scent of sex still lingered in the air, thick and heavy. On her skin. In her hair. Deep inside her.*You’re safe now, Sera.*The words haunted her.*Safe.* Safe in the arms of the very man who’d ripped away her freedom.Safe in the bed of a devil.Sera shook, tossing back her hair. Her face scowled back at her in the silver-framed mirror opposite the door to the room — a stranger whose lips are puffy from kisses, cheeks a hot burn of red, welts mapping themselves out like an arch along the column of her throat. Marks of possession.Marks of insanity.She detested the way her body still throbbed with hunger for him, the way her
Sera was sitting in the armchair by the window, legs to her chest, wearing nothing but one of Valerio's black shirts that engulfed her small body. She looked out over the spread city below, glittering in the night sky.It should have made her feel free.Instead, she felt trapped.Imprisoned within a palace, owned by a man capable of shattering her with the force of his mind.She could still feel him on her flesh—his touch branded into her like a fiery iron, even hours later.Even now, she ached with a hunger she detested.The door creaked open behind her, closing softly.Sera flinched, but she didn't turn back.She already knew his identity.She could feel him. The air shifted when he entered a room, like even the walls bent to his will.Valerio said nothing at first. He simply watched her, his presence heavy, tangible."You’re quiet, dolcezza," he murmured at last.His voice, rich and deep, caressed the back of her neck, raising goosebumps.Sera didn’t answer.She couldn’t trust
Sera wasn't meant to want this.She wasn't meant to wake in Valerio's arms and feel.safe.But as morning light filtered through the thick drapes, she remained nestled against him, her ear against the solid beat of his heart. His arm was across her waist, holding her in possession even in slumber.She ought to get out of there. Ought to creep out of his bed and put as much distance between them as she could.And yet, she stayed.Because part of her — the part she was most terrified of — *liked* the way he held her.It didn't make sense.He was the devil.A monster in velvet and steel.A man who could take lives away with the flick of a wrist.And yet. he treated her like something divine.It was infuriating.And deadly.Especially since she was beginning to believe the fantasies her body whispered to her — that she could resist him.That she could play with him, tease him, dance along the edge of his dominance without being singed.A silly idea began to take root in her mind.Maybe it
Sera woke the following morning to an empty bed.The sheets beside her were still warm, scented with Valerio's aroma — dark, rich, intoxicating — but he was gone.For a while, she just lay there, feeling the ache between her thighs, the gentle bruising around her wrists where he'd pinned her down.They were marks of possession.Marks she should hate.But she didn't.Not yet.She groaned and sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. The silk slip she had worn to bed the previous night was torn and strewn on the floor, a testament to Valerio's loss of control.*Good,* she thought, a wry smile tugging at her mouth. *Let him lose control. Let him fall.*For she was falling too — harder and faster than she wanted to admit.Before she could slip into the bathroom, there was a knock on the door.Sera's heart missed a beat.For one wild moment, she wondered if it was Valerio — come back to finish what he'd started.But when she opened the door, it was another man.Tall. Somber. All
Sera woke up ensnared in silk sheets, her wrists still tender from the memory of Valerio's tie.The room was heavy with the scent of him — dark spices, leather, and sex.For a moment, she simply lay there, letting herself drift on the radiance of the night before.Her body ached in the best way possible.Her soul. was another matter.*Losing yourself,* a harsh voice said in her mind.But warning was too late.She'd belonged to him since the time she'd ejected him from her dressing room and made him desire her.A gentle knock at the door snapped her back to reality.She hadn't even had time to call out before the door opened.It was one of Valerio's men — not the same one this time.Younger. Virtually boyish.But the grit in his eyes was all mafia."The boss wants you ready in fifteen," he said. "Clothes are in the closet."Then he left, leaving tension behind.Sera swung her legs over the bed, her bare feet sinking into plush carpet.Her whole body ached with bruised pleasure.*Reward
The leather strap caressed her skin once again, tracing a lingering path down the arch of her spine.Sera trembled, blindfolded, naked, bound.Helpless.But her body deceived her — quivering with hunger instead of terror.Valerio's warm breath danced over her bare shoulder, sending her shivering."You look like a painting," he murmured, voice full of dark satisfaction. "A masterpiece meant only for me."Sera bit back a noise.The way he'd spoken — as though she were some prized treasure he'd overcome — had ignited a fire in her belly she didn't comprehend."Do you know what I want, Sera?" he whispered in her ear.Sera shook her head, speechless."I want to shatter you." he murmured."And then rebuild you. Piece by quaking piece."The leather strap cracked on her ass — hard, jarring pain.She cried out, but it was stifled in the air, smothered by humidity.Not hard enough to bruise.Only hard enough to mark her.Remind her who she was owned by.Valerio dropped the strap.She heard it f
The moon hung low in the horizon, and it gave the city an eerie light. Eros City, with its neon lights and endless hum, was a world unto itself—one that Valerio dominated with ruthless effectiveness. But tonight, the cold of control felt like a suffocation around him.Sera sat by the window, her eyes gazing out into the city, but her mind was not nearly so distant. Valerio's presence in the room was magnetic, tangible, even when he said nothing. The space between them pulsed with a force that was electric and dangerous.It was weeks since they'd shared any real intimacy. Oh, yes, there had been moments—hot, breathless moments—but the tension beneath it all had never been so thick. Neither of them spoke of the past. Neither of them spoke of the weight of the unspoken.Tonight, it felt heavier."Do you ever wonder," Sera's voice cut through the silence, soft but unmistakable, "if we're just running in circles?"Valerio
There was suffocating quiet within the penthouse. Valerio moved through it with a ferocity that caused the air to feel too tight, too thick, as if the shadows themselves were bearing down on him. He did not walk; he stalked, stalked out whatever was hiding within the walls of his kingdom.His steps were deliberate, every stride precise as he approached the stairs leading to the upper floors. His men were already in place, each of them conversing with swift gestures and wordless nods. The danger was at hand. The threat? It was closing fast.But for all his training, all his power, his thoughts kept going back to her—Sera.The kiss they'd shared before he left the room had been different from the others. It hadn't just been a moment of lust or tenderness. It had been a soft promise. A desperate, brief plea for her to see that, in his world, his heart was the most dangerous thing he could offer.And now, he was too far from her.Va
The rest of the world outside Valerio's penthouse sparkled at twilight, Eros City casting a mauve sheen over the skyline like purple marks on the neck of a wine-stained throat. Inside, Sera sat on the edge of the velvet chaise lounge, legs tucked under her, robe cinched tightly around her waist, but heart wide open.Valerio stood on the opposite side of the room, half-facing away from her, phone stuffed into his ear. His voice was low, biting, and lethal."If he inhales anywhere close to her again, I want his lungs in my floor. Got it?"Sera trembled, not with fear—not anymore—but because of the menace in his tone. The way he ordered when it came to her. Claimingly. Roughly. Guardedly.He hung up and faced her, his features calm but still lined."Everything's alright," he told her."Are you certain?" she demanded, eyes tightening slightly."You're safe. That's the only thing that matters."He strode towards her, h
The silence following their confrontation lingered over the suite like smoke. Valerio had not returned since the early morning, and Sera perched on the edge of the bed, her knees tucked up to her chest, the robe slipping down her shoulder slightly. The events of the day before rumbled through her mind like a clap of thunder: the betrayal, the fear, the lust, and the truth she had not been willing to embrace.Her phone buzzed.A message from Matteo, the bodyguard Valerio had sent. **Stay indoors. Don't open the door to anyone. He's on it.**Her heart sank. That meant the threat hadn't passed. She didn't want to think about how many corpses already littered the ground.The darkness fell softly, veiling the city in a velvet shroud. The air in the suite was stifling. She needed some air. Maybe just for a minute on the balcony.Sera stepped out barefoot, robe still clung to one shoulder, hair a tangled halo around her head. The wind tugged at it and made it whirl around her cheeks. From t
