CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

Alex's POVOur flight home was at six in the evening.That left the morning free and neither of us wasted it. We were out of the hotel by eight-thirty with no plan beyond Damien saying there was a market near the Navigli canals he'd been meaning to get back to for two years.I didn't ask questions. I'd learned that following Damien somewhere he'd been meaning to return to was always worth it.The market was small and permanent, the kind that existed for the neighborhood rather than for visitors. Produce cheese, a man selling bread from a cart who had a line six people deep at nine in the morning. We joined it without discussing it."What are we buying bread for," I said. "We leave in eight hours.""We're buying it to eat now.""We had breakfast.""That was coffee.""You had eggs.""Hotel eggs." He said it with quiet disdain. "That doesn't count."I looked at him. "You're a snob.""I have standards. There's a difference.""You say that constantly.""Because it's constantly true."The l

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

Damien's POVThe flight home left on time.Alex fell asleep forty minutes in, which didn't surprise me. He'd been running on canal air and good coffee since eight in the morning and the adrenaline of the Rossi deal had taken more out of him than he'd admitted.He slept differently than most people. Still. Like he'd made a decision about it.I worked for two hours and then stopped because the work wasn't urgent and the alternative was watching the dark outside the window and thinking about the last forty-eight hours, which I found I didn't mind doing.It was his first time in Milan. I'd known that going in and had wanted, without making it a production, for it to be good. The square. The bookshop. Carla Rossi called him smart and fed him pasta and hugged him longer at the door.It had been better than good.The thing I kept returning to was the canal. Him saying *like yourself, the version without the building.* Not as a compliment. Just as an observation, the way he said most true thi

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

Alex's POVSophie's nine o'clock became a ten o'clock because she was on a call when we arrived and her assistant made apologetic faces at us through the glass.Damien and I waited in the corridor outside her office. He had his phone. I had coffee. We stood close enough that our shoulders were almost touching and neither of us adjusted."Jordan withdrew the complaint," Marcus had texted me at seven that morning. Single sentence. No elaboration. Marcus communicated like someone who billed by the word."Did he tell you why Jordan withdrew," I said."Sophie applied pressure on the authorship question," Damien said without looking up from his phone. "Once it became clear she could demonstrate the complaint hadn't originated with Jordan, whoever helped him write it got nervous.""Richard.""Adjacent to Richard. Same result.""So it's over.""The complaint is over. Richard isn't." He put his phone away. "But we knew that."Sophie's door opened. She waved us in with the brisk efficiency of s

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

Damien's POVThursday evening Alex showed up at my apartment with groceries.Not announced. He texted from the lobby: “I'm teaching myself to cook something. You're the test subject. Buzz me up.”I buzzed him up.He arrived with two bags and the focused expression of someone who had a plan they were moderately confident in."What are you making," I said."Pasta. Carla's advice. Better ingredients first.""You bought ingredients based on advice from a woman you met for one dinner.""I bought ingredients based on advice from a woman who made the best pasta I've ever eaten." He set the bags on the counter and started unpacking. "There's a difference."I leaned against the counter and watched him organize things with the particular methodology he brought to tasks he was learning. Everything laid out before anything started. Sequence established first."You don't need to watch," he said."I'm not watching. I'm standing in my kitchen.""You're watching with your arms crossed."I uncrossed m

All Chapters of HIS SECRET ADDICTION: Chapter 71 - Chapter 74

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR