PART 6:

You saved me, Christian. You saved me first,” he said. “You just didn’t know it. We lay there in the fire light, wrapped around each other, while outside the city slowly quieted, the celebrations winding down, the new year settling into being. And in Christian Lombardo’s arms, I felt something I hadn’t felt in longer than I could remember.

Hope. Tell me something true, Christian said after a while, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my back. something no one else knows about you. I thought about it, then took a breath. I used to dream about you at night when I was alone. I’d imagine what it would be like if you saw me the way I saw you.

If you touched me, kissed me, wanted me. I laughed softly. I’d wake up feeling guilty, like I’d crossed some line I couldn’t uncross, his handstilled on my back. What else did you dream about? This, I admitted, being in your arms, feeling safe, feeling like I mattered to someone. He rolled us so he was looking down at me, his expression intense.

You matter, Olivia. You’ve always mattered. And those dreams, they’re my dreams, too. Every single night, I imagined having you like this, knowing you were mine, being able to show you how much I He stopped himself, and I saw conflict flash across his face. How much you what? I prompted gently. How much I care about you, he finished.

But I heard what he didn’t say. The words that were too big, too soon, too dangerous to speak out loud yet. But I heard them anyway. In the way he looked at me, in the way he held me, in the way his hands trembled slightly as they touched my face. And I wanted to say them back. Wanted to tell him that somewhere between filing his paperwork and screening his calls, I’d fallen completely and irrevocably in love with him.

But the words stuck in my throat, too frightening to release into the world. So instead, I pulled him down for another kiss, trying to pour everything I felt into the touch of my lips against his. He responded with equal intensity, and I felt the last walls between us crumble into dust. “Stay with me,” he whispered against my mouth. “Not just tonight. Always.

Stay with me, Olivia. Always. I promised and meant it with every fiber of my being. Outside, the first light of the new year began to paint the sky in shades of pink and gold. And in Christian Lombardo’s bed, wrapped in his arms and his promises. I let myself believe that maybe fairy tales could come true, even for girls like me and men like him.

Maybe especially for us. I woke to find Christian watching me, propped up on one elbow, the early morning light turning his dark eyes almost amber. His hair was disheveled from sleep, and without the armor of his suits, he looked younger, softer, almost vulnerable. “How long have you been awake?” I asked, my voice still rough with sleep.

“An hour, maybe?” His finger traced the line of my jaw, feather light. I couldn’t stop looking at you. Couldn’t quite believe you’re really here. I stretched, feeling the delicious ache in muscles I’d forgotten I had. Feeling his sheets against my bare skin. The night came back to me in fragments of sensation and emotion.

His hands, his mouth, the way he’d whispered my name like a prayer. “Any regrets?” he asked. And I heard the vulnerability underneath the casual question. He was afraid. Christian Lombardo, who feared nothing and no one, was afraid I’d regret him. “None,” I said firmly. “You, only that I waited two years to do this.

” He leaned down, kissed me slowly, thoroughly, like he had all the time in the world. two years of watching you, wanting you, telling myself I couldn’t have you because you worked for me because it would complicate things because I didn’t deserve someone like you. And now, I asked against his lips. Now I’ve decided I don’t care about complications.

I’ve spent my whole life doing the smart thing, the strategic thing, the thing that made the most business sense. But you, Olivia, you’re not about strategy or business sense. You’re about feeling something real for the first time in my life. And I’m not giving that up. I’m not giving you up. His phone buzzed on the nightstand.

He glanced at it, frowned, then silenced it without answering. “Don’t you need to get that?” I asked. “They can wait.” He pulled me closer, his hand spled possessively across my lower back. Right now, the only thing that matters is you. But the phone kept buzzing and buzzing until finally Christian snatched it up with a growl, his expression darkening as he read the screen.

“I have to take this,” he said, regret clear in his voice. “It’s important, but don’t move. Don’t even think about getting out of this bed. I watched him stand gloriously naked and completely unself-conscious about it and felt heat in my belly. He caught me looking and smiled, that predatory smile that made my stomach flip.

Later, he promised, I’ll give you something to really look at. Then he grabbed his phone and stepped into his bathroom, closing the door behind him. I could hear his voice, low and sharp, conducting whatever business couldn’t wait. And I lay back against his pillows, trying to process the fact that this was actually my life now.

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