Semua Bab I AM MY STEPBROTHER'S OBSESSION : Bab 21 - Bab 30

NYRA'S POV I almost didn't go down to the pool event at all. I'd barely slept, kept replaying that half-inch of space where his mouth had landed at the corner of mine instead of dead center, kept feeling it there like a bruise you can't stop pressing on just to check if it still hurts. But skipping it would've meant explaining why to Luca over breakfast, and I didn't trust my own face enough this morning to sit across from him and pretend last night hadn't happened, so I put on the swimsuit cover-up they'd left folded in the closet and went. The pool sat carved into the cliffside, infinity edge bleeding straight into the horizon like there was no line between the water and the sky at all. Client wives and a handful of execs lounged under white umbrellas, waiters circling with drinks that came in glasses shaped like tulips. It should have been the easiest hour of the whole trip. Sit, smile, small talk, let the sun do the rest. Luca wasn't there yet... some call with George's do

NYRA'S POV I was running late getting ready, which never happens to me. But after yesterday... the storm, the gate, everything he finally said with the rain running down both our faces... I'd slept like the dead and woke up a whole hour behind schedule. I was scrambling through a quick shower and a blowout that came out kinda half-decent at best. The black dress still hung where I'd left it. I pulled it on right there in front of the tall mirror in my room, the fabric cool at first, then warming up as it settled against my skin. It fit the same as it did in the shop, maybe even better now. My body felt a little different after everything the last two days had put it through... less armored somehow, softer, like something deep inside me had finally stopped bracing for impact. I'd worn the lace underneath it tonight. Told myself it was just because the dress needed it... right lines, no visible seams. That was sort of true. Mostly though, I just wanted to know it was there, waiting.

NYRA'S POV Dinner wound down the way these things always do... coffee nobody really finishes, the CFO's wife checking her phone under the table, Selene conspicuously absent tonight, which I noticed and hated myself for noticing. I excused myself to find the restroom, and by the time I came back, Richard wasn’t at the table. Neither was Luca. I scanned the pavilion once, twice, my stomach already tightening before I even let myself think the thought properly. I found them near the edge of the terrace, away from the lights. Richard was swaying slightly on his feet with a fresh glass in his hand. Luca stood across from him with his arms loose at his sides in that deceptively relaxed way he had right before he wasn’t relaxed at all. I stopped at the edge of the pavilion, half-hidden by a pillar, close enough to hear. “—not stupid, Luca.” Richard’s voice was thick with wine, pitched low but not low enough. “I know what long hours means. I’ve used that excuse myself.” “Careful,” Luca

NYRA'S POV The walk back to the villa felt endless, like the night itself was stretching thin just to torture me. Luca’s hand hovered near my elbow the whole damn time...close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off his skin, but never quite touching. Every sway of my hips made the silk of that black dress whisper against my thighs, and I knew he was watching. I could feel his gaze like a physical drag down my spine, heavy and hungry, even if he was playing the gentleman tonight. I fumbled the key card twice, my fingers clumsy from the wine and the way my body was still buzzing from that kiss on the terrace. The lock finally clicked. He followed me in without a word, his broad frame filling the doorway behind me, blocking out the moonlight like some dark, inevitable shadow I couldn’t escape. I didn’t remember deciding it was okay for him to come inside. It just happened. The room tilted slow and lazy around me, the plush carpet swallowing my steps as I weaved toward the bed.

We didn't talk about it at dinner. We didn't have to. It was just the two of us tonight... no client team, no Selene, no Richard's ghost sitting at the edge of the table. Luca had a small table set on our shared terrace instead, candles instead of string lights, the ocean gone dark and endless past the rail. We ate slow. Talked about nothing important. His hand found mine at some point between courses and just stayed there, thumb moving absent along my knuckles, and neither of us mentioned it, like acknowledging it out loud might scare it off. When the plates were cleared, he didn't reach for his laptop. Didn't mention Henderson, or tomorrow's flight, or anything at all that belonged to the world outside this terrace. He just sat there across from me in the candlelight, watching me with something open and unguarded on his face that I hadn't seen from him even in the rain, even after everything he'd confessed in that storm. "Last night," he said finally. "Don't." "I'm not bringing