Page 41 of Reign of a Billionaire

I heard the shower turn on, and I pictured Liana stripping her dress off. I couldn’t help but wonder how soft her skin was… Goddammit! I had to get a grip.

Maybe I was weak.

Or maybe I was desperate to feel normal again, like I had with Louisa. I was her first and last. She was supposed to be my first and last.

Yet here I was thinking about her twin in my guest room. I wanted to touch her, lick her, bite her. First fucking temptation in years, and I was failing miserably.

I wasn’t a good man, and I worked for many who were even worse. After my father fucked me over, I’d learned that the world wasn’t about good and evil. There were so many shades in between, and I had to do what I needed in order to survive.

Louisa never held any of it against me—not the blood on my hands, not the number of deaths I’d been responsible for, not the darkness that consumed me.

Irritation flickered in my chest while a fire burned deeper, licking at my soul. Or whatever was left of it after Ivan Petrov and Sofia Volkov. For the first time in forever, I felt edgy. Irrational. Impulsive. I couldn’t—shouldn’t—jeopardize my peace of mind.

My phone rang and I answered it without checking the caller ID. “Yes.”

“Where in the fuck are you?”

I groaned, cursing myself silently. The last person I needed to deal with right now was Dante Leone. His brand of crazy only made me crazier.

“On vacation.”

An echo of silence. “Vacation?”

“Yeah.”

“Vacation,” he said again. Jesus, did he train a parrot to repeat my words?

“Yes, you should give it a try.”

He snickered. “I don’t like that ideaoryour tone.”

I scoffed. “Ask me if I care.”

“I need your help finding someone.” Obviously, Dante’s selective hearing was in full force because it went over his head.

“I’m busy.”

“With?”

My heart beat faster, a vision of thick blonde hair and smooth porcelain skin and everything forbidden flashed before my eyes. My teeth clenched at this nauseating need for the wrong fucking twin.

“I’m busy beingon vacation.”

“Did you… Did you finally find yourself a woman?” The disbelief in his tone was evident. Not that I’d ever grant him an answer. “You did, didn’t you?” I grumbled my annoyance, and he laughed. Loud and slightly crazy. “Why didn’t you say so,amico?”

My mood soured and a sardonic feeling pulled in my chest.

“Good luck with Phoenix, Dante,” I said, alluding to his obsession with Romero’s daughter. The guy went as far as getting engaged with her sister to get to Phoenix.

I ended the call, the irony and similarities of our situations not escaping me—with one notable exception: both Romero sisters were alive.

I gave my head a subtle shake, then blinked, realizing I was standing in front of the guest room. I ran my tongue across my teeth, attempting to quell all these feelings bubbling inside me and failing.

I lost my first battle since running into Liana Volkov.

Chapter 21

Liana