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He watches me fall apart around his fingers—watches every second of my undoing—with those same dark, wild,familiareyes. Jaw tight. Breath shaking. A storm barely held in check.

And when I shudder—panting, clenching helplessly around him, my hands scrambling at the marble for something, anything to hold onto—he leans down, mouth brushing the shell of my ear, voice guttural and wrecked and irrevocablyhis.

"You were always mine, little storm," he whispers, every word searing into my skin like a brand. "You just didn’t know it yet."

Chapter 42

Ruin

She’stremblingagainstthecounter, still panting from the force of her orgasm, her knuckles white where they’re braced against the marble. And fuck, she’s beautiful like this—shattered and furious and mine.

Her body is still clenching helplessly around my fingers when I drag them from her slowly, savoring the way she shudders at the loss. I bring them to my mouth, licking her taste from my glove like a man starved.

But the haze barely lifts before the storm comes roaring back.

"You," she rasps, voice shaky but sharpening fast. "You were with me. The whole time. On my team. Helping me hunt Javier."

I watch her, chest heaving, hair wild, lingerie twisted and clinging to her flushed skin. My beautiful little hurricane.

She turns and shoves at my chest—weakly, but enough to make her anger clear. "How the fuck could you be that close and never tell me?"

I catch her wrists—not to restrain, just to steady her. "Seanna—"

"No!" she snaps, ripping free and pacing away, her arms crossing tight over her chest like she's trying to hold herself together. "You watched me bleed. You let me trust you—and still, you lied."

I move slowly, hands out in surrender, voice rough from holding too much back. "It wasn’t supposed to happen like this."

She spins on me, eyes blazing. "Wasn’t supposed to happen? What, Matteo?"

The way she says my name—like it’s poison and a prayer all at once—cuts straight to the bone.

I shake my head, throat tight. "When we first infiltrated your life, it was just about getting close. Watching from inside your circle. Becoming important to you."

Her laugh is bitter, broken. "Congratulations. Mission accomplished."

"We would’ve told you," I rasp. "Eventually. But your hunt for Javier—it sped everything up."

She freezes, a ripple passing through her.

I press on, needing her to hear it. "Rule heard his father's threat against you. After that, slow wasn't an option anymore. Protecting you became everything."

She trembles, and for the first time since I touched her, it isn't from lust. It's from the weight of everything she’s been forced to carry.

"You made it impossible for me to hate you," she whispers, like the words wound her to say them.

God, I feel that in my fucking bones.

She turns her face away, scrubbing a hand across her mouth like she can erase the truth. "You were there for everything. After every op. Every late night. Every time I thought I was alone—you were there."

I cross to her, slow and sure, desperate to close the distance she keeps trying to put between us.

"I never stopped watching your back," I say low, the words cracking raw in my chest. "Even when you didn’t know it. Especially then."

She lets out a broken sound, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "You know what kills me?"

I shake my head, helpless.

"You wereinsidemy life," she whispers. "Right there beside me. Day after day. Sitting next to me in briefings, fighting beside me in the field. Laughing with me after the missions when I let myself believe the world wasn’t so broken."