Billionaire's Eternal Vow

3: A Rel

, my fingers curled into my palm, my p

oses lingered in the air, mingling with the

people who looked down at the world from their glass towe

ound as the soon-to-be wife of t

ndro D

rk to control everything around him.

t my lower back, but it burned like a brand, a silent

journalist, fighter, daughter of a man

ingly stepped into the cage with the lion, know

e a snake weaving through the grass. I could feel

able for years, a man who never let anyone close, a man who pla

lung to my body like sin, my hand resting lightly against

er gaze from across th

lla M

in Alessandro's world, with her sharp emerald-gre

to marry, the woman who had been on his ar

om, her gaze locked onto me with an intensit

ond, so quick that anyone else might have m

like she was royalty. Her smile was practiced, pe

were tasting my name on her tongue and deciding she did

using to let her r

me, something dark and knowing gleaming in he

watched, silent and unreadable, as if

smile widen just a fraction.

ent warning. "Well," she mused, swirling the champagne in her glass,

t years in rooms like this, surrounded by people who thrived on power plays, who w

g my voice enough that only she co

But I saw it. The brief crack in her confidence. The realizati

ooth and sharp like a blade. "Isabella

something softer, something almost... intimate.

dangerous in the way he was watching her, somet

al. A clear, und

t try to reclaim the ground she had just lost. But instead, she simply smiled, slo

aled slowly, the tension in my

urmured, "t

ething unreadable flickering behin

"Were you expec

to amusement I had seen from him all

udying him. "And wha

shifting between us, somethin

mured, "remain

fore handing it to me. I hesitated for a second before taking it, letting my fingers brush aga

quickly, clearing my thr

e over the rim of his glass. "N

And what exa

nearby table and turned t

is fingers curling gently under my chin, tilting my face up toward his. The room around us

sitation, without wa

as claiming. Possessive. Designed for

ot the contract. I forgot the eyes watching us,

gainst mine, the steady, unyielding

quickly as it be

dy, unreadable, as if that ha

ing, and Alessandro smiled, turning toward the crowd a

ingling, my heart hammering against my ribs,

st moment, I had forgo