The morning after had never felt this way.Golden light seeped through the delicate drapes, falling in stripes across Sera's bare shoulder. Her arms and legs weighed heavy, her muscles sore in the best of ways. But it was not the ache between her thighs that made her heart pound faster. It was the warmth that was wrapped around her.Valerio.Unshaven and unshipped. Unmoving, still holding her.His arm was slung over her waist, his breathing calm against the back of her neck. For a man who ruled an empire of shadows, he slept like a man who had not known fear in years.Sera rolled over slowly, not wishing to wake him.She observed him in the soft morning light. The black lashes against his cheeks. The small furrow between his brows even in repose, as if he was still burdened by the world. But there was peace—a softness that no one else ever saw.She felt as though she had been entrusted with a secret he didn't know how to share aloud.And maybe she had.Sera gritted her teeth, a chill
There was thick silence between them—humid with unvoiced truths, burdened by lust that each could not extricate from the wreckage of emotion below. Sera stood at the window, her arms locked over her chest as the lights of the city danced off the glass, rocking like specters.Valerio stood in the doorway, arms folded, his black shirt half-unbuttoned from earlier. The tie she'd used to bind his hands last night was coiled on the bed like a memory they couldn't escape."You don't get to vanish on me again," he growled, voice low. A command laced with concern.Sera turned, slowly. Her expression was blank, but her eyes—hazel and too big for one in a world like his—burned with that stubborn fire he both desired and feared."You don't own me, Valerio. No matter how many suites you move me to or how many guards you station.""I don't want to own you." He took a step closer, each step deliberate, predatory. "I want you to *choose* to stay. I want you to *need* me.""You don't get to ask that
Sera remained still, her back to him, her eyes far away as she gazed out the window, her skin clammy, her breathing shallow. The silence between them expanded, as dense as the secrets they both bore. It was too much to bear.Valerio stepped forward, his heart pounding in his chest, all of his instincts urging him to take hold of her. But she was vanishing, vanishing from him in a way he couldn't stop, even after all the times he had warned himself he would never let her go.He stepped forward, his own shadow falling across her. "Sera," he breathed, the words raw, as if torn from his chest. "Look at me."Slowly, uncertainly, she turned her head, her hazel eyes clashing with his. There was pain in them, but something else, too. Something so raw, it could break him. He moved to take her hand, but she pulled it back, as if the gentle touch of fingers could break everything."I don't know how to trust you anymore, Valerio," she breathed. "You continue to draw me into your world, and I don'
Valerio came bursting into the dark room, his icy blue eyes probing the room for what was out of place. An unseen deceit thickened the atmosphere, making itself felt with all the tang of treachery. Walls which had previously served as the sign of his own mastery and mastery now seemed claustrophobically closing in on him, their stoniness flaunting its unfriendliness. There was a mole in his organization, feeding information to his enemies, and it had sent a shiver through the roots of everything he had built. He clenched his teeth, the ache of the betrayal breaking in. The trust he had placed in his men, the loyalty he had earned over years—everything poised on a knife-edge. He had trusted one of his inner circle, one of his men who had fought beside him for years. And now that trust was shattered, and there was only question, and worse—doubt.But the worst part?The worst part was Sera. His mind was still on her—the woman who had changed everything around him. The woman who had dared
Sera leaned against the big penthouse window of Valerio, her loosely closed knuckles wrapped around a pot of cold, untouched coffee. Eros City pulsed outside, neon signs casting desperate shadows against the night, but her focus was not on the world outside. She listened.She had learned to read the changes in the atmosphere by this point. The pinched tension that clamped the room when Valerio was angry. The crafted silence he bore when something was wrong.Tonight, he bore both of them.She heard the front door close with a softness too soft for a man like Valerio, and that said it all. The storm raged inward—more deadly than yelling and flying fists.He entered the room, dark eyes sweeping to her like a magnet to steel. His black shirt was unbuttoned at the throat, revealing the angry clench of muscle in his neck. The air around him hummed with cold fury, and Sera could sense it like static on her skin."Everything okay?" she whispered.He didn't answer right away. He walked past he