SERAFINA'S POV
"Perfect." Lorenzo said, releasing me and stepping back.
He walked towards the wine bottle, refilled both our glasses.
"Sit." He said, gesturing to the couch by the window.
I sat on one end of the couch,Lorenzo sat on the other end, angled toward me.
"My expectations are simple. You don't see other men. If I find out you're sleeping with someone else, this ends immediately but not happily."
"I'm not seeing other men. Haven't for years."
"Continue that trend." He took a sip of wine. "No more bugs planted without telling me. If you want information, ask. I might even give it to you."
"How long have you known?" I asked.
"Since the night you planted it. I always check my clothes, Sera. The fact that you thought you could bug me without my knowledge is either charmingly naive or insultingly underestimating."
"Which do you think it was?"
"I'm still deciding." He leaned forward slightly. "When I need you at an event, a meeting, a dinner, you come. No questions, no scheduling conflicts. Your time becomes my time."
The control freak in him was showing.
"Within reason." I countered. "I won't drop everything and come running just because you're bored. If you want a trained dog, buy one."
He smiled.
"Fair. Emergency situations and business obligations take precedence. Social requests require reasonable notice." He paused. "You'll attend events as my acknowledged companion. Photos, questions, scrutiny, all part of the package. Can you handle that?"
Could I? My face in society pages, linked to Lorenzo Vitale publicly?
"Yes." I said.
Lorenzo set down his wine glass.
"Your turn. What are your terms?"
I hadn't expected him to ask.
"My art remains mine." I said. "You don't control what I paint, when I paint, or where I show my work. You can commission pieces, but you can't censor my creative expression."
"Agreed."
"Boundaries around family questions. I told you about the Rossi connection. That doesn't give you the right to interrogate me about family business every time we're together. My past is my past."
"Noted. But if your past becomes my present problem, we'll discuss it."
Fair enough.
"Financial independence. I'll accept gifts, but I won't be financially dependent on you. I keep my apartment, my bank accounts, my ability to leave if I need to."
"Of course. I don't want a kept woman. I want a partner."
"And the right to end this." I continued. "If this arrangement becomes toxic, destructive, or dangerous to either of us, we can walk away. Clean break."
Lorenzo was quiet for a moment.
"If you walk away, you walk away completely. There will be no contact, no coming back when you change your mind. I don't believe in second chances."
"Agreed." I said.
"One question," Lorenzo said. "What made you say yes? Really?"
"Curiosity." I said. "Self preservation, and the part of you that cooks risotto and talks about art like it's prayer."
He nodded and stood up. He moved around the table until he was standing in front of me.
"The agreement starts now which means you're mine."
The possessiveness in his voice should have made me run. Instead, it made me burn.
LORENZO'S POV
Sera looked up at me from the couch. She was beautiful.
"Last chance to change your mind, piccola spia." I said, caging her against the couch. "Once we cross this line, there's no going back."
Instead of answering, she set down her wine glass, reached up and pulled my face down to hers, and kissed me like her life depended on it.
Her hands fisted in my shirt, pulling me closer. I put one hand on the couch, the other one was tangling in her hair.
"Sera."
"Don't talk." She whispered, nipping at my bottom lip. "Just don't talk."
So I didn't.
I kissed her harder, deeper. My hand found the hem of her sweater.
"We should stop." I said, but my hand was already tracing her ribs. "If we don't stop now…"
"Then don't stop."
I looked at her. Her hair was messy, lips were swollen from kissing.
I kissed her again, harder this time. She responded immediately, her hands sliding under my shirt, nails scraping against my skin. I was about to lift her, carry her to my bedroom, finish what we'd started when she pulled back.
"Wait. Stop."
I froze.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing but everything." She touched my face. "I need a minute to think."
"About what?"
"About whether I'm doing this for the right reasons." Her voice was barely audible. "I want you, Lorenzo. But I need to know I'm choosing you, not just sealing the deal. Not just because I'm scared or desperate or…"
"Or because you're a spy and sleeping with me is part of your mission?"
"Is that what you think?" She asked.
I studied her face. The hurt in her eyes looked real but then again, she was good at making me believe what she wanted me to believe.
"I don't know what's real with you and what's performance."
"This is real." Her hand was on my face. "But I need time to separate what I feel from what I'm supposed to feel."
"How much time?"
"A day. Give me one day to process this."
"One day," I said. "Tomorrow night. You come here. We do this properly."
She nodded. I leaned down, kissed her again.
"This is going to destroy us both." She whispered against my lips.
"Probably. But I'm ready."
Marco arrived at my office at 8AM. He looked at me and shook his head.
"You slept with her."
"Not yet." I said, not looking up from the reports on my desk. "But soon."
Marco closed the door behind him.
"We need to talk about Sera Moretti."
"I don't want to hear it."
"Too bad. You're going to hear it anyway." Marco sat in the chair opposite to me, and took out a tablet. "I ran a deeper background check after the gala photos. The Rossi connection runs deeper than she disclosed."
I finally looked up.
"How much deeper?"
"Her grandmother wasn't a distant cousin. She was second cousin to Giovanni Rossi himself. That makes Sera close family. Close enough to be trusted with sensitive operations."
