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We ate, drank, and talked about nothing important; a book she had read, a call I needed to make tomorrow—normal things that felt extraordinary in their ordinariness.

But after we cleared the plates and I watched her ready herself for bed, I took her by the hand and motioned to the table with my eyes. She frowned, instantly tensing, but something in my expression must have made her pause, made her stay.

“Larissa,” I said once we settled around the table. “We need to talk.”

Her expression was immediately guarded. “About what?”

“About your situation here.” I chose my words carefully. “I don't want you to feel like a prisoner anymore.”

She set down her fork. “I haven't felt like a prisoner for a while now, Gio.”

“You haven't tried to run.”

“No. I haven't.” Her eyes held mine steadily.

“Why not?”

She considered the question, her eyes distant. “At first, because I was scared. Then because I was curious. Now... I don't know. It's complicated.”

“There will come a point,” I said, the words scraping my throat, “when you'll want to go home. When your family and your life will call to you. That's natural.”

Her lips curved slightly. “Are you trying to get rid of me, Giovanni Lebedev?”

“No.” The answer came too quickly, too honestly. “The opposite, actually. I'm trying to say that whatever's happening between us—and something is happening, isn't it?—I don't want it to end when that day comes.”

She was quiet for so long that I thought I had misread everything. Then her hand moved across the counter to cover mine, her skin warm and soft against my calloused palm.

“I want to stay,” she said, each word deliberate. “For now. Not because I'm forced to, but because I choose to.”

The relief that flooded through me was staggering, but the reality had to be faced. “Your brother won't understand. You’ll have to return to them.”

“Perhaps someday I will, and when that day comes, my brothers will cause trouble. Then again, they never understand anything I do. But I promise, they won’t be the reason things change between us.”

She smiled, and that smile, one full of mischief, loosened something that had been knotted inside me all day. “Besides, I'm a grown woman. I make my own choices.”

I turned my hand beneath hers, lacing our fingers together. “And what are you choosing, exactly?”

She leaned forward, close enough that I could reach out and lick her lips. “To find out where this goes.”

In that moment, I realized some risks couldn't be calculated, only taken.

“I can work with that,” I said softly, and finally leaned in for that kiss.

Chapter 22 - Larissa

I couldn’t have been happier. The wind whipped in my hair and the seawater sprinkled across my face as Gio’s boat whipped through the waters.

Gio and I’d gotten closer over the last week, to a level where even a moment away from him felt like agony. So when I was bored and asked if I could come with him for tonight’s operation, he’d only laughed and asked if I was planning on joining the family business.

My heart, I swear, lurched with joy at the thought. To imagine a situation where Gio and I worked side by side together felt like a dream, but I didn’t say so as I was still trying to sort through my feelings. His acceptance of my request to join meant the world to me, simply because had I asked any of my brothers, I’d have been dismissed straight away.

Gio, however, trulylistenedwhen I spoke. He saw me. Not just who I was and am, but who I could be. He made me believe in the possibility that anything could happen. That I couldbeanyone.

Beside Gio’s boat, Caspian steered a second vessel. At the dock, he had barely grunted a hello in my direction, and I knew he was still mad at Gio, but he didn’t take it out on me. Tonight’s operation, given Caspian’s presence, told me was larger than the previous one.

Last time, I’d been afraid. Tonight, however, I was excited. For some reason, the thrill of the deal was one I wanted to chase.

“Stay close,” he'd murmured before we boarded in his usual protective way, his lips brushing my ear. “If anything happens—”