Chapter 7 - A DANGEROUS PROXIMITY
The next two weeks passed in a blur of luxurious recovery.
Luca refused to let me return to the servants' quarters. He had my belongings moved into a beautiful, sunlit guest suite on the second floor, complete with a private balcony overlooking the estate’s rose gardens. Furthermore, he had my mother transferred from the Saint Anthony Rehabilitation Center to Chicago’s premier private medical institute, covering all her medical expenses and hiring the top orthopedic surgeons in the country to oversee her care.
Every single afternoon, Luca would return home early from his business meetings to spend time with Lily and me in the garden.
It was a strange, intoxicating shift. I was no longer the maid who cleaned the floors; I was treated as an honored guest of the house. The remaining domestic staff looked at me with deep respect, and Daniel himself stood guard outside my room every night to ensure my absolute safety.
One cool autumn evening, while Lily was upstairs taking a bath under Mrs. Carter’s supervision, I walked out onto the main terrace. The air was crisp, carrying the scent of pine and ocean breeze.
I was leaning against the stone balustrade, watching the city lights flicker in the distance, when I heard heavy footsteps behind me.
Luca walked out onto the terrace. He had taken off his suit jacket, wearing only a dark charcoal sweater that accented his broad shoulders and muscular chest. He held two glasses of vintage red wine, handing one to me.
“You shouldn't be standing for too long,” Luca said, though his tone was fond rather than stern. “Dr. Evans said your leg needs another week of rest.”
“I feel fine, Mr. Moretti,” I smiled, taking a small sip of the wine. “Honestly, I’ve never been pampered like this in my entire life.”
Luca leaned against the stone rail beside me, his gaze sweeping over the dark landscape of the estate.
“Stop calling me Mr. Moretti,” he said softly. “It’s Luca.”
I looked at him, feeling a sudden flutter in my stomach. “It doesn't feel right. You’re the boss of the Syndicate. I’m just—”
“Don't say it,” Luca interrupted, turning his body toward me. He reached out, his long fingers gently tucking a stray lock of brown hair behind my ear. His touch was feather-light, sending a shiver down my spine. “You are not 'just' anything, Hannah. You saved my life when you saved Lily’s. If Vanessa had succeeded, I would have burned the city down looking for her, and in the end, the Syndicate would have destroyed itself. You saved everything.”
I looked up into his dark gray eyes. Standing this close to him, I could feel the intense heat radiating from his body. He was terrifying to the world, but to me, he had become a protector, a savior, and something far deeper that I was afraid to admit to myself.
“Luca…” I whispered, my voice trembling slightly.
“I know what people say about me,” Luca said quietly, his thumb lightly tracing the line of my jawline. “They say I’m a monster. They say I’m incapable of feeling anything after Caroline died. And for three years, they were right. I locked my heart in an iron vault. I treated marriage as nothing more than a business arrangement with the Bellini family.”
He stepped closer, closing the distance between us until there was barely an inch of space left.
“But when I saw you running across that ballroom, bleeding, screaming, sacrificing your own body just to stop my daughter from being hurt… I felt something wake up inside me that I thought was dead forever.”
My heart was pounding like a hammer against my chest. “Luca… we come from two completely different worlds.”
“Then I’ll build a bridge between them,” Luca said fiercely, his eyes burning with an intense, unyielding passion.
Before I could answer, his hand moved to the back of my neck, pulling me gently toward him. He bent his head and pressed his lips to mine.
The kiss was soft at first, tentative and sweet, but quickly deepened into something desperate, powerful, and overwhelming. The world around us seemed to vanish into nothingness. All I could feel was the warmth of his lips, the strength of his arms wrapping around my waist, pulling me securely against his hard frame.
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When he finally pulled back, both of us were breathing heavily.
“I’m not letting you go, Hannah,” Luca whispered against my lips. “Not ever.”