"She admitted to the Rossi connection."
"She admitted to what she thought you already knew." Marco leaned forward. "There's more. Sera Moretti has no digital footprint before two years ago. No social media, no credit history, no employment records. It's like she materialized out of thin air with a perfect artist background."
"Professional identity construction." I set down the report. "Someone invested heavily in making her disappear and reappear as someone else."
"The kind of investment the Rossi family would make in a deep cover operative. Lorenzo, I've been with you since we were kids. I've never seen you this compromised by a woman. You're making decisions with your heart instead of your head."
"I'm making calculated risks."
"You're getting too close with a potential enemy operative. That's not calculated. That's suicide."
"I know what I'm doing." I said coldly.
"Do you? Because from where I'm standing, you're about to give complete access to your life to a woman who planted a listening device in your jacket. A woman whose family has been trying to destroy us for thirty years. A woman who might be reporting every word you say, every move you make, back to Giovanni Rossi."
I stood up, walked towards the window overlooking the city.
"I found the bug immediately." I said. "And you already disabled it."
"Then why not punish her ?"
"Because I want to see what she does next. What she reports, how deep this goes." I turned to face Marco. "I'm not stupid, Marco. I know she's dangerous but keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?"
"What if you're wrong? What if you think you're using her, but she's using you?"
"Then I'll deal with it when the time comes."
"By then it might be too late. She'll have your secrets, and vulnerabilities." Marco sighed. "Just promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise."
After Marco left, I sat alone in my office, staring at the intelligence report.
Sera Rossi. Close family. Trained operative. Sent to destroy me.
SERAFINA'S POV
I stood outside Lorenzo's apartment building at exactly 8PM, my heart was hammering so hard that I thought it might break through my ribs.
The doorman recognized me now, nodded respectfully as he called up to announce my arrival. I rode the elevator to the penthouse.
The elevator opened directly into Lorenzo's apartment. He was waiting.
"Sera." He didn't move from where he stood by the windows.
"Lorenzo."
We looked at each other across the space between us.
"Have you eaten?" He asked.
"I couldn't."
"Neither could I." He gestured toward the kitchen. "But I made dinner anyway."
He served food that neither of us touched. Finally, I broke the silence.
"Lorenzo."
He looked up as he pushed food around his plate.
"I can't do this." I said.
His face went blank.
"Do what?"
"Pretend this is normal. Pretend we're just having dinner like a regular couple. I'm terrified. Are you terrified?"
He laughed.
"Come here." He said.
I stood up, walked around the table to where he sat. He pulled me down onto his lap, his arms wrapped around me.
"Better?" He asked against my hair.
"Better."
We sat like that for a moment.
"Are you sure about this?" Lorenzo asked. "Really sure? Because once we…"
I kissed him. It was soft at first then it turned deeper when he responded immediately.
He stood up, lifting me with him like I weighed nothing. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my arms were around his neck, as he carried me to his bedroom.
I'd never been in Lorenzo's bedroom before. It was masculine, elegant. And on the wall opposite the bed was my painting: the woman with two faces.
"I hung it here." Lorenzo said. "So I could see it every morning when I wake up."
He kissed me again. It was more demanding. I responded immediately, pulling his shirt. He helped me remove his shirt, then reached for my sweater, then paused.
"You're sure?"
"Stop asking me that or I'll change my mind just to be difficult."
He smiled.
"There's my impossible woman."
He lifted my sweater over my head, his hands traced my skin.
"Bella." He whispered. "You're so beautiful it hurts to look at you."
"Then don't look." I said, reaching for his belt. "Touch instead."
Lorenzo was demanding but attentive, taking control but making sure I was with him every step. I matched his intensity, surprised by my own boldness, by how much I wanted him.
When we finally collapsed together, both breathing hard, satisfied, I couldn't form coherent thoughts.
I listened as he fell asleep. But I couldn't sleep.
Carefully, I slipped out of Lorenzo's arms. He murmured in his sleep but didn't wake. I wore his fallen shirt and walked barefoot through his apartment.
I stopped outside his home office. The door was unlocked. Either it was trust or a test. I took out the tiny listening device from my purse. It was even smaller than the first one, and harder to detect.
I knelt beside Lorenzo's desk, found the perfect spot underneath where it would be invisible, and carefully attached the device.
I stood up, checked to make sure the placement was secure, then turned to leave.
LORENZO'S POV
I watched her from the bedroom via the security feed on my phone. I watched her kneel beside my desk, watched her plant the device with professional efficiency, watched her walk back toward the bedroom.
I set down the phone and closed my eyes. I heard her slip back into bed, felt her curl against my side.
"Couldn't sleep?" I murmured, pretending to be just waking up.
"Just needed water." She said. "Go back to sleep."
I pulled her closer, and kissed her hair. She fell asleep soon after but I didn't. My phone buzzed silently. It was a text from Marco, who monitored all security feeds:
She planted another device. Should we remove it?
I typed back.
No. Track it. See who she reports to but don't interfere yet.
This is dangerous
I know. Do it anyway.