Chapter 14 - The Midnight ConfessionBack at the Tuscan estate later that night, the adrenaline of the gala finally crashed, leaving a heavy, restless quiet in its wake. Alessandro was still in his study reviewing intercepted communications about the Rossi syndicate, leaving me alone in the massive master suite.
I couldn't sleep. The words Matteo Rossi had spoken in the garden echoed in my mind: Men like Alessandro don't love, Sophia. They consume.
Was he right? Was I just another possession to him—a shiny, exotic trophy collected to show his rivals that he could conquer anything, even an ordinary American girl?
The door clicked open, and Alessandro walked in. He had discarded his suit jacket and tie, his shirt unbuttoned at the collar, looking bone-tired. He noticed me sitting awake by the window and walked over, kneeling beside my chair and resting his warm hands on my knees.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" he asked softly.
"What did Matteo mean?" I blurted out, unable to keep the question inside any longer. "When he said men like you don't love."
Alessandro went still. The warmth in his dark eyes flickered, replaced by a sudden, shuttered vulnerability that I had never seen on his face before. He looked down for a moment before meeting my gaze dead-on.
"My father taught me one rule before he died," Alessandro said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Love is weakness. Attachments are targets."
He reached up, taking my hand and pressing it flat against his chest so I could feel the strong, steady beat of his heart.
"For thirty-four years, I lived by that rule," he continued, his thumb stroking my wrist. "I built an empire of iron and blood because I trusted no one. And then I saw you kneeling on a dirty Manhattan pavement, speaking Italian to a terrified little boy, looking like an angel who had fallen into hell."
He looked up at me, his dark eyes shining with an intensity that took my breath away.
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"You think I consumed you, Sophia? You consumed me. Every second of my day is spent making sure you are safe, because if anything ever happened to you, the empire wouldn't matter. I wouldn't matter."
Tears pricked my eyes. All my doubts, all my fears of being trapped in a gilded cage vanished, replaced by the staggering reality of his devotion. I leaned down, cupped his sharp, aristocratic face in my hands, and pulled him up into a fierce, passionate kiss that answered every doubt in my soul.
