Chapter 4 Come Darling
Ettore noticed the tension gathering around me almost immediately, though naturally he interpreted it as an opportunity to reassure rather than a reason to pay attention.
“There’s no need to alarm her,” he said smoothly, adjusting the cuff of his tuxedo with the kind of effortless vanity that made me want to throw him directly into the nearest decorative fountain. “This estate is one of the most secure properties in the country.”
Luca finally looked at him then.
The contrast between the two men struck me all over again with startling clarity.
Ettore was beautiful in the polished way luxury magazines adored, every dark feature composed carefully enough to feel curated beneath the ballroom lights, while Luca looked like something entirely different beneath his tailored suit, something harder and colder that no amount of expensive tailoring could soften. Ettore looked made for photographs.
Luca looked made for surviving things.
“Secure properties get attacked every day,” Luca replied calmly.
No arrogance. No dramatic intimidation. Just fact delivered with enough certainty to make my stomach tighten further.
Ettore’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly, irritation flashing beneath his polished composure before disappearing just as quickly. “And yet you still took the contract.”
Beside him, Leon’s mouth curved faintly. “Occupational preference.”
I glanced slowly between the twins. “Are all your conversations this comforting, or am I receiving special treatment because I’m wearing white?”
Leon’s eyes moved over me then, deliberately slow, drifting from the diamond straps resting against my shoulders down the length of my silk dress before finally returning upward. Heat curled unexpectedly low in my stomach beneath the weight of that look, my body reacting before my common sense could catch up.
“Definitely the dress,” he said quietly.
The look lingered a fraction too long. Not enough for anyone else to notice. More than enough for me to feel it. And apparently more than enough for Luca too, because I caught the smallest tightening in his expression before his attention returned immediately to the room around us.
Consider my interest piqued.
Outside, thunder rolled louder across the estate grounds while rain battered steadily against the towering ballroom windows, silver streaks racing down the glass beneath flashes of distant lightning that illuminated the gardens in brief, violent bursts. Marble statues flickered in and out of existence beyond the storm while wind twisted through the hedges lining the property, bending dark branches beneath the rain.
The lights overhead flickered once, and the ballroom collectively hesitated.
Not enough to cause panic, but enough for conversations to falter and eyes to briefly lift toward the chandeliers before the music swelled again and everyone pretended not to notice.
I exhaled slowly through my nose. “Well,” I murmured, “this suddenly feels significantly less like an engagement party and significantly more like the opening scene of a documentary narrated by someone British moments before everyone dies horribly.”
Leon laughed softly beside me, the sound low and warm enough to send another inconvenient flicker of heat through me despite the tension tightening the room.
Luca didn’t laugh. But for the briefest second, something shifted near the corner of his mouth before vanishing so quickly I almost convinced myself I imagined it.
Then Ettore touched my lower back.
The possessive pressure of his hand against the bare silk covering my waist instantly pulled irritation back to the surface, sharp and immediate. I resisted the urge to shrug him off publicly only because causing a scandal in front of half the city’s criminal elite sounded exhausting.
“Come dance with me,” he said smoothly.
My gaze drifted toward the dancefloor, where couples moved beneath crystal light while violins swept through the ballroom in slow romantic spirals that sounded beautiful enough to almost disguise the tension humming beneath the evening.
Refusing him publicly would create the kind of drama my father would absolutely make my problem later, and, unfortunately, I had spent my entire life learning to perform obedience under scrutiny.
So I smiled again, even though my face was beginning to ache from the effort of pretending this evening meant anything other than ownership wrapped in white silk.
“Of course, darling.”
Ettore offered me his arm, and I placed my hand against it lightly before allowing him to guide me toward the dancefloor.
Halfway there, instinct pulled my gaze backward one final time.
The twins remained near the edge of the ballroom, both standing perfectly still now beneath the gold light and gathering storm shadows, broad shoulders rigid beneath black tailoring while their attention tracked the crowd with quiet, lethal focus.
Leon caught me looking first. He winked. The sheer audacity of it almost made me laugh out loud.
A second later, Luca’s gaze lifted toward mine too, and unlike his brother, there was no amusement in his expression at all. His eyes moved briefly toward Ettore’s hand resting possessively against my waist before returning to my face with a look I couldn’t fully decipher.
Warning. Disapproval. Possibly something far more dangerous than either.
And for reasons I didn’t entirely understand, that look stayed with me long after Ettore led me onto the dancefloor and the music closed around us like a beautiful lie.
